food, plenty of meat, fat, etc.; but in summer we should temper the heat
in our corporeal stoves with fruits and vegetables.
The climate also has its necessities. The inhabitants of the frigid north
have an almost insatiable longing for fat. [Footnote: Dr. Hayes, the
arctic explorer, says, that the daily ration of the Esquimaux was from
twelve to fifteen pounds of meat, one third being fat. On one occasion, he
saw a man eat ten pounds of walrus flesh and blubber at a single meal. The
low temperature had a remarkable effect on the members of his own party,
and some of them were in the habit of drinking the contents of the oil
kettle with evident relish. Other travelers narrate the most incredible
stories of the voracity of the inhabitants of arctic regions. Saritcheff,
a Russian admiral, tells of a man who in his presence ate, at a meal, a
mess of twenty-eight pounds of boiled rice and butter, although he had
already partaken of his breakfast. Captain Cochrane further adds, in
narrating this statement, that he has himself seen three of the savages
consume a reindeer at a sitting.] Thus, in 1812, when the Allies entered
Paris, the Cossacks drank all the oil from the lamps, and left the streets
in darkness. In tropical regions, a low, unstimulating diet of fruits
forms the chief dependence. [Footnote: A natural appetite for a particular
kind of food is an expression not only of desire, but of fitness. Thus the
craving of childhood for sugar indicates a need of the system. It is
questionable how far it is proper to force or persuade one to eat that
which he disrelishes, or his stomach loathes. Life within is linked with
life without. Each organ requires its peculiar nutriment, and there is
often a peculiar influence demanded of which we can have no notice except
by natural instinct. Yet, as we are creatures of habit and impulse, we
need common sense and good judgment to correct the too often wayward
promptings of an artificial craving.]
WHEN FOOD SHOULD BE TAKEN.--On taking food, the blood sets at once to the
alimentary canal, and the energies are fixed upon the proper performance
of this work. We should not, therefore, undertake hard study, labor, or
exercise directly after a hearty meal. We should give the stomach at least
half an hour. He who toils with brain or muscle, and thus centers the
blood in any particular organ, before eating should allow time for the
circulation to become equalized. There should be an interval of four to
five hours between our regular meals, and there should be no lunching
between times. With young children, where the vital processes are more
rapid, less time may intervene. As a general rule, nothing should be eaten
within two or three hours of retiring. (See p 336.)
HOW FOOD SHOULD BE TAKEN.--A good laugh is the best of sauces. The
mealtime should be the happiest hour of the day. Care and grief are the
bitter foes of digestion. A cheerful face and a light heart are friends to
long life, and nowhere do they serve us better than at the table. God
designed that we should enjoy eating, and that, having stopped before
satiety was reached, we should have the satisfaction always attendant on a
good work well done.
NEED OF VARIETY.--Careful investigations have shown that any one kind of
food, however nutritious in itself, fails after a time to preserve the
highest working power of the body. Our appetite palls when we confine our
diet to a regular routine. Nature demands variety, and she has furnished
the means of gratifying it. [Footnote: She opens her hand, and pours forth
to man the treasures of every land and every sea, because she would give
to him a wide and vigorous life, participant of all variety. For him the
cornfields wave their golden grain--wheat, rye, oats, maize, or rice, each
different, but alike sufficing. Freely for him the palm, the date, the
banana, the breadfruit tree, the pine, spread out a harvest on the air;
and pleasant apple, plum, or peach solicit his ready hand. Beneath his
foot lie stored the starch of the potato, the gluten of the turnip, the
sugar of the beet; while all the intermediate space is rich with juicy
herbs.
Nature bids him eat and be merry; adding to his feast the solid flesh of
bird, and beast, and fish, prepared as victims for the sacrifice: firm
muscle to make strong the arm of toil, in the industrious temperate zone;
and massive ribs of fat to kindle inward fires for the sad dwellers under
arctic skies.--_Health and its Conditions_.--HINTON.]
THE WONDERS OF DIGESTION.--We can understand much of the process of
digestion. We can look into the stomach and trace its various steps.
