four to five hours. . . . Kraepelin found that it was only more or less automatic work, such as reading aloud, which was quickened by alcohol, though even this was rendered less trustworthy and accurate." Again: "Kraepelin had always shared the popular belief that a small quantity of alcohol (one to two teaspoonfuls) had an accelerating effect on the activity of his mind, enabling him to perform test operations, as the adding and subtracting and learning of figures more quickly. But when he came to measure with his instruments the exact period and time occupied, he found, to his astonishment, that he had accomplished these mental operations, not more, but less, quickly than before. . . . Numerous further experiments were carried out in order to test this matter, and these proved that alcohol lengthens the time taken to perform complex mental processes, while by a singular illusion the person experimented upon imagines that his psychical actions are rendered more rapid." 66 Professor Woodhead says, After careful examination of the whole question, physiologists and among physiologists I include those who maintain alcohol may be useful, as well as those who hold that it is harmful have come to the conclusion that the principal action of alcohol is to blunt sensation, and to remove what we may call the power of inhibition by blunting the higher centers of the brain." Professor David Starr Jordan in the Popular Science Monthly, February, 1898, said: " The healthy mind stands in clear and normal relations with nature. It feels pain as pain. It feels action as pleasure. The drug which conceals pain or gives false pleasure when pleasure does not exist forces a lie upon the nervous system. The drug which disposes to reverie rather than to work, which makes us feel well when we are not well, destroys the sanity of life. All stimulants, narcotics, tonics, which affect the nervous system in whatever way, reduce the truthfulness of sensation, thought, and action. Toward insanity all such influences lead; and their effect, slight though it be, is of the same nature as mania. The man who would see clearly, think truthfully, and act effectively must avoid them all. Emergency aside, he cannot safely force upon his nervous system even the smallest falsehood." Dr. Hammond said: "The more purely intellectual qualities of the mind rarely escape being involved in the general disturbance [caused by alcohol). The power of application, of appreciating the bearing of facts, of drawing distinctions, of exercising the judgment aright, and even of comprehension, are all more or less impaired. The memory is among the first faculties to suffer. . . . The will is always lessened in force and activity. The ability to determine between two or more alternatives, to resolve to act when action is necessary, no longer exists in full power, and the individual becomes vacillating, uncertain, the prey to his various passions, and to the influence of vicious counsels." "Finally we have still to declare that alcohol hinders the action of the highest mental faculties. A remark made by Helmholtz at the celebration of his seventieth birthday is very interesting in this connection. He spoke of the ideas flashing up from the depths of the unknown soul, that lies at the foundation of every truly creative intellectual production, and closed his account of their origin with these words: 'The smallest quantity of an alcoholic beverage seemed to frighten these ideas away.'" Dr. G. Sims Woodhead, Professor of Pathology, Cambridge University, England. 66 Some people imagine that after the use of alcohol they can do things more quickly, that they are brisker and sharper, but exact measurement shows that they are slower and less accurate. Men believe that they are wiser and brighter, but their sayings are more automatic and apt to be profane. To quote Dr. Lauder Brunton, of Oxford University, England, 'It produces progressive paralysis of the judgment,' and this begins with the first glass. Men say and do, even after a single glass of drink, what they would not say or do without it, and therefore it clearly affects the brain and diminishes self-control." -Adolph Fick, Professor of Physiology, Würzburg, Germany. Professor Von Bunge (Textbook of Physiological and Pathological Chemistry) of Switzerland says that: "The stimulating action which alcohol appears to exert on the brain functions is only a paralytic action. The cerebral functions which are first interfered with are the power of clear judgment and reason. No man ever became witty by aid of spirituous drinks. The lively gesticulations and useless exertions of intoxicated people are due to paralysis, - the restraining influences, which prevent a sober man from uselessly expending his strength, being removed." "The capital argument against alcohol, that which must eventually condemn its use, is this, that it takes away all the reserved control, the power of mastership, and therefore offends against the splendid pride in himself or herself, which is fundamental in every man or woman worth anything.” Dr. John Johnson, quoting Walt Whitman. The Drink Habit. The harmful effects of alcohol (aside from the purely physiological effect upon the tissues and organs of the body) are most terribly seen in the formation of the alcohol habit. The first effect of drinking alcoholic liquors is that of exhilaration. After the feeling of exhilaration is gone, for this is a temporary state, the subject feels depressed and less able to work than before he took the drink. To overcome this feeling, he takes another drink. The result is that before long he finds a habit formed from which he cannot escape. With body and mind weakened, he attempts to break off the habit. But meanwhile his will, too, has suffered from overindulgence. He has become a victim of the drink habit! Self-indulgence, be it in gratification of such a simple desire as that for candy or the more harmful indulgence in tobacco or alcoholic beverages, is dangerous not only in its immediate effects on the tissues and organs, but in its more far-reaching effects on habit formation. Man is a bundle of appetites. "Self-control versus Appetite. Every organ, every cell even, craves its appropriate stimulus. Animals under natural conditions gratify the appetites as they arise only to that extent which is healthful for the whole body. Man alone, whose highly developed brain is overlord to the rest of his system, permits an unwholesome indulgence of appetite to interfere with this general well-being. Alcohol, opium, and their like are far from being the only substances whose excessive use injures the organism and degrades character. Children are often allowed to indulge a natural fondness for sweets to an extent which is ruinous to digestion; for sugar, which is a useful and necessary food in suitable quantities, becomes in larger ones a poison to the system. Boys pampered with dainties from infancy logically infer that a fancy for cigars or beer may be similarly gratified. Appetite for even the most wholesome food may be in excess of bodily needs, and the practice of gluttony is certain to derange nutrition. 