tag:www.schenkopp.com,2008:/health//3 2008-07-13T05:18:48Z Movable Type 3.34 tag:www.schenkopp.com,2008:/health//3.238 2008-05-30T09:07:49Z 2008-07-13T05:18:48Z

Hair combing is a routine activity of al...

1) Do not comb if the hair is wet. First dry it with a towel and then put some oil and gently massage it.Now the combing will be easy and harmless.

2) Others comb should not be used.This helps to prevent fungal and bacterial infections.Head lice can also spread from one person to other by sharing the combs.

3) Combing should be done with utmost care and concentration.Some people especially gents think about some other matters and comb without any care which may be harmful to the hairs.

4) The tooth of the comb should not be sharp and it should not be pressed too tightly on the scalp.

5) Should not be combed in the opposite direction of hairs.This can increase hair falling.

6) Different varieties of combs are available in the market.The best comb is selected by considering the nature of hair(hard or soft,long or short) ,style and convenience.

7) Frequent combing can damage the scalp and the hair follicles.Those who carry pocket comb use it frequently and make it a habit.Combing two or three times in a day is sufficient.

8) Combing should be gentle .A vigorous combing can increase hairfalling.

9) Combing the tangled hair is difficult and painful.Hence use some shampoo for cleaning and after drying put oil and make the hairs free for an easy combing.

10) Always clean the comb before and after use because hair and dirt deposited in the gap will make combing diffucult and painful.

11) Vigorous combing in backward direction can produce traction baldness.
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Low back pain is a usual symptom amoung...

Low back pain is a usual symptom amoung the modern civilised people.It affects mainly the middle aged and young adults of both sexes.People who work on the chair with out exercise and those who carry heavy loads regularly are prone to get this complaint.We can hardly find a person who has not suffered from back pain atleast once in life.The causes of low backpain ranges from simple reasons like muscular strain to cancer of spine and hence backache should not be ignored.The pain is felt in lumbar and sacral region and may radiate to nearby sites.

The following are some causes for backache.

1) Backache due to problems in other parts of the body.
2) Backache due to diseases in the back.
3) Backache due to gynaecological problems.

1) Backache due to problems in other parts of the body.
a) Biliary stones.
b) Occlusion of aorta and illiac arteries.
c) Ureteric stone.
d) Renal stones.
e) Peptic ulcer.
f) Pancreatitis.
g) Cancer of prostate.
f) Inflammations of pelvic organs.

2) Backache due to diseases in the back:

a) Functional backache due to imbalance:
1) Short leg in one side.
2) Pot belly.
3) Curvature in the spine due to congenital defect.
4) Diseases of the hip joint.
5) During pregnancy.

b) Injuries :
1) Intervertebral joint injuries.
2) Injuries to ligaments and muscles of back.
3) Compression fracture of the vertebral column.
4) Lumbosacral strain.
5) Rupture of intervertebral discs.
6) Fracture of processes of vertebra.

c) Tumour in the spine:
1) Metastatic tumours from other sites like prostate,lungs,kidneys,intestine ect.
2) Primory tumour of the bones in the spine.

d) Backache due to degenerative diseases in the back.
1) Osteoporosis in old people.
2) Osteoarthritis.
3) Degenaration of the intervertebral disc.

e) Backache due to inflammatory conditions:
1) Anchylosing spondylitis.
2) Arthritis.
3) Infection of the bone due to bacteria.
4) Lumbago or fibrositis.
5) Tuberculosis of the spine.
6) Inflamation of the muscles.
7) Brucellosis.

3) Backache due to gynaecological problems:
a) Endometriosis.
b) Prolapse of the uterus.
c) After gynaecological operations.
d) After childbirth.
e) Cancerous lesions of the pelvic organs.
f) Pelvic inflammatory diseases.

Treatment of back ache:
1) Homoeopathy.
2) Back exercises.
3) Removing the cause for backache.
4) Traction.
5) Symptomatic treatement.
6) Surgery.
7) Yoga.

Investigation of a case of backache:
1) MRI of the spine.
2) Routine urine examination.
3) Complete blood count.
4) X-ray of the lumbar and sacral region.
5) Examination of rectum,prostate,genito urinary organs.
6) Ultrasonography of the abdomen and pelvis.
7) CT scan of abdomen and pelvic region.
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It is a non progressive neuromuscular d...

It is a non progressive neuromuscular disorder causing mild to severe disabilities throughout life.This condition is manifested as a group of persisting qualitative motor disorders which appear in young children due to damage to the brain during delivery or due to some pathological conditions in the intrauterine life.The neuroligical problems are multiple but non progressive in nature.Approximately 2 per 100 live birth is having this problem.This disease is having no hereditary tendency.

Causes of cerebral palsy:
1) Infections during delivery.
2) Lack of oxygen supply to the baby during delivery.
3) As a complication of forceps delivery.
4) Injury to the brain during delivery.

Management of carebral palsy:

Occupational therapy:
This is given by occupational therapists.They train the disabled people to do some suitable works so that these people can have their own income.

Rehabilitation:
Moral and social support should be given to these children.They should be send to special schools where special training can be given by trained staff.Mentally retarded children need special training.Depending up on the disabitity special instruments and machines are given for locomotion and to assist their daytoday activities.

Physiotherapy:
Here massage,exercise, hydrotherapy and ect are needed.Special training is given to train walking,swallowing and talking.The affected children are also trained to hold articles for routine activities.

General management:
This includes proper nutrition and personal care. Symptomatic medicines are needed to reduce convulsions and muscle stiffness. Diazepam can reduce spasticity and athetosis.
Dantrolene sodium helps to relax skeletal muscles.

