particular effect upon the body, and the effects attributed to
them are largely imaginary. Out of the many thousands of chemical
materials found in nature, there are, however, certain substances,
groups, and compounds which have most marked and violent effect upon
all forms of living protoplasm.
[Sidenote: Ancient belief concerning medicine]
The general theory upon which the practise of medicine rests is
that certain chemical substances which are not found in the animal
body, and which have no natural place therein, have mysterious
and beneficial effects; that they possess certain powers, among
which are the rebuilding of dis-eased cells, and the purifying of
dis-eased blood. This belief arose in a very remote age, when the
mind was primitive; when man was ignorant, and controlled almost
wholly by superstition--when every natural phenomenon was believed
to be the work or whim of some god, and every dis-ease was thought
to be the work of some devil.
[Sidenote: Life the result of chemical harmony]
Modern science has proved all this to be untrue. We know by the
selective processes through millions of years of evolution that
those chemical substances which work in harmony have become
associated so as to form life. We know that life is merely an
assemblement of organic matter, very complex and little understood;
that it is eternally undergoing chemical changes governed by the
natural laws of development and decay. We know that conformity to
certain natural laws will produce physical ease, and that violation
of these laws will produce dis-ease. We know that ease is what we
most desire, therefore the trend of thought, throughout the world,
is to realize this desire by turning toward the natural.
[Sidenote: The material upon which life depends]
True food furnishes the foundation or constructive material upon
which all life depends. Nearly all other substances which affect the
human body are merely disturbing elements that interfere with the
natural chemical processes of life.
To illustrate more fully these general principles, we will take, for
example, the chemical changes that may take place in the hemoglobin
of the blood. Hemoglobin is a proteid containing iron. It is a
complex chemical compound and reacts with other substances very
readily. In the lungs it combines with oxygen. In the muscles, this
oxyhemoglobin is again received into the original body-substances.
This life-giving process is only one of the many thousands selected
by evolution from the millions of chemical changes possible in
nature.
[Sidenote: Effect of carbon monoxid upon the hemoglobin of the blood]
When carbon monoxid, which is present in illuminating gas, is
breathed into the lungs, it combines with hemoglobin, producing
a compound which prevents the formation of oxyhemoglobin, thus
stopping the process of oxidation in the body, and death is the
result.
[Sidenote: Drug theory declining]
In proportion as science has shown the origin of life, and the
methods by which it has been sustained and developed, the use of
drugs as a remedial agent has declined. This line of reasoning
followed to its logical end, points with unerring certainty to the
total abandonment of the drug theory of treating dis-ease except,
perhaps, as anesthetics and disinfectants.
[Sidenote: Treatment of dis-ease by disinfection]
The means of combating dis-ease by disinfection is sometimes
confused with the general system of drugging. The modern methods of
preventing and of combating contagious dis-eases by disinfection are
in harmony with the best known sanitary laws. These results depend,
not upon the ignorant and the harmful theories on which general drug
medication was founded, but upon the latest and the most scientific
knowledge.
[Sidenote: Patent medicines and the doctor's prescription]
In the recent magazine exposures of patent medicines, the chief
trend of argument was that these stock remedies were evil because
the user took opium, cocain, or whisky without a doctor's
prescription. This standpoint is more amusing than instructive.
Just why a poison taken without a doctor's prescription should be
dangerous, and its sale a crime, while the sale and the use of the
same drug over a doctor's prescription should be highly recommended,
is rather difficult to comprehend, and this the enterprising
journals have not explained. The exposé that is most needed is not
of a few poisonous patent preparations, but of the fundamental folly
of interfering with Nature's work by any form of poisoning. Poison
is poison whether advertised in a newspaper as a "New Discovery," or
prescribed by a reputable representative of the "Ancient Order of
Medicine Men."
