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Hygienic Physiology

J >> Joel Dorman Steele >> Hygienic Physiology




Alcohol, then, is not, like bread or beef, taken hold of, broken up by the
mysterious process of digestion, and used by the body. [Footnote: Because
of the difficulties of such an experiment, we have not yet been able to
account satisfactorily by the excretions for all the alcohol taken into
the stomach. This remains as yet one of the unsolved problems of
physiological chemistry. To collect the whole of the insensible
perspiration, for example, is well-nigh impossible. It was supposed at one
time that a part of the alcohol is oxidized--_i. e._, burned, in the
system. But such a process would impart heat, and it is now proved that
alcohol cools, instead of warms, the blood. Moreover, the closest analysis
fails to detect in the circulation any trace of the products of alcoholic
combustion, such as aldehyde and acetic acid. "The fact," says Flint,
"that alcohol is always eliminated, even when drunk in minute quantity,
and that its elimination continues for a considerable time, gradually
diminishing, renders it probable that all that is taken into the body is
removed."] "It can not therefore be regarded as an aliment," or food.--
FLINT. "Beer, wine, and spirits," says Liebig, "contain no element capable
of entering into the composition of the blood or the muscular fiber."
[Footnote: The small amount of nutritive substance, chiefly sugar derived
from the grain or fruit used in the manufacture of beer or wine, can not,
of course, be compared with that contained in bread or beef at the same
cost. Liebig says, in his Letters on Chemistry, "We can prove, with
mathematical certainty, that as much flour as can lie on the point of a
table knife is more nutritious than eight quarts of the best Bavarian
beer."] "That alcohol is incapable of forming any part of the body,"
remarks Cameron, "is admitted by all physiologists. It can not be
converted into brain, nerve, muscle, or blood."

EFFECT UPON THE DIGESTION. [Footnote: The medical value of alcohol in its
relations to digestion is not discussed in this book. The experiments of
Dr. Henry Munroe, of Hull, published in the London _Medical Journal_,
are here summarized as showing that the tendency to retard digestion is
common to all forms of alcoholic drinks.

_______________________________________________________________________
Finely Minced | | | |
Beef | 2d Hour | 4th Hour | 6th Hour |
_______________________________________________________________________
I. | | Digesting | |
Gastric Juice | Beef | and | Beef much |
and _water_. | opaque. | separating. | loosened. |
_______________________________________________________________________
| | Slightly | Slight |
II. | No alteration | opaque, but | coating on |
Gastric Juice | perceptible. | beef | beef. |
with _alcohol_. | | unchanged. | |
_______________________________________________________________________
III. | | Cloudy, | beef |
Gastric Juice | No change. | with fur | partly |
and _pale ale_. | | on beef. | loosened. |
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Finely Minced | | |
Beef | 8th Hour | 10th Hour |
______________________________________________________
I. | | |
Gastric Juice | Beef | Broken up |
and _water_. | opaque. | into shreds. |
______________________________________________________
| | Solid on |
II. | No visible | cooling |
Gastric Juice | change. | _Pepsin_ |
with _alcohol_. | | precipitated. |
______________________________________________________
III. | | No digestion |
Gastric Juice | No further | _Pepsin_ |
and _pale ale_. | change. | precipitated. |
______________________________________________________]

--Experiments tend to prove that alcohol coagulates and precipitates the
pepsin from the gastric juice, and so puts a stop to its great work in the
process of digestion.

The greed of alcohol for water causes it to imbibe moisture from the
tissues and juices, and to inflame the delicate mucous membrane. It shows
the power of Nature to adapt herself to circumstances, that the soft,
velvety lining of the throat and stomach should come at length to endure
the presence of a fiery liquid which, undiluted, would soon shrivel and
destroy it. In self-defense, the juices pour in to weaken the alcohol, and
it is soon hurried into the circulation. Before this can be done, "it must
absorb about three times its bulk of water"; hence, very strong liquor may
be retained in the stomach long enough to interfere seriously with the
digestion, and to injure the lining coat. Habitual use of alcohol
permanently dilates the blood vessels; thickens and hardens the membranes;
in some cases, ulcerates the surface; and, finally, "so weakens the
assimilation that the proper supply of food can not be appropriated."
--FLINT. [Footnote: The case of St. Martin (p. 168) gave an excellent
opportunity to watch the action of alcohol upon the stomach. Dr. Beaumont
summarized his experiments thus: "The free, ordinary use of any
intoxicating liquor, when continued for some days, invariably produced
inflammation, ulcerous patches, and, finally, a discharge of morbid matter
tinged with blood." Yet St. Martin never complained of pain in his
stomach, the narcotic influence of the alcohol preventing the signal of
danger that Nature ordinarily gives.]