Indeed, the chemist can reproduce in his laboratory many of the
operations; "a step further," as Fontenelle has said, "and he would
surprise nature in the very act." Just here, when he seems so successful,
he is compelled to pause. At the threshold of life the wisest physiologist
reverently admires, wonders, and worships.
How strange is this transformation of food to flesh! We make a meal of
meat, vegetables, and drink. Ground by the teeth, mixed by the stomach,
dissolved by the digestive fluids, it is swept through the body. Each
organ, as it passes, snatches its particular food. Within the cells of the
tissues [Footnote: As the body is composed of individual organs, and each
organ of separate tissues, so each tissue is made up of minute cells. Each
cell is a little world by itself, too small to be seen by the naked eye,
but open to the microscope. It has its own form and constitution as much
as a special organ in the body. It absorbs from the blood such food as
suits its purposes. Moreover, the number of cells in an organ is as
constant as the number of organs. As the organs expand with the growth of
the body, so the cells of each tissue enlarge, but shrink again with age
and the decline of life. Life begins and ends in a cell.--See
_Appletons' Cyclopedia_, Art. "Absorption."] it is transformed into
the soft, sensitive brain, or the hard, callous bone; into briny tears, or
bland saliva, or acrid perspiration; bile for digestion, oil for the hair,
nails for the fingers, and flesh for the cheek.
Within us is an Almighty Architect, who superintends a thousand builders,
which make in a way past all human comprehension, here a fiber of a
muscle, there a filament of a nerve; here constructing a bone, there
uniting a tendon,--fashioning each with scrupulous care and unerring
nicety. [Footnote: See COOKE'S _Religion and Chemistry_, page 236.]
So, without sound of builder or stroke of hammer, goes up, day by day, the
body--the glorious temple of the soul.
DISEASES ETC.--1. _Dyspepsia_, or indigestion of food, is generally
caused by an overtaxing of the digestive organs. Too much food is used,
and the entire system is burdened by the excess. Meals are taken at
irregular hours, when the fluids are not ready. A hearty supper is eaten
when the body, wearied with the day's labor, demands rest. The appetite
craves no food when the digestion is enfeebled, but stimulants and
condiments excite it, and the unwilling organs are oppressed by that which
they can not properly manage.
Strong tea, alcoholic drinks, and tobacco derange the alimentary function.
Too great variety of dishes, rich food, tempting flavors,--all lead to an
overloading of the stomach. This patient, long-suffering member at last
wears out. Pain, discomfort, diseases of the digestive organs, and
insufficient nutrition are the penalties of violated laws. (See p. 328.)
2. _The Mumps_ are an inflammation of the parotid and submaxillary
glands (see p. 159). The disease is generally epidemic, and is believed to
be contagious; the patient should therefore be carefully secluded for the
sake of others as well as himself. The swelling may be allowed to take its
course. Relief from pain is often experienced by applying flannels wrung
out of hot water. Great care should be used not to check the inflammation,
and, on first going out after recovery, not to take cold.
ALCOHOLIC DRINKS AND NARCOTICS.
1. ALCOHOL (Continued from p. 147).
RELATION OF ALCOHOL TO THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS.--_Is Alcohol a Food?_ To
answer this question, let us make a comparison. If you receive into your
stomach a piece of bread or beef, Nature welcomes its presence. The juices
of the system at once take hold of it, dissolve it, and transform it for
the uses of the body. A million tiny fingers (lacteals and veins) reach
out to grasp it, work it over, and carry it into the circulation. The
blood bears it onward wherever it is needed to mend or to build "The house
you live in." Soon, it is no longer bread or beef; it is flesh on your
arm; its chemical energy is imparted to you, and it becomes your strength.
