coagulate in the capillaries, [Footnote: The blood is rendered unduly
thin, or is coagulated, according to the amount of alcohol that is carried
into the circulatory system. "The spirit may fix the water with the
fibrin, and thus destroy the power of coagulation; or it may extract the
water so determinately as to produce coagulation. This explains why, in
acute cases of poisoning by alcohol, the blood is sometimes found quite
fluid, at other times firmly coagulated in the vessels."--B. W.
RICHARDSON.]
Reckless persons have sometimes drunk a large quantity of liquor for a
wager, and, as the result of their folly, have died instantly. The whole
of the blood in the heart having coagulated, the circulation was stopped,
and death inevitably ensued.] there is a liability of an obstruction to
the flow of the vital current through the heart, liver, lungs, etc., that
may cause disease, and in the brain may lay the foundation of paralysis,
or, in extreme cases, of apoplexy.
Wherever the alcoholized blood goes through the body, it bathes the
delicate cells with an irritating narcotic poison, instead of a bland,
nutritious substance.
EFFECT UPON THE LUNGS.--Here we can see how certainly the presence of
alcohol interferes with the red corpuscles in their task of carrying
oxygen. "Even so small a quantity as one part of alcohol to five hundred
of the blood will materially check the absorption of oxygen in the lungs."
The cells, unable to take up oxygen, retain their carbonic-acid gas, and
so return from the lungs, carrying back, to poison the system, the refuse
matter the body has sought to throw off. Thus the lungs no longer furnish
properly oxygenized blood.
The rapid stroke of the heart, already spoken of, is followed by a
corresponding quickening of the respiration. The flush of the cheek is
repeated in the reddened mucous membrane lining the lungs.
When this "Vascular enlargement" becomes permanent, and the highly
albuminous membrane of the air cells is hardened and thickened as well as
congested, the Osmose of the gases to and fro through its pores can no
longer be prompt and free as before. Even when the effect passes off in a
few days after the occasional indulgence, there has been, during that
time, a diminished supply of the life-giving oxygen furnished to the
system; weakness follows, and, in the case of hard drinkers, there is a
marked liability to epidemics. [Footnote: There is no doubt that alcohol
alters and impairs tissues so that they are more prone to disease.--DR. G.
K. SABINE. A volume of statistics could be filled with quotations like the
following: "Mr. Huber, who saw in one town in Russia two thousand one
hundred and sixty persons perish with the cholera in twenty days, said:
'It is a most remarkable circumstance that persons given to drink have
been swept away like flies. In Tiflis, with twenty thousand inhabitants,
every drunkard has fallen,--all are dead, not one remaining.'"]
Physicians tell us, also, that there is a peculiar form of consumption
known as Alcoholic Phthisis caused by long-continued and excessive use of
liquor. It generally attacks those whose splendid physique has enabled
them to "drink deep" with apparent impunity. This type of consumption
appears late in life and is considered incurable. Severe cases of
pneumonia are also generally fatal with inebriates. [Footnote: The
Influence of Alcohol is continued in the chapter on Digestion.]
PRACTICAL QUESTIONS.
1. Why does a dry, cold atmosphere favorably affect catarrh?
2. Why should we put on extra covering when we lie down to sleep?
3. Is it well to throw off our coats or shawls when we come in heated from
a long walk?
4. Why are close-fitting collars or neckties injurious?
5. Which side of the heart is the more liable to inflammation?
6. What gives the toper his red nose?
7. Why does not the arm die when the surgeon ties the principal artery
leading to it?
8. When a fowl is angry, why does its comb redden?
9. Why does a fat man endure cold better than a lean one?
10. Why does one become thin, during a long sickness?
11. What would you do if you should come home "wet to the skin"?
12. When the cold air strikes the face, why does it first blanch and then
flush?
13. What must be the effect of tight lacing upon the circulation of the
blood?
14. Do you know the position of the large arteries in the limbs, so that
in case of accident you could stop the flow of blood?
15. When a person is said to be good-hearted, is it a physical truth?
16. Why does a hot footbath relieve the headache?
17. Why does the body of a drowned or strangled person turn blue?
18. What are the little "kernels" in the armpits?
19. When we are excessively warm, would the thermometer show any rise of
temperature in the body?
