A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

Hygienic Physiology

J >> Joel Dorman Steele >> Hygienic Physiology




Tea drinkers, as a rule, express doubts as regards the correctness of
alleged poisonous properties of tea. Numerous instances of individuals of
this class have been noticed who were themselves suffering from tea
poisoning. Their nerves were in a deplorably abnormal condition, the heart
and brain were functionally disturbed, and the sleep less in quantity and
less refreshing than it should be....One's opinion of the physical
disturbances which may be caused by rum, tobacco, or tea, are not worth
much, when the opinion comes from a victim of the excessive use of these
agents.

The tannin found in tea does not differ from that found in oak and other
barks which the tanners use to convert the raw hides of animals into
leather. It is a powerful astringent, which accounts for some of the
peculiar physical evils to which confirmed tea drinkers are subject.

_Theine_ does not differ essentially from _Cocaine_ (see p.
223). They both produce exaltation of the nervous system and increased
powers of physical endurance. The brain is largely influenced in its
functions, and long periods of wakefulness are induced. Continued use of
strong infusions of either coca or tea result in great disturbance of
nervous centers and functional offices, and either will produce fatal
results by persistent use of inordinate quantities.

A cup of tea as served at tea tables contains usually only a trace of the
alkaloidal principle, but infinitesimal quantities are capable of exerting
baneful effects upon some tea drinkers....Poisons act in a variety of
ways, some slowly, and without producing pain; others act violently, and
with speedy, fatal results. Inasmuch as we do not observe a very large
number of clearly proved cases of acute poisoning by tea, we must conclude
that it is characteristically a slow poison, and also that its influence
is unlike in different individuals....Four or six cups of tea, however,
taken during each twenty-four hours, will in time produce tea poisoning,
and greater or less evil effects.

Tea is well enough, when its use is kept under absolute, intelligent
control; but if it becomes master in any case, then it must be promptly
abandoned, for danger attends the intemperate tea drinker every hour of
his life. Those advanced in life crave its stimulating effects, and it is
well for them to use it in moderation; but the young should abstain from
it entirely.--_Abridged from "Tea Poisoning," by_ DR. NICHOLS, _in
Popular Science News, December, 1887_.

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF INDIGESTION (p. l72).--When a light breakfast is
eaten, a solid meal is requisite in the middle of the day. If the
digestive organs are left too long unemployed, they secrete an excess of
mucus, which greatly interferes with their normal functions. One meal has
a direct influence on the next; and a poor breakfast leaves the stomach
over-active for dinner. This is the secret of much excess in eating. The
point to bear in mind is that not to eat a sufficiency at one meal makes
you too hungry for the next; and that when you are too hungry, you are apt
to overload the stomach, and to give the gastric juices more to do than
they have the power to perform.

To eat too often, and to eat irregularly, are other sources of
indigestion. People who dine at uncertain hours, and eat one meal too
quickly on the last, must expect the stomach to retaliate in the long run.
A very fruitful cause of dyspepsia is imperfect mastication. We remember
one old gentleman who used always to warn young people on this point by
saying: "Remember you have no teeth in your stomach." Nervous people
nearly always eat fast, and as nearly always are the victims of nervous
irritability, produced by dyspepsia....To sit much in a stooping posture
interferes with the stomach's action. Well-marked dyspepsia has been
traced to sitting immediately after dinner in a low armchair, so that the
body was curved forward, and the stomach compressed....

The skin, core, and kernels of fruit should be avoided. Some people are
not able to digest raw apples; and dyspepsia has been sometimes greatly
aggravated by eating pears. The latter fruit, in its ripest state,
contains an abundance of gritty material, which, as it can not be
separated in the mouth, on being swallowed irritates the mucous
membrane....

Of food itself, bear in mind that hot meat is more digestible than cold;
the flesh of full-grown animals than that of young ones; that land birds
are more digestible than waterfowl; wild animals than domestic ones; and
that in game, newly killed birds are easier of digestion than those which
have been kept a long time.--_Hints to Dyspeptics, Chambers's
Journal_.

