As a 'Zone Man,' I am well aware of the dangers of dehydration and heat stroke especially when out for an infernal hike. Although a U.S. gallon of water weighs 8 1/3 lbs., those are pounds I don't leave home without, leastways not on a hot day. Some will be surprised to learn that even with water there can be too much of a good thing. Thales take note. See here. The danger is increased if you drink pure water. Since my reverse osmosis water purifier delivers water that is around 95% pure, I add electrolyte replacements such as Gookinaid, the thinking man's drink, to my hiking water.
A recent case of death by so-called 'water intoxication' is reported here. A woman dies in a water drinking contest. But if I may be permitted to quibble: calling hyponatremia water intoxication is bad terminology: surely water is no toxin. What happens is that water in excess washes out minerals and electrolytes the body needs to function.
Hm. In sufficiently small quantities, nothing is toxic; in sufficiently large quantities, anything is. Or so I was once forcefully told.
Yes indeed.
EG,
Perhaps we should defer to the toxicologists on this one, but a toxin is a poison, though presumabkly not conversely, and it sounds distinctly odd to say that water is a poison. Compare whisky, or else the alcohol in it. Alcohol, taken internally, is a poison, though in small enough quantities it is harmless. Drinking an ounce of whisky, I poison myself with delightful results. Chasing it with a glass of water, I do not chase a poison with a poison but with a non-poison. That too much water will kill me is not in dispute; but not because it is a posion but because it flushes out stuff essential to my physical health.
THis source (dubious) suggests that toxins are produced by living cells or organisms. If so, water is no toxin.
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4. Some undesirables: The skimmers, those who cannot read but only read-in. The sophists who, abusing argument, argue for the sake of argument. The ideologues, those who are out for power, not truth. The uncivil. The illogical. The politically correct. Worst of all, perhaps, are those who exemplify the anti-Socratic property: those who think they know what they don't know. If Socrates was famous for his learned ignorance, these types are marked by their ignorant unlearnededness.