POISONING INSTEAD OF RESTING.
By Dr. C. W. Lyman
THE body when more or less exhausted can be whipped into smart action for a time by introducing certain stimuli, which excite at the same time that they exhaust the nerves—as long as the vitality of these nerves holds out in resistance to the noxious assailant. These poisons—some of them carry other and deceptive names, being termed tonics and stimulants—are said to be refreshing, or to sustain or to expel fatigue. One of the most efficient of these, and reaching deepest in its havoc and ruin, is opium, now known pretty generally for what it really is. The alcoholics and tobacco are sufficiently understood by most persons of sense capable of observing effects in themselves or others. Tea and coffee are not so well appreciated in their true character. Coca, cocaine, and "the incomparable Vin Mariani," in which this drug masquerades, also various "tonics" containing wine, beef extracts, bitter vegetable extracts, and stimulant principles (including strychnine and quinine), also containing arsenic and iron—these preparations still address claims to the public as substitutes for rest and recuperation. It is not possible that anything should be that. We must calculate for the long run, not for the short run and a virtual suicide. Stimulants taken when tired seem to strike at the very texture of the metal upon which the spring and tenacity of the bodily machine depends. It is amazing what labor, strain, and vicissitude can fall harmlessly on a healthy body, if supplied with reasonable food and not poisoned. If a chance for recuperation is given soon enough, all is rapidly recovered. But stimuli kill the capacity for rest and ruin the repairing processes. They also create a special liability to the invasion of infectious diseases, such as cold, pneumonia, and typhoid fever, by lessening the resistance of the tissues. They hasten the appearance of every defect or weakness which an untapped vitality would otherwise be able to bridge over, if not fill in.—N. Y. Voice.