20. What forces besides that of the heart aid in propelling the blood?
21. Why can the pulse be best felt in the wrist?
22. Why are starving people exceedingly sensitive to any jar?
23. Why will friction, an application of horse-radish leaves, or a blister
relieve internal congestion?
24. Why are students very liable to cold feet?
25. Is the proverb that "blood is thicker than water" literally true?
26. What is the effect upon the circulation of "holding the breath"?
27. Which side of the heart is the stronger?
28. How is the heart itself nourished? [Footnote: The coronary artery,
springing from the aorta just after its origin, carries blood to the
muscular walls of the heart; the venous blood comes back through the
coronary veins, and empties directly into the right auricle.]
29. Does any venous blood reach the heart without coming through the venæ
cavæ?
30. What would you do, in the absence of a surgeon, in the case of a
severe wound? (See p. 258.)
31. What would you do in the case of a fever? (See p. 263.)
32. What is the most injurious effect of alcohol upon the blood?
33. Are our bodies the same from day to day?
34. Show how life comes by death.
35. Is not the truth just stated as applicable to moral and intellectual,
as to physical life?
36. What vein begins and ends with capillaries? _Ans_. The portal
vein commences with capillaries in the digestive organs, and ends with the
same kind of vessels in the liver. (See p. 166.)
37. By what process is alcohol always formed? Does it exist in nature?
38. What percentage of alcohol is contained in the different kinds of
liquor?
39. Does cider possess the same intoxicating principle as brandy?
40. Describe the general properties of alcohol.
41. Show that alcohol is a narcotic poison.
42. If alcohol is not a stimulant, how does it cause the heart to
overwork?
43. Why is the skin of a drunkard always red and blotched?
44. What danger is there in occasionally using alcoholic drinks?
45. What is meant by a fatty degeneration of the heart?
46. What keeps the blood in circulation between the beats of the heart?
47. What is the office of the capillaries? (See note, p. 373.)
48. Does alcohol interfere with this function?
49. How does alcohol interfere with the regular office of the membranes?
50. How does it check the process of oxidation?
VI.
DIGESTION AND FOOD.
"A man puts some ashes in a hill of corn and thereby doubles its yield.
Then he says, 'My ashes have I turned into corn.' Weak from his labor, he
eats of his corn, and new life comes to him. Again, he says, 'I have
changed my corn into a man.' This also he feels to be the truth.
"It is the problem of the body, remember, that we are discussing. A man is
more than the body; to confound the body and the man is worse than
confounding the body and the clothing."--JOHN DARBY.
ANALYSIS OF DIGESTION AND FOOD
_
| 1. WHY WE NEED FOOD.
|
| 2. WHAT FOOD DOES.
| _ _
| | 1. Nitrogenous. |_a. _The Sugars._
| 3. KINDS OF FOOD....| 2. Carbonaceous....|_b. _The Fats._
| |_3. Minerals
|
| 4. ONE KIND is INSUFFICIENT.
|
| 5. OBJECT OF DIGESTION.
| _
| | --General Description
| | _
| | 1. Mastication and | a. _The Saliva._
| | Insalvation......| b. _Process of
| | |_ Swallowing._
| | _
| | | a. _The Stomach._
| | 2. Gastric | b. _The Gastric
| | Digestion........| Juice._
| | |_c. _The Chyme_
| 6. PROCESSES OF | _
| DIGESTION........| | --Description
| | | a. _The Bile_
| | 3. Intestional | b. _The Pancreatic
| | Digestion........| Juice._
| | | c. _The Small
| | |_ Intestine._
| | _
| | | a. _By the Veins._
| | 4. Absorption.......| b. _By the
| |_ |_ Lacteals._
|
| 7. COMPLEXITY OF THE PROCESS OF DIGESTION.
| _
| | 1. Length of Time required.
| | _
| | | a. _Beef._
| | | b. _Mutton._
| | | c. _Lamb._
| | 2. Value of dif- | d. _Pork._
| | ferent kinds | e. _Fish._
| | of food.........| f. _Milk._
| | | g. _Cheese._
| | |_h. _Eggs, etc._
| | _
| 8. HYGIENE..........| | a. _Coffee._
| | 3. The Stimulants...| b. _Tea._
| | |_C. _Chocolate._
| | 4. Cooking of Food.
| | 5. Rapid Eating.
