ninger lays
so much stress in the treatment at his sanitarium has a pecuniary basis,
in other words a commission upon the sale of wines.[2]

[Footnote 2: The sanitarium is owned by a stock company, Schwenninger
being merely Medical Director.--ED.]

Thus, it will be observed that while some forbid beverage, others rather
insist upon its employment in greater or less quantities. Under such
circumstances, it would seem but rational, before undertaking to relieve
obesity, to establish its exact nature, and also the role taken by
fluids in the phenomena of nutrition.

Physiologists generally admit water facilitates nutritive exchanges,
which is explained by the elimination of a large quantity of urine; the
experiments of Genth and Robin in this direction appear conclusive.

Bischoff, Voit, and Hermann have shown that water increases, not alone
the elimination of urine, but also of sodium chloride, phosphoric acid,
etc. Grigoriantz observed augmentation of disintegration when the
quantity of beverage exceeded forty-six to eighty ounces ("1,400 to
2,400 cubic centimeters") per diem. Oppenheim, Fraenkel, and Debove,
while believing water has but little influence upon the exchanges, admit
it certainly need not diminish the latter; and Debove and Flament, after
administering water in quantities varying from two to eight pints per
diem, concluded that urine was diminished below the former figure, while
above the latter it increased somewhat, being dependent upon the amount
ingested. It was on the strength of the foregoing that Lallemand
declared water to have no influence upon the exchanges.

The results claimed by Oppenheim, Debove, et al. were immediately
challenged--and it is now generally admitted, not without some
justice--by Germain See. It seems certain, to say the least, that water
taken during the repast does tend to augment the quantity and facilitate
the elimination of urine. Abundance of beverage, moreover, presents
other advantages, in that it facilitates digestion by reason of its
diluent action, a fact well worth bearing in mind when treating the
obese who are possessed of gouty diathesis, and whose kidneys are
accordingly encumbered with uric and oxalic acids. The foregoing
presents the ground upon which Germain See permits an abundance of
beverage; but he also expresses strong reservation as regards beer and
alcohol, either of which (more especially the former) tends to the
production of adipose. In his opini