The Project Gutenberg eBook, Applied Physiology, by Frank Overton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Applied Physiology Including the Effects of Alcohol and Narcotics Author: Frank Overton Release Date: May 4, 2010 [eBook #32251] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY*** E-text prepared by Larry B. Harrison and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY INCLUDING THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL AND NARCOTICS BY FRANK OVERTON, A.M., M.D. LATE HOUSE SURGEON TO THE CITY HOSPITAL, NEW YORK PRIMARY GRADE NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY Copyright, 1898, 1910, by FRANK OVERTON OV. PHYSIOL. (PRIM.) E-P 42 PREFACE This primary text-book of applied physiology follows a natural order of treatment. In each subject elementary anatomical facts are presented in a manner which impresses function rather than form, and from the form described derives the function. The facts and principles are then applied to everyday life. Anatomy and pure physiology make clear and fix hygienic points, while applied physiology lends interest to the otherwise dry facts of physiology and anatomy. From the great range of the science there are included only those subjects which are directly concerned in the growth and development of children. The value of a primary book depends largely upon the language used. In bringing the truths within the comprehension of children, the author has made sparing use of the complex sentence. He has made the sentences short and simple in form, and logical in arrangement. A child grasps new ideas mainly as they appeal directly to the senses. For this reason, physiological demonstrations are indispensable. Subjects for demonstrations are not given, because they cannot be performed by the children; but the teacher should make free use of the series given in the author's advanced physiology. Cuts and diagrams are inserted where they are needed to explain the text. They are taken from the author's Applied Physiology, Intermediate Grade. Each was chosen, not for artistic effect, but because of its fitness to illustrate a point. Most of the cuts are adapted for reproduction on the blackboard. The effects of alcohol and other narcotics are treated with special fulness. The subject is given a fair and judicial discussion, and those conclusions are presented which are universally accepted by the medical profession. But while this most important form of intemperance is singled out, it should be remembered that the breaking of any of nature's laws is also a form of intemperance, and that the whole study of applied physiology is to encourage a more healthy and a more noble and self-denying mode of life. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Cells 7 II. Of what Cells are made 10 III. Digestion of Food in the Mouth 13 IV. Digestion of Food in the Stomach 17 V. Foods 23 VI. Tobacco 31 VII. Fermentation 37 VIII. Kinds of Strong Drink 42 IX. The Blood 49 X. Breathing, Heat, and Clothing 59 XI. The Skin and Kidneys 75 XII. The Nerves, Spinal Cord, and Brain 84 XIII. The Senses 100 XIV. Bones and Joints 109 XV. Muscles 115 [Pg 3] [Pg 4] [Pg 5] Human cells Cells from the human body (×200). a A colored cell from the eye. b A white blood cell. c A connective tissue cell. d A cell from the lining of the mouth. e Liver cells. f A muscle cell from the intestine. XVI. Disease Germs 123 XVII. Preventing Sickness 132 Index 139 APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY CHAPTER I CELLS Our body is made of many parts. Its head thinks. Its legs carry it, and its arms and hands take hold of things. The leg cannot do the work of the arm, nor the head do the work of the hand; but each part does only its own work. 1. The simplest animal.—Some animals have parts like a man's; but these parts are fewer. No animal has arms or hands like a man. A fish has little fins in place of legs and arms, while a worm has not even a head, but only a body, and yet it moves. An oyster has only a body and cannot move. The simplest of all animals is very small. A thousand of them would not reach an inch. Yet each is a complete animal. It is called the ameba. It is only a lump of jelly. It can put out any part of its body like an arm and take a lump of food. This same arm can eat the food, too. It can also put out any part of its body like a leg and move by rolling the rest of its body into the leg. It can do some things better than a man can do them, for any part of its body can do all kinds of work. So the ameba grows and moves and does as it likes. Ameba Different forms of an ameba (×400). 2. Cells.—A man's finger moves and grows something like a separate animal, but it must keep with the rest of the body. A little piece of a finger moves and grows, too. If you should look at a finger, or any other part of your body, through a microscope, you would see that it is composed of little lumps of jelly. Each little lump looks like an ameba. We call each lump a cell. The cells make up the finger. 3. What cells do.—Each cell acts much as an ameba does. From the blood it gets food and air and takes them in through any part of its body. It also grows and moves. But the cells are not free to do as they wish, for they are all tied together in armies by very fine strings. We call these strings connective tissue. One army of cells makes the skin, and other armies make the bones and flesh. Some armies make the fingers, and some the legs. Every part of our body is made up of armies of separate cells. 4. The mind.—The body is a home for the mind. The cells obey the mind. The mind pays the cells by feeding them and taking good care of them. When an army of cells is hurt, the body feels sick, and then the mind tells the whole body to rest until the cells are well again. When we study about a man's body, we learn about the separate cells in his body. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. Our body is made up of many small parts. 2. The smallest parts are each like a little animal, and are called cells. 3. Each cell eats and grows. 