Abnormal findings in cerebral palsy:
1)Stiffness of all muscles with awkward motion.
2)Abnormal movements are seen in some cases.
3)Scissoring of the lower limbs due to spasm of the adductor muscles of the thigh.
4)Speech may be affected.
5)Abnormal neonatal reflexes.
6)May have total or partial paralysis.
7)Arrest of neurological and behavioral developement.
8),Complete or partial loss of hearing.
9)Drooling of saliva.
10)Convulsions may be seen in some children.
11)Extention of extremities on vertical suspension of the infant.
12)Mild to severe mental retardations.
13)Tremors with typical movements.
14)Swallowing may be difficult in some cases.
15)If cerebellum is affected there will be loss of muscle tone with difficulty in walking.
16)In severe cases the back bend backwards like and arch.
17)Squint and other visual problems may be associated.

Cerebral palsy is diagnosed by detailed clinical examination and by eliminating other similar diseases like brain tumour, progressive atrophy ect.All investigations like CT scan,MRI and routine investigations are needed to ruleout other diseases.

Signs and symptoms of cerebral palsy:
The signs and symptoms may not be similar in all babies affected.Depending upon the damage to the brain there may be mild to severe lesions.

Mild cases: 20% children will have mild disability.
Moderate cases:50% cases are having moderate disability.The affected children require self help for assisting their impaired ambulation capacity.
Severe cases:About 30% of the affected children are totally incapacited and bedridden and they allways need care from others.
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What is piles ? Dilatation of radicles ...

What is piles ?
Dilatation of radicles of rectal veins within the anal canal is called piles.The medical term for piles is hemorrhoids.Compared to arteries veins are weak due to thin walls and hence any backpressure in the veins can make them tortuous.There are three rectal veins namely superior, middle and inferior rectal veins.Any obstructions or increase of pressure in these veins can predispose piles.

Depending upon the situation there are two types of piles.
1) Internal piles:-
It is inside the anal canal and internal to the anal orifice.It is covered by mucous membrane and is red or purple in colour.These piles are painless.
2) External piles
This type of piles is seen outside the anal opening and is covered by skin.It is black or brown in colour.This type of piles is very painful due to rich nerve supply in this area.
Some times internal and external piles occure in same individual.

Complications of piles
1)Suppuration: When the piles suppurate it can produce abscess with discharge of pus.
2)Fibrosis: Here the piles become fibrosed with hardening of anal orifice.
3)Gangrene: Here the tissues in the piles and nearby skin die due to lack of blood supply.
4)Infection: The infection can spread to deep veins resulting in septicaemia.
5)Thrombosis: Here the blood inside the piles will form clots and can obstruct blood flow.

Signs and symptoms of piles
1) In some cases there will be discharge of mucus with itching around the anal orifice.
2) Bleeding
Bleeding comes in splashes while pressing for stool.Bleeding may be profuse in some cases.
3) Pain
Pain is common in external piles which will be worse while straining at stool.
4) Protruding mass
In external piles the swelling can be felt around the anal orifice.In case of internal piles initially it can not be felt.When the disease progresses the piles protrude during stool and will go inside automatically.When the condition becomes worse the protruded piles will not go back in to the anus.

Factors responsible for piles
1) Some ladies get piles during pregnancy due to compression of rectal veins by the uterus.
2) This is a familial disease.
3) Cancerous lesions in the rectum can obstruct blood flow and result in piles.
4) Piles is seen only in animals maintain an erect posture. This is due to congestion in the rectal veins due to the effect of gravity.
5) Piles is common in those who take excess of chicken, prawns, spicy food ect.Those who take vegetables and fibrous food are rarely affected.
6) It is common in individuals having chronic constipation.Those who have a habit of visiting the toilet due to frequent urge for stool may develop piles in future.

How to prevent piles?
1) Keep a regular timing for food.
2) Take fibrous food.
3) Take treatment for constipation.
4) Avoid excess intake of meat,prawns,crabs ect.
5) Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.
6) Drink sufficient quantity of water.
7) Keep a regularity in bowel habits.
Treatment of piles
Initially it is treated on the basis of symptoms.Constipation should be treated.If there is anaemia iron should be give.Homoeopathic medicines can give good results. If medicinal treatment is not giving any result the following can be tried.
1) Cryosurgery is very effective.
2) Sclerosant injection therapy can reduce the size of piles.
3) The thrombosed external pile is excised under local anaesthesia.
4) Anal dilatation can reduce constipation and pain.
5) Rubber band ligation around the neck of piles is useful in some cases.
6) Haemorrhoidectomy is the surgical removal of piles.

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And here, in order to give those who are...

"The first step of the digestive process is the breaking up of the food in the mouth by means of the jaws and teeth. On this being done, the saliva, a viscid liquor, is poured into the mouth from the salivary glands, and as it mixes with the food, it performs a very important part in the operation of digestion, rendering the starch of the food soluble, and gradually changing it into a sort of sugar, after which the other principles become more miscible with it. Nearly a pint of saliva is furnished every twenty-four hours for the use of an adult. When the food has been masticated and mixed with the saliva, it is then passed into the stomach, where it is acted upon by a juice secreted by the filaments of that organ, and poured into the stomach in large quantities whenever food comes in contact with its mucous coats. It consists of a dilute acid known to the chemists as hydrochloric acid, composed of hydrogen and chlorine, united together in certain definite proportions. The gastric juice contains, also, a peculiar organic-ferment or decomposing substance, containing nitrogen something of the nature of yeast termed pepsine , which is easily soluble in the acid just named. That gastric juice acts as a simple chemical solvent, is proved by the fact that, after death, it has been known to dissolve the stomach itself."

It is an error to suppose that, after a good dinner, a glass of spirits or beer assists digestion; or that any liquor containing alcohol even bitter beer can in any way assist digestion. Mix some bread and meat with gastric juice; place them in a phial, and keep that phial in a sand-bath at the slow heat of 98 degrees, occasionally shaking briskly the contents to imitate the motion of the stomach; you will find, after six or eight hours, the whole contents blended into one pultaceous mass. If to another phial of food and gastric juice, treated in the same way, I add a glass of pale ale or a quantity of alcohol, at the end of seven or eight hours, or even some days, the food is scarcely acted upon at all. This is a fact; and if you are led to ask why, I answer, because alcohol has the peculiar power of chemically affecting or decomposing the gastric juice by precipitating one of its principal constituents, viz., pepsine, rendering its solvent properties much less efficacious. Hence alcohol can not be considered either as food or as a solvent for food. Not as the latter certainly, for it refuses to act with the gastric juice.

