Experiments.
The action produced by the tendency of fluids to mix, or become equally diffused in contact with each other, is known as osmosis, a form of molecular attraction allied to that of adhesion. The various physical processes by which the products of digestion are transferred from the digestive canal to the blood may be illustrated in a general way by the following simple experiments.
The student must, however, understand that the necessarily crude experiments of the classroom may not conform in certain essentials to these great processes conducted in the living body, which they are intended to illustrate and explain.
Fig. 62.
Experiment 62. Simple Apparatus for Illustrating Endosmotic Action. “Remove carefully a circular portion, about an inch in diameter, of the shell from one end of an egg, which may be done without injuring the membranes, by cracking the shell in small pieces, which are picked off with forceps. A small glass tube is then introduced through an opening in the shell and membranes of the other end of the egg, and is secured in a vertical position by wax or plaster of Paris, the tube penetrating the yelk. The egg is then placed in a wine-glass partly filled with water. In the course of a few minutes, the water will have penetrated the exposed membrane, and the yelk will rise in the tube.”—Flint’s Human Physiology, page 293.
Experiment 63. Stretch a piece of moist bladder across a glass tube,—a common lamp-chimney will do. Into this put a strong saline solution. Now suspend the tube in a wide mouthed vessel of water. After a short time it will be found that a part of the salt solution has passed through into the water, while a larger amount of water has passed into the tube and raised the height of the liquid within it.
161. The Quantity of Food as Affected by Age. The quantity of food required to keep the body in proper condition is modified to a great extent by circumstances. Age, occupation, place of residence, climate, and season, as well as individual conditions of health and disease, are always important factors in the problem. In youth the body is not only growing, but the tissue changes are active. The restless energy and necessary growth at this time of life cannot be maintained without an abundance of wholesome food. This food supply for young people should be ample enough to answer the demands of their keen appetite and vigorous digestion.
In adult life, when the processes of digestion and assimilation are active, the amount of food may without harm, be in excess of the actual needs of the body. This is true, however, only so long as active muscular exercise is taken.
In advanced life the tissue changes are slow, digestion is less active, and the ability to assimilate food is greatly diminished. Growth has ceased, the energy which induced activity is gone, and the proteids are no longer required to build up worn-out tissues. Hence, as old age approaches, the quantity of nitrogenous foods should be steadily diminished.
Experiment 64. Obtain a sheep’s bladder and pour into it a heavy solution of sugar or some colored simple elixir, found at any drug store. Tie the bladder carefully and place it in a vessel containing water. After a while it will be found that an interchange has occurred, water having passed into the bladder and the water outside having become sweet.
Experiment 65. Make a hole about as big as a five-cent piece in the large end of an egg. That is, break the shell carefully and snip the outer shell membrane, thus opening the space between the outer and inner membranes. Now put the egg into a glass of water, keeping it in an upright position by resting on a napkin-ring. There is only the inner shell membrane between the liquid white of the egg (albumen) and the water.
An interchange takes place, and the water passes towards the albumen. As the albumen does not pass out freely towards the water, the membrane becomes distended, like a little bag at the top of the egg.
162. Ill Effects of a too Generous Diet. A generous diet, even of those who take active muscular exercise, should be indulged in only with vigilance and discretion. Frequent sick or nervous headaches, a sense of fullness, bilious attacks, and dyspepsia are some of the after-effects of eating more food than the body actually requires. The excess of food is not properly acted upon by the digestive juices, and is liable to undergo fermentation, and thus to become a source of irritation to the stomach and the intestines. If too much and too rich food be persistently indulged in, the complexion is apt to become muddy, the skin, especially of the face, pale and sallow, and more or less covered with blotches and pimples; the breath has an unpleasant odor, and the general appearance of the body is unwholesome.
An excess of any one of the different classes of foods may lead to serious results. Thus a diet habitually too rich in proteids, as with those who eat meat in excess, often over-taxes the kidneys to get rid of the excess of nitrogenous waste, and the organs of excretion are not able to rid the tissues of waste products which accumulate in the system. From the blood, thus imperfectly purified, may result kidney troubles and various diseases of the liver and the stomach.
163. Effect of Occupation. Occupation has an important influence upon the quantity of food demanded for the bodily support. Those who work long and hard at physical labor, need a generous amount of nutritious food. A liberal diet of the cereals and lean meat, especially beef, gives that vigor to the muscles which enables one to undergo laborious and prolonged physical exertion. On the other hand, those who follow a sedentary occupation do not need so large a quantity of food. Brain-workers who would work well and live long, should not indulge in too generous a diet. The digestion of heavy meals involves a great expenditure of nervous force. Hence, the forces of the brain-worker, being required for mental exertion, should not be expended to an unwarranted extent on the task of digestion.
