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Hygienic Physiology

J >> Joel Dorman Steele >> Hygienic Physiology




FOREIGN BODIES IN THE EAR.--Insects may be killed by dropping a little
sweet oil into the ear. Beans peas, etc., may generally be removed by so
holding the head that the affected ear will be toward the ground, and then
_cautiously_ syringing tepid water into it from below. Do not use
much force lest the tympanum be injured. If this fail, dry the ear, stick
the end of a little linen swab into thick glue, let the patient lie on one
side, put this into the ear until it touches the substance, keep it there
three quarters of an hour while it hardens, and then draw them all out
together. Be careful that the glue does not touch the skin at any point,
and that you are at work upon the right ear. Children often deceive one as
to the ear which is affected.

FOREIGN BODIES IN THE NOSE, such as beans, cherry pits, etc., may
frequently be removed by closing the opposite nostril, and then blowing
into the child's mouth forcibly. The air, unable to escape except through
the affected nostril, will sweep the obstruction before it.

ANTIDOTES TO POISONS.

ACIDS: _Nitric_ (aqua fortis), _hydrochloric_ (muriatic),
_sulphuric_ (oil of vitriol), _oxalic_, etc.--Drink a little
water to weaken the acid, or, still better, take strong soapsuds. Stir
some magnesia in water, and drink freely. If the magnesia be not at hand,
use chalk, soda, lime, whiting, soap, or even knock a piece of plaster
from the wall, and scraping off the white outside coat pound it fine, mix
with milk or water, and drink at once. Follow with warm water, or flaxseed
tea.

ALKALIES: _Potash, soda, lye, ammonia_ (hartshorn).--Drink weak
vinegar or lemon juice. Follow with castor or linseed oil, or thick cream.

ANTIMONY: _Antimonial wine, tartar emetic_, etc.--Drink strong, green
tea, and in the meantime chew the dry leaves. The direct antidote is a
solution of nutgall or oak bark.

ARSENIC: _Cobalt, Scheele's green, fly powder, ratsbane_, etc.--Give
_plenty of milk, whites of eggs_, or induce vomiting by mustard and
warm water; [Footnote: See that the mustard is well mixed with the water,
in the proportion of about half an ounce of the former to a pint of the
latter.] or even soapsuds.

BITE OF A SNAKE OR A MAD DOG.--Tie a bandage above the wound, if on a
limb. Wash the bite thoroughly, and, if possible, let the person suck it
strongly. Rub some lunar caustic or potash in the wound, or heat the point
of a small poker or a steel sharpener white hot, and press it into the
bite for a moment. It will scarcely cause pain, and will be effectual in
arresting the absorption of the poison, unless a vein has been struck.

COPPER: _Sulphate of copper_ (blue vitriol), _acetate of copper_
(verdigris).--Take whites of eggs or soda. Use milk freely.

LAUDANUM: _Opium, paregoric, soothing cordial, soothing syrup_, etc.
--Give an emetic at once of syrup of ipecac, or mustard and warm water,
etc. After vomiting, use strong coffee freely. _Keep the patient
awake_ by pinching, pulling the hair, walking about, dashing water in
the face, and any expedient possible.

LEAD: _White lead, acetate of lead_ (sugar of lead), _red
lead_.--Give an emetic of syrup of ipecac, or mustard and warm water,
or salt and water. Follow with a dose of Epsom salts.

MATCHES: _Phosphorus_.--Give magnesia, chalk, whiting, or even flour
in water, and follow with mucilaginous drinks.

MERCURY: _Calomel, chloride of mercury_ (corrosive sublimate, bug
poison), _red precipitate_.--Drink milk copiously. Take the whites of
eggs, or stir flour in water, and use freely.

NITRATE OF SILVER (lunar caustic).--Give salt and water, and follow with
castor oil.

NITRATE OF POTASH (saltpeter, niter).--Give mustard and warm water, or
syrup of ipecac. Follow with flour and water, and cream or sweet oil.

PRUSSIC ACID (oil of bitter almonds), _cyanide of potassium_.--Take a
teaspoonful of hartshorn in a pint of water. Apply smelling salts to the
nose, and dash cold water in the face.

STING OF AN INSECT.--Apply a little hartshorn or spirits of camphor, or
soda moistened with water, or a paste of clean earth and saliva.

SULPHATE OF IRON (green vitriol).--Give syrup of ipecac, or mustard and
warm water, or any convenient emetic; then magnesia and water.




X.


SELECTED READINGS

TO ILLUSTRATE AND SUPPLEMENT THE TEXT.