HOW FOOD DEVELOPS ENERGY (p. 173).--It may appear strange that the small
amount of food we eat should suffice to carry our large and bulky bodies
through all the varied movement of the day. But this difficulty disappears
at once, when we recollect how large an amount of dormant energy can be
laid by in a very small piece of matter. A lump of coal no bigger than
one's fist, if judiciously employed, will suffice to keep a small toy
engine at work for a considerable time. Now, our food is matter containing
large amounts of dormant energy, and our bodies are engines so constructed
as to utilize all the energy to the best advantage. A single gramme of
beef fat if completely burned (that is, if every atom unites with oxygen),
is capable of developing more than 9,000 heat units; and each heat unit,
if employed to perform mechanical work, is capable of lifting a weight of
one gramme to a height of 424 meters; or, what comes to the same thing,
424 grammes to a height of one meter. Accordingly, the energy contained in
one gramme of beef, and the oxygen with which it unites, would be
sufficient to raise the little bit of fat itself to a height of 3,816
kilometers, or almost as high as the distance from London to New York.--
GRANT ALLEN _in "Why do we Eat our Dinner_?"

_Danger of Too High Pressure_.--A prudent fire engineer, when his
water hose is old and weak, would not try to force as much water as he
could into it. No; to prevent a rupture he would work it at a low
pressure. But men seldom think of carrying out the same simple mechanical
principle when there is reason to believe that the vessels of the brain
are getting weak and brittle. They eat and drink just as much as they feel
inclined to, and sometimes a little more. With a good digestion, nearly
all they consume is converted into blood, to the yet further distention of
vessels already over-distended. This high-pressure style of living
produces high-pressure results. Its effects were painfully illustrated by
the death of Charles Dickens. The brain work he performed was immense; he
lived generously, taking his wine as he did his meat, with a liberal hand.
He disregarded the signs of structural decay, forcing his reluctant brain
to do what it had once done with spontaneous ease, until all at once,
under a greater tension than ordinary, a weak vessel gave way, flooding
the brain with blood.--J. R. BLACK, M.D., _in "Apoplexy," Popular
Science Monthly, April, 1875_.

_Evils of Gluttony_.--"Is it not strange," says Dr. Hunt, "how
people, even the most considerate, will trifle with their stomachs? Many a
person seems to prefer taking medicine to avoiding it by a proper
regulation of the appetite. You may stuff the stomach to the full, year
after year, but as sure as effects follow causes, so sure will you reap
the accumulating penalty." A physician of extensive practice declares that
he has never lived through a Christmas or Thanksgiving without frequently
being consulted for ailments produced by excessive eating. He says: "It
would seem as if multitudes thought they had a gluttonous license once a
year, and that the most appropriate method of expressing gratitude, was by
stuffing the stomach. Excessive eating produces scrofula. Surfeiting
among children results in mental stupidity and unmanageable temper....I am
acquainted with a family, in which about the average amount of stuffing is
indulged. To my expostulations, the mother has replied: "I may not be able
to give my children as much education as some folks, and I may not be able
to give them any property, but as long as we can get it, they shall have
what they want to eat. I have spoken of their black teeth, bad breath,
eruptions, and frequent sickness. "Yes," she has replied, "I know all
that, but would you have me stop them before their appetites are half
satisfied, and tell them, 'there, that is all you can have'? No; as long
as I can get it, my children shall have enough to eat; it never shall be
said that I have starved them." This indulgence of children to the full
extent of their undiscriminating appetites is extreme folly and genuine
unkindness. Pampered with a variety of dishes, they eat enormously, which
engenders a craving for another large meal, and so on--their youthful and
elastic constitutions enabling them to bear the excess without immediate
serious injury. Let them be confined to one or two plain dishes at a meal,
and the quantity be determined for them; it will then be found that a
growing child does not need to be stuffed, and that his appetite will soon
become reasonable; and if the food be plain, and mostly or entirely
vegetable, it will soon be observed that the child's teeth are whiter, its
breath sweeter, its skin clearer, its tongue cleaner, its eyes brighter,
its sleep quieter, its brains sharper, and its temper more amiable. There
are few changes in the management of children which would prove so
beneficial as that from the present mode of cramming with a multitude of
rich foods, to a plain vegetable diet, eaten in regular and moderate
quantities.--DIO LEWIS, _in Weak Lungs, and How to Make them Strong_.

