A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene Part 66

In the interval, copious draughts of warm water, or warm sugar and water, should be drank.

1055. The use of the stomach-pump, in these cases, is of the greatest importance, and should be resorted to without delay. After most of the poison has been evacuated from the stomach, a strong infusion of _coffee_ ought to be given; or some one of the vegetable acids, such as _vinegar_, or _lemon-juice_, should be administered.

1056. The patient should be kept in motion, and salutary effects will often be produced by dashing a bucket of cold water on the head.

_Artificial respiration_ ought to be established, and kept up for some time. If the extremities are cold, apply warmth and friction to them.

After the poison has been evacuated from the stomach, stimulants, as warm wine and water, or warm brandy and water, should be given, to keep up and sustain vital action.

1057. STRAMONIUM--_Thorn-Apple._--This is one of the most active narcotic poisons, and, when taken in over-doses, has, in numerous instances, caused death.

1051. Are vegetable poisons as numerous and as virulent in their effects as mineral? 1052. What is said of opium and its preparations?

1054, 1055, 1056. What treatment should be adopted when an over-dose of opium or any of its preparations is taken? 1057. What is said of stramonium?

1058. HYOSCIAMUS--_Henbane._--This article, which is used as a medicine, if taken in improper doses, acts as a virulent irritating and narcotic poison.

1059. The treatment for the two above-mentioned articles is similar to that of poisoning from over-doses of opium.

1060. CONIUM--_Hemlock._--Hemlock, improperly called, by many, _cicuta_, when taken in an over-dose, acts as a narcotic poison. It was by this narcotic that the Athenians used to destroy the lives of individuals condemned to death by their laws. Socrates is said to have been put to death by this poison. When swallowed in over-doses, the treatment is similar to that of opium, stramonium, and henbane, when over-doses are taken.

1061. BELLADONNA--_Deadly Nightshade._--CAMPHOR. ACONITE--_Monkshood_, _Wolfsbane._ BRYONIA--_Bryony._ DIGITALIS--_Foxglove._ DULCAMARA--_Bittersweet._ GAMBOGE. LOBELIA--_Indian Tobacco._ SANGUINARIA--_Bloodroot._ OIL OF SAVIN. SPIGELIA--_Pinkroot._ STRYCHNINE--_Nux vomica._ TOBACCO.--All of these, when taken in over-doses, are poisons of greater or less activity. The treatment of poisoning, by the use of any of these articles, is similar to that pursued in over-doses of opium. (See OPIUM, page 442.)

1062. In _all_ cases of poisoning, call a physician as soon as possible.

1058. Of henbane? 1059. What should be the treatment when an over-dose of stramonium or henbane is taken? 1060. What name is sometimes improperly given to _conium_, or hemlock? How was this narcotic poison used by the Athenians? How are the effects of an over-dose counteracted? 1061. What is the treatment when an over-dose of deadly nightshade, monkshood, foxglove, bittersweet, gamboge, lobelia, bloodroot, tobacco, &c., is taken? 1062. Should a physician be called in all cases when poison is swallowed?

A.

The essential parts of every secretory apparatus are a simple membrane, apparently textureless, named the _primary_, or _bas.e.m.e.nt membrane_, certain cells and blood-vessels. The serous and mucous membrane are examples.

B.

The division and description of the different membranes and tissues are not well defined and settled by anatomical writers. This is not a material defect, as a clear description of the different parts of the system can be given by adopting the arrangement of almost any writer.

C.

FAT is one of the non-nitrogenous substances. It forms the essential part of the adipose tissue. Chemical a.n.a.lysis shows that all fatty substances are compounds of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are lighter than water, generally fluid at the natural temperature of the body, and burn with a bright flame, forming water and carbonic acid.

CASEINE is abundantly found in milk. When dried, it const.i.tutes cheese. Alcohol, acids, and the stomach of any of the mammalia coagulate it; and it is also soluble in water. It is found in the blood, bile, saliva, and the lens of the eye.

CHONDRINE is a variety of gelatin. It is obtained from cartilage. It is soluble in warm water, but solidifies on cooling.

LACTIC ACID is common to all the solids and fluids of the system. It is found united with potash, soda, lime, or magnesia.

D.

The word _duodenum_ is derived from the Latin, signifying "twelve,"

since the intestine, of which this is the name, is usually about twelve fingers' breadth in length. The _jejunum_ is also from the Latin _jejunum_, empty, since it is usually found in that condition after death, as the food seems to pa.s.s rapidly through this part of the intestine. The term _ileum_ is from the Greek, signifying "to twist," since it always appears in a contorted condition. The name _cc.u.m_ is derived from the fact of its being a blind or short sack, perforated by the extremity of the ileum. The name of the next division of the intestine--_colon_--is from the Greek, "to prohibit,"

as the contents of the alimentary ca.n.a.l pa.s.s slowly through this portion. The _r.e.c.t.u.m_ is named from the straight direction that it a.s.sumes in the latter part of its course.

E.

The food is forced through the alimentary ca.n.a.l by contractions of its muscular coat, produced by the nervous filaments of the sympathetic system, not being at all dependent on the cerebro-spinal centre. This is called the peristaltic, or vermicular motion. The great length of intestine in all animals, and especially in the herbivorous ones, is owing to the necessity of exposing the food to a large number of the lacteals, that the nourishment may all be taken from it.

