Drugs, Stimulants, and Narcotics
With the origin and the use of drugs in the treatment of dis-ease, most people are familiar. The purpose of this lesson, however, is to give brief but accurate information concerning the various chemical elements and compounds termed drugs or medicines.
Many of the medicines in common use are neutral, having no 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
The following table gives the percentage of alcohol contained in a few patent medicines, previous to the popular exposé of the subject. (I do not vouch for the accuracy of this table at the present time, as the manufacturers under the pressure of public opinion may have changed their formulas):
| Peruna | 28% |
| Hostetter's Bitters | 44% |
| Lydia Pinkham's Compound | 20% |
| Hood's Sarsaparilla | 18% |
| Ayer's Sarsaparilla | 26% |
| Paine's Celery Compound | 21% |
Within the past few years these facts have been made public, resulting in a heavy decline in the sale of these concoctions. The number of good temperance people who have been innocently under the influence of alcohol for a goodly portion of their days can only be vaguely estimated.
CHLOROFORM, ETHER, AND CHLORAL
Uses of chloroform, ether and chloral
These drugs are chemically related to alcohol, and are typical anesthetics, which mean that they produce temporary relief from pain when the vapors are inhaled. They are chiefly used in surgical operations, which is justified providing the operation is justified. One death in three thousand occurs from the administration of chloroform, and one in thirteen thousand from the administration of ether. These products have been used to some extent in patent medicines, particularly in consumptive cures, where they have been given with the idea of relieving the cough.
POISONOUS MINERAL SALTS AND ACIDS
The mineral acids and salts of certain metals, especially of mercury, lead, and copper, are powerful poisons. Patent medicines are frequently labeled "Pure vegetable compounds." This statement may be true, but it is deceptive because they are equally as poisonous as the coal-tar products which have become so popular. They are life-destroying in their final effects upon the human body.
MERCURY
Uses of mercury and mercurial salts
The metal mercury or quicksilver is used very extensively as a medicine, chiefly in compounds of mercurial salts. All salts of mercury are extremely poisonous. Calomel (mercuric chlorid) is a standard allopathic medicine. Mercuric bichlorid or corrosive sublimate is more destructive to protoplasm, and is used as a germicide or disinfectant. The poisonous action of mercurial salts is probably due to the combination of mercury with the protoplasm of the body-cells. When mercurial compounds are taken in poisonous doses, the antidote is the white of egg with which the mercury combines in the stomach, thus sparing the human protoplasm. The mercurial salts, when given in small doses, produce very remarkable physiological disturbances, sometimes even loosening of teeth. Because of their violent physiological action, these drugs are generally to be condemned.
POTASSIUM IODID
Potassium iodid has a very destructive effect upon the natural functions of the body, and for this reason it has been associated with mercury in the treatment of syphilis, the usual method being to alternate between potassium iodid and mercurial salts.
LEAD AND COPPER
The salts of lead and copper, like those of mercury, are poisonous. However, these salts are not extensively used in medicines. The mineral acids, such as sulfuric, are recognized poisons, but their destructive effects upon the living tissue are so apparent and so painful that they have never gained favor with physicians.
PURGATIVES AND CATHARTICS
Effects of salts
The popular term "salts" includes sodium sulfate (Glauber's salt), and magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts). These salts cause a large amount of watery mucus to be excreted from the mucous membrane of the intestines, the physiological purpose of which is to wash the offending substances from the body, thus producing a laxative effect. Were the large doses usually taken of these salts absorbed into the blood, death would ensue within a few hours.
The number of products that are used for the purpose of relieving constipation is almost unlimited. Many poisons which react directly upon the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal have a laxative effect.
Why laxatives cause loss of vitality
Laxative drugs do not act on the body—the body acts on the drug because it abhors a poison, and, in throwing out the drug, the food residues of the digestive tract are also thrown out, regardless of whether digestion is complete or not. The rapid loss of vitality and weight while taking physic is caused by this fact.
Object of this lesson
In this lesson I have examined only a few of the many thousand drugs in general use. I have omitted many drugs and compounds whose properties and uses would form interesting information, but the purpose of this book is to impart a knowledge of foods, not a knowledge of drugs. This lesson, however, is for the purpose of giving the reader some authentic information about the standard drugs and medicines, so that he may form his own conclusions in regard to the efficacy of drugs in curing dis-ease. If the reader will secure at a public library a copy of the "National Standard Dispensatory," the book used by practising druggists, and scan through its two thousand pages, he can form some idea of the limitless number of things, and the complex, uncertain, and unscientific methods used in the prescribing and in the dispensing of drugs.