The use of cold or iced water in hot weather and in warm climates, _when digestion is not going on_ and _exhaustion is not present_, is so far from being necessarily hurtful, that with proper caution it may prove both grateful and refreshing. In Italy, accordingly, ice is considered so much a necessary of life in summer, that in Naples and other places the confectioners are punished by a fine if they allow their supply to fall short. In Virginia, too, where, we are told by Professor Dunglison, it was very common some years ago for the labourers in the harvest-field to be killed by drinking copiously of spring-water while overheated, cases of death have become extremely unfrequent since the custom was introduced of supplying them with ice. When water was taken, it was always hastily and in large quantity, so that the immediate effect on the system was greater than could possibly arise from the small quantity of ice which is required for quenching thirst. The very slowness, indeed, with which ice melts, not only prevents much being taken, but causes the water procured from it to reach a higher and safer temperature before it arrives at the stomach.[60] Hence, when ices are taken, the more slowly they are eaten the more refreshing and salubrious will they become, because the less violent will be their action upon the nerves, bloodvessels, and membranes of the stomach. From the close sympathy existing between the stomach, and the skin, a single tea-spoonful of ice-cream suddenly swallowed when the body is weak and perspiring, will produce as instantaneous a sense of chill as a pail of cold water dashed over the surface; and on account of this very power over the vital actions of the stomach, ice has of late been cautiously and beneficially prescribed to subdue inflammation of that organ. Liquids, such as soup, tea, and coffee, taken at a very high temperature, are also injurious, but not in the same degree. They relax the mucous membrane and weaken the action of the muscular coat, and in so far tend to impair digestion. The fittest temperature for both solid and liquid food is perhaps about the natural heat of the body, or a little above 100°. Dr Dunglison, however, and some other physiologists, regard hot fluids as stimulating to the stomach, and therefore conducive to digestion; but he admits that debility is their ultimate effect.