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59
WATER-SUPPLY.
Practically, I may tell you, that there are many
individuals whose stomachs are extremely sensitive
to the impression of hard water, who derive immediate
inconvenience from its use, and who refuse to
drink it without artificial reduction of its objectionable
quality. I may likewise inform you that a
physician, recently deceased, whose knowledge of indigestion
and its chronic effects (especially in relation
to the skin and urinary organs) was most profound
and accurate, and whose consulting practice in such
disorders was for many years almost a monopoly
(I mean Dr. Prout) was in the habit of enjoining
on his patients the use of distilled water. He evidently
considered that the consumption of such
waters as are habitually drunk in the metropolis
was detrimental, at least to an enfeebled digestion.
This is an opinion which, I have reason to believe,
is generally entertained by medical practitioners in
London.
It may not be irrelevant to mention to you (since
the influence of imagination or of artificial habits
can have little to do with this result) that horses are
liable to be much inconvenienced by hard water, if
unaccustomed to its use; and it is, I believe, notorious
that grooms in charge of racers habitually
take the trouble of conveying with them, to their
temporary racing stables, a supply of the accustomed
water. Veterinary surgeons say that under the
continued use of hard water, which horses will avoid
if possible, their coats become rough and staring;—