The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-10-27
What Medicine Knows Today


This and the other articles of this
series have been prepared by special
lists and medical men OF high reputa-
tion. Each contributor stands high in
his field. Professional ethics prohibit
them from attaching their names; but
every statement is made with the high
est authority.
If the average layman were asked to
define the word poison" he would
probably say that it meant something
which kills you If you take it, But
that would be very loose and mac
curate definition, for there are plenty
of true poisons which seldom. il ever,
cause death, and plenty of other things
such az ground glass. for example
which cause death without being poi
sons. The toxicologist, more careful,
frames a definition far more elaborate
"A poison" ne says, lis a substance
which, by its chemical action, under
fixed conditions, affects one or more
vital organs of some living being In
such manner that the natural functions
are temporarily or permanently i'm
peded or inhibited"
This definition, it will be observed, is
comprehensive enough to include, not
only the familiar external poisons, such
as morphine and carbolic acid, but also
the virulent toxins secreted by the
germs of disease, and the poisons pro-
duced and retained in the body in the
course of certain maladies. such as in
digestion, cancer and Brights disease.
Again, it excludes all merely mechanic
cal irritants. Yet again. IT takes cogni-
Zance of the fact that many SUBJ
stances which are absolutely harmless
in health and -maturity-strong coffee
and nicotine, for instance-are true
poisons of infancy. in old age and in
time of illness.
The action of poisons upon the hui
man body is marked by many curious
anomalies. Some of them cause almost
instant death when injected under the
skin. and yet have no effect at all when
taken into the stomach. One such is
snake poison. Injected by the fangs of
the serpent into a minute wound in
the skin, it causes rapid swelling. pain.
paralysis, sufrocation and collapse; but
in the intestinal tract it is converted
easily into substances that are quite
harmless.
Conversely. there are poisons which
are harmless simultaneously and ex-
ceedingly dangerous when swallowed.
TO this class belongs crotonoglycerid, a
constituent of fresh croton oil. Injected
under the skin it produces nothing
more serious than a slight infiamma-
tion. Taken into the stomach it causes
death within a few hours. This fact
is accounted for by the theory that
acknowledgement itself is harmless, but
that the juices of the stomach convert
1t into a virulent poison.
Again. the matter of idiosyncracy
complexities the study of poisons. Ev-
cry one knows, for example, that one
man il able to drink ten times as much
whisky as another, and with less dam
age. and that the cigar which seems
mild 10 one man makes the other ILL.,
In such cases habituation usually is the
important factor. That is to say, the
man who drinks whisky daily acquires
a sort of immunity to the poisonous
effects of alcohol and so ii takes more
and more whisky to make him drunk.
The small boys first cigar always
makes him sick. but by the time he
reaches his hundredth he-is immune to
nicotine.
But beside this progressive immuni-
zation-which is noted among NOR
phine-fiends and arsenic-eaters as well
as among drinkers and smokers-there
are other and more remarkable forms
of idiosyncracy. To some persons, for
instance, the juice of the strawberry is
a poison and its ingestion is followed
by the appearance of a troublesome
rash and other distressing symptoms.
Again, there are persons who are poi
soned, in the exact meaning of the
word. by the meat of the lobster. or by
mutton. honey, the scent of musk or
the OdOr of the common toad There is
on the record the case of a man who
tainted every time he smelled violets:
and that of woman who suffered
from violent collie every time she drank
cocoa or ate chocolate candy
No matter how active the poison, the
normal human body always makes a
mighty effort to neutralize and combat
st. If it is taken by the mouth, the
begins the battle by endeavor-
ing to expel it in bulk. This is why
the great majority of poisons cause |
nausea and why a dose far beyond the |
limit Of safety frequently fails to re-
suit fatally.
When the stomach fails in the fray |
IT is reinforced by the intestines, liver