4. One army of cells makes a finger and another a leg, and so on through the body. 5. The mind lives in the body. 6. The mind takes care of the cells. [Pg 7] [Pg 8] [Pg 9] Tissue Fat tissue (×100). The liquid fat is stored in living pockets. Grains Starch grains (×400). a, of potato. b, of corn. CHAPTER II OF WHAT CELLS ARE MADE The cells of our body are made of five common things. You would know all these things if you should see them. 5. Water.—The first thing in the cells is water. Water is everywhere in the body. Even the teeth have water. Most of our flesh is water. Without water we should soon shrink up. Our flesh would be stiff like bone and no one could live. Items, cells made of The body is made of these five things. 6. Albumin.—Second, next to water, something like the white of an egg makes the most of the body. The white of an egg is albumin. When dried it is like gelatine or glue. Albumin makes the most of the solid part of each cell. Lean meat and cheese are nearly all albumin. When it is heated it becomes harder and turns white. The word albumin means white. Dry albumin is hard and tough, but in the living cells it is dissolved in water and is soft like meat. It is the only living substance in the body, and it alone gives it strength. 7. Fat.—Third, next to albumin, the most of the body is fat. Fat does not grow inside the cells of the body, but it fills little pockets between the cells. Fat does not give strength. It makes the body round and handsome. It also makes the cells warm and keeps them from getting hurt. 8. Sugar.—Fourth, sugar also is found in the body. Sugar is made out of starch. When we eat starch it changes to sugar. Starch and sugar are much alike. We eat a great deal of starch and sugar, but they are soon used in warming the body. Only a little is in the body at once. 9. Minerals.—Fifth, there are also some minerals in the body. When flesh is burned they are left as ashes. Salt, lime, iron, soda, and potash are all found in the body. Everything in the body is either water, albumin, fat, sugar, or minerals. These things are also our food. We eat them mixed together in bread, meat, eggs, milk, and other foods. 10. Life.—Our food is not alive, but after we eat it the body makes it alive. We do not know how it does it. When the body dies we cannot put life into it again. There is life in each cell. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. The body is made of five things: water, albumin, fat, sugar, and minerals. 2. Water is mixed with all parts of the body. 3. Albumin makes the living part of each cell. 4. Fat is in pockets between the cells. It warms the cells and keeps them from being hurt. 5. Sugar is made from starch. It warms the body. 6. The minerals in the body are salt, lime, iron, soda, and potash. [Pg 10] [Pg 11] [Pg 12] [Pg 13] View of a bird Digestive organs of a bird. a esophagus or swallowing tube. b crop or bag for carrying food. c stomach. d intestine. e gizzard or food grinder. CHAPTER III DIGESTION OF FOOD IN THE MOUTH 11. Food of the cells.—All the cells of the body work and wear out. They must eat and keep growing. The food of the cells is the blood. Water, albumin, fat, sugar, and minerals are in the blood. The cells eat these things and grow. All food must be one or more of these five things. Before they reach the blood, they must all be changed to a liquid. A few cells of the body are set aside to do this work of changing them. Changing food into blood is digestion. 12. Cooking.—Cooking begins digestion. It softens and dissolves food. It makes food taste better. Most food is unfit for use until it is cooked. Poor cooking often makes food still worse for use. Food should always be soft and taste good after cooking. Softening food by cooking saves the mouth and stomach a great deal of work. The good taste of the food makes it pleasant for them to digest it. We must cut our food into small pieces before we eat it. If we eat only a small piece at a time we shall not eat too fast. If we cut our food fine we can find any bones and other hard things, and can keep them from getting inside the body. 13. Chewing.—Digestion goes on in the mouth. The mouth does three things to food. First, it mixes and grinds it between the teeth. Second, it pours water over the food through fine tubes. The water of the mouth is called the saliva. The saliva makes the food a thin paste. Third, the saliva changes some of the starch to sugar. Starch must be all changed to sugar before it can feed the cells. 14. Too fast eating.—Some boys fill their mouths with food. Then they cannot chew their food and cannot mix saliva with it. They swallow their food whole, and then their stomachs have to grind it. The saliva cannot mix with the food and so it is too dry in the stomach. Then their stomachs ache, and they are sick. Eating too fast and too much makes children sick oftener than anything else. Birds swallow their food whole, for they have no teeth. Instead, a strong gizzard inside grinds the food. We have no gizzards, and so we must grind our food with our teeth. 15. Teeth.—We have two kinds of teeth. The front teeth are sharp and cut the food; the back teeth are flat and rough and grind it. If you bite nuts or other hard things you may break off a little piece of a tooth. Then the tooth may decay and ache. After you eat, some food will sometimes stick to the teeth. Then it may decay and make your breath smell bad. After each meal always pick the teeth with a wooden toothpick. Your teeth will also get dirty and become stained unless you clean them. Always brush your teeth with water every morning. This will also keep them from decaying. 16. Swallowing.—When food has been chewed and mixed with saliva until it is a paste, it is ready to be swallowed. The tongue pushes the food into a bag just back of the mouth. We call the bag the pharynx. Then the pharynx squeezes it down a long tube and into the stomach. The nose and windpipe also open into this bag, but both are closed by little doors while we swallow. We cannot breathe while we swallow. If the doors are not shut tightly, some food gets into the windpipe and chokes us. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. We eat to feed the cells of the body. 2. All food must be made into blood. 