If, on the other hand, you take into your stomach a little alcohol, it
receives no such welcome. Nature treats it as a poison, and seeks to rid
herself of the intruder as soon as possible. [Footnote: Food is digested,
alcohol is not. Food warms the blood, directly or indirectly; alcohol
lowers the temperature. Food nourishes the body, in the sense of
assimilating itself to the tissues; alcohol does not. Food makes blood;
alcohol never does anything more innocent than mixing with it. Food feeds
the blood cells; alcohol destroys them. Food excites, in health, to normal
action only; alcohol tends to inflammation and disease. Food gives force
to the body; alcohol excites reaction and wastes force, in the first
place, and in the second, as a true narcotic, represses vital action and
corresponding nutrition.--If alcohol does not act like food, neither does
it behave like water. Water is the subtle but innocent vehicle of
circulation, which dissolves the solid food, holds in play the chemical
and vital reactions of the tissues, conveys the nutritive solutions from
cell to cell, from tube to tube, and carries off and expels the effete
matter. Water neither irritates tissue, wastes force, nor suppresses vital
action: whereas alcohol does all three. Alcohol hardens solid tissue,
thickens the blood, narcotizes the nerves, and in every conceivable
direction antagonizes the operation and function of water--LEES.] The
juices of the system will flow from every pore to dilute and weaken it,
and to prevent its shriveling up the delicate membranes with which it
comes in contact. The veins will take it up and bear it rapidly through
the system. Every organ of elimination, all the scavengers of the body--
the lungs, the kidneys, the perspiration glands, at once set to work to
throw off the enemy. So surely is this the case, that the breath of a
person who has drunk only a single glass of the lightest beer will betray
the fact.
The alcohol thus eliminated is entirely unchanged. Nature apparently makes
no effort to appropriate it. [Footnote: It was formerly a question
considerably discussed, whether alcohol exists in the brain, or in the
fluid found in the ventricles, in intoxicated persons. This was settled by
Percy, who found alcohol in the brain and liver of dogs poisoned with
alcohol, and of men who had died after excessive drinking. In these
experiments, the presence of alcohol was determined by distillation, and
the distilled substance burned with a blue flame, and dissolved camphor.--
FLINT'S _Physiology of Man_.] It courses everywhere through the
circulation, and into the great organs, with all its properties
unmodified.
Alcohol, then, is not, like bread or beef, taken hold of, broken up by the
mysterious process of digestion, and used by the body. [Footnote: Because
of the difficulties of such an experiment, we have not yet been able to
account satisfactorily by the excretions for all the alcohol taken into
the stomach. This remains as yet one of the unsolved problems of
physiological chemistry. To collect the whole of the insensible
perspiration, for example, is well-nigh impossible. It was supposed at one
time that a part of the alcohol is oxidized--_i. e._, burned, in the
system. But such a process would impart heat, and it is now proved that
alcohol cools, instead of warms, the blood. Moreover, the closest analysis
fails to detect in the circulation any trace of the products of alcoholic
combustion, such as aldehyde and acetic acid. "The fact," says Flint,
"that alcohol is always eliminated, even when drunk in minute quantity,
and that its elimination continues for a considerable time, gradually
diminishing, renders it probable that all that is taken into the body is
removed."] "It can not therefore be regarded as an aliment," or food.--
FLINT. "Beer, wine, and spirits," says Liebig, "contain no element capable
of entering into the composition of the blood or the muscular fiber."
[Footnote: The small amount of nutritive substance, chiefly sugar derived
from the grain or fruit used in the manufacture of beer or wine, can not,
of course, be compared with that contained in bread or beef at the same
cost. Liebig says, in his Letters on Chemistry, "We can prove, with
mathematical certainty, that as much flour as can lie on the point of a
table knife is more nutritious than eight quarts of the best Bavarian
beer."] "That alcohol is incapable of forming any part of the body,"
remarks Cameron, "is admitted by all physiologists. It can not be
converted into brain, nerve, muscle, or blood."
EFFECT UPON THE DIGESTION. [Footnote: The medical value of alcohol in its
relations to digestion is not discussed in this book. The experiments of
Dr. Henry Munroe, of Hull, published in the London _Medical Journal_,
are here summarized as showing that the tendency to retard digestion is
common to all forms of alcoholic drinks.