| | 6. Quantity and Quality of Food.
| | 7. When Food should be taken.
| | 8. How Food should be taken.
| |_9. Need of a Variety
|
| 9. THE WONDERS OF DIGESTION.
| _
| | 1. Dyspepsia.
| 10. DISEASES........|_2. The Mumps.
| _
| | 1. Is Alcohol a Food?
| | 2. Effect upon the Digestion.
| | 3. Effect upon the Liver.
| 11. ALCOHOLIC | 4. Effect upon the Kidneys.
| DRINKS AND | 5. Does Alcohol impart heat?
| NARCOTICS.......| 6. Does Alcohol impart strength?
|_ | 7. The Effect upon the Waste of the Body.
| 8. Alcohol creates a progressive appetite
| for itself.
|_9. Law of Heredity.
DIGESTION AND FOOD.
WHY WE NEED FOOD.--We have learned that our bodies are constantly giving
off waste matter--the products of the fire, or oxidation, as the chemist
terms the change going on within us (Note, p. 107). A man without food
will starve to death in a few days, _i. e._, the oxygen will have
consumed all the available flesh of his body. [Footnote: The stories
current in the newspapers of persons who live for years without food, are,
of course, untrue. The case of the Welsh Fasting Girl, which excited
general interest throughout Great Britain, and was extensively copied in
our own press, is in point. She had succeeded in deceiving not only the
public, but, as some claim, her own parents. At last a strict watch was
set by day and night, precluding the possibility of her receiving any food
except at the hands of the committee, from whom she steadily refused it.
In a few days she died from actual starvation. The youth of the girl, the
apparent honesty of the parents, and the tragical sequel, make it one of
the most remarkable cases of the kind on record.] To replace the daily
outgo, we need about two and a quarter pounds of food, and three pints of
drink. [Footnote: Every cell in the tissues is full of matter ready to set
free at call its stored-up energy--derived from the meat, bread, and
vegetables we have eaten. This energy will pass off quietly when the
organs are in comparative rest, but violently when the muscles contract
with force. When we send an order through a nerve to any part of the body,
a series of tiny explosions run the entire length of the nerve, just as
fire runs through a train of gunpowder. The muscle receives the stimulus,
and, contracting, liberates its energy. The cells of nerve or muscle,
whose contents have thus exploded, as it were, are useless, and must be
carried off by the blood, just as ashes must be swept from the hearth, and
new fuel be supplied to keep up a fire.]
Including the eight hundred pounds of oxygen taken from the air, a man
uses in a year about a ton and a half of material. [Footnote: The
following is the daily ration of a United States soldier. It is said to be
the most generous in the world:
Bread or flour . . . . . . . . . 22 ounces.
Fresh or salt beef (or pork or bacon, 12 oz.) . 20 "
Potatoes (three times per week) . . . . . 16 "
Rice . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 "
Coffee (or tea, 0.24 oz.) . . . . . . 1.6 "
Sugar . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 "
Beans . . . . . . . . . . . 0.64 gill.
Vinegar . . . . . . . . . . 0.32 "
Salt . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.16 "]
Yet during this entire time his weight may have been nearly uniform.
[Footnote: If, however, he were kept on the scale pan of a sensitive
balance, he would find that his weight is constantly changing, increasing
with each meal, and then gradually decreasing.] Our bodies are but molds,
in which a certain quantity of matter, checked for a time on its ceaseless
round, receives a definite form. They may be likened, says Huxley, to an
eddy in the river, which retains its shape for a while, yet every instant
each particle of water is changing.
WHAT FOOD DOES.--We make no force ourselves. We can only use that which
nature provides for us. [Footnote: We draw from Nature at once our
substance, and the force by which we operate upon her; being, so far,
parts of her great system, immersed in it for a short time and to a small
extent. Enfolding us, as it were, within her arms, Nature lends us her
forces to expend; we receive them, and pass them on, giving them the
impress of our will, and bending them to our designs, for a little while;
and then--Yes; then it is all one. The great procession pauses not, nor
flags a moment, for our fall. The powers which Nature lent to us she
resumes to herself, or lends, it may be, to another; the use which we have
made of them, or might have made and did not, is written in her book
forever.--_Health and its Conditions_.] All our strength comes from
the food we eat. Food is force--that is, it contains a latent power which
it gives up when it is decomposed. [Footnote: This force is chemical
affinity. It binds together the molecules which compose the food we eat.
