Have you ever wished that, like Mr. Carnegie, you could give libraries to the people?
Did it ever occur to you that the good books in those libraries are of greater value than the buildings?
You can give good books, can’t you?
If you are planning to remember your friends at the holiday season, you could not do better than give good books. They are always acceptable.
Selected Gift Books
FOR MEN, WOMEN, YOUNG PEOPLE, and CHILDREN
The books shown in this advertisement are especially suited for this purpose, and one or more will be found for each member of the family.
Remember this point: The authors had something more than profit in mind when they wrote these books. Their primary purpose was to meet the need that always exists for clean, moral, uplifting literature. Not only are these books all that they should be in this respect, but they are intensely interesting as well—a happy combination, truly.
(3) Best Stories from the Best Book
Board, 60c; cloth........................$0.75
(2) Young People’s Library
Among the Northern Icebergs
John of Wycliffe
Left with a Trust
Two Cannibal Archipelagoes
Life on the Kongo
Native Life in India
Savonarola
Tonga Islands
Cloth, per volume......................... .50
Letters from the Holy Land, in
paper cover only.......................... .25
Those marked (1) are especially for adults and young people; those marked (2), for young people and the older children; and (3), for the little ones.
These books may be secured from our depository in your own state.
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
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Wanted for Missionary Work
SIGNS weekly and monthly. Mrs. Anna Marr, Medicine Lodge, Kansas.
Review and Herald, SIGNS weekly and monthly, Watchman, Instructor, Our Little Friend, tracts, including Hebrew, and “War Extras.” Emma Kincaid, 2557A Hebert Street, St. Louis, Missouri.
Late clean copies of SIGNS, Watchman, Instructor, Life and Health, and other denominational literature suitable for missionary distribution. O. G. Reeder, Banning, California.
Continuous supply of SIGNS weekly and monthly, Review and Herald, Watchman, Instructor, Little Friend, Life Boat, and tracts. Mrs. Louisa Hedrick, L. Box 375, Lake Arthur, Louisiana.
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SOUTHERN PACIFIC
The Uselessness of Alcohol
By T. J. EVANS, M. D.
Not a Necessity in Medicine—Its Effects in Typhoid and Pneumonia—Influence on the Unborn Child
By T. J. EVANS, M. D.
Medical Superintendent Loma Linda Sanitarium, Loma Linda, California
It is the general impression that a physician can not dispense with alcohol in the practise of his profession, and that alcohol is absolutely necessary in the manufacture, preservation, and dispensation of medicine.
Is Alcohol Indispensable?
Alcoholic beverages have been used as intoxicants from times immemorial; but since the eighth century, alcohol has been separated from the other ingredients by distillation. From the fact that many of our tinctures are made and preserved in alcohol, the idea has become general that these drugs must necessarily be prepared in this particular way. But in the last few years, the tinctures have not been used as much as previously, for they can not be administered with as much accuracy in dosage. Most physicians now use tablets and the alkaloidal preparations instead of the tinctures.
Alcohol in Typhoid and Pneumonia
Formerly alcohol was used in the treatment of typhoid in the low and debilitated state; but since alcohol has been used less, and hydrotherapy more, the mortality from this disease has been greatly lessened. Where the patients have been properly treated, drugs are very little administered by those who are using modern methods. If hydrotherapy is instituted early, there is no place for stimulants except where there are complications. When these complications arise, there are other stimulants that are more valuable than alcoholic preparations.
A few years ago, alcohol was frequently used in the treatment of pneumonia; but of late, closer observations have developed the fact that pneumonia is much more serious where individuals have been accustomed to drinking alcoholic beverages.
Dr. C. K. Stilman investigated 200 cases of pneumonia in alcoholics, to ascertain the influence of drinking habits on the prognosis. He divides the cases into two classes: “1. Free drinkers who show tremors, nervousness, and usually signs of chronic gastritis. 2. Excessive drinkers who show in addition signs of cardio-vascular changes, frequent irregularity of the heart, pallor, and more pronounced signs of degeneracy, as shown by the changed facial expression and listlessness of demeanor.”