_Arranged in order of the subjects to which they refer_.

"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted,
nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh, and consider."

LORD BACON.

"He who learns the rules of wisdom without conforming to them in his life,
is like a man who labored in his fields but did not sow."

SAADI.

SELECTED READINGS.

_The figures indicate the pages in the text upon which the corresponding
subjects will be found_.

THE SKELETON.

MAN, AS COMPARED WITH OTHER VERTEBRATE ANIMALS (p. 3).--Man, the lord of
the animal kingdom, is constructed after the same type as the cat that
purrs at his feet, the ox that he eats, the horse that bears his burden,
the bird that sings in his cage, the snake that crawls across his pathway,
the toad that hides in his garden, and the fish that swims in his
aquarium. All these are but modifications of one creative thought, showing
how the Almighty Worker delights in repeating the same chord, with
infinite variations. There are marked physical peculiarities, however,
which distinguish man from the other mammals. Thus, the position of the
spinal opening in the middle third of the base of the skull, thereby
balancing the head and admitting an upright posture; the sigmoid S-curve
of the vertebral column; the ability of opposing the well-developed thumb
to the fingers; the shortened foot, the sole resting flat on the ground;
the size and position of the great toe; the length of the arms, reaching
halfway from the hip to the knees; the relatively great development of the
brain; the freedom of the anterior extremities from use in locomotion, and
the consequent erect and biped position. In addition, man is the only
mammal that truly walks; that is endowed with the power of speech; and
that is cosmopolitan, readily adapting himself to extremes of heat and
cold, and making his home in all parts of the globe.--STEELE'S _Popular
Zoology_.

FIG. 68.

[Illustration: _Skeleton of Orang, Chimpanzee, and Man._]

UNION OF FRACTURES (p. 8).--In the course of a week after a fracture,
there is a soft yet firm substance, something between ligament and
cartilage in consistence, which surrounds the broken extremities of the
bone, and adheres to it above and below. The neighboring muscles and
tendons are closely attached to its surface, and the fractured extremities
of the bone lie, as it were, loose in a cavity in the center, with a small
quantity of vascular albumen, resembling a semitransparent jelly.

Here, then, is a kind of splint which nature contrives, and which is
nearly completed within a week from the date of the accident. We call this
new formation the _callus_. This process goes on, the surrounding
substance becoming thicker and of still firmer consistence. In the course
of a few days more, the thin jelly which lay in contact with the broken
ends of the bone has disappeared, and its place is supplied by a callus
continuous with that which formed the original capsule. This is the
termination of the first stage of curative progress. The broken ends of
the bones are now completely imbedded in a mass of vascular organized
substance or callus, something between gristle and cartilage in
consistence; and as yet there are no traces of bony matter in it. At this
time, if you remove the adventitious substance, you will find the broken
ends of bone retaining exactly their original figure and presenting the
same appearance as immediately after the fracture took place.

At the end of about three weeks, if you make a section of the callus,
minute specks of earthy matter are visible, deposited in it here and
there, and at the same time some of the callus, appears to disappear on
the outside, so that the neighboring muscles and tendons no longer adhere
to it. The specks of bone become larger and more numerous until they
extend into each other; and thus by degrees the whole of the callus is
converted into bone. Even at this period, however, there is not absolute
bony union, for although the whole of the callus has become bone, it is
not yet identified with the old bone, and you might still pick it off with
a penknife, leaving the broken extremities not materially altered from
what they were immediately after the injury. This may be regarded as the
end of the second stage of the process by which a fracture is repaired.
Now a third series of changes begins to take place. The broken extremities
of the bones become intimately united by bony matter passing from one to
the other. The mass of new bone on the outside, formed by the ossification
of the callus, being no longer wanted, is absorbed; by degrees the whole
of it disappears, and the bone is left having the same dimensions which it
had before the occurrence of the accident.

The process of union is completed in young persons sooner than in those
advanced in life; in the upper extremities sooner than in the lower; and
in smaller animals more speedily than in man. In human subjects a broken
arm or forearm will be healed in from six to eight weeks, while a leg or
thigh will occupy nine or ten weeks.--SIR B. C. BRODIE.

FIG. 69.

