FEa 17, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



343 



time of so-called rest in laying np fresh stores of explosive material, 



and in healing up those rents which have taken place in their actual 



anbstance. In the region of nerve and muscle a man ought always 



to live up to his income. He can save nothing by si)aring exertion, 



BO long as he docs not go beyond his income. Give your brain 



sufficient food and an abimdani supply of oxygen, and theu give it 



a fair amount of good hard work e»crv day, if you wish to maintain 



it in a high state of healthy activity. Barristers and clergymen, 



who use their brains mtich, are the longest-lived men in the country, 



showing plainly that regular brain work is good for the general 



health as well as for the efficiency of the nervous system in 



vticular. The muscular system must be treated in a similar 



liner, if yon do not wish it to become subject to fatty degenera- 



r. An unused muscle shrinks, and becomes soft and flabby, 



-onting an appearance of marked contrast to the brawny arm 



the blacksmith. Instances of the feebleness of tissues thus 



-crved freiiuently present themselves to the notice of the 



_'eon. A muscle is called upon to perform a vigorous contrac- 



::. but it snaps in the effort. The heart itself is sometimes toni 



uder in attempting to send an extra supply of blood to some 



ily limb. Xo man can afford to lower Iiis general vitality 



the sake of mere idle gratification. He never knows 



11 he may reiinire all the energy which can be stored up 



his tissues. A railway accident, a runaway horse, a rim 



catch a train, a fall on the ice, or even a fit of cutighing, 



y bring a life of miser)- or an early death to one who would have 



-ed unscathed through them all, had he allowed his nerves and 



-cles to wear away in vigorous activity, instead of carefully 



-erviug them, like smoked bacon, in the fumes of tobacco. I do 



'. attempt to deny that all narcotics possess the power to prolong 



in the absence of food. I have elsewhere referred to the case 



:iu old woman who lived for two years on opium and gin-and- 



lor, without any food whatever, but she might as well have been 



•'.cr grave. Hers was, I would not say a living death, but rather 



lud life. Some may be inclined to doubt the accuracy of this 



ly, but such -n-ill discern a possibility of its truth when I say that 



.;ircotic seems to produce a condition of the nervous system 



- -ly resembling that of hybemating animals. The dormouse 



jis for many weeks without any food whatever. Its tissues are 



-nin the condition of the cook's fire when covered ivith ashes, 



1 if you can produce a similar condition in the^hnman tissues, you 



y attain the same result of prolonged fasting. We are apt to 



-ider the winter sleep of the dormouse as a great waste of exist- 



.1 . ; but what can we think of a reasonable man who artificially 



roduces liimself to a similar condition during a considerable portion 



of tlie prime of life. 



Tobacco soothes the exhausted and irritable nervous system after 

 a hard day's work, and prevents the brain worrying about difficulties 

 that may never come. 



The advocates of tobacco maintain that in this manner it gives 

 rest to the nervons system, and thus enables it to throw off work 

 for the time, and resume it again with renewed energy. Xow the 

 mistake which our opponents make here is, that they ignore the 

 necessity for anything but rest. What would you think of the 

 fanner who allowed his men an hour's rest at various ititervals 

 daring the day, but who, at the same time, forbade them 

 to take footl at such times, lest the muscular movements in- 

 volved in carving and mastication should interfere with their 

 complete and absolute repose ? Every cell in the body is a 

 counterpart of the whole organism. Just as the man cannot work 

 without eating, so the cell cannot carry on its explosive action 

 without fresh supplies of explosive material. Now, tobacco and 

 other narcotics not only prevent the nervous matter exhibiting 

 energv", they also prevent it absorbing its proper food; so that the 

 rest which it obtains by means of narcotism does not enable it to 

 ~<ume work with renewed energy. But more, the nervous matter 

 lereby rendered incapable of throwing off its o^vn ashes, which 

 its most deadly poison. Just as decomposing animal matter is 

 ■■.giily deleterious to the health of the body, so the dead portions 

 of nervous tissue become disastrous to the life and activity of 

 their living successors. I do not attempt to deny that the 

 relief afforded by a narcotic is most delightful and seductive. 

 When the merchant goes home from his office, worried by a thou- 

 sand trifles, and saddled with a load of cares, his nerves are agitated 

 and restless, and the busy wheels of life seem to spin round with 

 unceasing velocity. How delightful it is to be able, by the magic 

 spell of tobacco, to stop those busy wheels, and to translate himself 

 from the pains of a commercial pandemonium into the Elysian 

 fields of perfect bliss I I confess that tobacco does all in the way 

 of soothing that its admirers attest; it is my duty, however, to 

 exhibit the other side of the shield, and to proclaim that the 

 Inxurioas pleasure of the pipe is physiologically so expensive that 

 the nervous system cannot afford to indulge in it. The muscles sirffer 

 along with the nerves ; for without nervous influence the muscles arc 



unable to supply themselves with the nourishment which is carried by 

 the blood into their very substance. If you cut the nerves leading to a 

 muscle, that muscle will cease to retain its fij-mness and contractive 

 vigour, and if you paralyse the same nerves by a narcotic, its power 

 of contraction will be similarly diminished. Any smoker will tell 

 you that much smoking is a hindrance to severe muscular exertion. 