EFFECT UPON THE LIVER.--Alcohol is carried by the portal vein directly to
the liver. This organ, after the brain, holds the largest share. The
influence of the poison is here easily traced. "The color of the bile is
soon changed from yellow to green, and even to black;" the connective
tissue between the lobules becomes inflamed; and, in the case of a
confirmed drunkard, hardened and shrunk, the surface often assuming a
nodulated appearance known as the "hobnailed liver." Morbid matter is
sometimes deposited, causing what is called "Fatty degeneration," so that
the liver is increased to twice or thrice its natural size.

EFFECT UPON THE KIDNEYS.--The kidneys, like the liver, are liable in time
to undergo, through the influence of alcohol, a "Fatty degeneration," in
which the cells become filled with particles of fat; [Footnote: Disabled
by the fatty deposits, the kidneys are unable to separate the waste matter
coming to them for elimination from the system. The poisonous material is
poured back into the circulation, and often delirium ensues.--HUBBARD.
Richardson states that his experience "is to the effect that seven out of
every eight instances of kidney disease are attributable to alcohol."] the
vessels lose their contractility; and, worst of all, the membranes may be
so modified as to allow the albuminous part of the blood to filter through
them, and so to rob the body of one of its most valuable constituents.
[Footnote: This deterioration of structure frequently gives rise to what
is known as "Bright's Disease."--RICHARDSON.]

DOES ALCOHOL IMPART HEAT?--During the first flush after drinking wine, for
example, a sense of warmth is felt. This is due to the tides of warm blood
that are being sent to the surface of the body, owing to the vascular
enlargement and to the rapid pumping of the heart. There is, however, no
fresh heat developed. On the contrary, the bringing the blood to the
surface causes it to cool faster, reaction sets in, a chilliness is
experienced as one becomes sober, and a delicate thermometer placed under
the tongue of the inebriate may show a fall of even two degrees below the
standard temperature of the body. Several hours are required to restore
the usual heat.

As early as 1850, Dr. N. S. Davis, of Chicago, ex-President of the
American Medical Association, instituted an extensive series of
experiments to determine the effect of the different articles of food and
drinks on the temperature of the system. He conclusively proved that,
during the digestion of all kinds of food, the temperature of the body is
increased, but when alcohol is taken, either in the form of fermented or
distilled beverages, the temperature begins to fall within a half hour,
and continues to decrease for two or three hours, and that the reduction
of temperature, in extent as well as in duration, is in exact proportion
to the amount of alcohol taken.

It naturally follows that, contrary to the accepted opinion, liquor does
not fortify against cold. The experience of travelers at the North
coincides with that of Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, who says: "While
fat is absolutely essential to the inhabitants and travelers in arctic
countries, alcohol is, in almost any shape, not only completely useless,
but positively injurious. I have known strong, able-bodied men to become
utterly incapable of resisting cold in consequence of the long-continued
use of alcoholic drink."

DOES ALCOHOL IMPART STRENGTH?--Experience shows that alcohol weakens the
power of undergoing severe bodily exertion. [Footnote: Dr. McRae, in
speaking of Arctic exploration, at the meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, held at Montreal in 1856, said: "The
moment that a man had swallowed a drink of spirits, it was certain that
his day's work was nearly at an end. It was absolutely necessary that the
rule of total abstinence be rigidly enforced, if we would accomplish our
day's task. The use of liquor as a beverage when we had work on hand, in
that terrific cold, was out of the question."] Men who are in training for
running, rowing, and other contests where great strength is required, deny
themselves all liquors, even when they are ordinarily accustomed to their
use.

Dr. Richardson made some interesting experiments to show the influence of
alcohol upon muscular contraction. He carefully weighted the hind leg of a
frog, and, by means of electricity, stimulating the muscle to its utmost
power of contraction, he found out how much the frog could lift. Then
administering alcohol, he discovered that the response of the muscle to
the electrical current became feebler and feebler, as the narcotic began
to take effect, until, at last, the animal could raise less than half the
amount it lifted by the natural contraction when uninfluenced by alcohol.