[Illustration: FIG. 69. a. _Monkey's Hand and Foot._ b. _Human Hand
and Foot._]

THE HAND AND THE FOOT (p. 2l).--_Man Compared with the_ _Ape_.--
The peculiar prehensible power possessed by the hand of man is chiefly
dependent upon the size and power of the thumb, which is more developed in
him than it is in the highest apes. The thumb of the human hand can be
brought into exact opposition to the extremities of all the fingers,
whether singly or in combination; while in those quadrumana which most
nearly approach man, the thumb is so short, and the fingers so much
elongated, that their tips can scarcely be brought into opposition; and
the thumb and the fingers are so weak that they can never be opposed to
each other with any degree of force. Hence, though well suited to cling
round bodies of a certain size, such as the small branches of trees, the
anterior extremities of the quadrumana can neither seize very minute
objects with such precision nor support large ones with such firmness as
are essential to the dexterous performance of a variety of operations for
which the hand of man is admirably adapted.

The human foot is, in proportion to the size of the whole body, larger,
broader, and stronger than that of any other mammal, save the kangaroo.
The surface of the astragalus (ankle bone) which articulates with the
tibia, looks almost vertically upward, and hardly at all inward, when the
sole is flat upon the ground; and the lateral facets are more nearly at
right angles to this surface than in any ape. The plane of the foot is
directed at right angles to that of the leg; and its sole is concave, so
that the weight of the body falls on the summit of an arch, of which the
os calcis (heel bone) and the metatarsal bones form the two points of
support. This arched form of the foot, and the contact of the whole
plantar surface with the ground, are particularly noticeable in man, most
of the apes having the os calcis small, straight, and more or less raised
from the ground, while they touch, when standing erect, with the outer
side only of the foot. The function of the _hallux_, or great toe,
moreover, is strikingly contrasted in man and the ape; for, while in the
latter it is nearly as opposable as the thumb, and can be used to almost
the same extent as an instrument of prehension, it chiefly serves in the
former to extend the basis of support, and to advance the body in
progression.--DR. W. B. CARPENTER.

FIG. 70.

[Illustration: _The Leg in standing._]

_The Natural Flexibility of the Toes, and How it is Destroyed_.--We
often admire the suppleness of the fingers by means of which we can
perform such a variety of acts with swiftness and delicacy. Did it ever
occur to you that the toes, which in most feet seem incapable of a free
and graceful motion, even when they are not stiffened and absolutely
deformed by the compression of the modern shoe, are also provided by
Nature with a considerable degree of flexibility? The phalanges of the
toes, though more feebly developed, have really the same movements among
themselves as those of the fingers, and, in case of necessity, their
powers can be strengthened and educated to a surprising degree. There are
well-known instances of persons who, born without hands, or having lost
them by accident, have successfully supplied the deficiency by a
cultivated use of their feet. Some of these have distinguished themselves
in the world of art. Who that has been so fortunate as to visit the
Picture Gallery in Antwerp on some fine morning when the armless artist,
M. Felu, was working at his easel, can forget the wonderful dexterity with
which he wielded his brushes, mixed the oils on his palette, and shaded
the colors on his canvas, all with his agile feet? The writer well
remembers the ease and grace with which, at the close of a pleasant
interview, this cultured man put the tip of his foot into his coat pocket,
drew out a visiting card, wrote his name and address upon it, and
presented it to her between his toes!

Contrast this intelligent adaptation of a delicate physical mechanism with
the barbarous treatment it too commonly receives. The Chinese are at least
consistent. They cripple and distort the feet of their highborn daughters
until they crush out all the power and gracefulness of nature in the
artificial formation of what they term a "golden lily"; but they never
expect these golden-lilied women to make their withered feet useful. With
us, on the contrary, every girl would like to walk well, to display in her
general movements something of the "poetry of motion"; yet the absurd and
arbitrary fashion of our foot gear not only makes an elastic step one of
the rarest of accomplishments, but renders oftentimes the simple act of
walking a painful burden. The calluses, corns, bunions, ingrowing nails,
and repulsive deformities that are caused by and hidden under the narrow-
toed, high-heeled instruments of torture we often wear for fashion's sake
are uncomfortable suggestions that our practices are not greatly in
advance of those of our Celestial sisters. Dowie, a sensible Scotch
shoemaker, satirizes the shape of a fashionable boot as suited only to
"the foot of a goose with the great toe in the middle." The error which
may have led to the adoption of this conventional shape appears to lie in
a misconception of the natural formation of the foot, and of the relation
of the two feet to each other. It is true, that when the toes are covered
with their soft parts, the second toe appears a little longer than the
first, and this appearance, emphasized and exaggerated, is perhaps
responsible for a practical assumption that Nature intended an even-sided,
tapering foot. On the contrary, the natural foot gradually expands in
breadth from the instep to the toes and, in the skeleton itself, the great
toe is the longest.