In a lesson of this kind it is impractical to classify all drugs
accurately according to their chemical nature. For convenience of
the student, however, the drugs commonly used in medicine will be
divided into three groups, which have common representatives, and
whose general effect upon the human body are well understood. These
three groups are:
a Alkaloids and narcotics
b Alcohols and related compounds
c Poisonous mineral salts and acids
a ALKALOIDS AND NARCOTICS
[Sidenote: Effect of alkaloids upon the body]
All alkaloids are of vegetable origin. They all contain nitrogen,
and in some respects resemble ammonia. Many of the alkaloid
compounds are used in medicine. They affect primarily the nervous
system, and may cause freedom from pain, or that abnormal state of
exhilaration of which the cocain addict is a typical representative.
Substances of this alkaloid group doubtless have useful functions
in the plant in which they grew, but in the animal body they are
disturbing factors. Among the most important alkaloids may be
mentioned opium, cocain, nux vomica, and quinin.
OPIUM
[Sidenote: Composition of opium]
Opium is the evaporated sap that flows from incisions made in the
unripe capsules of certain Asiatic species of poppy. It contains
a large number of chemical compounds which belong to the alkaloid
group. The chief alkaloids in opium are codein, narcotin, heroin,
and morphin, the most active being heroin. Other alkaloids are of
similar composition. The general effects and the uses of the crude
opium and the refined morphin may be considered together. The
latter, being more concentrated, is used in much smaller quantities.
[Sidenote: Effect of opium]
The effect upon the body of either opium or of morphin is that of
benumbing the nerves and producing sleep. Opium illustrates in a
typical manner the progressive stages by which both the body and the
mind may become enslaved to the influence of a narcotic. The last
stages of the opium or of the morphin slave is probably the lowest
state of depravity into which the human being can sink.
[Sidenote: Origin of the morphin habit]
Opium is eaten or smoked by the Chinese and by other Asiatic races
to a very great extent. This habit is considered the worst form
of slavery to drugs that is known except cocain. In this country
the morphin habit is the more common form. Morphin is either taken
internally or is injected beneath the skin by a hypodermic syringe.
It is estimated that the great majority of the morphin slaves in
this country begin the use of this drug under "their" doctor's
prescription.
[Sidenote: The several uses of morphin]
The use of opium as prescribed by medical men is chiefly for the
relief of either pain or of insomnia. Its employment in cases of
great agony is probably justifiable, but the repeated taking of
this drug until the habit is formed becomes a criminal blunder for
which the doctor who prescribed it should be held responsible.
Unfortunately this is only one of the uses to which opium is put
by the medical profession. Prescriptions containing either opium
or morphin are frequently given to relieve pain, or to produce
sleep, when the primary trouble is chronic, and should be treated by
removing the causes, and not alleviated by stupifying the nerves.
In the majority of such cases, if the diet is balanced according
to age, activity, and climate, and vigorous intestinal peristalsis
created, sleep will follow, and other disorders will gradually
disappear.
[Sidenote: Opium in patent medicines]
The dangers that lurk in the use of opium are so well known, and
the habit has become so unpopular, that tricks are resorted to by
manufacturers of this drug to deceive the people into believing that
they are using some "harmless" substance, while it is the influence
of the opium that gives the medicine its apparent good effect.
Patent medicines which claim to kill pain, soothe nerves, and
produce sleep, usually contain opium. The popular "Soothing Sirups"
for children are nearly all opium products, and have been given to
millions of babies in this country by deluded mothers, in the belief
that because it soothed, their innocent child was being benefited.
These are the crimes of greed passed on to innocent childhood
through ignorance.
COCAIN
Cocain is an alkaloid, the use and the influence of which are almost
as noteworthy as that of morphin. Cocain is derived from the leaves
of the cocoa plant which grows in the Andes of Peru. Just as the
Chinese use opium, so the Peruvian Indians use cocain.