"Every kind of substance employed by man as food consists of sugar, starch, oil and glutinous matters, mingled together in various proportions; these are designed for the support of the animal frame. The glutinous principles of food fibrine, albumen and casein are employed to build up the structure; while the oil, starch and sugar are chiefly used to generate heat in the body.

"'It is a remarkable fact,' says Dr. Dundas Thompson, 'that alcohol, when added to the digestive fluid, produces a white precipitate, so that the fluid is no longer capable of digesting animal or vegetable matter.' 'The use of alcoholic stimulants,' say Drs. Todd and Bowman, 'retards digestion by coagulating the pepsine, an essential element of the gastric juice, and thereby interfering with its action. Were it not that wine and spirits are rapidly absorbed, the introduction of these into the stomach, in any quantity, would be a complete bar to the digestion of food, as the pepsine would be precipitated from the solution as quickly as it was formed by the stomach.' Spirit, in any quantity, as a dietary adjunct, is pernicious on account of its antiseptic qualities, which resist the digestion of food by the absorption of water from its particles, in direct antagonism to chemical operation."
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Alcohol weakens the heart. Consumption o...

Consumption of alcohol greatly affects the heart. The quality of the membraneous structures which cover and line the heart changes and are thickened, become cartilaginous or calcareous. Then the valves lose their suppleness and what is termed valvular disorder becomes permanent. The structure of the the coats of the great blood-vessel leading from the heart share in the same changes of structure so that the vessel loses its elasticity and its power to feed the heart by the recoil from its distention, after the heart, by its stroke, has filled it with blood.

Again, the muscular structure of the heart fails owing to degenerative changes in its tissue. The elements of the muscular fibre are replaced by fatty cells or, if not so replaced, are themselves transferred into a modified muscular texture in which the power of contraction is greatly reduced.

Those who suffer from these organic deteriorations of the central and governing organ of the circulation of the blood learn the fact so insidiously, it hardly breaks upon them until the mischief is far advanced. They are conscious of a central failure of power from slight causes such as overexertion, trouble, broken rest or too long abstinence from food. They feel what they call a 'sinking' but they know that wine or some other stimulant will at once relieve the sensation. Thus they seek to relieve it until at last they discover that the remedy fails. The jaded, overworked, faithful heart will bear no more. it has run its course and the governor of the blood-streams broken. The current either overflows into the tissues gradually damming up the courses or under some slight shock or excess of motion ceases wholly at the centre.

How the Kidneys deteriorate.
The Kidneys also suffer due to the excessive consumption of alcohol. The vessels of Kidneys lose elasticity and power of contraction. The minute structures in them go through fatty modification. Albumin from the blood easily passes through their membranes. This results in the body losing its power as if it were being run out of blood gradually.

Congestion of the lungs.
Alcohol relaxes the vessels of the lungs easily as they are most exposed to the fluctuations of heat and cold. When subjected to the effects of a rapid variation in atmospheric temperature, they get readily congested. During severe winter seasons, the suddenly fatal congestions of lungs easily affects an alcoholic.

Action on the stomach.
The action of alcohol on the stomach is extremely dangerous that it becomes unable to produce the natural digestive fluid in sufficient quantity and also fails to absorb the food which it may imperfectly digest. A condition marked by the sense of nausea emptiness, prostration and distention will always be faced by an alcoholic. This results in a loathing for food and is teased with a craving for more drink. Thus there is engendered a permanent disorder which is called dyspepsia. The disastrous forms of confirmed indigestion originate by this practice.

How the liver gets affected.
The organic deteriorations caused by the continued use of alcohol are often of a fatal character. The organ which most frequently undergoes structural changes from alcohol, is the liver. Normally, the liver has the capacity to hold active substances in its cellular parts. In instances of poisoning by various poisonous compounds, we analyse liver as if it were the central depot of the foreign matter. It is practically the same in respect to alcohol. The liver of an alcoholic is never free from the influence of alcohol and it is too often saturated with it. The minute membranous or capsular structure of the liver gets affected, preventing proper dialysis and free secretion. The liver becomes large due to the dilatation of its vessels, the surcharge of fluid matter and the thickening of tissue. This follows contraction of membrane and shrinking of the whole organ in its cellular parts. Then the lower parts of the alcoholic becomes dropsical owing to the obstruction offered to the returning blood by the veins. The structure of the liver may be charged with fatty cells and undergo what is technically designated 'fatty liver'.
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Food poisoning is an acute gastroenterit...

A group of persons will be affected with same type of symptoms ,and they give a history of consumption of a common food before few hours.

Types of food poisoning:

1) Non bacterial food poisoning:
Due to the presence of toxic chemicals like fertilizers,insectisides,heavy metals and ect.

2) Bacterial food poisoning:
Here the micro organisms called bacteria are responsible.The food material may contain the pathogenic bacteriae or their toxin and will be ingested along with the food.

Since bacterial food poisoning is common it is discussed here.

Bacterial food poisoning:
All bacteria are not harmful.There are some pathogenic bacteria which secrete toxins and cause clinical manifestations.These organisms enter the human body through food articles or drinks.

How to prevent food poisoning:
1) Should not keep the prepared food for a long time in room temperature.
2) Workers should use masks, cap and gloves during cooking and serving.
3) Only purified water should be used.
4) Vessels should be washed with soap and hot water.
5) Animals like dog, cat, rat ect should not come in contact with food materials.
6) Hygiene should be maintained by all persons keeping contact with food.
7) All food materials should be kept in closed containers.
8) Kitchen and premises should be neat and clean.
9) Vegetables should be washed before cooking.
10) Sick individuals should not come in contact with food materials.
11) Meat should be fresh and should be purchased from recognised slaughter house.

Some common bacterial food poisonings.