REGULAR PHYSICAL HABITS (p. 177).--Constipation lies at the root of a host
of chronic ailments, which seem especially to beset American women.
Impaired blood, nervous excitability, sick headaches, mental depression,
sleeplessness, and a long train of untold sufferings may be directly
traced to this physical sin. We say _sin_, for in the large majority
of instances this habit may be prevented; or, if already formed, may, by
proper attention, be cured. The principal causes which lead to this
deplorable state of the system are:

1. Errors in Food.

2. Errors in Exercise.

3. Inattention to Nature's laws.

_Errors in Food_ have much to do with the evil in question. Our diet
is, in general, too concentrated. We indulge ourselves with animal food
two or three times a day, accompanying it with spices, condiments, greasy
gravies, fine wheat bread, and a sparse amount of vegetables. We wind up
our dinners with rich and heavy pastry, and our luncheons or our suppers
with sugared sweetmeats and that indigestible compound often offered under
the name of cake. A few cups of strong tea intensify the error. Coffee has
a less astringent effect, and therefore can not be so severely arraigned
for this particular consequence. When we think what delicious meals can be
enjoyed from any of the cereals, well cooked, and taken with milk or
cream, bread from unbolted flour, plenty of unsugared fruit, and pure rain
or spring water, filtered and cooled or taken hot, with or without milk,
we wonder that so many people consent day after day to use greasy pork,
fried steaks, fried potatoes, hot biscuit, and in many cases poorly made
coffee and tea. These are the people who make up the grand army of sallow-
faced sufferers upon which the venders of patent pills and nauseous
compounds thrive.

A wise mother will not allow mere culinary convenience to take precedence
of the requirements of health. She will study the peculiar physical needs
of each one of her children, that she may provide for each the food best
suited to his or her constitution. This is not a difficult matter. "Water,
not only by itself, but in some of its combinations," says Dr. Oswald, "is
an effective aperient; in watermelons, and whey, for instance, but still
more in conjunction with a dish of peas, or beans. No constipation can
long withstand the suasion of a dose of pea soup, or baked beans, flavored
with a modicum of brown butter, and glorified with a cup of cold spring
water. Moreover, the aperient effect thus produced is not followed by an
astringent reaction, as in the case of drugs,--the cure, once effected, is
permanent."

_Errors in Exercise_ may lie in two directions, and overexertion,
viz., exercise carried to the point of nervous exhaustion, is as
mischievous in its effect as is the other extreme. A too long walk, for
instance, may cause the very evil it is intended to cure.

As a rule, however, sedentary habits are chargeable with the greater share
of influence in this unhappy state of the system. Light gymnastics within
doors, a brisk walk or horseback ride without, both taken in garments
suspended from the shoulders, and devoid of all constriction so that the
abdominal viscera can partake in the general movement of the body, are
advisable. For invalids or those incapacitated for active exercise,
friction or massage treatment daily, including a vigorous kneading of the
abdomen, or a relaxation of the entire muscles of the body with especial
thought directed to the desired result, are often of great service.

_Inattention to Physical Laws_ is perhaps the prime culprit. Nature
always inclines to regularity, and when we do not respect her dictates, we
invite the retribution which, sooner or later, she invariably inflicts.
The elimination of waste from the system is an imperative necessity, and
whenever it is thwarted, evil must and will follow. Aside from the
avoidance of positive discomforts, suffering, and disease, there is the
not unimportant consideration of bodily elasticity and a fine complexion.
Let every young woman who would possess and retain a fair, delicate
complexion, remember that the most important factor in its formation and
retention is a clean system.

Proper diet, plenty of fruits, plenty of wholesome drink, enough exercise
to send the blood pleasurably bounding through the veins, followed up and
enforced by prompt recognition of the immutable laws of Health in this as
well as all other organic functions, will soon work a reform that could
not be so successfully effected by all the drugs in Christendom.--E. B. S.

THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

EFFECT OF VIOLENT PASSIONS UPON HEALTH (p. 202).--The man who is given to
outbursts of anger is sure to experience a rapid change of the physical
organs, in case he does not die in a fit of rage.

Death under such circumstances is of frequent occurrence. Sylla,
Valentinian, Nerva, Wenceslas, and Isabeau of Bavaria, all died in
consequence of an access of passion. The medical annals of our own time
recount many instances of fatal effects following the violent brain
disturbance caused by anger. The symptoms usually are pulmonary and
cerebral congestions. Still such fatal accidents as these are exceptional;
as a rule, the passions of hate and anger deteriorate the constitution by
slow, but sure degrees.

