Chapter XV: Common Poisons to Be Avoided

Many people are killing the cells of their bodies by taking certain poisons into them. There are many kinds of poisons that can be taken into the body, but we are going to learn now about only two. These are tobacco and alcohol.

[Sidenote: Proof that tobacco is a poison]

Tobacco is a poison. Those of you who have tried to smoke know this, because it made you sick the first time you tried it. There are many other indications that tobacco is a poison. We know that it affects the red blood cells in such a way that they do not carry the oxygen as well as do those of people who do not smoke. We know that it has a very bad effect on the heart and that it interferes with the action of the nervous system.

[Sidenote: The extra work caused by tobacco]

When certain poisons get into the body, the blood makes something that will counteract the effects of those poisons. After one has used tobacco for some time, the cells of the body will take care of the tobacco poison by making an antidote for it. More than this, they begin to want it all the time. The tobacco user forces the cells of his body to make an antidote for this poison every time he uses tobacco. Thus he makes the cells do work that is unnecessary, and keeps them from doing work that is necessary.

[Sidenote: Other bad effects of tobacco: (_1_) On the nose and throat]

Tobacco smoke irritates the cells that line the throat and nose and causes inflammation. This is why so many smokers have catarrh. Smoking is not the only cause of catarrh, for people who do not smoke often have this trouble, but it is one of the most frequent causes. Smoking also irritates the throat so badly that many of those who smoke have "smoker's throat." This is a bad form of sore throat that can be cured only by stopping the use of tobacco.

[Sidenote: (_2_) On the blood]

People who smoke a great deal have fewer red corpuscles (the little red cells of the blood) than those who do not smoke. Especially is this true of cigarette smokers. It is the lack of red blood cells that causes the cigarette smoker to look pale and sallow.

It is probably not the direct effect of tobacco that causes the loss of red blood cells, but something that is connected with the act of smoking. When you take smoke into your mouth, you take in at the same time a gas known as _carbon monoxid_. This gas is very poisonous to the body, and combines with the red blood cells in such a way that they cannot take up the oxygen in the lungs and carry it to the rest of the cells in the body. The cigarette smoker almost always inhales the smoke, and thus he absorbs a great deal more of the carbon monoxid than the man who does not inhale the smoke. Of course, the more of this gas he takes into his body, the more red blood cells will be affected and the less oxygen will be taken to the other cells.

[Sidenote: (_3_) On the nervous system]

We do not know just how tobacco affects the cells of the nervous system. It may be that they are affected mostly by being deprived of oxygen, or it may be that the tobacco affects them directly. However the harm is done, we know that the cells of the nervous system are affected by tobacco. One of the nerves that is most commonly affected by the use of tobacco is the nerve of the eye, the nerve that enables us to see. We know that when people use tobacco a great deal they sometimes lose their sight. This does not happen to everyone who uses tobacco, but you can never tell whom it will affect in this way. The only safe thing to do is not to use tobacco, and then you will know that you will not lose your sight from this cause.

[Sidenote: (_4_) On the stomach]

The use of tobacco affects the stomach. People who use tobacco a great deal are likely to have indigestion. The tobacco causes this probably by depriving the stomach cells of oxygen through its effect on the blood cells.

[Sidenote: (_5_) On the heart]

Tobacco has a very bad effect on the heart. People who use much tobacco have what they call "palpitation of the heart," but doctors call it "tobacco heart," because it is caused by the use of tobacco. No insurance company will insure a person who has "tobacco heart."

Most boys grow up to be men before they manage to use enough tobacco to cause tobacco heart. However, long before they are grown, they show that the tobacco has affected their hearts, because they are short of breath and stand about as much chance of winning a race as does a mouth-breather.

[Sidenote: Effects of alcohol:]

The effect of alcohol is a subject on which I want to speak very plainly and frankly, because I do not want the boys and girls who read this to get the same idea that I got when I was in school, or to be affected by it as I was. When I was a little boy I was taught that if a person drank alcohol in any form the lining of his stomach would be eaten up. In proof of this statement I was shown a picture of an ulcerated stomach that was said to have resulted from drinking whisky. Naturally I expected to find that people who drank whisky would not be able to eat anything at all, or would be troubled a great deal with pain in their stomachs. To my surprise, I found that many people had ulcers of the stomach who never took an alcoholic drink, while many of those who drank a great deal seemed to have the best of appetites and were never troubled with their stomachs. As a result, I came to the conclusion that all this talk about the evil effects of alcohol was foolishness. Later I studied medicine, and learned that the effect of alcohol on the stomach is, in reality, the least of its evils. But I want to impress upon you that, as a result of forty years' study, I consider alcohol the most dangerous thing in the world to-day. By "alcohol" we mean any drink that contains alcohol, such as whisky, wine, brandy, beer, etc.