1) Staphylococcal food poisoning:
It is caused by staphylo coccus aureus. These organisms usually cause skin troubles like boils and eruptions.It causes mastitis in cow.Through the milk and milk products it enders and causes gastroenteritis.There will be vomiting,abdominal cramps with diarrhoea.

2) Bacillus cereus:
The spores of these organisms can survive cooking and causes enteritis. Diarrhoea and vomiting is common in this infection.

3) Salmonella food poisoning:
There are three different varieties of salmonella bacteria.(salmonella typhimurium,salmonella cholera suis,salmonella enteritidis) These bacteria are present in milk, milk products and eggs. Symptoms of this food poisoning include nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Fever is also common.

4) Closteridium food poisoning:
This is caused by closteridium perfringens.They are present in stool,soil and water. They enter the body through,meat,meat dishes and egg ect.If food articles are cooked and kept in room temperature for a long time and heated again before eating can result this food poisoning.Symptoms include vomiting ,diarrhoea and abdominal cramps.

5) Botulism:
This is the dangerous type of food poisoning caused by clostridium botulinum. The spores of these organisms are seen in the soil and enters the human body through pickles and canned fish ect.Compared to other food poisonings here vomiting and diarrhoea are rare Mainly the nervous system is affected.The symptoms starts with double vision,numbness with weakness.Later there will be paralysis with cardiac and respiratory failure ending in death.

How to investigate food poisoning:

1) The cook and food handlers should be questioned and examined.
2) Water sample should be tested.
3) Samples of vomitus and stool of all victims should be tested to identify the bacteria.
4) Kitchen, store room and food samples should be examined.
5) Examine each and every person affected.

How food poisoning occures:
1) Premises where the food is prepared may contain micro organisms or toxins.
2) Presence of bacteria in the water.
3) If prepared food is kept in the room temperature for a long time and heated again can make a chance for food poisoning.
4) Food handlers may have some infectious diseases.
5) Purposely some body mixing toxins in the food.
6) Some animals like dogs,rats may contaminate the food.
7) The raw materials for the food may contain toxins.
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I once had the unusual, though unhappy,...

I once had the unusual, though unhappy, opportunity of observing the same phenomenon in the brain structure of a man, who, in a paroxysm of alcoholic excitement, decapitated himself under the wheel of a railway carriage, and whose brain was instantaneously evolved from the skull by the crash. The brain itself, entire, was before me within three minutes after the death. It exhaled the odor of spirit most distinctly, and its membranes and minute structures were vascular in the extreme. It looked as if it had been recently injected with vermilion. The white matter of the cerebrum, studded with red points, could scarcely be distinguished, when it was incised, by its natural whiteness; and the pia-mater, or internal vascular membrane covering the brain, resembled a delicate web of coagulated red blood, so tensely were its fine vessels engorged.

I should add that this condition extended through both the larger and the smaller brain, the cerebrum and cerebellum, but was not so marked in the medulla or commencing portion of the spinal cord.

Effect on the brain centres.
Finally, the action of the alcohol still extending, the superior brain centres are overpowered; the senses are beclouded, the voluntary muscular prostration is perfected, sensibility is lost, and the body lies a mere log, dead by all but one-fourth, on which alone its life hangs. The heart still remains true to its duty, and while it just lives it feeds the breathing power. And so the circulation and the respiration, in the otherwise inert mass, keeps the mass within the bare domain of life until the poison begins to pass away and the nervous centres to revive again. It is happy for the inebriate that, as a rule, the brain fails so long before the heart that he has neither the power nor the sense to continue his process of destruction up to the act of death of his circulation. Therefore he lives to die another day.

The alcoholic spirit carried yet a further degree, the cerebral or brain centres become influenced; they are reduced in power, and the controlling influences of will and of judgment are lost. As these centres are unbalanced and thrown into chaos, the rational part of the nature of the man gives way before the emotional, passional or organic part. The reason is now off duty, or is fooling with duty, and all the mere animal instincts and sentiments are laid atrociously bare. The coward shows up more craven, the braggart more boastful, the cruel more merciless, the untruthful more false, the carnal more degraded. ' In vino veritas ' expresses, even, indeed, to physiological accuracy, the true condition. The reason, the emotions, the instincts, are all in a state of carnival, and in chaotic feebleness.

The spinal cord and nerves.
This modification of the animal functions under alcohol, marks the second degree of its action. In young subjects, there is now, usually, vomiting with faintness, followed by gradual relief from the burden of the poison.

The action of alcohol continued beyond the first stage, the function of the spinal cord is influenced. Through this part of the nervous system we are accustomed, in health, to perform automatic acts of a mechanical kind, which proceed systematically even when we are thinking or speaking on other subjects. Thus a skilled workman will continue his mechanical work perfectly, while his mind is bent on some other subject; and thus we all perform various acts in a purely automatic way, without calling in the aid of the higher centres, except something more than ordinary occurs to demand their service, upon which we think before we perform. Under alcohol, as the spinal centres become influenced, these pure automatic acts cease to be correctly carried on. That the hand may reach any object, or the foot be correctly planted, the higher intellectual centre must be invoked to make the proceeding secure. There follows quickly upon this a deficient power of co-ordination of muscular movement. The nervous control of certain of the muscles is lost, and the nervous stimulus is more or less enfeebled. The muscles of the lower lip in the human subject usually fail first of all, then the muscles of the lower limbs, and it is worthy of remark that the extensor muscles give way earlier than the flexors. The muscles themselves, by this time, are also failing in power; they respond more feebly than is natural to the nervous stimulus; they, too, are coming under the depressing influence of the paralyzing agent, their structure is temporarily deranged, and their contractile power reduced.
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Dr. D.G. Dodge, late Superintendent of t...

"There are men who have an organization, which may be termed an alcoholic idiosyncrasy; with them the latent desire for stimulants, if indulged, soon leads to habits of intemperance, and eventually to a morbid appetite, which has all the characteristics of a diseased condition of the system, which the patient, unassisted, is powerless to relieve since the weakness of the will that led to the disease obstructs its removal.

