I too have wondered about dehydration. One group of temperance activists in the 1830s and 1840s I studied in Manchester (UK) lived in the centre of the Manchester/Salford conurbation by the highly toxic River Irwell. The area contained chemical works and tanneries making the chance of obtaining drinking water difficult. There would also be little access to fresh fruit and vegetables. How widespread were fruits drinks at this time? Most of temperance drinks were made much later. Vimto, manufactured on the site of this university, was a late nineteenth century product. So what could early teetotallers drink in the industrial areas of the UK in the early nineteenth century. There were pasture meadows for dairy cows within 2 miles but was the milk of the same quality as now? The question of dehydration has obviously struck a thread with many of us and exposed much of our ignorance (well mine). Margaret Margaret Barrow Joule Library UMIST, P.O. Box 88 Sackville St., Manchester M60 1QD Tel +44 61 200 4932 Fax +44 61 200 4941 email address mailto:[log in to unmask]