280 ELEMENTS OF PHYSIOLOGY 



fifty years. But if such men had begun when young 

 boys, or had used cigarettes and inhaled the smoke, they 

 would be even fewer than they are. 



508. Review of Effects of Alcohol. Give the effect of 

 alcohol upon (i) the skin and bones; (2) the muscles; (3) 

 the stomach; (4) the liver; (5) the circulation; (6) the 

 respiration ; (7) the nervous system. (8) Discuss whether 

 alcohol is a food. 



509. Drug Habits are growing with such rapidity that it 

 is a question whether the drug fiend will not, before long, 

 be as common as the drunkard. The physician meets few 

 more pitiable sights than that presented by the typical 

 morphine or cocaine fiend. The evil is invading all classes 

 of society, including numbers of physicians. Many patent 

 medicines, cough cures, headache powders, colic cures, etc., 

 contain morphine. It is a deep-seated fallacy existing in 

 the minds of the masses, that they can violate with im- 

 punity the laws of health and life which have been insti- 

 tuted by infinite power and wisdom, and then dodge the 

 unpleasant consequences by simply swallowing a few drops 

 of some sedative or anodyne. About $200,000,000 worth 

 of patent nostrums are annually disposed of. The aver- 

 age invalid demands something more substantial than 

 extravagant claims. As there is no drug that will so 

 effectually smother, for a time, the cries of an outraged 

 nerve as some form of opium, and as there is no drug that 

 is so deceptive a stimulant as cocaine, these two are most 

 often found in these quack remedies. They assist in secur- 

 ing convincing testimonials as to the wonderful curative 

 power, which is supposed to be identical with the relief 

 from pain furnished. The invalid soon learns to buy the 

 active agent in the nostrum in its pure form, and this often 

 seals his fate. 



510. Subjects for Compositions. Cooking. Health and 

 the Home. The Body subject to Law. Improved Dress. 