"Again, we find in another class of persons, those who have had healthy parents, and have been educated and accustomed to good social influences, moral and social, but whose temperament and physical constitution are such, that, when they once indulge in the use of stimulants, which they find pleasurable, they continue to habitually indulge till they cease to be moderate, and become excessive drinkers. A depraved appetite is established, that leads them on slowly, but surely, to destruction."

No man safe who drinks. ----------------------

But no man who begins the use of alcohol in any form can tell what, in the end, is going to be its effect on his body or mind. Thousands and tens of thousands, once wholly unconscious of danger from this source, go down yearly into drunkards' graves. There is no standard by which any one can measure the latent evil forces in his inherited nature. He may have from ancestors, near or remote, an unhealthy moral tendency, or physical diathesis, to which the peculiarly disturbing influence of alcohol will give the morbid condition in which it will find its disastrous life. That such results follow the use of alcohol in a large number of cases, is now a well-known fact in the history of inebriation. The subject of alcoholism, with the mental and moral causes leading thereto, have attracted a great deal of earnest attention. Physicians, superintendents of inebriate and lunatic asylums, prison-keepers, legislators and philanthropists have been observing and studying its many sad and terrible phases, and recording results and opinions. While differences are held on some points, as, for instance, whether drunkenness is a disease for which, after it has been established, the individual ceases to be responsible, and should be subject to restraint and treatment, as for lunacy or fever; a crime to be punished; or a sin to be repented of and healed by the Physician of souls, all agree that there is an inherited or acquired mental and nervous condition with many, which renders any use of alcohol exceedingly dangerous.

One fact attendant on habitual drinking stands out so prominently that none can call it in question. It is that of the steady growth of appetite. There are exceptions, as in the action of nearly every rule; but the almost invariable result of the habit we have mentioned, is, as we have said, a steady growth of appetite for the stimulant imbibed. That this is in consequence of certain morbid changes in the physical condition produced by the alcohol itself, will hardly be questioned by any one who has made himself acquainted with the various functional and organic derangements which invariably follow the continued introduction of this substance into the body.

But it is to the fact itself, not to its cause, that we now wish to direct your attention. The man who is satisfied at first with a single glass of wine at dinner, finds, after awhile, that appetite asks for a little more; and, in time, a second glass is conceded. The increase of desire may be very slow, but it goes on surely until, in the end, a whole bottle will scarcely suffice, with far too many, to meet its imperious demands. It is the same in regard to the use of every other form of alcoholic drink.

Now, there are men so constituted that they are able, for a long series of years, or even for a whole lifetime, to hold this appetite within a certain limit of indulgence. To say "So far, and no farther." They suffer ultimately from physical ailments, which surely follow the prolonged contact of alcoholic poison with the delicate structures of the body, many of a painful character, and shorten the term of their natural lives; but still they are able to drink without an increase of appetite so great as to reach an overmastering degree. They do not become abandoned drunkards.

The point we wish to make with you is, that no man can possibly know, until he has used alcoholic drinks for a certain period of time, whether he has or has not this hereditary or acquired physical or mental condition; and that, if it should exist, a discovery of the fact may come too late.

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The nails are present at the end of each...

Importance of nails in disease diagnosis
The colour ,appearance,shape and nature of the nails give some information about the general health and hygiene of a person . Nails are examined as a routine by all doctors to get some clues about underlying diseases.Just looking at nails we can makeout the hygiene of a person.The abnormal nail may be congenital or due to some diseases.The cause for changes in the nail extend from simple reasons to life threatening diseases.Hence the examination by a doctor is essential for diagnosis .Some abnormal findings with probable causes are discussed here for general awareness.

1) Growth
Reduction in blood supply affects the growth of nails. Nail growth is also affected in severe ilness. when the disease disappears the growth starts again resulting in formation of transverse ridges.These lines are called Beau's lines and are healpful to date the onset of illness.

2) Shape of nails
a) Koilonychia
Here the nails become concave like a spoon.This condition is seen in iron deficiency anaemia.In this condition the nails become thin,soft and brittle.The normal convexity will be replaced by concavity.
b) Cuticle becomes ragged in dermatomyositis.
c) Longitudinal ridging is seen in raynaud's disease.
d) Nail fold telangiectasia is a sign in dermatomyositis ,systemic sclerosis and SLE.
e) Clubbing: Here tissues at the base of nails are thickened and the angle between the nail base and the skin is obliterated. The nail becomes more convex and the finger tip becomes bulbous and looks like an end of a drumstick. When the condition becomes worse the nail looks like a parrot beak.
Causes of clubbing
Congenital Injuries
Severe chronic cyanosis
Lung diseases like empyema,bronchiactesis,carcinoma of bronchus and pulmonary tuberculosis.
Abdominal diseases like crohn's disease,polyposis of colon,ulcerative colitis,liver cirrhosis ect...
Heart diseases like fallot's tetralogy,subacute bacterial endocarditis and ect..

3) Hygiene
We can make out an unhygienic nail very easily .Deposition of dirt under the distal end of nail plate can make a chance for ingestion of pathogens while eating.If nail cutting is not done properly it can result in worm troubles in children.When the worms crawl in the anal orifice children will scratch which lodges the ova of worms under the nails and will be taken in while eating.Prominent nail can also complicate a skin disease by habitual scratching.Sharp nails in small kids cause small wounds when they do feet kicking or hand waving.

4) Structure and consistancy
a) Thimble pitting of nail is charecteristic of psoriasis ,acute eczema and alopecia aereata.
b) Onycholysis is the seperation of nail bed seen in psoriasis,infection and after taking tetracyclines.
c) Fungal infection of nail causes discolouration,deformity,hypertrophy and abnormal brittleness.
d) Nails become brittle in raynauds disease and gangrene.
e) Destruction of nail is seen in lichen planus,epidermolysis bullosa.
f) Missing nail is seen in nail patella syndrome.It is a hereditary disease.
g) Falling of nail is seen in fungal infection,psoriasis and thyroid diseases.
h) The inflamation of cuticle or nail fold is called paronychia.