3. Changing food to blood is digestion. 4. Cooking softens food and makes it taste good. 5. Food is ground fine in the mouth, and mixed with saliva to form a paste. Some of its starch is changed to sugar. 6. If food is only half chewed the stomach has to grind it. 7. When we swallow, the tongue pushes the food into a bag back of the mouth and the bag squeezes it down a long tube to the stomach. [Pg 13] [Pg 14] [Pg 15] [Pg 16] Stomach glands Gastric glands in the stomach (×200). The cells a and b, form the juice. The fibers c, bind the tubes in place. CHAPTER IV DIGESTION IN THE STOMACH 17. The stomach.—When food is swallowed it goes to the stomach. The stomach is a thin bag. In a man it holds about three pints. Like the mouth, it does three things to the food. First, the stomach gently stirs and mixes the food. Second, it pours a fluid over the food. This fluid is called the gastric juice. The gastric juice is sour and bitter. Third, the gastric juice changes some of the albumin of food to a liquid form. If the mouth has done its work well, the stomach does its work easily and we do not know it. But if the mouth has eaten food too fast and has not chewed it well, then the stomach must do the work of the mouth too. In that case it gets tired and aches. 18. The intestine.—The food stays in the stomach only a little while. All the time a little keeps trickling into a long coil of tube. This tube is called the intestine or the bowels. Three or four hours after a hearty meal the stomach is empty. Some of the food has been changed to a liquid, but most of it has only been ground to smaller pieces, and mixed with a great deal of water. Now it all must be changed to a liquid. 19. What the intestine does.—Like the mouth and stomach, the intestine does three things. First, it mixes the food and makes it pass down the tube. Second, two sets of cells behind the stomach make two liquids and pour them into the intestine. One set of cells is the sweetbread, or pancreas, and its liquid is the pancreatic juice. The other is the liver and its fluid is the bile. Third, the pancreatic juice makes three changes in food. First, like the mouth, it changes starch to sugar. Second, like the stomach, it makes albumin a liquid. Third, it divides fat into fine drops. These drops then mix with water and do not float on its top. 20. Bile.—The bile is yellow and bitter. It helps the pancreatic juice do its work. It also helps to keep the inside of the intestine clean. 21. Digestion of water and minerals.—Water and the mineral parts of food do not need to be changed at all, but can become part of the blood just as they are. Seeds and husks and tough strings of flesh all pass the length of the intestine and are not changed. 22. How food gets into the blood.—By the time food is half way down the intestine it is mostly liquid and ready to become part of the blood. This liquid soaks through the sides of the intestine and into the blood tubes. At last the food reaches the end of the intestine. Most of its liquid has then soaked into the blood tubes and only some solid waste is left. 23. Work of the liver.—The food is now in the blood, but has not become a part of it. It is carried to the liver. There the liver changes the food to good blood, and then the blood hurries on and feeds the cells of the body. Spoiled food may be swallowed and taken into the blood with the good food. The liver takes out the poisons and sends them back again with the bile. The liver keeps us from getting poisoned. 24. Bad food.—Sometimes the stomach and intestine cannot digest the food. They cannot digest green apples, but they try hard to do so. They stir the apples faster and faster until there is a great pain. Sometimes the stomach throws up the food and then the pain and sickness stop. Spoiled food makes us sick in the same way. 25. Too fast eating.—When the food stays too long in the stomach or intestine it sours, or decays, just as it does outside of the body. This makes us very sick. When we eat too much, or when we do not chew the food to small pieces, the stomach may be a long time in digesting the food. Then it may become sour and make us sick. 26. Biliousness.—When the food is poor or becomes sour, it is poorly digested. Then the liver has more work to do, and does not change the food to blood as it should. It also lets some of the sour poisons pass by it. These poison the whole body and make the head ache. We call this biliousness. The tongue is then covered with a white or yellow coat and the mouth tastes bad. These are signs of sickness. The stomach and liver are out of order. 27. Rules for eating.—If we eat as we should, our stomach will digest its food. We must follow three rules. First, we must chew the food in the mouth until all the lumps are fine. Then the food will be ready for the stomach. Second, we must eat slowly. If we eat fast we cannot chew the food well. The stomach cannot take care of food if it [Pg 17] [Pg 18] [Pg 19] [Pg 20] [Pg 21] comes too fast. We must swallow all of one mouthful before we put another into the mouth. Third, we must eat only at meal times. The stomach needs a rest. Even a little candy, or apples, or nuts will keep the stomach at work, and tire it out. A child needs to eat more often than his father. So, besides his meals, he should have something to eat in the middle of the morning and some more in the afternoon. But he should not be eating at all hours. He ought not to eat little bits just before dinner, for that spoils his meal. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. The stomach and intestine stir and rub the food, and mix it with juices. 2. The juices change albumin to a liquid, and starch to sugar. They also change fat to the form of tiny drops. 3. The digested food soaks through the sides of the intestine into the blood tubes. 4. The blood carries the food to the liver. 5. The liver changes food to blood. 6. Blood goes to all parts of the body and feeds the cells. 7. The liver keeps poisons from getting into the blood. 8. Water and minerals become a part of the blood without being digested. 