"There is no law of beauty," says Dr. Ellis, "which makes it necessary to
reduce the foot to even-sided symmetry. An architect required to provide
more space on one than on the other side of a building would not seek to
conceal or even to minimize the difference; he would seek rather to
accentuate it, and give the two sides of the structure distinctive
features....Moreover, the sense of symmetry is, or ought to be, satisfied
by the exact correspondence of the two feet, which, taken jointly, may be
described as the two halves of an unequally expanded dome."--E. B. S.

THE MUSCLES.

ATTACHMENT OF THE MUSCLES TO THE BONES (p. 30).--One of the two bones to
which a muscle is attached is usually less mobile than the other, so that
when the muscle shortens, the latter is drawn down against the former. In
such a case, the point of attachment of the muscle to the less mobile bone
is called its origin, while the point to which it is fixed on the more
mobile bone is called its attachment....A muscle is not always extended
between two contiguous bones. Occasionally, passing over one bone it
attaches itself to the next. This is the case with several muscles which,
originating from the pelvic bone, pass across the upper thigh bone, and
attach themselves to the lower thigh bone. In such cases the muscle is
capable of two different movements: it can either stretch the knee,
previously bent, so that the upper and the lower thigh bones are in a
straight line; or it can raise the whole extended leg yet higher, and
bring it nearer to the pelvis. But the points of origin and of attachment
of muscles may exchange offices. When both legs stand firmly on the
ground, the above-mentioned muscles are unable to raise the thigh;
instead, on shortening, they draw down the pelvis, which now presents the
more mobile point, and thus bend forward the whole upper part of the body.

One important consequence of the attachment of the muscles to the bones is
the extension thus effected. If the limb of a dead body is placed in the
position which it ordinarily occupied during life, and if one end of a
muscle is then separated from its point of attachment, it draws itself
back, and becomes shorter. The same thing happens during life, as is
observable in the operation of cutting the tendons, as practiced by
surgeons to cure curvatures. The result being the same during life and
after death this phenomenon is evidently due to the action of elasticity.
It thus appears that the muscles are stretched by reason of their
attachment to the skeleton, and that, on account of their elasticity, they
are continually striving to shorten. Now, when several muscles are
attached to one bone in such a way that they pull in opposite directions,
the bone must assume a position in which the tension of all the muscles is
balanced, and all these tensions must combine to press together the
socketed parts with a certain force, thus evidently contributing to the
strength of the socket connection....This balanced position of all the
limbs, which thus depends on the elasticity of the muscles, may be
observed during sleep, for then all active muscular action ceases. It will
be observed that the limbs are then generally slightly bent, so that they
form very obtuse angles to each other.

Not all muscles are, however, extended between bones. The tendons of some
pass into soft structures, such as the muscles of the face. In this case,
also, the different muscles exercise a mutual power of extension, though
it is but slight, and they thus effect a definite balanced position of the
soft parts, as may be observed in the position of the mouth opening in the
face.--ROSENTHAL, _Muscles and Nerves_.

MUSCULAR FIBERS (p. 3l).--The anatomical composition of flesh is very
similar in every kind of creature, whether it be the muscle of the ox or
of the fly; that is to say, there are certain tubes which are filled with
minute parts or elements, and the adhesion of the tubes together makes up
the substance of the flesh. These tubes may be represented grossly by
imagining the finger of a glove, to be called the sarcolemma, or muscle-
fiber pouch, and this to be so small as not to be apparent to the naked
eye, but filled with nuclei and the juices peculiar to each animal.
Hundreds of such fingers attached together would represent a bundle of
muscular fibers. The tubes are of fine tissue, but are tolerably
permanent; whilst the contents are in direct communication with the
circulating blood and pursue an incessant course of chemical change and
physical renewal.--EDWARD SMITH, _Foods_.

FIG. 71.

[Illustration: _Smooth Muscle Fibers (300 times enlarged)._]