[Sidenote: (_1_) On the stomach]

When alcohol is taken into the stomach, it first causes a congestion; that is, it causes an increase in the quantity of blood in the blood vessels of the stomach. It might seem that this would aid digestion in the stomach, but it does not, because alcohol affects the food in the stomach in such a way that it prevents the gastric juice from acting on the food. If the use of alcohol is persisted in, it causes the little cells in the stomach that make the gastric juice to become filled with fat, and then those cells cannot make the gastric juice. Thus, continued use of alcohol causes a smaller supply of gastric juice, and the food passes from the stomach into the intestines without having been acted upon by the gastric juice, as it should have been. The result is that the food decomposes in the intestines and a poison is formed. This poison is taken up by the vessels that carry the food from the intestines and kills a great many of the cells of the body.

Alcohol does not burn holes in the stomach, but it destroys the usefulness of the stomach by its action on the cells that secrete the gastric juice.

[Sidenote: (_2_) On the liver]

When alcohol is taken into the stomach, very little of it reaches the intestines. It is rapidly absorbed by the lining of the stomach and passes into the blood. The blood from the stomach goes directly to the liver. The alcohol makes the cells of the liver hard and causes them to become filled with fat, as it does the cells of the stomach. In this way it destroys the action of these cells and prevents their doing the work for which they are intended. From the liver the alcohol goes with the blood to all parts of the body, and it has its influence on all the cells in the body. This influence is always harmful.

[Sidenote: (_3_) On the body's powers of resistance]

We know that when a man who is in the habit of drinking gets pneumonia, he is far more likely to die than is one who is not in the habit of using alcoholic drinks. The man who drinks cannot resist the effects of disease as can one who does not drink. This shows that the use of alcohol reduces our resisting powers, and puts our cells in such condition that we cannot overcome the effects of disease.

People who are sick with a slow disease like consumption are often advised by their friends to take whisky to brace them up. It is true that the immediate effect of the whisky is to make the patient feel a little better, but the final effect is to leave him in a much weaker condition than before. More than this, the cells are much less able to resist the disease germs than they were before the alcohol was taken. When people are exposed to such diseases as scarlet fever and smallpox, they may think that if they take a drink of whisky they will not be so liable to contract the disease. It is just the other way. The alcohol reduces the resisting powers of the cells of the body, and anything that does this renders a person more liable to contract any disease to which he is exposed.

[Sidenote: (_4_) On the nervous system]

The effect of alcohol on the cells of the nervous system is very marked. Continued use will injure the nervous system and result in a kind of insanity called delirium tremens. It will also cause other forms of insanity. The effect of alcohol on the parent is passed on to the children of the next generation, and even beyond this. A large percentage of idiotic children are the offspring of alcoholic parents.

[Sidenote: (_5_) On the morals]

The use of alcohol numbs the sense of right and wrong. More young men have become criminals from the use of alcohol than from any other one cause. Anyone who reads the daily papers can see that many criminals give the use of alcohol as an excuse for having committed a crime.

[Sidenote: (_6_) On brain work]

Some people will tell you that alcohol stimulates the brain, so that one can work faster and better. This is not true. Tests have been made in this matter, and it has been found that men doing mental work will work about one tenth slower and make one fourth more mistakes when given one drink of whisky a day, than they will when not given any whisky. If _one_ drink of whisky a day thus reduces a man's power and accuracy in doing mental work, what do you think three drinks, or ten drinks will do?

[Sidenote: What business men think of men who drink]

Many business men drink, and they know the results of alcohol not only from the effects they have observed in others, but also from the effect they know it to have on themselves. When a man applies to them for a position, these business men almost invariably ask him if he drinks. The man who does not drink stands nine chances in ten of securing the position, while the man who drinks stands only one chance in ten. This shows what business men think of the effect of alcohol, even when taken in moderate quantities. They know that it reduces a man's power to do mental as well as physical work, that it causes him to make mistakes, and that it may finally destroy his morals and result in his becoming a thief or a criminal.

=Questions.= 1. How do we know that tobacco is a poison? 2. How
does tobacco make extra work for the body? 3. What effect does
tobacco have on the nose and throat? 4. What is the effect of
tobacco on the blood? 5. On the nervous system? 6. On the heart?
7. Mention some of the false ideas about the effect of alcohol.
8. How does alcohol affect the stomach? 9. The liver? 10. In
what ways does alcohol reduce the resisting powers of the body?
11. How does alcohol affect the nervous system? 12. How does
it influence mental work? 13. What do business men think of
drinkers? 14. What influence has alcohol on the next generation?

=Remember.= 1. Tobacco is a poison that has a very bad effect on
the nervous system, the blood, the heart, the stomach, the nose,
and the throat. 2. Alcohol is a poison and not a food. 3. Alcohol
injures the stomach, the liver, and the nervous system. 4.
Alcohol reduces the power to do accurate mental work. 5. Alcohol
numbs the sense of right and wrong, and encourages crime.