When oxygen tears the molecules to pieces and makes them up into smaller
ones, the force is set free. As we shall learn in Physics, it can be
turned, into heat, muscular motion, electricity, etc. The principle that
the different kinds of force can be changed into one another without loss,
is called the Conservation of Energy, and is one of the grandest
discoveries of modern science.--_Popular Physics_, pages 35, 39,
278.] Oxygen is the magic key which unlocks for our use this hidden store.
[Footnote: We have spoken of the mystery that envelops the process of the
conversion of food force into muscular force (note, p. 107). All
physiologists agree that muscular power has its source in the chemical
decomposition of certain substances whereby their potential energy is
released. Probably some of the food undergoes this chemical change before
it passes out of the alimentary canal; possibly some is broken up by the
oxygen while it is being swept along by the blood; but, probably by far
the largest part is converted into the various tissues of the body, and
finally becomes a waste product only after there takes place in the tissue
itself that chemical disorganization that sets free its stored-up power.--
FOSTER'S _Physiology_.] Putting food into our bodies is like placing
a tense spring within a watch; every motion of the body is only a new
direction given to this food force, as every movement of the hand on the
dial is but the manifestation of the power of the bent spring in the
watch. We use the pent-up energies of meat, bread, and vegetables which
are placed at our service, and transfer them to a higher theater of
action. [Footnote: It is a grand thought that we can thus transform what
is common and gross into the refined and spiritual; that out of waving
wheat, wasting flesh, running water, and dead minerals, we can realize the
glorious possibilities of human life.]
KINDS OF FOOD NEEDED.--From what has been said it is clear that, in order
to produce heat and force, we need something that will burn, _i. e._,
with which oxygen can combine. Experiment has proved that to build up
every organ, and keep the body in the best condition, we require three
kinds of food.
1. _Nitrogenous Food_.--As nitrogen is a prominent constituent of the
tissues of the body, food which contains it is therefore necessary to
their growth and repair. [Footnote: Since this kind of food closely
resembles albumen, it is sometimes called _Albuminous_. The term
Proteid is also used.] The most common forms are whites of eggs--which are
nearly pure albumen; casein--the chief constituent of cheese; lean meat;
and gluten--the viscid substance which gives tenacity to dough. Bodies
having a great deal of nitrogen readily oxidize. Hence the peculiar
character of the quick-changing, force-exciting muscle.
2. _Carbonaceous Food_--_i. e._, food containing much carbon--
consists of two kinds, viz., the _sugars_, and the _fats_.
(1) The _sugars_ contain hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion to
form water, and about the same amount of carbon. They may, therefore, be
considered as water, with carbon diffused through it. In digestion, starch
and gum are changed to sugar, and so are ranked with this class.
(2) The _fats_ are like the sugars in composition, but contain less
oxygen, and not in the proportion to form water. They combine with more
oxygen in burning, and so give off more heat.
The non-nitrogenous elements of the food have, however, other uses than to
develop heat. [Footnote: The heat they produce in burning may be turned
into motion of the muscles, according to the principle of the Conservation
of Energy (p. 153, note); while all the structures of the body in their
oxidation develop heat.] Fat is essential to the assimilation of the food,
while sugar and starch aid in digestion and may be converted into fat.
[Footnote: In Turkey, the ladies of the harem are fed on honey and thick
gruel, to make flesh, which is considered to enhance their beauty. The
negroes on the sugar plantations of the South always grow fat during the
sugar-making season.] Fat and carbonaceous material both enter into the
composition of the various tissues, and when, by the breaking up of the
contractile substance of the muscle, their latent energy is set free, they
become the source of muscular force, as well as heat. While the tendency
of the albuminous food is to excite chemical action, and hence the release
of energy, the fats and carbonaceous food may be laid up in the body to
serve as a storehouse of energy to supply future needs.