164. Effect of Climate. Climate also has a marked influence on the quantity of food demanded by the system. Much more food of all kinds is consumed in cold than in warm climates. The accounts by travelers of the quantity of food used by the inhabitants of the frigid zone are almost beyond belief. A Russian admiral gives an instance of a man who, in his presence, ate at a single meal 28 pounds of rice and butter. Dr. Hayes, the Arctic traveler, states from personal observation that the daily ration of the Eskimos is 12 to 15 pounds of meat. With the thermometer ranging from 60 to 70° F. below zero, there was a persistent craving for strong animal diet, especially fatty foods.[[24]]
Fig. 63.—Lymphatics and Lymphatic Glands of the Axilla.
The intense cold makes such a drain upon the heat-producing power of the body that only food containing the largest proportion of carbon is capable of making up for the loss. In tropical countries, on the other hand, the natives crave and subsist mainly upon fruits and vegetables.
165. The Kinds of Food Required. An appetite for plain, well-cooked food is a safe guide to follow. Every person in good health, taking a moderate amount of daily exercise, should have a keen appetite for three meals a day and enjoy them. Food should be both nutritious and digestible. It is nutritious in proportion to the amount of material it furnishes for the nourishment of the tissues. It is digestible in a greater or less degree in respect to the readiness with which it yields to the action of the digestive fluids, and is prepared to be taken up by the blood. This digestibility depends partly upon the nature of the food in its raw state, partly upon the effect produced upon it by cooking, and to some extent upon its admixture with other foods. Certain foods, as the vegetable albumens, are both nutritious and digestible. A hard-working man may grow strong and maintain vigorous health on most of them, even if deprived of animal food.
While it is true that the vegetable albumens furnish all that is really needed for the bodily health, animal food of some kind is an economical and useful addition to the diet. Races of men who endure prolonged physical exertion have discovered for themselves, without the teaching of science, the great value of meat. Hence the common custom of eating meat with bread and vegetables is a sound one. It is undoubtedly true that the people of this country, as a rule, eat meat too often and too much at a time. The judicious admixture of different classes of foods greatly aids their digestibility.
The great abundance and variety of food in this country, permit this principle to be put into practice. A variety of mixed foods, as milk, eggs, bread, and meat, are almost invariably associated to a greater or less extent at every meal.
Oftentimes where there is of necessity a sameness of diet, there arises a craving for special articles of food. Thus on long voyages, and during long campaigns in war, there is an almost universal craving for onions, raw potatoes, and other vegetables.
166. Hints about Meals. On an average, three meals each day, from five to six hours apart, is the proper number for adults. Five hours is by no means too long a time to intervene between consecutive meals, for it is not desirable to introduce new food into the stomach, until the gastric digestion of the preceding meal has been completed, and until the stomach has had time to rest, and is in condition to receive fresh material. The stomach, like other organs, does its work best at regular periods.[[25]]
Eating out of mealtimes should be strictly avoided, for it robs the stomach of its needed rest. Food eaten when the body and mind are wearied is not well digested. Rest, even for a few minutes, should be taken before eating a full meal. It is well to lie down, or sit quietly and read, fifteen minutes before eating, and directly afterwards, if possible.
Severe exercise and hard study just after a full meal, are very apt to delay or actually arrest digestion, for after eating heartily, the vital forces of the body are called upon to help the stomach digest its food. If our bodily energies are compelled, in addition to this, to help the muscles or brain, digestion is retarded, and a feeling of dullness and heaviness follows. Fermentative changes, instead of the normal digestive changes, are apt to take place in the food.
167. Practical Points about Eating. We should not eat for at least two or three hours before going to bed. When we are asleep, the vital forces are at a low ebb, the process of digestion is for the time nearly suspended, and the retention of incompletely digested food in the stomach may cause bad dreams and troubled sleep. But in many cases of sleeplessness, a trifle of some simple food, especially if the stomach seems to feel exhausted, often appears to promote sleep and rest.
