Page:Hatha yoga - or the yogi philosophy of physical well-being, with numberous excercises.djvu/86

86 this waste? Let us see. A certain amount of fluids is taken into the system with the food, particularly when certain kinds of food are eaten. But this is only a comparatively small portion of what has been thrown off from the system in its cleansing functions. The best authorities agree that from two quarts to five pints of water is the amount necessary to be taken daily by the average, normal man and woman, in order to make up the waste. If that amount is not supplied to the body it will withdraw fluids from the system until the person assumes that "dried-up" state of which we have spoken, with the consequence that all the physical functions are impaired, the persons being "dried-up" inside as well as on the surface—the machinery of the body being deprived of its lubricating and cleansing material.

Two quarts a day! Just think of that, you people who have been taking about one pint, or even less, each day! Do you wonder why you are afflicted with all sorts of bodily ailments. No wonder you are dyspeptic, constipated, bloodless, nervous and generally all out of sorts. Your bodies are filled with all sorts of poisonous substances which Nature has not been able to eliminate and throw off through the kidneys and skin, because you have shut off her water supply. No wonder your colons are filled with impacted waste matter, which is poisoning your system, and which Nature has been unable to pass off in the regular way because you did not give her water with which to flush her sewers. No wonder that your saliva and gastric juices are deficient—how do you suppose Nature can manufacture them without sufficient water? No wonder your blood