Part 24 (1/2)

The medical profession furnishes more than its proportion of drug addicts. They know the danger of the drugs, but familiarity breeds contempt. If the public but knew how many of their medical advisers, who should always be clear-minded, are befuddled by drugs, there would be a great awakening. One eminent physician who has now been in practice about forty-five years and has had much experience with drug addicts, has said that according to his observations, about one physician in four contracts the drug habit. I believe this is exaggerated, but I am acquainted with a number of physicians who are addicts.

Physicians who smoke do not condemn the practice. Those who drink are likely to prescribe beer and wine for their patients. Those who are addicted to drugs use them too liberally in their practice.

Those who have watched the effects of the various drugs, from coffee to heroin, must condemn their use. It is true that an occasional cup of coffee or tea, a gla.s.s of wine or beer does no harm. A cigarette a week would not hurt a boy, nor would on occasional cigar harm a man. But how many people are willing to indulge occasionally? The rule is that they indulge not only daily, but several times a day, and the results are bad. One bad habit leads to another, and the time always comes when it is a choice between disease and early death on one hand, and the giving up of the bad habits on the other, and when this time comes the bonds of habits are often so strong that the victim is unable to break them.

I realize that knowledge will not always keep people out of temptation and that some individuals will take the broad way that leads to destruction in spite of anything that may be said. Youth is impatient of restraint and ever anxious for new experiences. Regarding this serious matter of destructive drug use, much could be done by teaching people their place in society: That is, what they owe to themselves, their families and the public in general. In other words, teach the young people the higher selfishness, part of which consists of considerable self-control, self-denial and self-respect.

Drugs are too easy to obtain today. Some day people will be so enlightened that they will not allow themselves to be medicated. This is the trend of the times. Until such a time comes, society should protect itself by making it very difficult to get any of the habit-forming drugs. If necessary, the free hand of the physician should be stayed.

Much of the confidence blindly given him is misplaced.

CHAPTER XXI.

CARE OF THE SKIN.

The skin is neglected and abused. Very few realize how important it is to give this organ the necessary attention. If we were living today as our ancestors doubtless lived, we could neglect the skin, as they did.

They wore little or no clothing. The skin, which formerly was very hairy, served as protection. It was exposed to the elements, which toughened it and kept it active.

Today most people give the skin too great protection, and thus weaken it. The result is that it degenerates and partly loses its function with consequent detriment to the individual's health.

A normal skin has a very soft feel, imparting to the fingers a pleasant, vital sensation. It either has color or suggests color. An abnormal skin pleases neither the sense of seeing nor feeling. It may feel inert or it may be inflamed.

The skin is a beautiful and complex structure. It is made up of an outer layer called the epidermis and an inner layer, the true skin or corium, which rests upon a subcutaneous layer, composed princ.i.p.ally of fat and connective tissue.

The epidermis is divided into four layers. It has no blood-vessels and no nerves, but is nourished by lymph which escapes from the vessels deeper in the skin. It is simply protective in nature.

The true skin is made up of two indistinct layers, which harbor a vast mult.i.tude of nerves, blood-vessels and lymph-vessels.

In the skin there are two kinds of glands, the sebaceous and the sweat glands. The sebaceous glands are, as a general rule, to be found in greatest numbers on the hairiest parts of the body and are absent from the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. They throw off a secretion known as seb.u.m, which is made up princ.i.p.ally of dead cells that have undergone fatty degeneration and of other debris. The seb.u.m serves as lubricant. It is generally discharged near or at the shaft of a hair.

The sweat glands discharge on the average from one and one-half to two pounds of perspiration per day, more in hot weather and much less when it is cool. They are distributed over the whole external surface of the body. According to Krause there are almost 2,400,000 of them. They carry off water and carbonic acid gas chiefly.

The functions of the skin are: To protect the underlying structures; to regulate the heat; to serve as an organ of respiration; to serve as an organ of touch and thermal sensation; to secrete and eliminate various substances from the body; to absorb.

The heat regulation is quite automatic. When the external temperature is high there is a relaxation of the skin. The pores open, the perspiration goes to the surface and evaporates, thus cooling the body. When the surface is cool the skin contracts, closing the pores and conserving the heat. Radiation always takes place, except when the temperature is very high.

The sensation of touch and the ability to feel heat and cold protect us from untold numbers of dangers. They are a part of the equipment which enables us to adjust our selves to our environment.

The secretions and excretions are perspiration and seb.u.m. These contain water, carbonic acid, urea, buturic acid, formic acid, acetic acid, salts, the chief being sodium chloride, and many other substances.

The respiratory function consists in the absorption of a small amount of oxygen and the giving off of some carbonic acid.

A small amount of water can be absorbed by the skin. Oils can also be absorbed. In case of malnutrition in children, olive-oil rubs are often helpful. This absorptive function is taken advantage of by physicians who rub various medicaments into the skin. Mercury enough to produce salivation can be absorbed in this way.

From the above it will be seen that the skin is not only complex in structure, but has many functions. It is impossible to have perfect health without a good skin. Under civilized conditions a healthy skin can not be had without giving it some care. The average person has a skin that shows lack of care. Fortunately, but little care is needed.

A bath should be taken often enough to ensure cleanliness. Warm water and soap need not be used more than once or twice a week under ordinary conditions. If the soap causes itching, it is well to use a small amount of olive oil on the body afterwards, rubbing it in thoroughly, and going over the body with a soft cloth after the oil rub, thus removing the oil which would otherwise soil the clothes. If the skin is not kept clean, the millions of pores are liable to be partly stopped up, which results in the retention of a part of the excretory matter within the skin, where it may cause enough irritation to produce some form of cutaneous disorder, or the skin may through disuse become so inactive that too much work is thrown upon the other excretory organs, which may also become diseased from overwork and excessive irritation.

Soaps are irritants. Tallow soaps and olive oil soaps are less irritating than other varieties. Whatever kind of soap is used, it should be rinsed off thoroughly, for if some of it is left in the pores of the skin roughness or even mild inflammation may ensue. Be especially careful about the soap used for babies, avoiding all highly colored and cheap perfumed soaps.

Whether to take a daily sponge bath or not is a matter of no great importance, and each individual can safely suit himself. If there is quick reaction and a feeling of warmth and well-being following a cold sponge, it is all right. If the skin remains blue and refuses to react for a long time, the cold sponge bath is harmful. The cold plunge is always a shock, and no matter how strong a person may be, frequent repet.i.tion is not to be recommended. People who take cold plunges say that they do no harm, but it is well to remember that life is not merely a matter of today and tomorrow, but of next year, or perhaps forty, fifty or sixty years from today. A daily shock may cause heart disease in the course of twenty or thirty years.