Part 28

Effect on the Organs of Special Sense.--Professor Forel, one of the foremost European experts on the question of the effect of alcohol on the nervous system, says: "Through all parts of nervous activity from the innervation of the muscles and the simplest sensation to the highest activity of the soul the paralyzing effect of alcohol can be demonstrated." Several experimenters of undoubted ability have noted the paralyzing effect of alcohol even in small doses. By the use of delicate instruments of precision, Ridge tested the effect of alcohol on the senses of smell, vision, and muscular sense of weight. He found that two drams of absolute alcohol produced a positive decrease in the sensitiveness of the nerves of feeling, that so small a quantity as one half dram of absolute alcohol diminished the power of vision and the muscular sense of weight. Kraepelin and Kurz by experiment determined that the acuteness of the special senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell was diminished by an ounce of alcohol, the power of vision being lost to one third of its extent and a similar effect being produced on the other special senses. Other investigators have reached like conclusions. There is no doubt but that alcohol, even in small quantities, renders the organs of sense less sensitive and therefore less accurate.

Effect of Alcohol on the Ability to Resist Disease.--Among certain classes of people the belief exists that alcohol in the form of brandy or some other drink or in patent medicines, malt tonics, and the like is of great importance in building up the body so as to resist disease or to cure it after disease has attacked it. Nothing is further from the truth. In experiments on a large number of animals, including dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, fowls, and pigeons, Laitenen, of the University of Helsingsfors, found that alcohol, without exception, made these animals more susceptible to disease than were the controls.

One of the most serious effects of alcohol is the lowered resistance of the body to disease. It has been proved that a much larger proportion of hard drinkers die from infectious or contagious diseases than from special diseased conditions due to the direct action of alcohol on the organs of the body. This lowered resistance is shown in increased liability to contract disease and increased severity of the disease. We have already alluded to the findings of insurance companies with reference to the length of life--the abstainers from alcohol have a much better chance of a longer life and much less likelihood of infection by disease germs.

Use of Alcohol in the Treatment of Disease.--In the London Temperance Hospital alcohol was prescribed seventy-five times in thirty-three years. The death rate in this hospital has been lower than that of most general hospitals. Sir William Collins, after serving nineteen years as surgeon in this hospital, said:--

"In my experience, speaking as a surgeon, the use of alcohol is not essential for successful surgery.... At the London Temperance Hospital, where alcohol is very rarely prescribed, the mortality in amputation cases and in operation cases generally is remarkably low. Total abstainers are better subjects for operation, and recover more rapidly from accidents, than those who habitually take stimulants."

In a paper read at the International Congress on Tuberculosis, in New York, 1906, Dr. Crothers remarked that alcohol as a remedy or a preventive medicine in the treatment of tuberculosis is a most dangerous drug, and that all preparations of sirups containing spirits increase, rather than diminish, the disease.

Dr. Kellogg says: "The paralyzing influence of alcohol upon the white cells of the blood--a fact which is attested by all investigators--is alone sufficient to condemn the use of this drug in acute or chronic infections of any sort."

The Effect of Alcohol upon Intellectual Ability.--With regard to the supposed quickening of the mental processes Horsley and Sturge, in their recent book, _Alcohol and the Human Body_, say:

"Kraepelin found that the simple reaction period, by which is meant the time occupied in making a mere response to a signal, as, for instance, to the sudden appearance of a flag, was, after the ingestion of a small quantity of alcohol (1/4 to 1/2 ounce), slightly accelerated; that there was, in fact, a slight shortening of the time, as though the brain were enabled to operate more quickly than before. But he found that after a few minutes, in most cases, a slowing of mental action began, becoming more and more marked, and enduring as long as the alcohol was in active operation in the body, _i.e._ four to five hours.... Kraepelin found that it was only more or less automatic work, such as reading aloud, which was quickened by alcohol, though even this was rendered less trustworthy and accurate." Again: "Kraepelin had always shared the popular belief that a small quantity of alcohol (one to two teaspoonfuls) had an accelerating effect on the activity of his mind, enabling him to perform test operations, as the adding and subtracting and learning of figures more quickly. But when he came to measure with his instruments the exact period and time occupied, he found, to his astonishment, that he had accomplished these mental operations, not more, but less, quickly than before.... Numerous further experiments were carried out in order to test this matter, and these proved that _alcohol lengthens the time taken to perform complex mental processes_, while by a singular illusion the person experimented upon imagines that his psychical actions are rendered more rapid."