[Sidenote: Uses and effects of cocain]
Owing to its hydrochloric-acid salt, the effects of cocain differ
somewhat from those of opium. It produces relative freedom from
pain, and is used more particularly to produce insensibility in
local parts of the body, as in the case of extracting teeth. The
cocain slaves, which are increasing alarmingly in this country,
usually take it by snuffing, or in an atomizer. The habit is usually
acquired, as in the case of morphin, by the prescription of a
physician. The patient, learning from experience the freedom from
pain and the sense of exhilaration that can be produced by the drug,
and not being warned by "his" physician of its baneful effects,
continues the habit after the doctor's treatment has ceased, and
awakes to find a monster owning his body and his mind. The cocain
fiend, like the opium slave, develops an insatiable desire for the
drug, and suffers extreme mental and physical pain when deprived of
the usual allowance. The development of untruthfulness and trickery
in a person desiring his allowance of a forbidden drug, is one of
the marked traits of the narcotic slave.
[Sidenote: Cocain in patent medicines]
There are a number of different medicines which depend for their
action wholly upon the cocain they contain. A large number of
catarrhal powders in the market are diluted forms of cocain, and
are used extensively both by those who do not realize the nature of
the drug they are using, and by those who know that they are cocain
slaves, but prefer to disguise the fact in this manner.
NUX VOMICA AND STRYCHNIN
[Sidenote: Effect of strychnin]
Nux vomica is derived from the seeds of a plant that grows in
India. Strychnin is the alkaloid which exists therein. Strychnin is
quite different in its effects from the above-mentioned alkaloids,
for instead of benumbing the nerves, causing sleep or a pleasing
sensation, the effect is a nerve stimulus which causes muscular
convulsions.
The medical use of strychnin is more of a stimulant than of a
narcotic. It is one of the most widely used of all the drugs
prescribed by the old school physicians, and is extremely dangerous
in over-doses. Indeed, thousands of people have been killed by
strychnin poisoning.
QUININ
Quinin is derived from Peruvian or cinchona-bark. This bark, like
the juice of the poppy plant, contains a number of alkaloids. These
alkaloids, in turn, may react with acids, forming salts.
[Sidenote: The uses of quinin]
Sulfate of quinin is the most common form of this drug. Its
principal use is for the destruction of the malarial germ, and it
is, therefore, the standard drug in all malarious countries. The
germs of malaria, however, are not bacteria (microscopic plants,
as many suppose), but minute forms of animal life. Aside from this
particular use, the effect of quinin is to disturb the nervous
system, produce insomnia, ringing of the ears--and even deafness, in
a great many cases. It does not, however, produce an addiction, as
do morphin, cocain, heroin, and other drugs.
ACETANILID
[Sidenote: Composition and effects of acetanilid]
Acetanilid is one of the coal-tar poisons and is chemically related
to anilin. This drug has come into use only within the past few
years, and of all the coal tar group is one of the most remarkable
in its physiological effects. Its influence is to produce at first
a deadening effect upon the nervous system, which puts it in the
"pain-killer" class. Its continued use destroys the hemoglobin of
the blood and produces marked cell-destroying effects throughout the
body. Its medical use is for rheumatism, headache, severe coughs,
and the like.
A patent medicine now being widely exploited advertises, "We print
our formula." So they do, and acetanilid is one of the ingredients.
The general public does not know what acetanilid is. The habitué of
this "healthful drug" experiences a craving similar to that of other
narcotic drug fiends.
A person who has long used a medicine containing acetanilid shows
a bluish-white complexion caused by the destruction of red
blood-corpuscles. I merely mention this as an example to show that
a knowledge of the composition of patent medicines does not protect
the public unless the public is made familiar with the ingredients
that compose these medicines.
Acetanilid is the active principle in many popular headache powders,
the formulas of which are not made public. The use of acetanilid by
those claiming to cure suffering, or to relieve it, is one of the
most glaring malpractises of the day.
[Sidenote: Evil effects of coal-tar products]
Other coal-tar products chemically related to acetanilid are
antipyrin, phenacetin, and various derivatives of benzol and phenol.
The general uses of this class of drugs are to reduce fevers and
to allay pain. They accomplish this by stupifying the nerves and
the nerve fibers, which serve as telegraph wires to inform the
brain that something is wrong. This is equivalent to killing the
messenger that warns us of our sins.
