Diseases of Modern LifeBermingham, 1882 - 288 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
absinthe acid action active alco alcohol ammonia amongst animal apoplexy arterial automatic become blood body brain breathing bronchitis called cancer carbonic acid cause centres cestode chloroform cholera circulation cold colloidal condition consumption Cysticercus dancing mania danger death degree derangement developed digestive disturbance dyspepsia effect epilepsy evil excess excitement exertion extreme fact failure fatal feeble fever flatulency fluid fluid ounces force function habit heart heat induced diseases indulgence influence injurious instances irregular irritation kidney known labor larvæ limbs living lungs malady membrane mental mind motion mucous mucous membrane muscles muscular narcotic natural nicotine observed occur pain paralysis pass passions patient perfect period persons phenomena of disease physical physician pipe poison present produced reason scarlet fever secretion sensation septinous skin sleep smoke stage stomach structure substance suffering surface symptoms temperature tion tissues tobacco tobacco smoke vapor vascular vessels
Popular passages
Page 123 - Admitting that each beat of the heart was as strong during the alcoholic period as in the water period (and it was really more powerful), the heart on the last two days of alcohol was doing one-fifth more work. Adopting the lowest estimate which has been given of the daily work...
Page 123 - The period of rest for the heart was shortened, though perhaps not to such an extent as would be inferred from the number of beats; for each contraction was sooner over.
Page 124 - It cannot, however, be too forcibly impressed on the mind of the reader that the condition is universal in the body. If the lungs could be seen they, too, would be found with their vessels injected ; if the brain and spinal cord could be laid open to view they would be discovered in the same condition ; if the stomach, the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, or any other vascular organs or parts could be laid open to the eye, the vascular enlargement would be equally manifest.
Page 146 - The capacity of this organ for holding active substances in its cellular parts is one of its marked physiological distinctions. In instances of poisoning by arsenic, antimony, strychnine, and other poisonous compounds, we find, in conducting our analyses, the liver to be, as it were, the central depot of the foreign matter. It is practically the same in poisoning with alcohol. The liver of the confirmed alcoholic is probably never free from the influence of the poison ; it is too often saturated...
Page 123 - If, instead of the mean of the eight days, or 73-57, we compare the mean of this one day, viz., 77 beats per minute, with the alcoholic days, so as to be sure not to over-estimate the action of the alcohol, we find : — On the 9th day with one fluid ounce of alcohol the heart beat 430 times more.
Page 145 - ... to the end. In plain terms, there is no remedy whatever for alcoholic phthisis. It may be delayed in its course, but it is never...
Page 132 - The well-proven fact that alcohol, when it is taken into the body, reduces the animal temperature, is full of the most important suggestions. The fact shows that alcohol does not in any sense act as a supplier of vital heat, as is so commonly supposed, and that it does not prevent the loss of heat as those imagine " who take just a drop to keep out the cold.
Page 135 - Swede drinks his average cup of twenty-five gallons of alcohol per year and remains on the face of the earth. I admit force even in this argument, for I know under the persistent use of alcohol there is a limited provision for the continuance of life. In the confirmed alcoholic the alcohol is, in a certain sense, so disposed of that it fits, as it were, the body for a long season, nay, becomes part of it; and yet it is silently doing its fatal work. The organs of the body may be slowly brought into...
Page 181 - Why should there exist perpetually a million of men, not one of whom can at any moment be writ down as in perfect health from day to day ? Why should a million of men be living with stomachs that only partially digest, hearts that labour unnaturally, and blood that is not fully oxydized?
Page 126 - That the hand may reach any object, or the foot be correctly planted, the higher intellectual centre must be invoked to make the proceeding secure; There follows quickly upon this a deficient power of co-ordination of muscular movement. The nervous control of certain of the muscles is lost, and the nervous stimulus is more or less enfeebled. . The muscles of the lower lip in the human subject usually fail first of all, then the muscles of the lower limbs, and it is worthy of remark that the extensor...