9. When food is not well digested, the liver cannot make it into good blood. This makes us bilious. 10. If food is not soon digested it sours and decays. This makes us sick. 11. We can make food digest quickly by chewing it well and eating slowly. CHAPTER V FOODS 28. Kinds of food.—The cells of the body need water, albumin, fat, sugar, and minerals for food. We sometimes eat sugar alone, and we drink pure water. But most of our food is a mixture of all five kinds of food. Food comes from animals and plants. 29. Milk.—Milk is the best food known. It contains just enough water, albumin, fat, sugar, and minerals. Babies and young mammals live on milk alone. A man can live upon four quarts of milk a day. In sickness, milk is the very best food for men, as well as for babies. The albumin of milk becomes hard when the milk sours. This makes cheese. The fat of milk rises to the top. We call it cream. When cream is churned, the pure fat comes together in a lump. Pure fat of milk is called butter. Cheese and butter are both good foods. 30. Eggs.—Eggs are also good food. The white of an egg is almost pure albumin. The yolk is albumin and fat. Eggs have no starch or sugar. They are not a perfect food, for some sugar must be eaten. But they can be quickly digested and they produce a great deal of strength. 31. Meat.—Meat contains albumin and fat, but no sugar. Fish, oysters, and clams are like meat. They all make good food. Boys and girls should eat milk, eggs, and meat. These foods are the best to give strength to the body. Nearly all food from animals is more quickly digested and gives more strength than food from plants. 32. Bread.—White bread is a food made from wheat. The wheat is ground to flour. Flour is mixed with water, and yeast is added. The yeast makes a gas, and the gas puffs up the wet flour and makes it full of holes. The holes make the bread light. Then bread is baked. Rye or corn meal makes good bread. Cake, biscuit, and pancakes are much like bread. Sometimes in place of yeast, baking powder is used to make the bread or cake light. 33. Meal.—Oatmeal, corn meal, and cracked wheat and rice are sometimes boiled, and eaten with milk. Bread, biscuit, oatmeal, and corn meal are made from grain. All are very much alike. The cooking makes them look and taste different, but yet they are nearly the same. 34. Why we need grain food.—All kinds of grain have much albumin, but only a little fat. But all have a great deal of starch. By digestion the starch becomes sugar. Grain is a good food because it has starch or sugar. Animal foods have [Pg 22] [Pg 23] [Pg 24] [Pg 25] no sugar, so we eat grain food with them. The two together make the most nourishing food. Potatoes have a great deal of starch and only a little albumin. They also are good food with meat. Healthy foods A healthy man needs as much food as this every day. A person cannot live well upon plant food alone, for it has too much starch and sugar, and too little albumin and fat. We need nearly equal parts of albumin, fat, and sugar. A mixture of bread, meat, eggs, vegetables, and milk makes the best food. 35. Fruit.—Fruit, like apples, peaches, and plums all have sugar. They taste good, and give us an appetite for other kinds of food. They have little albumin or fat. 36. Salt.—There is enough mineral matter in all food, and we do not have to eat iron or lime or soda. But we do need some more salt. Even animals need salt. Salt makes food taste good, and helps its digestion. Unhealthy well People are made sick by drinking water from such a well. 37. Water.—Water is also a food, for it forms the most of our bodies. All food has water. Even dry crackers contain it. 38. Pure water.—Water in a well runs through the dirty earth, and yet is clear and pure. This is because sand holds back the dirt. But sometimes slops from the house, and water from the barn yard, soak through the soil until the sand is full. Then the well water will be dirty and poisonous. People are often made sick by drinking such water. In cities the dirt fills all the soil and spoils the water. So the water must be brought from the country in large pipes. Water in lead pipes takes up some of the lead. Lead is a poison. You should let the water run off from a pipe a little while before you use it. Good water is clear and has no smell or taste. Dirty or yellow water, or water with a taste or smell, is not fit for use. 39. Tea and coffee.—Tea and coffee are steeped in water and used as a drink. The drink is the water. The tea and coffee are neither food nor drink. They cause the cells of the body to do more work, and at the same time they take away the feeling of being tired. They do not give strength to the body, but are like a whip and make the body work harder. [Pg 26] [Pg 27] 40. The appetite.—When we have so many kinds of food, what kind is best for us? The taste of food tells us the kind of food to eat. Bread and meat, and such plain foods, always taste good, and we never get tired of them. Sugar tastes good until we get enough. Any more makes us sick. More than enough sugar or starch is found in bread and potatoes. Intemperance One kind of intemperance. If we can eat food day after day, without getting tired of it, the food is good for us. If we get tired of its taste, either the food is not good for us or we are eating too much. Bad tasting or bad smelling food is always dangerous. We can tell how much food to eat by our hunger or appetite. We can always feel when we have enough. Then is the time to stop. Sometimes we eat plain bread and meat until we have enough, and then sweet cake or pie is brought in. Then we have a false appetite for sweet things. If the sweet things had not made a false hunger, we should have had enough to eat. But the false appetite makes us want more, and so we eat too much, and sometimes get sick from it. 41. Intemperance.—Eating for the sake of a false appetite is intemperance. Drinking strong drink for the sake of its taste is a common form of intemperance. But eating too much preserves, pie, and candy is intemperance too, and can do a great deal of harm. A little pie, or pudding, or candy, is good, because we can eat our sugar as well that way as in bread. But we should eat only a little. 