On this fashionable article, the editor remarks, Dr. Paris makes the
following observations:--"The modern custom of drinking this inviting
beverage during, or immediately after dinner, has been a pregnant source
of indigestion. By inflating the stomach at such a period, we inevitably
counteract those _muscular_ contractions of its coats which are essential
to chymification, whilst the quantity of soda thus introduced scarcely
deserves notice; with the exception of the carbonic acid gas, it may be
regarded as water; more mischievous only in consequence of the
_exhilarating_ quality, inducing us to take it at a period at which we
would not require the more simple fluid."
In all the waters we have obtained from fountains in London and other
places, under the names of "Soda Water" and "_double_ Soda Water," we have
not been able to discover any soda. It is common water mechanically
super-saturated with fixed air, which on being disengaged and rarified in
the stomach, may, as Dr. Paris observes, so over distend the organ as to
interrupt digestion, or diminish the powers of the digestive organs. When
acid prevails in the stomach, which is generally the case the day after
too free an indulgence in wine, true soda water, taken two or three hours
before dinner, or an hour before breakfast, not only neutralizes the acid,
but the fixed air, which is disengaged, allays the irritation, and even by
distending the organ, invigorates the muscular coat and nerves. As the
quantity of soda, in the true soda water, is much too small to neutralize
the acid, it is a good practice to add fifteen or twenty grains of the
carbonate of soda, finely powdered, to each bottle, which may be done by
pouring the contents of a bottle on it in a large glass.
Of all the soda water we have examined, we have found that made by Mr.
Johnson, to contain the greatest quantity of soda. For the purpose of
cooling the body during warm weather, and quieting the stomach, which is
generally in a state of increased irritation when the temperature of the
air is equal or within a few degrees of that of the body, it is preferable
to any of the vegetable or mineral acids.
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