5) Colour of the nails
a) Nail bed infarction occures in vasculitis especially in SLE and polyarteritis.
b) Opaque white discolouration(leuconychia) is seen in chronic renal failure and nephrotic syndrome.
c) Blunt injury produces haemorrhage and causes blue/black discolouration.
d) In yellow nail syndrome all nails become yellowish with pleural effusion.
e) Whitening is also seen in hypoalbuminaemia as in cirrhosis and kidney disorders.
f) In pseudomonas infection nails become black or green.
g) Nails become pale in anaemia.
h) Red dots are seen in nails due to splinter haemorrhages in subacute bacterial endo carditis, rheumatoid arthritis, trauma, collagen vascular diseases.
i) In wilsons disease blue colour in semicircle appears in the nail.
j) When the blood supply decreases nail become yellow .In jaundice and psoriasis also nail become yellowish.
k) Fungal infection causes black discolouration.
l) Nails become brown in kidney diseases and in decreased adrenal activity.
m) Drugs like sulpha group,anti malarial and antibiotics ect can produce discolouration in the nails.
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Hernia is an abnormal protrusion of int...

Hernia is an abnormal protrusion of internal organs through an abnormal opening in the wall of the cavity.A combination of increased pressure inside the body with weakness in the wall is responsible for this condition.In this condition internal organs or parts of organs are protruded out forming a swelling which will increase the size with coughing and lifting weight,and while passing stool and urine.In lying down position the swelling goes inside except in strangulated and irreducible hernia.

Causes:
1) Increased pressure inside the body:
a) Stricture of urethra.
b) Chronic constipation.
c) Weight lifting.
d) Recurrent cough.

2) Weakness in the body wall:
a) Surgical operation with improper suturing or sepsis of operated site.
b) Acquired weakness due to injuries,wasting of muscles,suppurative lesions in the wall and presence of weak natural openings,obesity,lack of exercise,repeated pregnancy.
c) Congenital weakness.

Complications of hernia:

1) Intestinal obstruction:
This occures when the whole portion of the intestine is protruded in to the hernial sac. The narrow hernial orifice will block the passage of bowels.

2) Infection and peritonitis:
If there is strangulation with death of a portion of intestine there will be spread of infection to the abdomen resulting in peritonitis.

3) Strangulation:
If the hernial orifice is narrow the abdominal contents may not go back easily, and later the blood flow to the herniated tissues may be blocked due to constricition.This can cause death of protruded intestine.

Surgical treatment:
The following operations are done depending up on the type and nature of hernia.

1) Hernioplasty: This operation is done if herniotomy is not possible due to wide neck of the sac.Here the repair is done with the healp of non absorbable materials like tantalum gauze,polypropylene mesh or stainless steel mesh.

2) Herniorrhaphy: Here along with herniotomy the posterior wall is repaired.

3) Hertniotomy : In this operation the contents of hernial sac is pushed in to the abdomen and neck of the sac is ligated with transfixion ligature and the sac is cut off.

Treatment of hernia:
Initial treatment: In the initial stages of hernia the following steps may be useful

1) Take plenty of leafy vegetables, fruits and fibrous diet for easy bowel movements.

2) Constipation,recurrent cough,urinary obstruction ect should be treated.

3) Abdominal exercises to increase the muscle tone.

4) Use of hernia belt:
Special types of hernia belts are available for each type of heania.This will prevent the protrusion and will reduce pain.

5) Fat reduction will increase the strength of abdominal wall.

6) Try other systems like Homoeopathy,Herbal medicine and ect
If no relief by the above steps consult a general surgeon for surgical management.

Common sites for hernia:
Hernia can occure anywhere in the body.However there are some common sites for hernia.Due to the presence of hard bony covering chest wall is normally not affected.Hernia in the lower back is also rare due to spine and back muscles and tough ligaments and sheeths.The common site for hernia is abdominal wall.Compared to other parts the abdominal wall is weak due to the presence of some natural orifices.There are some areas wherein the abdominal muscles are weaker and thin and all these factors make a chance for herniation.The common sites for hernia are following.

a) Obturator hernia:
This is a rare type of hernia. Here the contents pass through obturator foramen in the pelvic bone.

b) Femoral hernia:
This type of hernia is more in females.Here the abdominal contents pass through the femoral canal which is seen just below the junction between the thigh and lower abdominal wall(Inside the femoral triangle).The contents pass downwards and comes out through saphenous opening in the thigh and forms a swelling under the skin.

c) Epigastric hernia:
Here the hearniation occures in the epigastrium. It is a rare type.

d) Umbilical hernia:
This is common in children.The umbilicus is the weaker part of the abdomen.The contents of the abdomen may protrude as a bulb like swelling while crying and defecating.

e) Inguinal hernia:
Here the abdominal contents protrude through the inguinal canal (passage in the lower abdominal wall just above the inguinal ligament.It is seen on either side).This type is common in males.Initially the swelling comes only while straining and goes back while lying down. Later the large portion of intestine may come out which may not go back easily.

f) Incisional hernia:
These hernias are seen in operated sites. Due to improper suturing or sepsis the operated site becomes weak resulting in hernia.

g) Lumbar hernia:
Here the hernia appear in the lumbar area on either side of the lumbar spine(in the lumbar triangle).This is also a rare type.
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The parts which first suffer from alcoho...

These membranes are the filters of the body. "In their absence there could be no building of structure, no solidification of tissue, nor organic mechanism. Passive themselves, they, nevertheless, separate all structures into their respective positions and adaptations."

Membranous deteriorations.

In order to make perfectly clear to your mind the action and use of these membranous expansions, and the way in which alcohol deteriorates them, and obstructs their work, we quote again from Dr. Richardson:

"In brief, under the prolonged influence of alcohol those changes which take place from it in the blood corpuscles, extend to the other organic parts, involving them in structural deteriorations, which are always dangerous, and are often ultimately fatal."