42. Food and Diseases.—If our food is dirty or is handled with dirty hands, or is put into dirty dishes, there may be disease germs in it. Our food should always be clean, and we should have our hands clean when we handle it or eat it. Storekeepers sometimes keep fruit and vegetables out of doors where street dust may blow upon it. This dust is often full of disease germs. Flies may also bring disease germs to the food. If food is kept where dust and flies can get at it, we ought not to buy it. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. Food is a mixture of water, albumin, fat, starch or sugar, and minerals. 2. Animal foods, like milk, eggs, and meat, have albumin and fat in the best form. 3. Plant food has albumin and fat, but it has very much starch or sugar. So, taken together with animal food, it makes a complete food. 4. Lime, iron, soda, and salt are found in all foods, but we must add a little more salt to food. 5. Water is found in all food, but we must drink some besides. 6. Dirty water, or water with a taste or smell, is not fit for use. 7. Taste tells us what kind of food to use. 8. Hunger, or the appetite, tells us how much food to use. 9. There can be a false hunger for sweet things. This may lead us to eat too much. [Pg 28] [Pg 29] [Pg 30] 10. Eating too much of sweet things is one form of intemperance. CHAPTER VI TOBACCO 43. Harmful eating.—Men often eat for the fun of eating, and sometimes they eat harmful things. They chew tobacco and drink strong drinks, because they like their taste, just as a child eats candy. 44. Tobacco.—Men have always drunk strong drink. Within the last four hundred years, men have learned another way to please a wrong taste. When Columbus discovered America, the Indians were using tobacco. They taught the Spaniards how to smoke it, and since then almost the whole world has used it. Tobacco is the leaf of a tall plant. It needs a better soil than any other crop. It takes the richness from the ground, and spoils it for other crops. 45. Nicotine.—About 1/30 of each tobacco leaf is a strong poison. This poison is called nicotine. A drop or two of it, or as much of it as is in a strong cigar, will kill a man. It gives the tobacco its smell and taste. Men use tobacco for the sake of a poison. 46. Why men use tobacco.—Men give queer reasons for using tobacco. One smokes for its company, another because he is with company. One smokes to make his brain think better, and another to keep himself from thinking. Some use tobacco to help digest their food, and others use it to keep themselves from eating so much. Boys smoke to make themselves look like men. The real reason for using tobacco is that men learn to like its taste, and do not care if it harms them. 47. Spitting.—Tobacco in any form makes the saliva flow. Men do not dare swallow it, for it makes them sick. So they spit it out. No one likes to see this. It is a dirty and filthy habit. Besides, the saliva is lost, and cannot help digest food. Tobacco stains the teeth brown. You can always tell a tobacco chewer by his teeth. His breath will smell of tobacco, and even his clothes are offensive to the nose. 48. Tobacco lessens strength.—Tobacco always makes a person sick at the stomach, at first. After a while, he becomes used to it, and an ordinary chew or smoke does not make him sick. But a large chew or smoke will always make him sick again. When a person is sick from tobacco he is very weak. Even if he is not sick, the tobacco poisons his muscles and makes his strength less. When a man trains for a hard race he never uses tobacco. 49. Tobacco hinders digestion.—Tobacco and its smoke both have a burning taste. This makes the throat sore, and causes a cough. Tobacco does not help the stomach to digest food. Smokers and chewers often have headaches and coated tongues. These are signs of a poor digestion. 50. Effect upon the young.—Tobacco is more harmful to boys than to men. If boys smoke they cannot run fast or long. They cannot work hard with their brains or hands. They do not grow fast, and are liable to have weak hearts. 51. Tobacco harms others.—Many persons do not like the smell of tobacco, and no one likes the spit. No one should use it in the presence of others. The tobacco user's pleasure should not spoil the comfort and happiness of others. 52. Snuff.—Powdered tobacco is called snuff. Snuff causes sneezing. No one should harm the nose and the whole body for the pleasure of a sneeze. Years ago snuff was used much more than it is now. 53. Chewing.—Chewing tobacco is the most poisonous way of using it, for it keeps most of the nicotine in the mouth. Chewing will make any one very sick, unless he spits out all the saliva. 54. Smoking.—Men smoke pipes, cigars, and cigarettes. The smoke has nicotine, and is poisonous. Pipe stems get dirty and full of nicotine. After a while they smell bad and are very poisonous. An old smoker's pipe will make a young smoker sick. 55. Cigarettes.—Cigars are not so poisonous as a pipe, for more of the nicotine is burned up. Cigarettes are often made of weak tobacco. A cigarette does not contain so much tobacco as a cigar. Hence a cigarette does not cost much. It can be smoked in a hurry. It does not make a boy so sick as cigars do. Boys and men use a great many cigarettes where they would not touch a cigar. This makes the use of cigarettes the most dangerous form of smoking. Selling cigarettes to young boys is forbidden by law. 56. Habit.—When men have used tobacco for some time, they like it and feel bad without it. So they get into the habit of using it, and find it hard to stop. The tobacco seems to help them, but it does not do so. It cheats men, and they do [Pg 31] [Pg 32] [Pg 33] [Pg 34] Fermentation Fermentation in a jar of cherries. not know it. 57. Chewing gum.