EFFECT UPON THE WASTE OF THE BODY.--The tendency of alcohol is to cause a
formation of an unstable substance resembling fat, [Footnote: The
molecular deposits equalizing the waste of the system do not go on
regularly under the influence of alcohol; the tissues are not kept up to
their standard; and, in time, their composition is changed by a deposit of
an amorphous matter resembling fat. This is an unstable substance, and the
functions of animal life all retrograde.--HUBBARD, _The Opium Habit and
Alcoholism_.] and so the use of liquor for even a short time will
increase the weight. But a more marked influence is to check the ordinary
waste of the system, so that "the amount of carbonic acid exhaled from the
lungs may be reduced as much as thirty to fifty per cent."--HINTON. The
life process is one of incessant change. Its rapidity is essential to
vigor and strength. When the functions are in full play, each organ is
being constantly torn down, and as constantly rebuilt with the materials
furnished from our food. Anything that checks this oxidation of the
tissues, or hinders the deposition of new matter, disturbs the vital
functions. Both these results are the inevitable effects of alcohol; for,
since the blood contains less oxygen and more carbonic acid, and the power
of assimilating the food is decreased, it follows that every process of
waste and repair must be correspondingly weakened. The person using liquor
consequently needs less bread and beef, and so alcohol seems to him a
food--a radical error, as we have shown.

ALCOHOL CREATES A PROGRESSIVE APPETITE FOR ITSELF.--When liquor is taken,
even in the most moderate quantity, it soon becomes necessary, and then
arises a craving demand for an increased amount to produce the original
effect. No food creates this constantly augmenting want. A cup of milk
drank at dinner does not lead one to go on, day by day, drinking more and
more milk, until to get milk becomes the one great longing of the whole
being. Yet this is the almost universal effect of alcohol. Hunger is
satisfied by any nutritious food: the dram-drinker's thirst demands
alcohol. The common experience of mankind teaches us the imminent peril
that attends the formation of this progressive poison habit. A single
glass taken as a tonic may lead to the drunkard's grave.

Worse than this, the alcoholic craving may be transmitted from father to
son, and young persons often find themselves cursed with a terrible
disease known as alcoholism--a keen, morbid appetite for liquor that
demands gratification at any cost--stamped upon their very being through
the reckless indulgence of this habit on the part of some one of their
ancestors. [Footnote: The American Medical Association, at their meeting
in St. Paul, Minnesota (1883), restated in a series of resolutions their
conviction, that "alcohol should be classed with other powerful drugs;
that when prescribed medically, it should be done with conscientious
caution and a sense of great responsibility; that used as a beverage it is
productive of a large amount of physical and mental disease; that it
_entails diseased and enfeebled constitutions upon offspring_, and
that it is the cause of a large percentage of the crime and pauperism of
our large cities and country."]

THE LAW OF HEREDITY is, in this connection, well worth consideration. "The
world is beginning to perceive," says Francis Galton, "that the life of
each individual is, in some real sense, a continuation of the lives of his
ancestors." "Each of us is the footing up of a double column of figures
that goes back to the first pair." "We are omnibuses," remarks Holmes, "in
which all our ancestors ride." We inherit from our parents our features,
our physical vigor, our mental faculties, and even much of our moral
character. Often, when one generation is skipped, the qualities will
reappear in the following one. The virtues, as well as the vices, of our
forefathers, have added to, or subtracted from, the strength of our brain
and muscle. The evil tendencies of our natures, which it is the struggle
of our lives to resist, constitute a part of our heirlooms from the past.
Our descendants, in turn, will have reason to bless us only if we hand
down to them a pure healthy physical, mental, and moral being.

"There is a marked tendency in nature to transmit all diseased conditions.
Thus, the children of consumptive parents are apt to be consumptives. But
of all agents, alcohol is the most potent in establishing a heredity that
exhibits itself in the destruction of mind and body. [Footnote: Nearly all
the diseases springing from indulgence in distilled and fermented liquors
are liable to become hereditary, and to descend to at least three or four
generations, unless starved out by uncompromising abstinence. But the
distressing aspect of the heredity of alcohol is the transmitted drink-
crave. This is no dream of an enthusiast, but the result of a natural law.
Men and women upon whom this dread inheritance has been forced are
everywhere around us, bravely struggling to lead a sober life.--DR.
NORMAN KERR.] Its malign influence was observed by the ancients long
before the production of whiskey or brandy, or other distilled liquors,
and when fermented liquors or wines only were known. Aristotle says,
'Drunken women have children like unto themselves,' and Plutarch remarks,
'One drunkard is the father of another.' The drunkard by inheritance is a
more helpless slave than his progenitor, and his children are more
helpless still, unless on the mother's side there is an untainted blood.
For there is not only a propensity transmitted, but an actual disease of
the nervous system."--DR. WILLARD PARKER. [Footnote: The subject of
alcohol is continued in the chapter on the Nervous System.]

PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. How do clothing and shelter economize food?

2. Is it well to take a long walk before breakfast?

3. Why is warm food easier to digest than cold?

4. Why is salt beef less nutritious than fresh? [Footnote: The French
Academicians found that flesh soaked in water so as to deprive it of its
mineral matter and juices, lost its nutritive value, and that animals fed
on it soon died. Indeed, for all purposes of nutrition, Liebig said it was
no better than stones, and the utmost torments of hunger were hardly
sufficient to induce them to continue the diet. There was plenty of
nutritive food, but there was no medium for its solution and absorption,
and hence it was useless.] 5. What should be the food of a man recovering
from a fever?

6. Is a cup of black coffee a healthful close to a hearty dinner?

7. Should iced water be used at a meal?

8. Why is strong tea or coffee injurious?

9. Should food or drink be taken hot?

10. Are fruitcakes, rich pastry, and puddings wholesome?

11. Why are warm biscuit and bread hard of digestion?

12. Should any stimulants be used in youth?

13. Why should bread be made spongy?

14. Which should remain longer in the mouth, bread or meat?

15. Why should cold water be used in making soup, and hot water in boiling
meat?

16. Name the injurious effects of overeating.

17. Why do not buckwheat cakes, with syrup and butter, taste as well in
July as in January?

18. Why is a late supper injurious?

19. What makes a man "bilious"?

20. What is the best remedy? _Ans_. Diet to give the organs rest, and
active exercise to arouse the secretions and the circulation.

21. What is the practical use of hunger?

22. How can jugglers drink when standing on their heads?

23. Why do we relish butter on bread?

24. What would you do if you had taken arsenic by mistake? (See Appendix.)

25. Why should ham and sausage be thoroughly cooked?

26. Why do we wish butter on fish, eggs with tapioca, oil on salad, and
milk with rice?

27. Explain the relation of food to exercise.

28. How do you explain the difference in the manner of eating between
carnivorous and herbivorous animals?

29. Why is a child's face plump and an old man's wrinkled?

30. Show how life depends on repair and waste.

31. What is the difference between the decay of the teeth and the constant
decay of the body?

32. Should biscuit and cake containing yellow spots of soda be eaten?

33. Tell how the body is composed of organs, how organs are made up of
tissues, and how tissues consist of cells.

34. Why do we not need to drink three pints of water per day?

35. Why, during a pestilence, are those who use liquors as a beverage the
first, and often the only victims?

36. What two secretions seem to have the same general use?

37. How may the digestive organs be strengthened?

38. Is the old rule, "after dinner sit awhile," a good one?

39. What would you do if you had taken laudanum by mistake? Paris Green?
Sugar of lead? Oxalic acid? Phosphorus from matches? Ammonia? Corrosive
sublimate? (See p. 265.)

40. What is the simplest way to produce vomiting, so essential in case of
accidental poisoning?

41. In what way does alcohol interfere with the digestion?

42. Is alcohol assimilated?

43. What is the effect of alcohol on the albuminous substances?

44. Is there any nourishment in beer?

45. Show how the excessive use of alcohol may first increase, and,
afterward, decrease, the size of the liver.

46. Will liquor help one to endure cold and exposure?

47. What is a fatty degeneration of the kidneys?

48. Contrast the action of alcohol and water in the body.

49. Is alcohol, in any proper sense of the term, a food?

50. Does liquor strengthen the muscles of a working man?

51. Is liquor a wholesome "tonic"?

52. Is it a good plan to take a glass of liquor before dinner?




VII.


THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

"Mark then the cloven sphere that holds
All thoughts in its mysterious folds,
That feels sensation's faintest thrill,
And flashes forth the sovereign will;
Think on the stormy world that dwells
Lock'd in its dim and clustering cells;
The lightning gleams of power it sheds
Along its hollow, glassy threads!"