"See, then, what an all-important part these membranous structures play in the animal life. Upon their integrity all the silent work of the building up of the body depends. If these membranes are rendered too porous, and let out the colloidal fluids of the blood the albumen, for example the body so circumstanced, dies; dies as if it were slowly bled to death. If, on the contrary, they become condensed or thickened, or loaded with foreign material, then they fail to allow the natural fluids to pass through them. They fail to dialyse, and the result is, either an accumulation of the fluid in a closed cavity, or contraction of the substance inclosed within the membrane, or dryness of membrane in surfaces that ought to be freely lubricated and kept apart. In old age we see the effects of modification of membrane naturally induced; we see the fixed joint, the shrunken and feeble muscle, the dimmed eye, the deaf ear, the enfeebled nervous function.

"The animal receives from the vegetable world and from the earth the food and drink it requires for its sustenance and motion. It receives colloidal food for its muscles: combustible food for its motion; water for the solution of its various parts; salt for constructive and other physical purposes. These have all to be arranged in the body; and they are arranged by means of the membranous envelopes. Through these membranes nothing can pass that is not, for the time, in a state of aqueous solution, like water or soluble salts. Water passes freely through them, salts pass freely through them, but the constructive matter of the active parts that is colloidal does not pass; it is retained in them until it is chemically decomposed into the soluble type of matter. When we take for our food a portion of animal flesh, it is first resolved, in digestion, into a soluble fluid before it can be absorbed; in the blood it is resolved into the fluid colloidal condition; in the solids it is laid down within the membranes into new structure, and when it has played its part, it is digested again, if I may so say, into a crystalloidal soluble substance, ready to be carried away and replaced by addition of new matter, then it is dialysed or passed through, the membranes into the blood, and is disposed of in the excretions.

"It may possibly seem, at first sight, that I am leading immediately away from the subject of the secondary action of alcohol. It is not so. I am leading directly to it. Upon all these membranous structures alcohol exerts a direct perversion of action. It produces in them a thickening, a shrinking and an inactivity that reduces their functional power. That they may work rapidly and equally, they require to be at all times charged with water to saturation. If, into contact with them, any agent is brought that deprives them of water, then is their work interfered with; they cease to separate the saline constituents properly; and, if the evil that is thus started, be allowed to continue, they contract upon their contained matter in whatever organ it may be situated, and condense it.

These membranes are the filters of the body. "In their absence there could be no building of structure, no solidification of tissue, nor organic mechanism. Passive themselves, they, nevertheless, separate all structures into their respective positions and adaptations."
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Dr. Monroe, from whom "Alcohol, taken in...

Dr. Hammond, who has written, in partial defense of alcohol as containing a food power, says: "When I say that it, of all other causes, is most prolific in exciting derangements of the brain, the spinal cord and the nerves, I make a statement which my own experience shows to be correct."

Another eminent physician says of alcohol: "It substitutes suppuration for growth. It helps time to produce the effects of age; and, in a word, is the genius of degeneration."

Professor Youmans says: "It is evident that, so far from being the conservator of health, alcohol is an active and powerful cause of disease, interfering, as it does, with the respiration, the circulation and the nutrition; now, is any other result possible?"

Dr. F.R. Lees says: "That alcohol should contribute to the fattening process under certain conditions, and produce in drinkers fatty degeneration of the blood, follows, as a matter of course, since, on the one hand, we have an agent that retains waste matter by lowering the nutritive and excretory functions, and on the other, a direct poisoner of the vesicles of the vital stream."

Dr. Ezra M. Hunt says: "The capacity of the alcohols for impairment of functions and the initiation and promotion of organic lesions in vital parts, is unsurpassed by any record in the whole range of medicine. The facts as to this are so indisputable, and so far granted by the profession, as to be no longer debatable . Changes in stomach and liver, in kidneys and lungs, in the blood-vessels to the minutest capillary, and in the blood to the smallest red and white blood disc disturbances of secretion, fibroid and fatty degenerations in almost every organ, impairment of muscular power, impressions so profound on both nervous systems as to be often toxic these, and such as these, are the oft manifested results. And these are not confined to those called intemperate."

Sir Henry Thompson, a distinguished surgeon, says: "Don't take your daily wine under any pretext of its doing you good. Take it frankly as a luxury one which must be paid for, by some persons very lightly, by some at a high price, but always to be paid for. And, mostly, some loss of health, or of mental power, or of calmness of temper, or of judgment, is the price."

Dr. Charles Jewett says: "The late Prof. Parks, of England, in his great work on Hygiene, has effectually disposed of the notion, long and very generally entertained, that alcohol is a valuable prophylactic where a bad climate, bad water and other conditions unfavorable to health, exist; and an unfortunate experiment with the article, in the Union army, on the banks of the Chickahominy, in the year 1863, proved conclusively that, instead of guarding the human constitution against the influence of agencies hostile to health, its use gives to them additional force. The medical history of the British army in India teaches the same lesson."

Dr. T.K. Chambers, physician to the Prince of Wales, says: "Alcohol is really the most ungenerous diet there is. It impoverishes the blood, and there is no surer road to that degeneration of muscular fibre so much to be feared; and in heart disease it is more especially hurtful, by quickening the beat, causing capillary congestion and irregular circulation, and thus mechanically inducing dilatation."

Dr. Henry Monroe says: "There is no kind of tissue, whether healthy or morbid, that may not undergo fatty degeneration; and there is no organic disease so troublesome to the medical man, or so difficult of cure. If, by the aid of the microscope, we examine a very fine section of muscle taken from a person in good health, we find the muscles firm, elastic and of a bright red color, made up of parallel fibres, with beautiful crossings or striae; but, if we similarly examine the muscle of a man who leads an idle, sedentary life, and indulges in intoxicating drinks, we detect, at once, a pale, flabby, inelastic, oily appearance. Alcoholic narcotization appears to produce this peculiar conditions of the tissues more than any other agent with which we are acquainted. 'Three-quarters of the chronic illness which the medical man has to treat,' says Dr. Chambers, 'are occasioned by this disease.' The eminent French analytical chemist, Lecanu, found as much as one hundred and seventeen parts of fat in one thousand parts of a drunkard's blood, the highest estimate of the quantity in health being eight and one-quarter parts, while the ordinary quantity is not more than two or three parts, so that the blood of the drunkard contains forty times in excess of the ordinary quantity."

