The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [133]
River water is generally less impregnated with salt matter than spring water, due to its considerable proportion of rainwater and to the fact its volume of water is so proportionally large compared to the surface of its (mineral source) bed. However, even though river water is normally freer from saline matter, it is more apt to have certain insoluble matter of a vegetable and earthy nature mechanically suspended in it, which frequently impair its transparency.
Well water, like spring water, is liable to contain various impurities. The purity of well water is often proportional to the depth of the well and to the consistency with which the water is drawn and used. Artesian or overflowing wells and springs, because of their great depth, generally bring forth deliciously pure water.
Lake water (aside from the issue of pollution by civilized human beings) offers the human community very pure and wholesome water.
Marsh water is generally stagnant and contains vegetable remains undergoing decomposition to the delight of innumerable fascinating plants as well as a myriad of mud and muck-seeking, jumping, scooting, moist, and warty creatures. However, this water is considered unwholesome for most human beings’ domestic and medicinal purposes.
Water, therefore, is known as good (for Homo sapiens’ use) if it is lively, clear, without smell, and does not curdle soap; and upon being evaporated to dryness, leaves an insignificant residue. This form of water answers well for the cooking of grains and vegetables, cleaning up, satisfying thirst, hydrating one’s body, and for the preparation of herbal potions and healthful baths.
EFFECT OF WATER ON THE HUMAN BODY AS A TONIC AND RESTORATIVE AGENT
In general, water acts primarily as a direct means to modify the temperature of the body. Water at a temperature higher than the body is a direct stimulant of the circulation, and therefore stimulates all the body’s functions. Cold water, on the other hand, diminishes a portion of the body’s heat, and therefore is a direct tranquilizer or sedative to circulation and other functions. However, when applied correctly, cold can indirectly become a potent stimulant of bodily functions and a healthful tonic. This happens because a salient property of a living organism is to react against whatever tends to depress it. Ordinarily, the more vigorously and abruptly the depressing influence is exerted the more powerful the organism’s reaction. (That can give wedlock a run for its money.) Therefore, cold applications to the body in a certain measure and for a given time produce a diminished activity of function, which is quickly followed by a degree of activity greater than that which originally existed. In this circumstance, the primary effect of heat and the secondary effect of cold resemble one another quite closely. However, cold and heat are relative terms; they do not designate any definite temperature. So we can use 98.6° F., the approximate temperature of the human body in health, as a standard and whatever is higher than this may be described as heat; whatever is lower as cold.
Before you read on: Briefly apply very cold water, ice, or snow to a portion of your skin. Quickly, you will feel a stimulation there that mimics the sensation of the application of heat. This happened because the interior of your body insists on maintaining a certain average temperature throughout itself, including the skin, and quickly acts to replace the lost heat by a thermic reaction where in the internal tissues generate heat and direct it to the chilly zone.
The term bath means the complete or partial immersion of the body in a fluid or in a vaporous medium such