3. _Mineral Matters_.--Food should contain water, and certain common
minerals, such as iron, [Footnote: While the body can build up a solid
from liquid materials on the one hand, on the other it can pour iron
through its veins and reduce the hardest textures to blood.--HINTON.]
sulphur, magnesia, phosphorus, salt, and potash. About three pints of
water are needed daily to dissolve the food and carry it through the
circulation, to float off waste matter, to lubricate the tissues, and by
evaporation to cool the system (see p. 317). It also enters largely into
the composition of the body. A man weighing one hundred and fifty-four
pounds contains one hundred pounds of water, about twelve gallons--enough,
if rightly arranged, to drown him. [Footnote: It is said that Blumenbach
had a perfect mummy of an adult Teneriffian, which with the viscera
weighed only seven and a half pounds.]
Iron goes to the blood disks; lime combines with phosphoric and carbonic
acids to give solidity to the bones and teeth; phosphorus is essential to
the activity of the brain. Salt is necessary to the secretion of some of
the digestive fluids, and also to aid in working off from the system its
waste products. These various minerals, except iron--sometimes given as a
medicine, and salt--universally used as a condiment, [Footnote: Animals
will travel long distances to obtain salt. Men will barter gold for it;
indeed, among the Gallas and on the coast of Sierra Leone, brothers will
sell their sisters, husbands their wives, and parents their children for
salt. In the district of Accra, on the gold coast of Africa, a handful of
salt is the most valuable thing upon earth after gold, and will purchase a
slave. Mungo Park tells us that with the Mandingoes and Bambaras the use
of salt is such a luxury that to say of a man "he flavors his food with
salt," it is to imply that he is rich; and children will suck a piece of
rock salt as if it were sugar. No stronger mark of respect or affection
can be shown in Muscovy, than the sending of salt from the tables of the
rich to their poorer friends. In the book of Leviticus it is expressly
commanded as one of the ordinances of Moses, that every oblation of meat
upon the altar shall be seasoned with salt, without lacking; and hence it
is called the Salt of the Covenant of God. The Greeks and Romans also used
salt in their sacrificial cakes; and it is still used in the services of
the Latin church--the "_parva mica_" or pinch of salt, being in the
ceremony of baptism, put into the child's mouth, while the priest says,
"Receive the salt of wisdom, and may it be a propitiation to thee for
eternal life." Everywhere and almost always, indeed, it has been regarded
as emblematical of wisdom, wit, and immortality. To taste a man's salt,
was to be bound by the rites of hospitality; and no oath was more solemn
than that which was sworn upon bread and salt. To sprinkle the meat with
salt was to drive away the devil, and to this day, nothing is more unlucky
than to spill the salt.--LETHEBY, _On Food_.] are contained in
small, but sufficient quantities in meat, bread, and vegetables.
ONE KIND OF FOOD IS INSUFFICIENT.--A person fed on starch alone, would
die. It would be a clear case of nitrogen starvation. On the other hand,
as nitrogenous food contains carbon, the elements of water, and various
mineral matters, life could be supported on that alone. But such a
prodigious quantity of lean meat, for example, would be required to
furnish the other elements, that not only would it be very expensive, but
it is likely that after a time the labor of digestion would be too
onerous, and the system would give up the task in despair. The need of a
diet containing both nitrogenous and carbonaceous elements is shown in the
fact that even in the tropical regions oil is relished as a dressing upon
salad. Instinct everywhere suggests the blending. Butter is used with
bread; rice is boiled with milk; cheese is eaten with macaroni, and beans
are baked with pork.
FIG. 45.
[Illustration: _The Stomach and Intestines._ 1, _stomach;_ 2,
_duodenum;_ 3, _small intestine;_ 4, _termination of the
ileum;_ 5, _ccum;_ 6, _vermiforn appendix;_ 7, _ascending
colon;_ 8, _transverse colon;_ 9, _descending colon;_ 10,
_sigmoid flexure of the colon;_ 11, _rectum;_ 12, _spleen--a
gland whose action is not understood._--LEIDY'S _Anatomy._]
THE OBJECT OF DIGESTION.--If our food were cast directly into the blood,
it could not be used. For example, although the chemist can not see
wherein the albumen of the egg differs from the albumen of the blood, yet
if it be injected into the veins it is unavailable for the purposes
required, and is thrown out again. In the course of digestion the food is
modified in various ways whereby it is fitted for the use of the body,
into which it is finally incorporated. We call this change of food into
flesh _assimilation_, a name for a work done solely by the vital
organs, and so mysterious in its nature that the wisest physiologist gets
only glimpses here and there of its operations.