Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-05-12

IlnnaDltant. .f
il used TO Ia believed that any
wound OF the heart was necessarily
| fatal. but OF late multitude of proofs
TO the contrary have been collected
! Today II is almost Il commonplace OF
surgery to sew up breaks In the heart
wall.
\ blow on the chest sometimes
rnptures the heart, aud yet the vic.
Tins of such injuries not seldom re-
cover Wounds In the heart made by
knives and bullets are now treated
with some approach to certainty, ana
although the death rate in such cases
Is of course high. 1t Is being lowered
year after year, and II would be a
rash surgeon today who would call
any small injury to the heart inevit-
ably fatal. sr
IL is impossible, indeed. to say that
an injury to any organ, no matter
what It's extent, Is sure to result In
death The human machine was de-
signed to stand all sorts of shocks
and even when science is utterly una
BILE TO repair the machinery It often
repairs itself.
Cancer, for instance, Is sometimes
beyond the reach of surgery, but It
Is not rare. by any means. to hear OF
such cases ending In recovery. The
body Is always at work fighting Its
enemies, and so soon MS the latter
! cause any damage the work OF re.
pair is begun.
Exposure to an injury. indeed. al
ways increases the body's ability to
withstand that injury. This ability,
In one form, becomes what Is known
as immuni'y-which is utilized to
great advantage in modern medicine
The man who is forced to live I'm
strong dranghts soon becomes accus.
toned to them. and after a little
while he takes cold no longer.
This explains in part the good
health OF sailors, woodmen and others
who work and sleep in the open
Again, the man who makes Il habit
OF consuming small quantities OF pois-
onous drugs, or or exposing himself
TO great heat or cold or of fasting
fcr long periods gets used to these
things, MS the popular phrase is, and
is injured by them far less than the
average man.
1t is well known, for instance, that
people who have become slaves to
opium are able to swallow with i'm
punity enough of the drug to kill
dozen ordinary persons. Thomas De
Quincy, the celebrated author OF
"The Confessions of an Opium Eat.
err tells MS that he drank 5000 drops
OF laudanum Uhe equivalent of 900
Igrains of opium) day.
In the Baltimore city Jail few
years ago there was n man whose
daily use was 1870 grains of morphine,
or one ounce. One-fortieth of that
amount would kill the average man.
other drug victims have taken even
more, and the medical books contain
accounts OF men who have consumed
as much as four ounces n day.
Again there are individuals who.
without any course of slow immuniza.
ton. seem to set aside all the laws
OF nature. There are. for ex;Haple.
many recorded cases of persons
seemingly imperyious to the effects
or the deadly drug commonly called
prussic acid.
Ordinary ten drops of prlissic acid
placed upon the tongue of n grown
man VIII cause collapse and death |
within ten minutes. Yet there Is a |
well authenticated case of man who
swallowed nearly forty drops with no /
erect beyond momentary insensIbili. |
I ty.
oHS Hui iullC aClQ Is hnOtner vlO- |
lent poison that occasionally fails to |
kill
Would-be suicides have swallowed |
as much as an ounce without perma. |
nent Ill effect. There are even cases |
on record of persons who have sur.
Vived large doses of sulphuric acid,
the most damaging and coriYsiye of |
all common chemicals.
Just as IL is canal le M timoe of |
surviving terrible injuries by mechan-
zeal and chemical agencies, the body |
is allie In other cases, to face enor.
nous extremes of temperature The |
crew OF the fruit steamers plying be
tween Central America and the North !
atlantic ports see the mercury go
up or go down. every week, at least
50 degrees, and Oh the voyage north. /!
ward 1t is not unusual TO witness n
drop of 40 degrees in as many min. /
utes.
In the stoke holds of these ships,
along the Central American coast. the
mercury oftens registers 40 degrees.
And yet the flremen and sailors are
a pretty healthy lot and it is rare
10 hear of one of them dying as n re.
suit OF the sudden changes and ex-
treme range OF temperature.
SIT Joseph Banks an English ply !
stefan, made elaborate experiments to
determine how much heat the human
body could stand with safety. He
found that he himself was not per-
1ceptibly injured by a temperature of
2l1 degrees.
other men have survived far greht-
or heat, and some of the medical |
Books contain references to woman
VINO faced 3G4 degrees for several
IilirilleS Withouf donoo, ,phi, -