Note. The table below shows the results of many experiments to illustrate the time taken for the gastric digestion of a number of the more common solid foods. There are a good many factors of which the table takes no account, such as the interval since the last meal, state of the appetite, amount of work and exercise, method of cooking, and especially the quantity of food.
| Food | How Cooked | Time in Stomach, Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Apples, sweet and mellow | Raw | 1½ |
| Apples, sour and hard | ” | 2½ |
| Apple Dumpling | Boiled | 3 |
| Bass, striped, fresh | Broiled | 3 |
| Beans, pod | Boiled | 2½ |
| Beef, with salt only | ” | 2¾ |
| ” fresh, lean | Raw | 3 |
| ” ” ” | Fried | 4 |
| ” ” ” | Roasted | 3½ |
| ” old, hard, salted | Boiled | 4¼ |
| Beefsteak | Broiled | 3 |
| Beets | Boiled | 3¾ |
| Bread, corn | Baked | 3¼ |
| ” wheat, fresh | ” | 3½ |
| Butter | Melted | 3½ |
| Cabbage, with vinegar | Raw | 2 |
| ” ” ” | Boiled | 4½ |
| ” heads | Raw | 2½ |
| Carrots | Boiled | 3¼ |
| Cheese, old, strong | Raw | 3½ |
| Chicken, full-grown | Fricassee | 2¾ |
| ” soup | Boiled | 3 |
| Codfish, cured, dried | ” | 2 |
| Corncake | Baked | 2¾ |
| Custard | ” | 2¾ |
| Duck, domestic | Roasted | 4 |
| ” wild | ” | 4½ |
| Eggs, fresh, whipped | Raw | 1½ |
| ” | ” | 2 |
| ” soft-boiled | Boiled | 3 |
| ” hard-boiled | ” | 3½ |
| ” | Fried | 3½ |
| Fowl, domestic | Boiled | 4 |
| ” ” | Roasted | 4 |
| Gelatin | Boiled | 2½ |
| Goose | Roasted | 2½ |
| Green corn and beans | Boiled | 3¾ |
| Hash, meat and vegetables | Warmed | 2½ |
| Lamb | Broiled | 2½ |
| Liver | ” | 2 |
| Milk | Boiled | 2 |
| ” | Raw | 2¼ |
| Mutton, fresh | Broiled | 3 |
| ” ” | Boiled | 3 |
| ” ” | Roasted | 3¼ |
| Oysters, fresh | Raw | 2½ |
| ” ” | Roasted | 3¼ |
| ” ” | Stewed | 3½ |
| Parsnips | Boiled | 2½ |
| Pig | Roasted | 2½ |
| Pig’s feet, soused | Boiled | 1 |
| Pork, recently salted | ” | 4½ |
| ” | Fried | 4¼ |
| ” | Raw | 3 |
| ” steaks | Fried | 3¼ |
| ” | Stewed | 3 |
| ” fat or lean | Roasted | 5¼ |
| Potatoes | Baked | 2½ |
| ” | Boiled | 3½ |
| ” | Roasted | 2½ |
| Rice | Boiled | 1 |
| Sago | ” | 1¾ |
| Salmon, salted | ” | 4 |
| Soup, barley | ” | 1½ |
| ” beans | ” | 3 |
| ” beef, vegetables, bread | ” | 4 |
| ” marrow bone | ” | 4½ |
| ” mutton | ” | 3½ |
| Sponge Cake | Baked | 2½ |
| Suet, beef, fresh | Boiled | 5⅓ |
| ” mutton | ” | 4½ |
| Tapioca | ” | 2 |
| Tripe, soused | ” | 1 |
| Trout, salmon, fresh | ” | 1½ |
| ” ” ” | Fried | 1½ |
| Turkey, wild | Roasted | 2¼ |
| ” domestic | Boiled | 2¼ |
| ” ” | Roasted | 2½ |
| Turnips | Boiled | 3½ |
| Veal | Roasted | 4 |
| ” | Fried | 4½ |
| Venison, steaks | Broiled | 1½ |
The state of mind has much to do with digestion. Sudden fear or joy, or unexpected news, may destroy the appetite at once. Let a hungry person be anxiously awaiting a hearty meal, when suddenly a disastrous telegram is brought him; all appetite instantly disappears, and the tempting food is refused. Hence we should laugh and talk at our meals, and drive away anxious thoughts and unpleasant topics of discussion.
The proper chewing of the food is an important element in digestion. Hence, eat slowly, and do not “bolt” large fragments of food. If imperfectly chewed, it is not readily acted upon by the gastric juice, and often undergoes fermentative changes which result in sour stomach, gastric pain, and other digestive disturbance.
If we take too much drink with our meals, the flow of the saliva is checked, and digestion is hindered. It is not desireable to dilute the gastric juice, nor to chill the stomach with large amount of cold liquid.