—Chewing gum is made from pitch or paraffin, for these substances will not dissolve in the mouth. The gum is flavored with sugar and spices. The gum and its flavors are not harmful in themselves, and yet chewing them is harmful. Chewing makes a great deal of saliva flow. All this saliva is wasted, and when we eat our meals we may have too little. Then our food will not digest well, but we shall have dyspepsia and headaches. By pulling and handling the gum while chewing it, you may get some poisonous dirt into your mouth, and make yourself very sick. Even if your gum should not harm you, there is a good reason for letting it alone. When you are chewing gum, you look as if you were chewing tobacco. No one likes to see a boy or girl even appearing to chew tobacco. If you form a habit of chewing gum you will be more likely to chew tobacco when you are grown. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. Men use tobacco for the sake of its nicotine. Nicotine is a very strong poison. 2. Tobacco causes a man to waste his saliva. 3. Tobacco makes the mouth dry. 4. Tobacco hinders digestion. 5. Tobacco stains the teeth, and makes the breath smell bad. 6. Tobacco makes a person sick at the stomach. 7. Tobacco weakens the muscles. 8. Tobacco is more harmful to the young than to grown persons. 9. Chewing is the worst form of using tobacco. 10. Smoking cigarettes is the worst form of smoking. CHAPTER VII FERMENTATION 58. Souring of fruit.—When a little fruit is set away in a warm place for a day or two it sours or ferments. Anything sweet will do the same thing. Little bubbles rise up through the juice and a foam comes on top. Then the juice has a sharp taste or is sour. Canned and preserved fruit becomes sour soon after the jar is opened, and cider soon turns to vinegar. All fruit juice does this even in cold weather. But in cold weather it keeps for a longer time. 59. Preserving fruit.—If your mother wishes to keep fruit all winter she boils it and at once puts it into tight jars. This shuts out the air and then the fruit keeps good all winter. Boiling kills all living things, and no more can get in through the tight jars. Does a living thing have anything to do with making the fruit juice turn sour? 60. Yeast.—Yeast will make all sweet things ferment. Bakers make yeast grow in bread sponge. Yeast is alive. It is made of millions of tiny round cells. New cells sprout out from the side of the old cells like young lilies on an old lily bulb. Soon each new cell breaks off and lives all by itself. In a single night enough new cells will form to fill the whole loaf of bread. 61. How yeast makes alcohol.—Yeast will grow only where sugar is. When it has grown for some time there is no more sugar, and instead of a sweet taste there is a sharp or sour taste. The yeast has changed the sugar to alcohol. All alcohol is made from sugar by yeast. The seeds of the yeast plant are everywhere in the air. Some are on the skins of fruit and so are found in the juice when it is squeezed out. There they begin to grow at once and soon change the sugar to alcohol. They do this by taking a gas away from the sugar. The gas rises in little bubbles, and makes a froth upon the top of the juice. Boiling kills the yeast plant. If the juice is at once put into tight jars no new yeast plants can get in, and so the juice keeps. 62. Vinegar.—Sometimes fruit juice turns sour. The sourness is due to vinegar. Besides yeast, other little living plants fall into the juice and turn the sugar to vinegar. But if there is much alcohol in the juice, the vinegar plants will not grow. [Pg 35] [Pg 36] [Pg 37] [Pg 38] [Pg 39] Yeast Yeast plant cells (×500). Wine 63. Yeast in bread.—Growing yeast plants always make alcohol. They change some of the sugar of bread dough to alcohol and a gas. The gas bubbles through the bread and makes it light. When bread is baked, the heat of the oven drives off the alcohol, and so we do not eat any in bread. 64. Alcohol.—Alcohol is a clear liquid and looks like water. It has a sharp taste and smell. It burns very easily and makes a very hot flame. Its smoke cannot be seen, and its flame will not make anything black, as a match flame will do. 65. Use of alcohol.—Alcohol will dissolve more things than water will dissolve. It is used to dissolve drugs, varnishes, perfumery, and many other things. It will dissolve even oil and fat. Tailors clean grease spots from clothes with it. It takes water away from flesh and makes it dry, hard, and tough. It will keep anything from rotting. In museums we pour alcohol over pieces of flesh or plants in glass jars. Then they will keep and we can look at them at any time. Thus alcohol is a very useful thing, and we could hardly do without it. 66. Strong drink.—Some men use alcohol in a wrong way. They swallow it as a drink. But men cannot drink pure alcohol, for it would burn their mouths. They always drink it mixed with some water. Alcohol in water is called strong drink. 67. Why men use strong drink.—Some men take strong drink to make themselves warm, and some to make themselves cool. Some drink to keep themselves awake, and some to make themselves sleep. Some drink to keep themselves still, and some to make themselves stir around faster. Men use strong drink really because it seems to make them feel strong for a while. It does not make them stronger, but it harms the body and the mind. Its alcohol does the harm. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. Sugar in fruit or in water turns to alcohol or vinegar, and a gas. 2. The change to alcohol is caused by the cells of the yeast plant. 3. The change to vinegar is caused by another small plant. 4. Boiling fruit juice kills the yeast plants and then the juice will keep without change. 5. Alcohol looks like water. It has a sharp and burning taste. 6. Alcohol takes water from flesh and hardens it. 7. Alcohol burns with a great heat and no smoke. 8. Alcohol is used to dissolve things, and to keep things from spoiling. 9. Alcohol in water forms strong drink. CHAPTER VIII KINDS OF STRONG DRINK 68. Wine.—All strong drink is alcohol and water. There may be other things to give it taste, but alcohol and water are always in it. No strong drink is over one half alcohol. In olden times wine was the only strong drink. Men used to crush out the juice of grapes and let it ferment. This made wine. But very often they used the juice before it fermented. Then it had no alcohol and could do no harm, but was a good food. We read of wine in the Bible. Some of it was fresh fruit juice. In wine, the sugar is changed to alcohol. The rest of the juice stays the same. All wine is made by the yeast plant growing in fruit juice. No yeast is put in, for there is always enough on the outside of the fruit. Wine is about one tenth alcohol. 