Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) NORTH CAROLINA MEDICAL JOURNAL. M. J. DeROSSET, M. D., Editors. THOMAS F. WOOD, M. D., Number 4. Wilmington, April, 1879. Vol. 3. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. SOMETHING ABOUT DRINKING WATERS. By ALBERT R. LEDOUX, Ph. D., Chapel Hill, N. C. Every man must have his vocation; every one his specialty. We are all dependent on others, whenever problems outside of our own line of business or research demand a solution. Recognizing these truths, every man should feel that he owes a duty to his fellows, and that his motto should not only be “live and let live,” but also “live and help live.” No science has done more _gratuitously_, for the advancement of the human race, than medicine. No other vocation _gives away_ so much of invention, research, time, labor, money, to make men stronger, happier, better. Following out her lofty aims, medicine has called to her aid sister sciences, and united with them to build up new safeguards around humanity. Thus, for example, medicine has united with chemistry and architecture to form “Sanitary Science,” with all its details of work and endeavor for the health of nations, towns, villages and homes. No question which sanitary science discusses and investigates, is more important than the relation of drinking water to health. The one grand cry of humanity—yes, of the brute creation, and of the vegetable world too—“is give me something to eat and drink.” Dame Nature furnishes about two hundred and fifty articles to man for food, giving him the greatest variety, from which to choose, when hungry; but, when he would slake his material thirst, she offers simply water. It is the most abundant thing upon earth, as every school-boy knows. Over two-thirds of our globe is covered with this wonderful liquid—while, on the solid ground, there are comparatively few localities, where water will not be struck on digging. In fact, our soil is one vast sponge, holding in its porous mass—water. The air around holds water in suspension; the trees and lesser plants hold water in every leaf and branch—while fruits are mainly—water. Seventy-five of every one hundred pounds of potatoes are—water; one acre of potatoes requires, at the very lowest estimate, twenty tons of water, during the growing season, to bring tops and roots to a perfect healthy maturity.[1] Eighty per cent. of apples, pears, peaches, &c., is—water. Eighty-six per cent. of milk is—water. We ourselves are, by weight, mainly—water.