Do not take food and drink too hot or too cold. If they are taken too cold, the stomach is chilled, and digestion delayed. If we drink freely of ice-water, it may require half an hour or more for the stomach to regain its natural heat.
It is a poor plan to stimulate a flagging appetite with highly spiced food and bitter drinks. An undue amount of pepper, mustard, horseradish, pickles, and highly seasoned meat-sauces may stimulate digestion for the time, but they soon impair it.
Note. The process of gastric digestion was studied many years ago by Dr. Beaumont and others, in the remarkable case of Alexis St. Martin, a French-Canadian, who met with a gun-shot wound which left a permanent opening into his stomach, guarded by a little valve of mucous membrane. Through this opening the lining of the stomach could be seen, the temperature ascertained, and numerous experiments made as to the digestibility of various kinds of food.
It was by these careful and convincing experiments that the foundation of our exact knowledge of the composition and action of gastric juice was laid. The modest book in which Dr. Beaumont published his results is still counted among the classics of physiology. The production of artificial fistulæ in animals, a method that has since proved so fruitful, was first suggested by his work.
It cannot be too strongly stated that food of a simple character, well cooked and neatly served, is more productive of healthful living than a great variety of fancy dishes which unduly stimulate the digestive organs, and create a craving for food in excess of the bodily needs.
168. The Proper Care of the Teeth. It is our duty not only to take the very best care of our teeth, but to retain them as long as possible. Teeth, as we well know, are prone to decay. We may inherit poor and soft teeth: our mode of living may make bad teeth worse. If an ounce of prevention is ever worth a pound of cure, it is in keeping the teeth in good order. Bad teeth and toothless gums mean imperfect chewing of the food and, hence, impaired digestion. To attain a healthful old age, the power of vigorous mastication must be preserved.
One of the most frequent causes of decay of the teeth is the retention of fragments of food between and around them. The warmth and moisture of the mouth make these matters decompose quickly. The acid thus generated attacks the enamel of the teeth, causing decay of the dentine. Decayed teeth are often the cause of an offensive breath and a foul stomach.
Fig. 64.—Lymphatics on the Inside of the Right Hand.
To keep the teeth clean and wholesome, they should be thoroughly cleansed at bedtime and in the morning with a soft brush and warm water. Castile soap, and some prepared tooth-powder without grit, should be used, and the brush should be applied on both sides of the teeth.
The enamel, once broken through, is never renewed. The tooth decays, slowly but surely: hence we must guard against certain habits which injure the enamel, as picking the teeth with pins and needles. We should never crack nuts, crush hard candy, or bite off stout thread with the teeth. Stiff tooth-brushes, gritty and cheap tooth-powders, and hot food and drink, often injure the enamel.
To remove fragments of food which have lodged between adjacent teeth, a quill or wooden toothpick should be used. Even better than these is the use of surgeon’s floss, or silk, which when drawn between the teeth, effectually dislodges retained particles. If the teeth are not regularly cleansed they become discolored, and a hard coating known as tartar accumulates on them and tends to loosen them. It is said that after the age of thirty more teeth are lost from this deposit than from all other causes combined. In fact decay and tartar are the two great agents that furnish work for the dentist.[[26]]
169. Hints about Saving Teeth. We should exercise the greatest care in saving the teeth. The last resort of all is to lose a tooth by extraction. The skilled dentist will save almost anything in the shape of a tooth.
People are often urged and consent to have a number of teeth extracted which, with but little trouble and expense, might be kept and do good service for years. The object is to replace the teeth with an artificial set. Very few plates, either partial or entire, are worn with real comfort. They should always be removed before going to sleep, as there is danger of their being swallowed.
The great majority of drugs have no injurious effect upon the teeth. Some medicines, however, must be used with great care. The acids used in the tincture of iron have a great affinity for the lime salts of the teeth. As this form of iron is often used, it is not unusual to see teeth very badly stained or decayed from the effects of this drug. The acid used in the liquid preparations of quinine may destroy the teeth in a comparatively short time. After taking such medicines the mouth should be thoroughly rinsed with a weak solution of common soda, and the teeth cleansed.