_Attention_--that is, the power of the mind to grasp and consider impressions obtained through the senses--is weakened by drink. The ability of the mind to associate or combine ideas, the faculty involved in sound _judgment_, showed that when the persons had taken the amounts of alcohol mentioned, the combinations of ideas or judgments expressed by them were confused, foggy, sentimental, and general. When the persons had taken no alcohol, their judgments were rational, specific, keen, showing closer observation.

"The words of Professor Helmholtz at the celebration of his seventieth birthday are very interesting in this connection. He spoke of the ideas flashing up from the depths of the unknown soul, that lies at the foundation of every truly creative intellectual production, and closed his account of their origin with these words: 'The smallest quantity of an alcoholic beverage seemed to frighten these ideas away.'"--DR. G. SIMS WOODHEAD, Professor of Pathology, Cambridge University, England.

Professor Von Bunge (_Textbook of Physiological and Pathological Chemistry_) of Switzerland says that:

"The stimulating action which alcohol appears to exert on the brain functions is only a paralytic action. The cerebral functions which are first interfered with are _the power of clear judgment and reason_. No man ever became witty by aid of spirituous drinks. The lively gesticulations and useless exertions of intoxicated people are due to paralysis,--the restraining influences, which prevent a sober man from uselessly expending his strength, being removed."

The Drink Habit.--The harmful effects of alcohol (aside from the purely physiological effect upon the tissues and organs of the body) are most terribly seen in the formation of the alcohol habit. The first effect of drinking alcoholic liquors is that of exhilaration. After the feeling of exhilaration is gone, for this is a temporary state, the subject feels depressed and less able to work than before he took the drink. To overcome this feeling, he takes another drink. The result is that before long he finds a habit formed from which he cannot escape. With body and mind weakened, he attempts to break off the habit. But meanwhile his will, too, has suffered from overindulgence. He has become a victim of the drink habit!

"The capital argument against alcohol, that which must eventually condemn its use, is this, that _it takes away all the reserved control, the power of mastership, and therefore offends against the splendid pride in himself or herself, which is fundamental in every man or woman worth anything_."--DR. JOHN JOHNSON, quoting Walt Whitman.

Self-indulgence, be it in gratification of such a simple desire as that for candy or the more harmful indulgence in tobacco or alcoholic beverages, is dangerous--not only in its immediate effects on the tissues and organs, but in its more far-reaching effects on habit formation. Each one of us is a bundle of appetites. If we gratify appetites of the wrong kind, we are surely laying the foundation for the habit of excess. Self-denial is a good thing for each of us to practice at one time or another, if for no other purpose than to be ready to fight temptation when it comes.

The Economic Effect of Alcoholic Poisoning.--In the struggle for existence, it is evident that the man whose intellect is the quickest and keenest, whose judgment is most sound, is the man who is most likely to succeed. The paralyzing effect of alcohol upon the nerve centers must place the drinker at a disadvantage. In a hundred ways, the drinker sooner or later feels the handicap that the habit of drink has imposed upon him. Many corporations, notably several of our greatest railroads (the Pennsylvania and the New York Central Railroad among them), refuse to employ any but abstainers in positions of trust. Few persons know the number of railway accidents due to the uncertain eye of some engineer who mistook his signal, or the hazy inactivity of the brain of some train dispatcher who, because of drink, forgot to send the telegram that was to hold the train from wreck. In business and in the professions, the story is the same. The abstainer wins out over the drinking man.

Effect of Alcohol on Ability to do Work.--In _Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem_, Professor Hodge, formerly of Clark University, describes many of his own experiments showing the effect of alcohol on animals. He trained four selected puppies to recover a ball thrown across a gymnasium. To two of the dogs he gave food mixed with doses of alcohol, while the others were fed normally. The ball was thrown 100 feet as rapidly as recovered. This was repeated 100 times each day for fourteen successive days. Out of 1400 times the dogs to which alcohol had been given brought back the ball only 478 times, while the others secured it 922 times.

Dr. Parkes experimented with two gangs of men, selected to be as nearly similar as possible, in mowing. He found that with one gang abstaining from alcoholic drinks and the other not, the abstaining gang could accomplish more. On transposing the gangs, the same results were repeatedly obtained. Similar results were obtained by Professor Aschaffenburg of Heidelberg University, who found experimentally that men "were able to do 15 per cent less work after taking alcohol."

Recently many experiments along the same lines have been made. In typewriting, in typesetting, in bricklaying, or in the highest type of mental work the result is the same. The quality and quantity of work done on days when alcohol is taken is less than on days when no alcohol is taken.

The Relation of Alcohol to Efficiency.--We have already seen that work is neither so well done nor is as much accomplished by drinkers as by non-drinkers.