Highest with the Hard Drinkers
“Of the 200 cases collected by the author, 121 were ‘free’ and 79 were excessive drinkers. Of the 121 ‘free’ drinkers, twenty-two died, a mortality of 18.1 per cent. Of the 79 excessive drinkers, fifty-two died, a mortality of 65.8 per cent. An analysis of the foregoing figures leads to some very interesting conclusions. Most striking of these is the evidence presented that youth does not make for a low death-rate when the subject is excessively alcoholic. The figures seem to indicate that the inebriate of twenty-five years has no better chance of recovery than the toper of middle age.”
This can be explained from the fact that when a person is afflicted with pneumonia, one or more of the lobes of the lungs are greatly engorged with blood and serum; and if alcohol is administered it increases the engorgement, because of its paralyzing influence upon the vasomotor nerves that control the fine capillaries, and thus increases the amount of blood in the small blood-vessels.
Alcohol as a Heart Stimulant
Alcoholic preparations have been suggested as heart tonics and heart stimulants; but most physicians resort to preparations that are more effective and less injurious. Digitalis, strophanthus, and strychnia are used much more freely by the medical profession, and are found to be more reliable. In fact, it is definitely known that abnormal heart conditions are brought on by alcohol, and it is one of the chief factors in producing arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Then if alcohol has this deleterious effect upon the circulatory system, the results would be the opposite of those we desire to produce.
Its Use with Snake Bites
Alcohol is generally regarded as indispensable in cases of snake bite, as it is supposed to neutralize the effect of the poisons that have been inoculated in the system by the fangs of the reptile. But alcohol does not retain this position with the up-to-date physician. He looks upon permanganate of potash as being far more effective in combating the effects of bites of insects or reptiles.
For bites of reptiles the injured parts should at once be opened with a penknife or any other instrument that may be available, and a saturated solution of permanganate of potash placed in the open wound. A band should be quickly placed around the limb above the injured part, to interfere with the return circulation, and increase bleeding, and in this way wash out the toxic substances. The saturated solution can be injected under the skin in the region of the affected part, or the crystals may be placed in the open wound. The inhalation of aromatic spirits of ammonia is also beneficial where collapse comes in connection with snake bite. Permanganate of potash can be carried in a little two-gram vial, is inexpensive, and can be prepared for use almost instantly. Peroxide of hydrogen is useful in case of insect bites. If alcohol were useful in snake bites, that would not be an argument in favor of its retention among civilized people, inasmuch as snake bite is of such rare occurrence.
For Carbolic Acid Poisoning
Alcohol is a splendid antidote for carbolic acid poisoning. If carbolic acid has been taken in quantities, alcohol will neutralize the poison, and possibly save the individual from death. There is no excuse, however, for retaining one poison to neutralize another, especially when the poison retained produces many times more deaths than the one to be neutralized. Carbolic acid is not used for a disinfectant so much as formerly, other antiseptics taking its place, and it is seldom used except in the sterilization of surgical knives before operations. Alcohol itself is an antiseptic, and can be used for disinfectant purposes. It is frequently used for thermometers and other instruments. The very fact that it can be used for a disinfectant shows that it is a poison.
Its Use in the Laboratory
One of the most useful places for alcohol is medical laboratories, where it is used to harden tissues. In making pathological examinations, the tissues are prepared by placing in alcohol of varying strength, for the purpose of extracting all the water from the tissues and leaving them hard, so that they can be mounted and cut before staining. Its use there is very helpful, but not indispensable; for in instantaneous examinations, alcohol is not used in the study of pathological tissues. Dr. Brooks has said that with a little experience, it could be eliminated from the laboratory, and would be hardly missed. Alcohol will dehydrate the living tissue as well as the dead. It is poisonous to any tissue with which it comes in contact. The cells, instead of being bathed in a fresh nutritive agent, where alcohol is taken, are bathed with an alcoholic solution, which interferes with the oxidation and elimination. This accounts for the users’ becoming inactive by the replacing of muscular fibers with fatty tissue.
Alcohol Active on the Blood-Vessels
When alcohol is taken into the system even in small doses, it acts upon the small blood-vessels, causing them to become relaxed and dilated, through paralysis of the vasomotor nerves. It also dilates the capillaries of the internal organs, and allows them to become engorged, especially if the surface of the body is exposed to cold. The food is not so readily oxidized, and the constructive changes and eliminative processes are hindered. It also lessens the activity of the white blood cells, and causes the individual to become more susceptible to disease. The immunity that is acquired by the body in different ways is lessened. Instead of assisting the body to combat disease, it lessens the resistance of the body by interfering with the natural immunity.