The following are a few of the toxic remedies used by old school
physicians in the treatment of nearly all forms of dis-ease:
Laudanum--which is merely another name for opium
Paregoric--a standard baby medicine which is a tincture of opium
with camphor and other drugs
Codein--an alkaloid manufactured from morphin
Lyoscine--the alkaloid of henbane
Atropin--an alkaloid extensively used by oculists. (It is
contained with other alkaloids in BELLADONNA, which, in turn, is
prepared from the plant known as the "Deadly Nightshade")
Hellebore--a powerful alkaloid, is one of the old standard drugs
used in the treatment of rheumatic gout
TOBACCO
Tobacco belongs strictly to the narcotic class of drugs. With the
possible exception of opium, tobacco is by far the most detrimental
narcotic used by man.
[Sidenote: Effect of nicotin]
The active principle of tobacco is nicotin, which resides in the
leaves in combination with malic acid. Nicotin is an alkaloid, and
one of the most deadly poisons known. In distilled form, nicotin,
even in minute quantities, produces death almost instantaneously.
The nicotin contained in a pound of tobacco is sufficient to kill
several hundred men if administered in the form of pure nicotin, but
in smoking and chewing tobacco only a small amount of this poison is
absorbed into the body at one time, and, owing to the gradual growth
of the tobacco habit, the system has time to partly adjust itself
to the use of this powerful drug, enough at least to prevent acute
narcotic poisoning.
The violent sickness caused by the first use of tobacco evidences
the poisonous effects of the nicotin upon a body not accustomed to
its use.
Tobacco as a narcotic is not as drastic in its effect as opium,
morphin, and cocain; for this reason its use is not so generally
condemned. Popular opinion, however, is now rapidly recognizing that
all of these substances belong in the same general class and are
deteriorating factors in human development. The rapid spread of the
cigarette habit among young boys has done much to arouse popular
agitation against the tobacco evil.
[Sidenote: General effect of tobacco]
From the standpoint of health, nothing can be said in favor of
the use of tobacco in any form, as it gradually deadens the
sensitiveness and control of the nervous system. It preys with
great violence upon the optic nerves, and more than any other
drug known dethrones sexual vitality. The tobacco heart, which is
readily recognized by medical practitioners, shows the effect of
this narcotic upon the nervous system. The craving for tobacco is
closely related to the craving for intoxicating liquors and for
highly seasoned food--three of the most potent factors in perverting
the true sense of taste and arousing abnormal cravings which destroy
natural hunger.
Neither tobacco nor nicotin are now used by medical practitioners.
Tobacco was formerly used as a purgative, and also as a poultice to
relieve swellings and inflammation.
COFFEE
[Sidenote: Composition of coffee]
Coffee is one of the most extensively used articles in the narcotic
group. The alkaloid which gives coffee its characteristic properties
is caffein. Coffee also contains from three to four per cent of
tannic acid. Other substances in coffee, to which the pleasant odors
and taste are due, are various forms of fats and carbohydrates,
but these exist in such small quantities as to be negligible food
elements. The effect of the caffein is that of a nervous stimulant,
increasing the general nervous and mental activity. Coffee is
frequently used to keep people awake. It is given as an antidote
for opium poisoning because it stimulates the nervous system and
prevents sleep.
[Sidenote: Effects of coffee-drinking]
Coffee, when used habitually, produces various forms of dyspepsia,
especially hypersecretion of hydrochloric acid, tannic acid being
the provoking factor. The effect of coffee upon the nervous system
is that of continued stimulation or excitation. Its continued
use overworks and wears out the nervous system, thus causing a
deterioration of both body and mind. If caffein were taken in a
highly concentrated form, it would result in a narcotic habit quite
as enslaving as the use of opium or cocain.
TEA
[Sidenote: Composition of tea]
Tea, in its chemical composition, is similar to coffee, containing
even a greater percentage of the alkaloid caffein, and also a
larger percentage of tannic acid. Tannic acid is present in larger
quantities in green tea than in the black variety. In addition to
the evil effects caused by the caffein which it contains, tea is
more destructive to the normal activities of the stomach because of
the tannic acid. The student may get some idea of what the stomach
of the tea-user has to contend with, when it is stated that tannic
acid gets its name from the essential action that this substance has
in the process of tanning leather.