A Massachusetts shoe manufacturer told a recent writer on temperance that in one year his firm lost over $5000 in shoes spoiled by drinking men, and that he had himself traced these spoiled shoes to the workmen who, through their use of alcoholic liquors, had thus rendered themselves incapable. This is a serious handicap to our modern factory system, and explains why so many factory towns and cities are strongly favoring a policy of "No license" in opposition to the saloons.

"It is believed that the largest number of accidents in shops and mills takes place on Monday, because the alcohol that is drunk on Sunday takes away the skill and attentive care of the workman. To prove the truth of this opinion, the accidents of the building trades in Zurich were studied during a period of six years, with the result shown by this table":--

Another relation to efficiency is shown by the following chart. During the week the curve of working efficiency is highest on Friday and lowest on Monday. The number of accidents were also least on Friday and greatest on Monday. Lastly the assaults were fewest in number on Friday and greatest on Sunday and Monday. The moral is plain. Workingmen are apt to spend their week's wages freely on Saturday. Much of this goes into drink, and as a result comes crime on Sunday because of the deadened moral and mental condition of the drinker, and loss of efficiency on Monday, because of the poisonous effects of the drug.

Effect of Alcohol upon Duration of Life.--Still more serious is the relation of alcohol as a direct cause of disease (see table).

It is as yet quite impossible, in the United States at least, to tell just how many deaths are brought about, directly or indirectly, by alcohol. Especially is this true in trying to determine the number of cases of deaths from disease promoted by alcohol. In Switzerland provision is made for learning these facts, and the records of that country throw some light on the subject.

Dr. Rudolph Pfister made a study of the records of the city of Basle for the years 1892-1906, finding the percentage of deaths in which alcohol had been reported by the attending physician as one cause of death. He found that 18.1 per cent of all deaths of men between 40 and 50 years of age were caused, in part at least, by alcohol, and this at what should be the most active period in a man's life, the time when he is most needed by his family and community. Taking all ages between 20 and 80, he found that alcohol was one cause of death in one man in every ten who died.

Another study was made by a certain doctor in Sweden, from records of 1082 deaths occurring in his own practice and the local hospital. No case was counted as alcoholic of which there was the slightest doubt. Of deaths of adult men, 18 in every 100 were due, directly or indirectly, to alcoholism. In middle life, between the ages of 40 and 50, 29; and between 50 and 60 years of age, 25.6 out of every 100 deaths had alcohol as one cause, thus agreeing with other statistics we have been quoting.--From the _Metropolitan_, Vol. XXV, Number 11.

The Relation of Alcohol to Crime.--A recent study of more than 2500 habitual users of alcohol showed that over 66 per cent had committed crime. Usually the crimes had been done in saloons or as a result of quarrels after drinking. Of another lot of 23,581 criminals questioned, 20,070 said that alcohol had led them to commit crime.

The Relation of Alcohol to Pauperism.--We have already spoken of the Jukes family. These and many other families of a similar sort are more or less directly a burden upon the state. Alcohol is in part at least responsible for the condition of such families. Alcohol weakens the efficiency and moral courage, and thus leads to begging, pauperism, petty stealing or worse, and ultimately to life in some public institution. In Massachusetts, of 3230 inmates of such institutions, 66 per cent were alcoholics.

The Relation of Alcohol to Heredity.--Perhaps the gravest side of the alcohol question lies here. If each one of us had only himself to think of, the question of alcohol might not be so serious. But drinkers may hand down to their unfortunate children tendencies toward drink as well as nervous diseases of various sorts; an alcoholic parent may beget children who are epileptic, neurotic, or even insane.

In the State of New York there are at the present time some 30,000 insane persons in public and private hospitals. It is believed that about one fifth of them, or 6000 patients, owe their insanity to alcohol used either by themselves or by their parents. In the asylums of the United States there are 150,000 insane people. Taking the same proportions as before, there are 30,000 persons in this country whom alcohol has made or has helped to make insane. This is the most terrible side of the alcohol problem.

REFERENCE READING

ELEMENTARY

Hunter, _Laboratory Problems in Civic Biology_. American Book Company. Overton, _General Hygiene_. American Book Company. The Gulick Hygiene Series, _Emergencies, Good Health, The Body at Work, Control of Body and Mind_. Ginn and Company. Ritchie, _Human Physiology_. World Book Company. Hough and Sedgwick, _The Human Mechanism_. Ginn and Company.