How, then, do we explain those morbid phenomena which have their origin in
misplaced affection, in disappointed ambition, in hatred, or in anger, and
which culminate either in serious chronic maladies, or in death or
suicide? They all seem to start from an impairment of the cerebro-spinal
centers. The continual excitation of these by ever-present emotions
determines a paralysis of the central nerve substance, and thus affects
its connections with the nerves extending out to the various organs. These
nerves next degenerate by degrees, and soon the great functions are
compromised. The heart and the lungs cease to act with their normal
rhythm, the circulation grows irregular and languishing. Appetite
disappears, the amount of carbonic acid exhaled decreases, and the hair
grows white, owing to the interruption of the pigmentary secretion. This
general disturbance in nutrition and secretion is attended with a fall of
the body's temperature and anæmia. The flesh dries up and the organism
becomes less and less capable of resisting morbific influences. At the
same time, in consequence of the reaction of all these disturbances on the
brain, the psychic faculties become dull or perverted, and the patient
falls into a decline more or less complicated and aggravated by grave
symptoms. Under these conditions he dies or makes away with himself.

Two organs, the stomach and the liver, are often affected in a peculiar
and characteristic way in the course of this pathological evolution. The
modifications produced in the innervation, under the influence of cephalic
excitement, cause a disturbance of the blood circulation in the liver.
This disturbance is of such a nature that the bile, now secreted in larger
quantity, is resorbed into the blood instead of passing into the biliary
vesicle. Then appears what we call jaundice. The skin becomes pale, then
yellow, owing to the presence in the blood of the coloring matter of the
bile. This change in the liver is usually developed slowly: sometimes,
however, jaundice makes its appearance suddenly. Villeneuve mentions the
case of two youths who brought a discussion to an end by grasping their
swords; suddenly one of them turned yellow, and the other, alarmed at this
transformation, dropped his weapon. The same author speaks of a priest who
became jaundiced on seeing a mad dog jump at him. Whatever may be said of
these cases, we must reckon painful affections of the soul among the
efficient causes of chronic diseases of the liver.

The digestion, says the author of a work published some years ago, is
completely subjected to the influence of the moral and intellectual state.
When the brain is wearied by the passions, appetite and digestion are
almost gone....There is nowhere perfect health, save when the passions are
well regulated, harmonized, and equipoised. Moral temperance is as
indispensable to a calm and tranquil life as physiological
temperance....If it is your desire that your circulatory, respiratory, and
digestive functions should be discharged properly, normally, if you want
your appetite to be good, your sleep sound, your humor equable, avoid all
emotions that are overstrong, all pleasures that are too intense, and meet
the inevitable sorrows and the cruel agonies of life with a firm and
resigned soul. Ever have some occupation to employ and divert your mind,
and to make it proof against the temptations of want or of desire. Thus
will you attain the term of life without overmuch disquiet and
affliction.--FERNAND PAPILLON, _in the Revue des Deux Mondes_.

BRAIN WORK, OVERWORK, AND WORRY (p. 205).--_Overstimulation of the Brain
in Childhood_.--Most civilized communities have enacted laws against
the employment of children in severe physical labor. This is well enough,
for the muscles of young persons are tender and weak, and not, therefore,
adapted to the work to which cupidity or ignorance would otherwise subject
them. But no such fostering care does the State take of the brains of the
young. There are no laws to prevent the undeveloped nervous system being
overtasked and brought to disease, or even absolute destruction. Every
physician sees cases of the kind, and wonders how parents of intelligence
can be so blind to the welfare of their offspring as to force, or even to
allow, their brains to be worked to a degree that, in many cases, results
in idiocy or death. Only a few months ago I saw for the first time a boy
of five years of age, with a large head, a prominent forehead, and all the
other signs of mental precocity. He had read the first volume of Bryant's
"History of the United States," and was preparing to tackle the other
volumes! He read the magazines of the day with as much interest as did his
father, and conversed with equal facility on the politics of the period.
But a few weeks before I saw him he had begun to walk in his sleep, then
chorea had made its appearance, and on the day before he was brought to me
he had had a well-marked epileptic paroxysm. Already his mind is weakened
--perhaps permanently so. Such cases are not isolated ones. They are
continually occurring.