COCOA AND CHOCOLATE
The cocoa bean, which was mentioned as the source of chocolate and
cocoa-butter, is also the source of the beverage known as breakfast
cocoa. The cocoa bean contains caffein, though the per cent is
considerably less than in coffee or tea. Cocoa is practically free
from tannic acid. For these reasons, and because of its food value,
it is decidedly the least harmful of the stimulant beverages. Cocoa,
though being in reality more tasteful and nutritious than either
coffee or tea, is less used because it lacks the stimulating effect.
The various alkaloid poisons thus far discussed form but an
infinitesimal part of the great group of articles used by old school
physicians in the treatment of dis-ease, and by civilized people as
stimulating and sedative beverages.
b ALCOHOLS AND RELATED COMPOUNDS
The second group of drugs which is associated with alcohol includes
the ethers, chloroform, and coal-tar products. This group is also
wholly of plant origin, alcohol being distilled from plant products,
and coal-tar being formed from petrified plants. These drugs
always contain the three elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen;
some contain an additional element which gives them their peculiar
property; for example, chloroform contains chlorin.
Coal-tar is the most wonderful source of drugs known. The
distillation of this substance produces coloring matter,
preservatives, poisons, and "pain killers" ad infinitum.
ALCOHOL
The uses and the effects of alcohol will not be discussed at length
in this lesson because the subject of alcohol is constantly before
the public, and its evil effects universally known and acknowledged.
However, I deem it well to examine a phase of the question which is
not so well understood.
[Sidenote: Alcohol a poison not a food]
Whether or not alcohol is a food has recently been discussed by a
wide range of writers. The answer of science is that alcohol is
a food in the sense that it can produce heat in the body. Even
if alcohol were a true food, the heat is produced, however, by
the increased circulation of the blood, which is Nature's warfare
against a poison, and in the reaction the vitality of the body
is lowered. Thus the true effect of the poison is made manifest.
Starvation is not the danger that threatens mankind, but OVERFEEDING
and WRONG feeding. Were we in danger of starvation, whisky at
one dollar a quart would not save us. The very fact that alcohol
produces heat in the body, whether we call it a food or not, only
adds another reason why it should not be used. It produces heat by
stimulating heart action; rapid heart action is Nature's defense
against the intruding poison.
Alcohol taken in addition to food, and in connection with it,
produces surplus heat, and overstimulates metabolism, which is very
harmful. It also adds one more to the long list of detrimental
effects traceable to intoxicating beverages. Alcohol is a food in
the same sense that dynamite is a fuel. Dynamite produces heat, but
it would be an unwise fireman who would use it under his boiler.
[Sidenote: Correct eating the best treatment for the drink-habit]
Another point regarding the use of alcohol that is worthy of
consideration, is the fact that improper nutrition, together with
the over-ingestion of stimulating and heating foods such as meat
and condiments, invariably increase the appetite for intoxicants.
The appetite for alcohol seldom, if ever, develops in a perfectly
nourished body, and the best treatment known for the drink-habit is
a careful course of balanced dieting and hygienic methods of living.
Alcohol is purely a stimulant. It increases the heart action,
the circulation, the production of heat, and the general vital
activities. It is an offense to Nature, and the body calls into
activity all her powers to cast out the poison. When the influence
of alcohol has run its course, there is a reaction or stupor which
calls for more of the same drug. This indulgence cultivates the
desire through both the body-functions and the appetite, and the
blighting habit dethrones the reason, thus rendering useless the
lives of millions of worthy people.
[Sidenote: Why alcohol is used in patent medicines]
The prescribing of alcohol by physicians has chiefly descended from
the ancient idea that alcohol was strengthening and beneficial to
the body. The practise is being discontinued by many reputable
physicians, which proves that no great benefits, in dis-ease, can
be derived from its use. The regular use of alcohol in small doses
gives the patient the feeling of physical exhilaration, and is
therefore an excellent means of making him believe that he is being
benefited. For this reason, and because of its cheapness, low grade
alcohol is the chief component of many medicines.