Dr. Lambert divides alcoholics into three classes: 1. The industrial drinkers, who take liquor as a stimulant to make their working capacity greater; and for a time they may believe they can do more work, but ere long they find they have to increase the dosage in order that they may keep up with the standard. 2. The convivial drinkers, who go frequently on sprees, and sooner or later eventuate into chronic alcoholism. 3. Those who take liquor for the purpose of drowning their troubles. This class frequently drink on the least provocation, such as sickness or loss of position. Even a cross word from a superior will often make an occasion for a drunk.
Dulling the Finer Emotions
“The chronic poison by alcohol produces effects similar to those of acute poisoning in its various stages. The lessening of judgment, dulling of the finer emotions, and prominence of the lower instinct, are shown as degeneration of the brain comes on.” We767can not judge persons who use alcoholic beverages by a normal man, for they are diseased.
The mind is steadily poisoned by the intake of this narcotic, and we do not expect it to act normally. The alcohol addict can not rearrange events of the past in a way that would give a basis for reaching correct conclusions. The bringing of one idea to the mind does not readily call forth other ideas. Hence we can not expect him to tell the truth. When a man has lost control of his mind, he is also incapable of reforming his ways, therefore should be regarded as an irresponsible subject of pity.
In order to help these individuals, it is absolutely necessary that we have confidence in them, and we should inspire them with a knowledge that we desire to help them break away from this influence that is binding them to the intoxicant from which they would gladly be free if they had the power. It is only the lack of knowledge of what is in their hearts that makes us so unsympathetic in regard to their welfare.
Alcoholic Insanity
Drs. Church and Peterson, in the paragraph on alcohol in their book on mental diseases, in discussing the etiology of insanity, state: “While the position of auto-intoxication as a factor in etiology is not yet determined, we may say of alcohol that it stands foremost, after heredity, as a single, independent cause (eighteen to twenty per cent in males). Alcoholic insanity commonly develops from chronic alcoholism, from the excessive use of the poison for a long period of time. It is three or four times as frequent as a factor in the insanity of males as of females. Usually it is not difficult to discover the cause of an alcoholic insanity; but should alcoholic abuse be denied, an investigation of the conditions of the viscera will often throw light on the subject (cirrhosis of the liver, fatty heart, chronic gastric catarrh with heavily furred tongue, chronic nephritis and arteriosclerosis). Corroborative evidence will generally be afforded, too, by affections of the nervous system (alcoholic polyneuritis; alcoholic epilepsy; muscular paresis here and there in the hands, face, or tongue; fibrillary tremor of the face and tongue, fine or coarse tremor of the fingers and hands; paresthesias, hyperesthesias, neuralgias; muscae volitantes, tinnitus aurium, amblyopia, and visual hallucinations). The peculiar psychic degeneration of alcoholism is very characteristic. This consists of gradually weakening memory and will, slowness of perception and judgment, and loss of esthetic and moral sense, with occasional states of depression and excesses of anger.”
From a very careful investigation of the above, it will be found that there is only one factor that excels in the production of insanity, and that is heredity. But in studying heredity, we also find that alcohol plays an important part along this line.
Alcohol and the Unborn Child
Prof. A. Forel discusses the effect of alcohol upon the development of the race, and especially on the Aryan nation. While we are enjoying a great deal of prosperity, there are many elements tending to the degeneracy of the race. “First, there is a proportionally excessive production of unfit and insufficient propagation of the better types of the race. The best elements of society are taxed to provide for the offspring of the degenerate, who should not be allowed to multiply at all. A more serious matter is the prevalence of alcoholic habits, which tend directly to the deterioration of the genital glands and the products of their activity.”
Before the child is born it is protected from such injuries as fractures, dislocations, etc., but not from the poisons that are taken into the system, which, upon entering the circulation, are carried to every known tissue of the body. “That alcohol is such a poison is well known; and even when taken in small doses for a considerable period, it has a pernicious effect upon the offspring. It differs from food in the fact that its use tends to produce no feeling of satiety, but fosters an unnatural appetite, so that moderation in its use is only to be attained with certainty by entire abstinence, and it is impossible to say how small a quantity can be taken habitually without harm.”
