Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-07-15
IRONTON. MO-. THURSDAY. JULY Is, 1886.
Physiology Boiled Down.
NARCOTICS.


To narcotize is to deaden or benumb,
and thereby slow up the action OF an
organ. Alcoholic preparations are by
courtesy called stimulants, but really
they are called irritants. Benumbing
preparatio are by courtesy called
anodynes and sedatives, but really
they are narcotics. All attacks on the
nervous system are made through the
circulation, and as action and reaction
are equal and opposite, so when
irritation ceases narcotism follows. IL
comes from a Greek word meaning
poison in which arrows were dipped.
All narcotism means death, but some
agents oct in one way, and some in
another, and some, acting in several
ways, are more speedy than others.
Among these last mentioned we may
enumerate all preparations of Gelsen-
mum, Opium, ,Aconite, Belladonna, and
Stramonium. These paralyze the or
gans of circulation and nutrition. 1t
may bring some light to remark here
that bodily death is the arr, st of nutri-
ton, and that when men die from
what are called natural causes, they
break off between the digestive and
assimiltjve process. This locates nat
ural death everytime in the circulating
system, as that is the connecting link
between the other two. Nothing can
be assimiIated. unless just digested, 9TH
erwise its relation to the blood will be
that of a rider. Tobacco is strongly
narcotic, as appears from the fact that
when the active principle has been ob-
tanned by distillation it will kill as
quickly as prussic acid. This principle
appears to be indestructible, as it is
found in both the green and the dry
plant and is not affected by oxymuri-
attic acid. When chewed, it excites
the salivary glands to abnormal activ-
ity and by corrupting and pervertIng
their secretions leads to disease of the
stomach.
Nicotine can be taken into the lungs
by inhalation or into the system by
absorption through the skin. The re-
suit is breaking down of the portal
system. The reason why it is not more
speedily destructive of life is because
its essential principle is modified or di-
luted by the alluminous matter that
accompanies it. The use OF tobacco by
railroad engineers leads to color
ness, and it is becoming we'll settled
fact that in colleges devoted to tie
co-education of the sexes, the obviously
superior mental acumen of the women
arises from the fact that they do not,
as rule, use tobacco in any form.
In all preparations whose names be.
gin with the letters chlor, chlorine is
the basis. This attacks the structure
of the blood itself, assailing its nitrogen
producing nitrogen gas. a bubble of
which, in the heart. will kill in two
minutes and a half, demolishing the
dream of our reverend grannies. that "A
man can live with wind in his blood.
But our abnormal and perverted CIV
iiization tends directly to an intemper-
ance in drugs. 1t has been truthfully
asserted of the American people that
they make money faster, break up
faster, live faster, die faster, and go to
hell faster than any other people on
the face of the globe. Accordingly
among us the practice of Toxicology,
for it cannot be called Medicine, being
q legitimate deduction from the habits
of the people, sets all hygiene at def
ance. Our lives are an ever varying
succession of hurry, worry. rush, roar
and rattle. To meet this, stimulants
are demanded and although the use o.
alcohol has fallen off forty per cent.
nervine stimulents are substituted and
when nervous excitability forbids rest
preparations of morphine or chloral art
used to turn on sleep as with faucet
regardless of what may happen if The
sleeper awakes.
The knowledge of physiology and
hygiene will do us no gooo, except
that it may compel US ms people to &c
slower.
The next article will treat of the
mental arrangements arising from in.
toxicants, stimulants and narcotic.
July 18th. THOMAS CALLAHAN.