69. Homemade wine.—Cider is a kind of wine. It is made from apple juice. It has alcohol a day or two after it is made. All homemade wines have alcohol. Any of them can make a person drunk. Using weak homemade wine and cider often makes an appetite for stronger drinks. The alcohol in any of them is enough to harm the body. [Pg 40] [Pg 41] [Pg 42] [Pg 43] A glass of wine contains so, much alcohol. Beer A glass of beer contains so much alcohol. Whisky A glass of whisky contains so much alcohol. 70. Beer.—After man had made wine for a long time, some one found out how to cultivate yeast. Then men could make sugar and water ferment whenever they wanted to. So men boiled grain to take out its sugar. Then they poured off the liquor and added yeast and let it ferment. This made beer and ale. Now millions of bushels of grain are used every year in making beer. Men call beer a light drink. But it has alcohol and is a strong drink, and can make men drunk. 71. Root beer.—Some persons boil roots and herbs, and add molasses and yeast. Then the liquid ferments and becomes root beer. They say "it has no alcohol, for we made it." But it does have alcohol, for yeast always makes alcohol. Some ginger ale is made by putting yeast in sweetened ginger water. It has alcohol, too. 72. Distillation.—Boiling water turns to vapor or steam and goes off in the air. When the vapor is cooled, you can see the water again. It often cools on the window and makes little streams of water. You can catch the steam in a tube. If you keep the tube cool, the steam will turn to water in the tube. This process is called distillation. Boiling alcohol also passes off into the air as vapor. When the vapor is cooled, it becomes liquid again. Alcohol boils with less heat than water. When alcohol in water is heated, the alcohol boils first. So the vapor has more alcohol than the water. When the vapor is cooled, the liquid has more alcohol than it had at first. When the liquid is distilled again it has more alcohol yet. Pure alcohol can be made in this way. 73. Whisky.—Distilling wine or strong beer makes whisky and brandy. Whisky is one half alcohol. It is more harmful than wine or beer. 74. Habit.—Some strong drinks have only a little alcohol and some have a great deal. No one begins to drink the strong liquors. He begins with wine or beer. When he has once learned, he has a hard time to stop drinking. It is dangerous to drink even weak drinks. 75. Strong drink and thirst.—When a man is thirsty, water will satisfy him but strong drink will not. Sometimes the mouth is dry and dirty and then a man feels thirsty. Rinsing the mouth with water, and rubbing the tongue and teeth clean will help the dryness and stop the thirst. At any rate, strong drink will only make the mouth dryer. Some men drink only when they are tired. Then a cup of strong and hot tea or coffee will make them feel much better than a glass of strong drink, and will not harm them so much. When strong drink is swallowed, its alcohol takes water from the mouth. When your mouth is dry, you feel thirsty. Strong drink makes the mouth dry, and so a drink makes a man more thirsty. The alcohol also makes the mouth smart. Men need another drink to cool the mouth after the first one. So one drink leads to another. All the while a person drinks water with the alcohol until he has too much water. But his mouth is dry and he feels as thirsty as ever. 76. Effect of alcohol upon the stomach.—When strong drink is swallowed it makes the stomach smart just as it does the mouth. So the stomach feels warm, but it is really no warmer. This harms the stomach and keeps it from working well. Alcohol also keeps the gastric juice from changing albumin to a liquid. Alcohol keeps flesh from decaying in a museum. In the same way it may hinder the digestion of food in the stomach. When alcohol is used for only a short time, the stomach can get well; but if it is used for months and years, the stomach will stay weak. Then the drinker can hardly eat at all. 77. What becomes of alcohol.—In the stomach a great deal of gastric juice is mixed with the alcohol. So it is very weak when it reaches the intestine. Alcohol needs only a little digesting. It soon soaks into the blood from the intestine along with the other food. The blood flows fast and washes the alcohol away as soon as it leaves the intestine. Too little gets into the blood at once to harm it much. Alcohol goes to the liver, and is there destroyed; but it still does great harm. The liver has to attend to the alcohol, and so it does not change the food to good blood, and it does not take all the poisons out of the blood. Then the whole body becomes weak and sick. Alcohol hurts the liver first, and more than other parts of the body. On this account, drinkers often have bilious attacks and stomach troubles. 78. Bitters.—Many medicines are made by dissolving drugs in alcohol. In taking a strong medicine, we use only a few drops, and so do not get much alcohol. Some kinds of medicines must be taken in large doses. Bitters are weak medicines, and must be taken by the tablespoonful. A tablespoonful of the medicine has more alcohol than a large drink of whisky. The bitters seem to make a person feel well, but it is because he is taking a large amount of strong drink. Jamaica Ginger is only common ginger dissolved in alcohol. It, too, is a form of strong drink. [Pg 44] [Pg 45] [Pg 46] [Pg 47] Blood cells Blood corpuscles (×400). a a pile of red blood cells. b red blood cells seen flatwise. c red blood cells seen edgewise. d white blood cells. The heart Diagram of the heart while it is beating. a vein entering the auricle. b auricle. c closed valve to keep blood from flowing back into the auricle. d ventricle. e artery. 79. Strong drink as medicine.