_______________________________________________________________________
Finely Minced | | | |
Beef | 2d Hour | 4th Hour | 6th Hour |
_______________________________________________________________________
I. | | Digesting | |
Gastric Juice | Beef | and | Beef much |
and _water_. | opaque. | separating. | loosened. |
_______________________________________________________________________
| | Slightly | Slight |
II. | No alteration | opaque, but | coating on |
Gastric Juice | perceptible. | beef | beef. |
with _alcohol_. | | unchanged. | |
_______________________________________________________________________
III. | | Cloudy, | beef |
Gastric Juice | No change. | with fur | partly |
and _pale ale_. | | on beef. | loosened. |
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
Finely Minced | | |
Beef | 8th Hour | 10th Hour |
______________________________________________________
I. | | |
Gastric Juice | Beef | Broken up |
and _water_. | opaque. | into shreds. |
______________________________________________________
| | Solid on |
II. | No visible | cooling |
Gastric Juice | change. | _Pepsin_ |
with _alcohol_. | | precipitated. |
______________________________________________________
III. | | No digestion |
Gastric Juice | No further | _Pepsin_ |
and _pale ale_. | change. | precipitated. |
______________________________________________________]
--Experiments tend to prove that alcohol coagulates and precipitates the
pepsin from the gastric juice, and so puts a stop to its great work in the
process of digestion.
The greed of alcohol for water causes it to imbibe moisture from the
tissues and juices, and to inflame the delicate mucous membrane. It shows
the power of Nature to adapt herself to circumstances, that the soft,
velvety lining of the throat and stomach should come at length to endure
the presence of a fiery liquid which, undiluted, would soon shrivel and
destroy it. In self-defense, the juices pour in to weaken the alcohol, and
it is soon hurried into the circulation. Before this can be done, "it must
absorb about three times its bulk of water"; hence, very strong liquor may
be retained in the stomach long enough to interfere seriously with the
digestion, and to injure the lining coat. Habitual use of alcohol
permanently dilates the blood vessels; thickens and hardens the membranes;
in some cases, ulcerates the surface; and, finally, "so weakens the
assimilation that the proper supply of food can not be appropriated."
--FLINT. [Footnote: The case of St. Martin (p. 168) gave an excellent
opportunity to watch the action of alcohol upon the stomach. Dr. Beaumont
summarized his experiments thus: "The free, ordinary use of any
intoxicating liquor, when continued for some days, invariably produced
inflammation, ulcerous patches, and, finally, a discharge of morbid matter
tinged with blood." Yet St. Martin never complained of pain in his
stomach, the narcotic influence of the alcohol preventing the signal of
danger that Nature ordinarily gives.]
EFFECT UPON THE LIVER.--Alcohol is carried by the portal vein directly to
the liver. This organ, after the brain, holds the largest share. The
influence of the poison is here easily traced. "The color of the bile is
soon changed from yellow to green, and even to black;" the connective
tissue between the lobules becomes inflamed; and, in the case of a
confirmed drunkard, hardened and shrunk, the surface often assuming a
nodulated appearance known as the "hobnailed liver." Morbid matter is
sometimes deposited, causing what is called "Fatty degeneration," so that
the liver is increased to twice or thrice its natural size.
EFFECT UPON THE KIDNEYS.--The kidneys, like the liver, are liable in time
to undergo, through the influence of alcohol, a "Fatty degeneration," in
which the cells become filled with particles of fat; [Footnote: Disabled
by the fatty deposits, the kidneys are unable to separate the waste matter
coming to them for elimination from the system. The poisonous material is
poured back into the circulation, and often delirium ensues.--HUBBARD.
Richardson states that his experience "is to the effect that seven out of
every eight instances of kidney disease are attributable to alcohol."] the
vessels lose their contractility; and, worst of all, the membranes may be
so modified as to allow the albuminous part of the blood to filter through
them, and so to rob the body of one of its most valuable constituents.
[Footnote: This deterioration of structure frequently gives rise to what
is known as "Bright's Disease."--RICHARDSON.]
DOES ALCOHOL IMPART HEAT?--During the first flush after drinking wine, for
example, a sense of warmth is felt. This is due to the tides of warm blood
that are being sent to the surface of the body, owing to the vascular
enlargement and to the rapid pumping of the heart. There is, however, no
fresh heat developed. On the contrary, the bringing the blood to the
surface causes it to cool faster, reaction sets in, a chilliness is
experienced as one becomes sober, and a delicate thermometer placed under
the tongue of the inebriate may show a fall of even two degrees below the
standard temperature of the body. Several hours are required to restore
the usual heat.