The period of early childhood--say up to seven or eight years of age--is
that during which the brain and other parts of the nervous system are most
actively developing, in order to fit them for the great work before them.
It is safe to say that the only instruction given during this time should
be that which consists in teaching children how to observe. The perceptive
faculties alone should be made the subjects of systematic attempts at
development. The child should be taught how to use his senses, and
especially how to see, hear, and touch. In this manner, knowledge would be
acquired in the way that is preeminently the natural way, and ample food
would be furnished for the child's reflective powers.--DK. WM. A. HAMMOND,
_Popular Science Monthly, November, 1884_.

_Reserve Force_.--The part which "a stock of energy" plays in brain
work can scarcely be exaggerated. Reserves are of high moment everywhere
in the animal economy, and the reserve of mental force is in a practical
sense more important than any other....Without this reserve, healthy brain
work is impossible. Pain, hunger, anxiety, and a sense of mind weariness,
are warning tokens of exhaustion. When the laborious worker, overcome with
fatigue, "rouses" himself with alcohol, coffee, tea, or any other agent
which may chance to suit him, he does not add a unit of force to his stock
of energy; he simply narcotizes the sense of weariness, and, the guard
being drugged, he appropriates the reserve....Meanwhile, the effort to
work becomes daily more laborious, the task of fixing the attention grows
increasingly difficult, thoughts wander, memory fails, the reasoning power
is enfeebled; physical nerve or brain disturbance may supervene, and the
crash will then come suddenly, unexpected by on-lookers, perhaps
unperceived by the sufferer himself.

_Overwork and Worry_.--The miseries of "overwork," pure and simple,
are few and comparatively insignificant....The natural safeguards are so
well fitted for their task that neither body nor mind is exposed to the
peril of serious exhaustion so long as their functions are duly performed.
Overwork is _impossible_ so long as the effort made is natural....There
is then no excuse for idleness in the pretense of possible injury. If
insane asylums were searched for the victims of "overwork," they would
nearly all be found to have fallen a prey to "worry," or to the degeneracy
which results from lack of purpose in life, and of steady employment
....The cause or condition which most commonly exposes the reserve of
mental energy to loss and injury is worry. When a strong and active mind
breaks down suddenly in the midst of business, it is usually worn out by
this cause rather than by the other....Work in the teeth of worry is
fraught with peril. The unhappy victim is ever on the verge of a
catastrophe; if he escape, the marvel is not at his strength of intellect
so much as at his good fortune. Worry is disorder, however induced, and
disorderly work is abhorred by the laws of nature, which leave it wholly
without remedy.

The pernicious system of _Cram_ slays its thousands, because
uneducated, undeveloped, inelastic intellects are burdened and strained
with information adroitly deposited in the memory,--as an expert valet
packs a portmanteau, with the articles likely to be first wanted on the
top. _Desultory occupation_, mere play with objects of which the true
interest is not appreciated, ruins a still larger number. But
_worry_, that bane of brain work and mental energy, counts its
victims by tens of thousands.--DR. J. MORTIMER GRANVILLE, _in "Worry,"
Nineteenth Century_.

SLEEP (p. 206).--_Some Curiosities of Sleep_.--One of the most
refined and exquisite methods of torture is long continued deprivation of
sleep. The demand for unconscious rest is so imperious that nature will
accommodate itself to the most unfavorable surrounding conditions. Thus,
in forced marches, regiments have been known to sleep while walking; men
have slept soundly in the saddle; and persons will sometimes sleep during
the din of battle. It is remarkable how noises to which we have been
accustomed will fail to disturb our natural rest. Those who have been long
habituated to the endless noise of a crowded city frequently find
difficulty in sleeping in the oppressive stillness of the country.
Prolonged exposure to intense cold induces excessive somnolence, and if
this be induced, the sleep passes into stupor, the power of resistance to
cold becomes rapidly diminished, and death is the inevitable result.
Intense heat often produces drowsiness, but, as is well known, is not
favorable to natural sleep....It is difficult to determine with exactness
the phenomena of sleep that are absolutely physiological, and to separate
those that are slightly abnormal. We can not assert, for example, that a
dreamless sleep is the only normal condition of repose of the system; nor
can we determine what dreams are due to previous trains of thought, or to
such impressions from the external world received during sleep as are
purely physiological, and what are due to abnormal nervous influence,
disordered digestion, etc.

Copyright (c) 2007. famouswriterz.com. All rights reserved.