THE SMOOTH MUSCLE FIBERS consist of long, spindle-shaped cells, the ends
of which are frequently spirally twisted, and in the center of which
exists a long, rod-shaped kernel or nucleus. Unlike striated muscle, they
do not form separate muscular masses, but occur scattered, or arranged in
more or less dense layers or strata, in almost all organs. [Footnote: An
instance of a considerable accumulation of smooth, muscle fibers is
afforded by the muscle pouch of birds, which, with the exception of the
outer and inner skin coverings, consists solely of these fibers collected
in extensive layers.] Arranged in regular order, they very frequently form
widely extending membranes, especially in such tube-shaped structures as
the blood vessels, the intestine, etc., the walls of which are composed of
these smooth muscle fibers. In such cases they are usually arranged in two
layers, one of which consists of ring-shaped fibers surrounding the tube,
while the other consists of fibers arranged parallel to the tube. When,
therefore, these muscle fibers contract, they are able both to reduce the
circumference and to shorten the length of the walls of the tube in which
they occur. This is of great importance in the case of the smaller
arteries, in which the smooth muscle fibers, arranged in the form of a
ring, are able greatly to contract, or even entirely to close the vessels,
thus regulating the current of blood through the capillaries. In other
cases, as in the intestine, they serve to set the contents of the tubes in
motion. In the latter cases the contraction does not take place
simultaneously throughout the length of the tube; but, commencing at one
point, it continually propagates itself along fresh lengths of the tube,
so that the contents are slowly driven forward.

As a rule, such parts as are provided only with smooth muscle fibers are
not voluntarily movable, while striated muscle fibers are subject to the
will. The latter have, therefore, been also distinguished as voluntary,
the former as involuntary muscles. The heart, however, exhibits an
exception, for, though it is provided with striated muscle fibers, the
will has no direct influence upon it, its motions being exerted and
regulated independently of the will. Moreover, the muscle fibers of the
heart are peculiar in that they are destitute of sarcolemma, the naked
muscle fibers directly touching each other. This is so far interesting
that direct irritations, if applied to some point of the heart, are
transferred to all the other muscle fibers. In addition to this, the
muscle fibers of the heart are branched, but such branched fibers occur
also in other places; for example, in the tongue of the frog, where they
are branched like a tree. Smooth muscle fibers being, therefore, not
subject to the will, are caused to contract, either by local irritation,
such as the pressure of the matter contained within the tubes, or by the
nervous system. The contractions of striated muscle fibers are effected,
in the natural course of organic life, only by the influence of the
nerves.--ROSENTHAL.

OVEREXERTION AND PERSONAL IMPRUDENCE (p. 40).--Among children there is
little danger of overexertion. When a little child reaches the point of
healthy fatigue, he usually collapses into rest and sleep. But with youth
comes the spirit of ambition and emulation. A lad, for instance, is
determined to win a race, to throw his opponent in a football scramble, to
lift a heavier weight than his strength will warrant; or a girl is
stimulated by the passion she may possess for piano playing, painting,
dancing, or tennis. The moment of exhaustion comes, but the end is not
accomplished, and the will goads on the weary muscles, perhaps to one
supreme effort which terminates in a sharp and sudden illness, perhaps to
days and weeks of continued and incessant application, during which the
whole system is undermined. Thus is laid the foundation for a feeble and
suffering maturity.

To elderly people, overexertion has peculiar dangers, dependent largely
upon the changes which gradually take place in the tissues of the body.
The walls of the blood vessels become less and less elastic, and more and
more brittle, as life advances, until at last they are ready to give way
from any severe or unusual pressure. We constantly see old people
hastening their death by personal imprudence. An old gentleman running to
catch the morning train; an old farmer hastening to turn the strayed sheep
out of a cornfield; the old sportsman having a last run with the hounds;
the last pull at the oars; the last attempt of old age to play at vigorous
manhood.

A prominent American physician has said that between the ages of forty and
fifty every wise man will have ceased to run to "catch" trains or street
cars; and that between fifty and sixty he will have permanently discarded
haste of all kinds. Equal precautions should be observed by both young and
old, but especially by those advanced in life, in regard to extremes of
heat, cold, or storm. William Cullen Bryant, by exposing himself to a
scorching sun and refusing to permit a friend to protect him with an
umbrella while delivering an address in Central Park, received injuries to
his system that carried him to his grave. Ralph Waldo Emerson, by standing
in a chilling wind, contracted a cold and died. George Dawson, by going
thoughtlessly into a freezing atmosphere from the sweltering rooms of a
crowded reception, took cold which resulted in pneumonia and death.
Matthew Arnold, for years a sufferer from heart difficulty, in a single
instance neglected the advice of his physician not to indulge in any
violent exercise, made repeated attempts and finally succeeded in jumping
a fence, and in a few hours was a dead man. Roscoe Conkling braved the
most terrible blizzard ever known in the east and sacrificed his life. And
yet, these were all men of exceptional prudence. Probably no other five
persons in the world of like surroundings and vocations were more careful
of their health. In an unguarded moment their prudence left them, and they
paid the terrible penalty.--_Compiled_.

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