Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-05-29
Appearance
Of Tongue
Discussed
One Who Depends on II
Certain TO Suffer
BY DIR. LOGAN CLENDENING

BY DIR. LOGAN CLENDENING
I IKE the lips. as we said last
- week, the tongue is a part
Of the body which we can see
every day and gather a great
many people look at it every
day as a sort of barometer Of
general health.
I gather this, for one thing,
from the emphasis that the
movies put on the maneuver:
invariably the actor who is
playing the part of a frequenter
of night clubs is shown arising
in the morning. going to the
mirror and sticking out his
tongue and looking at II more
or less ruefully.
The old family doctor used to
use the tongue in this way.
I culled from an old medical
book the suggestion that
''beefy" tongue occurs in chronic
Inflammation of the bowel or
liver; that a "furred" tongue
means nervous prostration If the
fur is brown; if the tongue is
dry with assures, the condition
is grave; light fur means an
irritation OF the stomach; yellow
fur means liver arrangement.
IF TIE tongue is red along
Il the center il means intestinal
irritation; II CLASSY. IL is very
unfavorable; IL il is bright red
IL indicates gastric inflammation
and If it is red and cracked il
means kidney trouble.
Since these are about all the
kinds of tongues there are, IL
you follow this system and de-
pend on your tongue. you are
pretty certain 10 be suffering
from something.
Fortunately all this tongue
lore has been given up as mis-
information, but 10 a certain
extent the tongue is the mirror
Of the system.
The general conditions in
which the tongue shows char
acteristic changes are the
anemias, deficiency diseases and
a few general fevers, such as
scarlet fever.
Raw, red tongue. raw red
gut" is a colloquialism which
indicates that in many OF the
anemias the digestive tract is
disturbed throughout its whole
course.
Nearly any kind of anemia
shows itself in the first part of
it's course in a sore. red tongue,
often with little painful blisters
on il.
AS the disease progresses II
no treatment is administered,
the tongue becomes small and
atrophied so that the little
papillae are smoothed out.
THE vitamin deficiency dis
l. eases often show up in the
tongue first.
This is true. for instance, of
pellagra in all of its varieties.
whether early or full-blown;
also in other forms of vitamin
B deficiency.
The well-known sore tongue
of the southern mountaineer
who used TO spend the winter
eating salt pork. molasses and
corn pone was a sample OF this.
The underside of the tongue
probably shows jaundice before
il Can be seen in the whites of
the eyes or the skin at all.
The yellow discoloration Of
the tongue is the most delicate
test of jaundice.
A well-known diagnostician
has estimated that there are
20 different general conditions
of the body which are reflected
in the tongue.
But the old. "furred" tongue
is really not of any significance
at all.
am sorry to disillusion the
Hollywood diagnosticians, but
it is no real indication, pro or
con, of a hangover.
The night club habitue may
feel like the dickens all over.
but his tongue will remain clear
and normal.
It is true, however, that
chronic alcoholism produces
changes in the tongue in about
so per cent of cases.
Most of these are due to the
deficient diet which the alcoholic
eats.