66 'A child should be early taught that because he 'likes' a certain article of food he should not therefore continue to eat it after natural hunger is satisfied, or at times when he does not need food; while to persist in eating or drinking that which experience, or the advice of those competent to judge, has taught him to be harmful, should be regarded as unworthy a rational being."-Macy, Physiology. The Moral, Social, and Economic Effect of Alcoholic Poisoning.In the struggle for existence, it is evident that the man whose intellect is the quickest and keenest, whose judgment is most sound, is the man who is most likely to succeed. The paralyzing effect of alcohol upon the nerve centers must place the drinker at a disadvantage. In a hundred ways, the drinker sooner or later feels the handicap that the habit of drink has imposed upon him. Many corporations, notably several of our greatest railroads (the New York Central Railroad among them), refuse to employ any but abstainers in positions of trust. Few persons know the number of railway accidents due to the uncertain eye of some engineer who mistook his signal, or the hazy inactivity of the brain of some train dispatcher who, because of drink, forgot to send the telegram that was to hold the train from wreck. In business and in the professions, the story is the same. The abstainer wins out over the drinking man. Not alone in activities of life, but in the length of life, has the abstainer the advantage. Figures presented by life insurance companies show that the nondrinkers have a considerably greater chance of long life than do drinking men. So decided are these figures that several companies have lower premiums for the nondrinkers than for the drinkers who insure with them. 66 Other Narcotics in Common Use. Narcotics are very widely used by the human family for the relief which they give from pain or fatigue, or for the direct pleasurable sensations which they impart. All are deadly poisons when taken in sufficient quantities. Those most common (after alcohol) are tobacco and opium. "It has already been shown that tobacco may affect unfavorably many parts of the system, and is especially injurious to the young. It stimulates in small quantities and narcotizes in larger ones, working its effects directly upon the nervous system. Nicotine, the powerful poison found in tobacco, affects the nerve cells, injures the brain, and leads especially to weakness of the heart by interfering with its supply of nervous force. Many cases of cancer of mouth and throat are believed to have resulted from tobacco smoking. 66 Opium, for its benumbing influence upon the nerves, is used by large numbers of persons, especially in Oriental lands. Its continued use deranges all the digestive processes, disorders the brain, and weakens and degrades the character. Like alcohol, it produces an intolerable craving for itself, and the strongest minds are not proof against the deadly appetite." REFERENCE READING ELEMENTARY Sharpe, A Laboratory Manual for the Solution of Problems in Biology. American Book Company. Davison, The Human Body and Health. American Book Company. The Gulick Hygiene Series, Emergencies, Good Health, The Body at Work, Control of Body and Mind. Ginn and Company. Moore, Physiology of Man and other Animals. Henry Holt and Company. ADVANCED Hough and Sedgwick, The Human Mechanism. references given at the end of Chapter XXIII. HUNT. ES. BIO. -27 Ginn and Company. See also XXIX. HEALTH AND DISEASE-A CHAPTER ON CIVIC BIOLOGY Problem LVI. A study of personal and civic hygiene. (Laboratory Manual, Prob. LVI.) Health and Disease. In previous chapters we have considered the body as a machine more delicate in its organization than the best-built mechanism made by man. In a state of health this human machine is in a good condition; disease is a condition in which some part of the body is out of order, thus interfering with the smooth running of the mechanism. Personal Hygiene. It is the purpose of the study of hygiene to show us how to live so as to keep the body in a healthy state. Hygiene not only prescribes certain laws for the care of the various parts of the body, skin, teeth, the food tube or the sense organs, but it also shows us how to avoid disease. The foundation of health later in life is laid down at the time we are in school; for that reason, if for no other, a knowledge of the laws of hygienic living are necessary for all school children. Unlike the lower animals, we can change or modify our immediate surroundings so as to make them better and more hygienic places to live in. Hygienic living in our home must go hand in hand with sanitary conditions around us. It is the purpose of this chapter to show how we do our share to coöperate with those in charge of the public health in our towns and cities. The proverb "An Some Methods of Prevention of Disease. ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" has much truth in it. Disease is largely preventable. Fresh air, the needed amount of sleep, moderate exercise, and pure food and water are essentials in hygienic living and in escape from disease. Pure Air Needed. What do we mean by fresh air, and why do we need it? We have already seen that oxidation takes place within the body, and that air containing as little as 2. parts of respired carbon dioxide to 10,000 parts of air is bad for breathing. |