"As a king sits high above his subjects upon his throne, and from it
speaks behests that all obey, so from the throne of the brain cells is all
the kingdom of a man directed, controlled, and influenced. For this
occupant, the eyes watch, the ears hear, the tongue tastes, the nostrils
smell, the skin feels. For it, language is exhausted of its treasures, and
life of its experience; locomotion is accomplished, and quiet insured.
When it wills, body and spirit are goaded like overdriven horses. When it
allows, rest and sleep may come for recuperation. In short, the slightest
penetration may not fail to perceive that all other parts obey this part,
and are but ministers to its necessities."--Odd Hours of a Physician.
ANALYSIS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

_
| 1. THE STRUCTURE
| _
| _ | 1. _Description._
| | 1. The Brain........| 2. _The Cerebrum._
| | |_3. _The Cerebellum._
| | _
| | 2. The Spinal Cord..| 1. _Its Composition._
| | |_2. _Medulla Oblongata._
| | _
| 2. ORGANS OF | | 1. _Description._
| THE NERV- | | 2. _Motory and Sensory._
| OUS SYSTEM..| | 3. _Transfer of Pain._
| | | 4. _The Spinal Nerves--
| | | 31 Pairs._
| |_3. The Nerves.......| 5. _The Cranial Nerves--
| | 12 Pairs._
| | 6. _Sympathetic System._
| | 7. _Crossing of Cords._
| | 8. _Reflex Action._
| | 9. _Uses of Reflex
| |_ Action_
| _
| | 1. Brain Exercise.
| | 2. Connection between Brain Growth and Body Growth.
| 3. HYGIENE.....| 3. Sleep.
| | 4. Effect of Sleeping Draughts.
| |_5. Sunlight.
|
| 4. WONDERS OF THE BRAIN.
| _
| | 1. Alcohol (Con'd.)
| | _ | 1. _Stage of Excitement._
| || | 2. _Stage of Muscular
| || | Weakness._
| || 1. Effect of Alco- | 3. _Stage of Mental
| || hol upon the | Weakness._
| || Nervous System | 4. _Stage of Unconscious-
| || |_ ness._
| ||
| || 2. Effect upon the Brain
| ||_3. Effect upon the Mental and Moral Powers.
| |
| | 2. Tobacco.
| | _
| || 1. Constituents of Tobacco.
| 5. ALCOHOLIC || 2. Physiological Effects.
| DRINKS AND|| 3. Possible Disturbances produced by Smoking.
|_ NARCOTICS.|| 4. Influence upon the Nervous System.
|| 5. Is Tobacco a Food?
||_6. Influence of Tobacco on Youth.
| _
| | 1. _Description._
| 3. Opium............| 2. _Physiological
| |_ Effects._
| 4. Chloral Hydrate.
| 5. Chloroform.
|_6. Cocaine.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. [Footnote: The organs of circulation, respiration, and
digestion, of which we have already spoken, are often called the
vegetative functions, because they belong also to the vegetable kingdom.
Plants have a circulation of sap through their cells corresponding to that
of the blood through the capillaries. They breathe the air through their
leaves, which act the part of lungs, and they take in food which they
change into their own structure by a process which answers to that of
digestion. The plant, however, is a mere collection of parts incapable of
any combined action. On the other hand, the animal has a nervous system
which binds all the organs together.]

STRUCTURE.--The nervous system includes the _brain_, the _spinal
cord_, and the _nerves_. It is composed of two kinds of matter--
the _white_, and the _gray_. The former consists of minute,
milk-white, glistening fibers, sometimes as small as 1/25000 of an inch in
diameter; the latter is made up of small, ashen-colored cells, forming a
pulp-like substance of the consistency of blancmange. [Footnote: In
addition to the cells, the gray substance contains also nerve fibers
continuous with the white fibers, but generally much smaller. These form
half the bulk of the gray substance of the spinal cord, and a large part
of the deeper layer of the gray matter in the brain.--LEIDY'S
_Anatomy_, p. 507.] This is often gathered in little masses, termed
ganglions (_ganglion_, a knot), because, when a nerve passes through
a group of the cells, they give it the appearance of a knot. The nerve
fibers are conductors, while the gray cells are generators, of nervous
force. [Footnote: What this force is we do not know. In some respects it
is like electricity, but, in others, it differs materially. Its velocity
is about thirty three meters per second.--_Popular Physics_, p. 244,
Note.] The ganglia, or nervous centers, answer to the stations along a
telegraphic line, where messages are received and transmitted, and the
fibers correspond to the wires that communicate between different parts.

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