As early as 1850, Dr. N. S. Davis, of Chicago, ex-President of the
American Medical Association, instituted an extensive series of
experiments to determine the effect of the different articles of food and
drinks on the temperature of the system. He conclusively proved that,
during the digestion of all kinds of food, the temperature of the body is
increased, but when alcohol is taken, either in the form of fermented or
distilled beverages, the temperature begins to fall within a half hour,
and continues to decrease for two or three hours, and that the reduction
of temperature, in extent as well as in duration, is in exact proportion
to the amount of alcohol taken.
It naturally follows that, contrary to the accepted opinion, liquor does
not fortify against cold. The experience of travelers at the North
coincides with that of Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, who says: "While
fat is absolutely essential to the inhabitants and travelers in arctic
countries, alcohol is, in almost any shape, not only completely useless,
but positively injurious. I have known strong, able-bodied men to become
utterly incapable of resisting cold in consequence of the long-continued
use of alcoholic drink."
DOES ALCOHOL IMPART STRENGTH?--Experience shows that alcohol weakens the
power of undergoing severe bodily exertion. [Footnote: Dr. McRae, in
speaking of Arctic exploration, at the meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, held at Montreal in 1856, said: "The
moment that a man had swallowed a drink of spirits, it was certain that
his day's work was nearly at an end. It was absolutely necessary that the
rule of total abstinence be rigidly enforced, if we would accomplish our
day's task. The use of liquor as a beverage when we had work on hand, in
that terrific cold, was out of the question."] Men who are in training for
running, rowing, and other contests where great strength is required, deny
themselves all liquors, even when they are ordinarily accustomed to their
use.
Dr. Richardson made some interesting experiments to show the influence of
alcohol upon muscular contraction. He carefully weighted the hind leg of a
frog, and, by means of electricity, stimulating the muscle to its utmost
power of contraction, he found out how much the frog could lift. Then
administering alcohol, he discovered that the response of the muscle to
the electrical current became feebler and feebler, as the narcotic began
to take effect, until, at last, the animal could raise less than half the
amount it lifted by the natural contraction when uninfluenced by alcohol.
EFFECT UPON THE WASTE OF THE BODY.--The tendency of alcohol is to cause a
formation of an unstable substance resembling fat, [Footnote: The
molecular deposits equalizing the waste of the system do not go on
regularly under the influence of alcohol; the tissues are not kept up to
their standard; and, in time, their composition is changed by a deposit of
an amorphous matter resembling fat. This is an unstable substance, and the
functions of animal life all retrograde.--HUBBARD, _The Opium Habit and
Alcoholism_.] and so the use of liquor for even a short time will
increase the weight. But a more marked influence is to check the ordinary
waste of the system, so that "the amount of carbonic acid exhaled from the
lungs may be reduced as much as thirty to fifty per cent."--HINTON. The
life process is one of incessant change. Its rapidity is essential to
vigor and strength. When the functions are in full play, each organ is
being constantly torn down, and as constantly rebuilt with the materials
furnished from our food. Anything that checks this oxidation of the
tissues, or hinders the deposition of new matter, disturbs the vital
functions. Both these results are the inevitable effects of alcohol; for,
since the blood contains less oxygen and more carbonic acid, and the power
of assimilating the food is decreased, it follows that every process of
waste and repair must be correspondingly weakened. The person using liquor
consequently needs less bread and beef, and so alcohol seems to him a
food--a radical error, as we have shown.
ALCOHOL CREATES A PROGRESSIVE APPETITE FOR ITSELF.--When liquor is taken,
even in the most moderate quantity, it soon becomes necessary, and then
arises a craving demand for an increased amount to produce the original
effect. No food creates this constantly augmenting want. A cup of milk
drank at dinner does not lead one to go on, day by day, drinking more and
more milk, until to get milk becomes the one great longing of the whole
being. Yet this is the almost universal effect of alcohol. Hunger is
satisfied by any nutritious food: the dram-drinker's thirst demands
alcohol. The common experience of mankind teaches us the imminent peril
that attends the formation of this progressive poison habit. A single
glass taken as a tonic may lead to the drunkard's grave.