170. Alcohol and Digestion. The influence of alcoholic drinks upon digestion is of the utmost importance. Alcohol is not, and cannot be regarded from a physiological point of view as a true food. The reception given to it by the stomach proves this very plainly. It is obviously an unwelcome intruder. It cannot, like proper foods, be transformed into any element or component of the human body, but passes on, innutritious and for the most part unappropriated. Taken even into the mouth, by any person not hardened to its use, its effect is so pungent and burning as at once to demand its rejection. But if allowed to pass into the stomach, that organ immediately rebels against its intrusion, and not unfrequently ejects it with indignant emphasis. The burning sensation it produces there, is only an appeal for water to dilute it.
The stomach meanwhile, in response to this fiery invitation, secretes from its myriad pores its juices and watery fluids, to protect itself as much as possible from the invading liquid. It does not digest alcoholic drinks; we might say it does not attempt to, because they are not material suitable for digestion, and also because no organ can perform its normal work while smarting under an unnatural irritation.
Even if the stomach does not at once eject the poison, it refuses to adopt it as food, for it does not pass along with the other food material, as chyme, into the intestines, but is seized by the absorbents, borne into the veins, which convey it to the heart, whence the pulmonary artery conveys it to the lungs, where its presence is announced in the breath. But wherever alcohol is carried in the tissues, it is always an irritant, every organ in turn endeavoring to rid itself of the noxious material.
171. Effect of Alcoholic Liquor upon the Stomach. The methods by which intoxicating drinks impair and often ruin digestion are various. We know that a piece of animal food, as beef, if soaked in alcohol for a few hours, becomes hard and tough, the fibers having been compacted together because of the abstraction of their moisture by the alcohol, which has a marvelous affinity for water. In the same way alcohol hardens and toughens animal food in the stomach, condensing its fibers, and rendering it indigestible, thus preventing the healthful nutrition of the body. So, if alcohol be added to the clear, liquid white of an egg, it is instantly coagulated and transformed into hard albumen. As a result of this hardening action, animal food in contact with alcoholic liquids in the stomach remains undigested, and must either be detained there so long as to become a source of gastric disturbance, or else be allowed to pass undigested through the pyloric gate, and then may become a cause of serious intestinal disturbance.[[27]]
This peculiar property of alcohol, its greedy absorption of water from objects in contact with it, acts also by absorbing liquids from the surface of the stomach itself, thus hardening the delicate glands, impairing their ability to absorb the food-liquids, and so inducing gastric dyspepsia. This local injury inflicted upon the stomach by all forms of intoxicants, is serious and protracted. This organ is, with admirable wisdom, so constructed as to endure a surprising amount of abuse, but it was plainly not intended to thrive on alcoholic liquids. The application of fiery drinks to its tender surface produces at first a marked congestion of its blood-vessels, changing the natural pink color, as in the mouth, to a bright or deep red.
If the irritation be not repeated, the lining membrane soon recovers its natural appearance. But if repeated and continued, the congestion becomes more intense, the red color deeper and darker; the entire surface is the subject of chronic inflammation, its walls are thickened, and sometimes ulcerated. In this deplorable state, the organ is quite unable to perform its normal work of digestion.[[28]]
172. Alcohol and the Gastric Juice. But still another destructive influence upon digestion appears in the singular fact that alcohol diminishes the power of the gastric juice to do its proper work. Alcohol coagulates the pepsin, which is the dissolving element in this important gastric fluid. A very simple experiment will prove this. Obtain a small quantity of gastric juice from the fresh stomach of a calf or pig, by gently pressing it in a very little water. Pour the milky juice into a clear glass vessel, add a little alcohol, and a white deposit will presently settle to the bottom. This deposit contains the pepsin of the gastric juice, the potent element by which it does its special work of digestion. The ill effect of alcohol upon it is one of the prime factors in the long series of evil results from the use of intoxicants.
173. The Final Results upon Digestion. We have thus explained three different methods by which alcoholic drinks exercise a terrible power for harm; they act upon the food so as to render it less digestible; they injure the stomach so as seriously to impair its power of digestion; and they deprive the gastric juice of the one principal ingredient essential to its usefulness.
Alcoholic drinks forced upon the stomach are a foreign substance; the stomach treats them as such, and refuses to go on with the process of digestion till it first gets rid of the poison. This irritating presence and delay weaken the stomach, so that when proper food follows, the enfeebled organ is ill prepared for its work. After intoxication, there occurs an obvious reaction of the stomach, and digestive organs, against the violent and unnatural disturbance. The appetite is extinguished or depraved, and intense headache racks the frame, the whole system is prostrated, as from a partial paralysis (all these results being the voice of Nature’s sharp warning of this great wrong), and a rest of some days is needed before the system fully recovers from the injury inflicted.