—People sometimes keep whisky or brandy in the house to give for colds or other slight forms of sickness. A drink of hot coffee does more good than the strong drink, and has none of its dangers. By using whisky or brandy for medicine, children learn to believe in strong drink, and so they will be likely to use it when they grow up. This reason alone ought to keep any one from giving it to a child. 80. Alcohol in cooking.—In making bread, alcohol is formed in the dough by the yeast. When the bread is baked, all the alcohol is driven off by the heat, and so we do not eat any. Sometimes brandy or wine is put into desserts. If it is put in after the dessert is cooked, we shall get as much alcohol as if we had drunk it. If the liquor is put in before cooking, the heat will drive off the alcohol but the flavor of the liquor will remain. The flavor will do no harm in itself, but people will learn its taste, and from it may learn to like the strong drink itself. The alcohol in bread has no special flavor and does not leave any taste behind. So we cannot learn to like strong drink by eating bread. WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED 1. Fruit juice makes wine or cider. 2. All kinds of wine contain alcohol. 3. When the liquid from boiled grain has fermented, it becomes beer, or ale. 4. By boiling wine or beer, and cooling the vapor, distilled drinks like whisky are made. They are one half alcohol. 5. Water will satisfy a real thirst. Strong drink will not. 6. Alcohol keeps the stomach from digesting food. 7. Alcohol soaks into the blood tubes and goes to the liver. 8. The liver destroys the alcohol, but is hurt in doing it. CHAPTER IX THE BLOOD 81. Blood.—After food becomes blood, it goes to every part of the body to feed the cells. Even a pin prick anywhere in the body draws blood. The blood makes the skin pink. There are five or six quarts of blood in a man's body. This is about 1/13 of his body. Blood looks like a red liquid. But if you look at it through a strong microscope, it looks like water, and millions of little red cells. These cells carry air through the body. They make the blood look red. There are also a smaller number of white cells. Blood is made of red cells, white cells, and a liquid. 82. The liquid in blood.—The liquid part of the blood is albumin, and water, with a little fat, sugar, and minerals. It is food and drink for the cells of the body. When blood is drawn from the body it soon becomes like jelly. We call the jelly a clot. When you cut your finger, a clot forms in the cut and plugs up the bleeding place. If it did not, the blood would all run out of the body and we should die. 83. The heart.—The blood is held in tubes. A pump inside the body keeps it always moving. This pump is called the heart. The heart is a bag of muscle with thick sides. It is about as large as your fist. When it is full, it has the power to make itself smaller, and so it squeezes the blood out through a tube. We can feel each squeeze as a heart-beat. You can find the heart-beat just to the left of the middle of the body about two hand-breadths below the neck. 84. The heart-beat.—A man's heart beats about seventy times each minute. Boys' and girls' hearts beat much faster. Running or hard work of any kind makes the heart beat faster yet. Your heart will keep on beating until you die. It does not seem to rest at all, yet it works only while you feel it beat. Between each beat it rests while the blood is filling it again. So it really rests one half of the time. 85. Arteries.—The heart pumps the blood through a single tube. This tube opens [Pg 48] [Pg 49] [Pg 50] [Pg 51] f valve to keep blood from returning to the ventricle. Capillaries Arrangement of capillaries. a smallest artery. b smallest vein. c network of capillaries. Bacteria Bacteria growing in a kidney and producing an abscess (×300). a kidney tube. b white blood cell attacking bacteria. c bacteria. d blood vessel of the kidney. into smaller tubes. These open into still smaller ones. You must use a strong microscope to see the finest blood tubes. The tubes reach every part of the body, and carry blood to its cells. They are called arteries. At each heart-beat a wave of blood can be felt in an artery. This wave is the pulse. It can be felt in the wrist, temples, and other places. By the pulse we can tell how often and how strongly the heart is beating. 86. Capillaries.—The smallest arteries divide into a fine network of small tubes. These tubes are the capillaries. They lie around every cell of the body. Their sides are very thin. As the blood flows through them, some of it soaks through the sides of the tubes. Blood contains all kinds of food for the cells. Each cell is always wet with food and can eat it at any time. The cells are like the tiny animal, the ameba, and can take in the food by any part of their bodies. The cells are better off than the ameba, for their food is brought to them. They pay the body for their food by working for it. 87. Veins.—The capillaries come together again to form large tubes. These tubes are called veins. Only a little of the blood goes through the sides of a capillary. The rest flows on into the veins. The veins unite to form two large tubes. These two tubes open into the heart. 88. How the blood flows.—The blood is pumped out of the heart, through the arteries to the capillaries. There some goes out to the cells. The rest flows into the veins and goes back to the heart. All the blood in the body passes through the heart every two minutes. It takes only twenty seconds for a drop of blood to go from the heart to the toes and back again. The arteries are deep in the flesh, but some of the large veins can be seen upon the back of the hands. 89. Bleeding.—If a large artery or vein is cut there is a great deal of bleeding. You can always stop a cut from bleeding by holding it fast between the hands. Do not be afraid of the blood when you see any one bleeding, but hold the sides of the cut tightly with both of your hands. This will stop any bleeding until help comes. You may keep a person from bleeding to death by doing this when other persons are afraid of the blood. 90. Healing cuts.—When your flesh is cut it soon grows together again. The work of the little white cells in the blood is to help hea...