The article quoted was written in 1963.

There was something recently that came out, about how much water to drink. It was based on body weight, how much exercise you do in a day, type of work (inside/outside, manual labor/sitting a a desk) and other stuff.
Mine is basically body weight / 2 = # of ounces.
Obviously execise, job type, alcohol intake, pregnant/breast feeding, smoking all have an impact and will dehydrate the body of not only water, but of necessary vitamins and nutrients, which is why gatorade or something similar is good for extreme exercise/physical labor especially in higher temperatures. A woman's body needs more of everything when pregnant or breast feeding. Alcohol dehydrates the body, and I'm guessing smoking does too, since it's taken into consideration.
http://nutrition.about.com/library/bl_water_calculator_results.htm