It is altogether an error to suppose the use of intoxicants is necessary or even desirable to promote appetite or digestion. In health, good food and a stomach undisturbed by artificial interference furnish all the conditions required. More than these is harmful. If it may sometimes seem as if alcoholic drinks arouse the appetite and invigorate digestion, we must not shut our eyes to the fact that this is only a seeming, and that their continued use will inevitably ruin both. In brief, there is no more sure foe to good appetite and normal digestion than the habitual use of alcoholic liquors.
174. Effect of Alcoholic Drinks upon the Liver. It is to be noted that the circulation of the liver is peculiar; that the capillaries of the hepatic artery unite in the lobule with those of the portal vein, and thus the blood from both sources is combined; and that the portal vein brings to the liver the blood from the stomach, the intestines, and the spleen. From the fact that alcohol absorbed from the stomach enters the portal vein, and is borne directly to the liver, we would expect to find this organ suffering the full effects of its presence. And all the more would this be true, because we have just learned that the liver acts as a sort of filter to strain from the blood its impurities. So the liver is especially liable to diseases produced by alcoholics. Post mortems of those who have died while intoxicated show a larger amount of alcohol in the liver than in any other organ. Next to the stomach the liver is an early and late sufferer, and this is especially the case with hard drinkers, and even more moderate drinkers in hot climates. Yellow fever occurring in inebriates is always fatal.
The effects produced in the liver are not so much functional as organic; that is, not merely a disturbed mode of action, but a destruction of the fabric of the organ itself. From the use of intoxicants, the liver becomes at first irritated, then inflamed, and finally seriously diseased. The fine bands, or septa, which serve as partitions between the hepatic lobules, and so maintain the form and consistency of the organ, are the special subjects of the inflammation. Though the liver is at first enlarged, it soon becomes contracted; the secreting cells are compressed, and are quite unable to perform their proper work, which indeed is a very important one in the round of the digestion of food and the purification of the blood. This contraction of the septa in time gives the whole organ an irregularly puckered appearance, called from this fact a hob-nail liver or, popularly, gin liver. The yellowish discoloration, usually from retained or perverted bile, gives the disease the medical name of cirrhosis.[[29]] It is usually accompanied with dropsy in the lower extremities, caused by obstruction to the return of the circulation from the parts below the liver. This disease is always fatal.
175. Fatty Degeneration Due to Alcohol. Another form of destructive disease often occurs. There is an increase of fat globules deposited in the liver, causing notable enlargement and destroying its function. This is called fatty degeneration, and is not limited to the liver, but other organs are likely to be similarly affected. In truth, this deposition of fat is a most significant occurrence, as it means actual destruction of the liver tissues,—nothing less than progressive death of the organ. This condition always leads to a fatal issue. Still other forms of alcoholic disease of the liver are produced, one being the excessive formation of sugar, constituting what is known as a form of diabetes.
176. Effect of Tobacco on Digestion. The noxious influence of tobacco upon the process of digestion is nearly parallel to the effects of alcohol, which it resembles in its irritant and narcotic character. Locally, it stimulates the secretion of saliva to an unnatural extent, and this excess of secretion diminishes the amount available for normal digestion.
Tobacco also poisons the saliva furnished for the digestion of food, and thus at the very outset impairs, in both of these particulars, the general digestion, and especially the digestion of the starchy portions of the food. For this reason the amount of food taken, fails to nourish as it should, and either more food must be taken, or the body becomes gradually impoverished.
The poisonous nicotine, the active element of tobacco, exerts a destructive influence upon the stomach digestion, enfeebling the vigor of the muscular walls of that organ. These effects combined produce dyspepsia, with its weary train of baneful results. The tobacco tongue never presents the natural, clear, pink color, but rather a dirty yellow, and is usually heavily coated, showing a disordered stomach and impaired digestion. Then, too, there is dryness of the mouth, an unnatural thirst that demands drink. But pure water is stale and flat to such a mouth: something more emphatic is needed. Thus comes the unnatural craving for alcoholic liquors, and thus are taken the first steps on the downward grade.
“There is no doubt that tobacco predisposes to neuralgia, vertigo, indigestion, and other affections of the nervous, circulatory and digestive organs.”—W. H. Hammond, the eminent surgeon of New York city and formerly Surgeon General, U.S.A.
Drs. Seaver of Yale University and Hitchcock of Amherst College, instructors of physical education in these two colleges, have clearly demonstrated by personal examination and recorded statistics that the use of tobacco among college students checks growth in weight, height, chest-girth, and, most of all, in lung capacity.