XXIV. MAN'S IMPROVEMENT OF HIS ENVIRONMENT

_Problems.--How may we improve our home conditions of living?_ _How may we help improve our conditions at school?_ _How does the city care for the improvement of our environment?_ _(a) In inspection of buildings, etc._ _(b) In inspection of food supplies._ _(c) In inspection of milk._ _(d) In care of water supplies._ _(e) In disposal of wastes._ _(f) In care of public health._

LABORATORY SUGGESTIONS

_Home exercise._--How to ventilate my bedroom. _Demonstration._--Effect of use of duster and damp cloth upon bacteria in schoolroom. _Home exercise._--Luncheon dietaries. _Home exercise._--Sanitary map of my own block. _Demonstration._--The bacterial content of milk of various grades and from different sources. _Demonstration._--Bacterial content of distilled water, rain water, tap water, dilute sewage. _Laboratory exercise._--Study of board of health tables to plot curves of mortality from certain diseases during certain times of year.

The Purpose of this Chapter.--In the preceding chapters we have traced the lives of both plants and animals within their own environment. We have seen that man, as well as plants and other animals, needs a favorable environment in order to live in comfort and health. It will be the purpose of the following pages first to show how we as individuals may better our home environment, and secondly, to see how we may aid the civic authorities in the betterment of conditions in the city in which we live.

Home Conditions.--The Bedroom.--We spend about one third of our total time in our bedroom. This room, therefore, deserves more than passing attention. First of all, it should have good ventilation. Two windows make an ideal condition, especially if the windows receive some sun. Such a condition as this is manifestly impossible in a crowded city, where too often the apartment bedrooms open upon narrow and ill-ventilated courts. Until comparatively recent time, tenement houses were built so that the bedrooms had practically no light or air; now, thanks to good tenement-house laws, wide airshafts and larger windows are required by statute.

Care of the Bedroom.--Since sunlight cannot always be obtained for a bedroom, we must so care for and furnish the room that it will be difficult for germs to grow there. Bedroom furniture should be light and easy to clean, the bedstead of iron, the floors painted or of hardwood. No hangings should be allowed at the windows to collect dust, nor should carpets be allowed for the same reason. Rugs on the floor may easily be removed when cleaning is done. The furniture and woodwork should be wiped with a damp cloth every day. Why a _damp_ cloth? In certain tenements in New York City, tuberculosis is believed to have been spread by people occupying rooms in which a previous tenant has had tuberculosis. A new tenant should insist on a thorough cleaning of the bedrooms and removal of old wall paper before occupancy.

Sunlight Important.--In choosing a house in the country we would take a location in which the sunlight was abundant. A shaded location might be too damp for health. Sunlight should enter at least some of the rooms. In choosing an apartment we should have this matter in mind, for, as we know, germs cannot long exist in sunlight.

Heating.--Houses in the country are often heated by open fires, stoves or hot-air furnaces, all of which make use of heated currents of air to warm the rooms. But in the city apartments, usually pipes conduct steam or hot water from a central plant to our rooms. The difficulty with this system is that it does not give us fresh air, but warms over the stale air in a room. Steam causes our rooms to be too warm part of the time, and not warm enough part of the time. Thus we become overheated and then take cold by becoming chilled. Steam heat is thus responsible for much sickness.

Lighting.--Lighting our rooms is a matter of much importance. A student lamp, or shaded incandescent light, should be used for reading. Shades must be provided so that the eyes are protected from direct light. Gas is a dangerous servant, because it contains a very poisonous substance, carbon monoxide. "It is estimated that 14 per cent of the total product of the gas plant leaks into the streets and houses of the cities supplied." This forms an unseen menace to the health in cities. Gas pipes, and especially gas cocks, should be watched carefully for escaping gas. Rubber tubing should not be used to conduct gas to movable gas lamps, because it becomes worn and allows gas to escape.

Insects and Foods.--In the summer our houses should be provided with screens. All food should be carefully protected from flies. Dirty dishes, scraps of food, and such garbage should be quickly cleaned up and disposed of after a meal. Insect powder (pyrethrum) will help keep out "croton bugs" and other undesirable household pests, but cleanliness will do far more. Most kitchen pests, as the roach, simply stay with us because they find dirt and food abundant.

Use of Ice.--Food should be properly cared for at all times, but especially during the summer. Iceboxes are a necessity, especially where children live, in order to keep milk fresh. A dirty icebox is almost as bad as none at all, because food will decay or take on unpleasant odors from other foods.

Disposal of Wastes.--In city houses the disposal of human wastes is provided for by a city system of sewers. The wastes from the kitchen, the garbage, should be disposed of each day. The garbage pail should be frequently sterilized by rinsing it with boiling water. Plenty of lye or soap should be used. Remember that flies frequent the uncovered garbage pail, and that they may next walk on your food. Collection and disposal of garbage is the work of the municipality.