F.

The different processes through which the food pa.s.ses before a.s.similation are of considerable interest. The mastication and mixture of the saliva with the food are purely of a mechanical nature. When any solid or fluid substance is placed upon the tongue, or in contact with the inner surface of the cheeks, by an involuntary act, the salivary glands are stimulated to activity, and commence pouring the saliva into the mouth through the salivary ducts. As soon as mastication commences, the contraction of the ma.s.seter and other muscles employed in mastication stimulates the salivary glands to increased action, and a still greater quant.i.ty of saliva is secreted and forced upon the food, which is constantly being ground to a finer condition, until it is sufficiently reduced for deglut.i.tion.

Whether the salivary fluid acts any other part than simply that of a demulcent to a.s.sist the gastric juice in still further dissolving the food, is yet a matter of some doubt, although it is found that no other liquid will equally well subserve the process of digestion and promote health.

After the food is in the condition ready to be swallowed, by an apparently involuntary motion, it is placed upon the back of the tongue, which carries it backwards to the top of the pharynx, where the constrictions of the pharynx, aided by the muscles of the tongue and floor of the mouth, with a sudden and violent movement thrust it beyond the epiglottis, in order to allow the least necessary time to the closure of the glottis, after which, by the compression of the oesophagus, it is forced into the stomach.

Here it is that the true business of digestion commences. For as soon as any substance except water enters the stomach, this organ, with involuntary movements, that seem almost like instinct, commences the secretion of the gastric juice, and by long-continued contractions of its muscular coat, succeeds in effecting a most perfect mixture of the food with this juice, by which the contents of the stomach are reduced to the softest pulp.

The gastric juice, in its pure state, is a colorless, transparent fluid; "inodorous, a little saltish, and perceptibly acid. It possesses the property of coagulating alb.u.men, and separating the whey of milk from its curd, and afterwards completely dissolving the curd.

Its taste, when applied to the tongue, is similar to that of mucilaginous water, slightly acidulated with muriatic acid." The organs of its secretion are an immense number of tubes or glands, of a diameter varying from one five hundredth to one three hundredth of an inch, situated in the mucous coat of the stomach, and receiving their blood from the gastric arteries. A chemical a.n.a.lysis shows it to consist of water, mucilage, and the several free acids--muriatic, acetic, lactic, and butyric, together with a peculiar organic matter called _pepsin_, which acts after the manner of ferments between the temperature of 50 and 104 F.

The true process of digestion is probably owing to the action of pepsin and the acids, especially if the presence of the chloro-hydric or muriatic be admitted; since we know, by experiments out of the body, that chlorine, one of its elements, is a powerful solvent of all organic substances.

The antiseptic properties of the gastric juice, as discovered by experiments made on Alexis St. Martin, doubtless have much influence on digestion, although their true uses are probably not yet known.

As soon as the food is reduced to a state of fluidity, the pyloric orifice of the stomach is unclosed, and it is thrust onwards through the alimentary ca.n.a.l, receiving in the duodenum the secretions of the liver and pancreas, after which it yields to the lacteals its nutrient portion, and the residuum is expelled from the body.

There have been many hypotheses in regard to the nature of the digestive process. Some have supposed that digestion is a mere mechanical process, produced by the motion of the walls of the stomach; while others, in later times, have considered it as under the influence of a spirit separate from the individual, who took up his residence in the stomach and regulated the whole affair; while others still would make it out to be a chemical operation, and thus const.i.tute the stomach a sort of laboratory. But to all these ridiculous hypotheses Sir John Hunter has applied the following playful language: "Some will have it that the stomach is a mill; others that it is a fermenting vat; and others that it is a stewpan; but in my view of the matter, it is neither a mill, a fermenting vat, nor a stewpan, but a stomach, _a stomach_!"

At the present day this process is regarded as a complex, and not a simple operation. It seems to be a process in which the mechanical, chemical, and vital agencies must all act in harmony and order; for if one of these be withdrawn, the function cannot be sustained for any considerable length of time; and of the chemical and mechanical parts of the process, since the former is much more important, and, as a matter of course, the vital powers are indispensable, therefore digestion may be considered as a chemical operation, directly dependent on the laws of vitality, or of life; since the proper consistency of the food depends, in a great measure, upon the character of the solvents, while the secretion of these fluids, their proper amount, together with the peculiar instinct--as it almost seems to be--necessary to direct the stomach in its many functions, are exclusively and entirely dependent on the laws and conditions of life.

G.

As food is necessary to supply the waste and promote the growth of the body, it follows that that will be the best adapted to the system which contains the same chemical elements of which the body is composed; viz., oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen. These elements are found in greater or less quant.i.ty in all animal food, and in many vegetable products. Hence, that article of food which contains all these elements in a proper proportion will tend much more to the growth and strength of the body than those kinds which are deficient in one or more of them. Much experience on this point, and scientific research, seem to show that a reasonable amount of animal food in health tends to give greater strength of muscle, and a more general sense of fulness, than in ordinary cases a vegetable diet is able to do, owing to the presence of nitrogen in animal tissues. Yet there are examples of the healthiest and strongest men, who live years without a morsel of animal food; and the fact can only be accounted for, by supposing that the system has the power to make the most economical use of the little nitrogen offered to it in the food; or else that it has by some means the power to abstract it from the atmosphere, and transform it to the living animal substance.