 If a man has lit his pipe, you are more likely to find him dreaming 

 in a corner than ascending a mountain. When you observe what an 

 amount of lounging lethargy is induced by tobacco, you scarcely 

 require an ounce of science to account for the smaller appetite 

 of the inveterate tobaccopliile. This power of the narcotic 

 to interfere with the nutrition of the tissues produces serious 

 consequences on the digestive organs of those who both smoke much 

 and eat well. The smoker is often not content to suffer any dimi- 

 nution of the pleasures of the table as a result of his pipe. He 

 therefore uses a variety of agents to induce in his digestive organs 

 an artificial appetite. Ho is thus led to consume a much larger 

 amount of nutritive material than can possibly be required by 

 nsircotised tissues. This nutritive material produces injiu-y either 

 to the stomach or liver — very frequently to both. The stomach is 

 burdened with more work than a smoker's stomach can perform ; 

 hence the dyspepsia so frequently accompanying the pipe. The 

 liver is doubly bm-dened. Vis duties in connection with the food 

 are many. It assists to prepare nutriment for nerve and muscle, 

 and if such nutriment is not required, its further duty is to break 

 down such rejected nourishment in order that it may be more 

 easily expelled from the system. Hence the biliousness and other 

 effects of liver derangement so common in the smoker. 



Tobacco destroys the physical conscience. 



My greatest oljjection, as a physician, to the use of tobacco, is, 

 that it destroys what I have ventured to call the physical con- 

 science. The entire body is supplied with minute nerve twigs 

 which, in the healthy man, are maintained in a highly sensitive Con- 

 dition. Their function is to inform the brain when any derange- 

 ment is taking place in the ultimate tissues. Tliis network of 

 nerves occupies a similar position in relation to physical health 

 that the conscience does in relation to the moral condition. 

 Whenever any muscle has diiKculty in contracting, a mes- 

 sage of the fault is at once transmitted to the brain. The 

 same occnrrenco takes place when the stomach has difficulty in 

 digesting its contents, when the liver is overburdened T\-ith excess 

 of sugar or bile, and when the brain is being overtaxed with daily toil. 

 These messages produce great uneasiness to the subject of their 

 influences, just as a troubled conscience docs in the mind of it^ 

 possessor. Now, there are two ways of avoiding the inconvenience 

 of the physical conscience, just as there are two ways of avoiding 

 the pangs of a smitten moral conscience. Ton may either do what 

 is right, or yon may lull your conscience to sleep. Tobacco enables 

 a man to deaden his physical conscience, and thus he may go on 

 ruining his health without knowing it, until he is beyond the hope 

 of recoveiw. 



HOW SPIDERS FLY. 



(Bj Pkofessoe C. a. Young.) 



I WAS very nmch interested, a few days ago, in hearing a friend 

 give an acconnt of a manuscript she had seen, which was 

 written by Jonathan Edwards when nine years old. It was an 

 account of the behaviour of certain small New England spiders, 

 the manner they Hy through the air, and the way to see thein best, 

 bv getting into the edge of a shadow, and looking toward the sun. 

 It is neatly and carefully written, and illustrated by little drawings 

 verj- nicely done. The philosophical tendencies of the young 

 Avritcr alrcadv appear, for his conclusion as to the " final cause " 

 of spiders and" their flying is this : the little animals are scavengers, 

 and since, in New England, the prevailing winds are west, they 

 are carried to the sea in their flight with whatever filth they have 

 consumed, and so the land is cleansed. 



Every one knows how, in sunny weather, the little creatures, 

 standing on their heads, project from their spinnerets fine filaments 

 of gossamer, which are caught by the breeze, and float off into the 

 air. though still attached to the spider. When she jjerceives that 

 the thread is long enough, and the pull of the wind suflicient, she 

 releases her hold and flies away on her gossamer like a witch on her 

 broomstick ; by watching her chance, and letting go only when the 

 breeze is favourable ; she is carried to her desired haven. Experi- 

 ments have been tried by placing the animals on a chij) floated in a 

 pail of water. So long as the air was in motion about them they 

 were able verj- soon to escape from their island ; but when a bell 

 glass was jdaced over the pail, thus preventing air currents, they 

 could not get from the island to the surrounding shore. 



But how does it happen that, on setting out for a voyage, the 

 spider almost invariably ascends with her web, and continues to 