But why present farther testimony? Is not the evidence complete? To the man who values good health; who would not lay the foundation for disease and suffering in his later years, we need not offer a single additional argument in favor of entire abstinence from alcoholic drinks. He will eschew them as poisons.
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Prostate is a glandular organ present on...

Diseases of the prostate gland

a)Cancer of the prostate
This is the 4th most common cause of death from malignant diseases in males.
Cancer of the prostate:Cancer of the prostate is directly linked with the male sex hormones(androgens).If the levels of sex hormone increases the growth rate of cancer also increases.It is found that after the removel of testes there is marked reduction in the size of tumour.
b) Benign enlargement of the prostate
This is a non cancerous tumour of the prostate seen after the age of 50.
c) Prostatitis
This is the inflamation of the prostate gland due to bacterial infection.

Spread of tumou
Metastasis in cancer of prostate is very early.

a) Spread through the blood
Spread of cancer cells takeplace through the periprostatic venous plexus and reaches the vertebral veins while coughing and sneezing and finally enders the vertebral bodies of the lumbar vertebrae.
b) Local spread
From the posterior lobe the cancer cells go to the lateral lobes and seminal vesicles.Tumour cells also move to the neck and base of the urinary bladder.
c) Lymphatic spread
Through the lymph vessels cancer cells reach the internal and external illiac group of lymph nodes.From there cells move to retroperitonial(Behind the peritonium) and mediastinal lymph nodes(in the chest)

Site of tumour
Prostate cancer is seen mainly in the posterior lobe.Non cancerous enlargement is seen in other lobes.

Changes in the gland in cance
The gland becomes hard with irregular surface with loss of normal lobulation .Histologically prostate cancer is an adeno carcinoma(cancer of the epithelial cells in the gland)

Growth
Growth rate is very fast in prostate cancer .The tumour compresses the urethra and produce difficulty in urination.

Clinical examination
Includes per rectal examination to feel the prostate gland,palpation of abdomen to feel the swelling in kidneys and any tumours.Patient is examined from head to foot to find out any lesions.

Signs and symptoms of prostate cancer
Signs and symptoms depend upon the stage of the cancer. The following symptoms may be seen.

a) No symptoms
Tumour is small and only in the posterior lobe. This is diagnosed accidentely.
b) Slight difficulty in urination
Here the tumour is enlarged and urethra is slightly compressed.Shortly there will be frequent urge for urination with difficult urination.
c) When the tumour spread to all nearby areas including neck of bladder and urethra there will be painful urination with bleeding.Urine comes drop by drop.
d) Retention of urine
When the urethra is completely compressed there will be retention of urine.This can lead to hydronephrosis, renal failure ect.In this condition patient may get convulsions due to renal failure and finally coma.
e) Signs of metastasis
Some patients come with the signs and symptoms of metastasis.
1) Respiratory complaints due to cancer of mediastinal lymphnodes and lungs.
2) Lumbo sacral pain due to spread of cancer cells to lumbar and sacral vertebrae.
3) Anaemia due to involment of bone marrow and increased destruction of RBCs.
4) Fracture of spine due to cancerous growth in the spine.
5) General weakness due to spread of cancer to different parts of the body.
6) Swelling, pain and fluid collection in the abdomen due to lesion in the abdomen.

Investigations

1) Biopsy to confirm cancer
Biopsy is taken from the tumour and is send for histopathological examination under the microscope.This will detect the presence of cancer cells.
2) Urine analysis
Microscopic examination to detect pus cells,occult blood,casts,Crystals ect.
3) Ultra sonography
Gives idea about prostate,bladder,kidney ect.
4) Renal function tests
Blood urea level,serum creatinine level,electrolyte level ect.
5) MRI of the spine
Gives detailed information about spine ,disc and nearby soft tissues.
6) Complete blood investigations
RBC,WBC,Platlets,ESR,bleeding time ,clotting time ect.
7) x-ray of the spine
To detect any tumour or fracture.
8) C T scan
More detailed information about organs and tumour.
9) Lymphangiography
Gives idea about lymphatic spread of cancer.
10) Serum acid phosphatase
Increased in cancer of prostate.

Treatment

1) Specific treatment is prostatectomy(removal of prostate)
Partial prostatectomy
Here only the affected lobe is removed.
Radical prostatectomy
Total removal of prostate along with nearby lymphnodes.
2) If there is retention of urine catheterisation is needed.
3) If there is coma monitoring of all vital functions along with parentral nutrition and electolyte supply.
4)Hormone therapy
Stilbestrol is given to reduce tumour growth.Since this treatement increases the chance for cardiovascular disease phosphorylated diethyle stilbesterol is used nowadays.
5) Homoeopathy
Homoeopathic drugs like carcinocin, conium, sabal, crotalus, thuja, iodum, selinium, staphysagria, sulphur ect can be given according to symptoms.Constitutional homoeopathic medicine will give great relief and can increase the life span.
6) Yoga and meditation is also healpful.
7) Chemotherapy:-Drugs like cyclophosphamide, cisoplatim ect are given.
8) Dialysis if kidney failure.
9) Radiotherapy is also done for some cases.

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Dr. Richardson, in his lectures on alcoh...

"Suppose, then, a certain measure of alcohol be taken into the stomach, it will be absorbed there, but, previous to absorption, it will have to undergo a proper degree of dilution with water, for there is this peculiarity respecting alcohol when it is separated by an animal membrane from a watery fluid like the blood, that it will not pass through the membrane until it has become charged, to a given point of dilution, with water. It is itself, in fact, so greedy for water, it will pick it up from watery textures, and deprive them of it until, by its saturation, its power of reception is exhausted , after which it will diffuse into the current of circulating fluid."

It is this power of absorbing water from every texture with which alcoholic spirits comes in contact, that creates the burning thirst of those who freely indulge in its use. Its effect, when it reaches the circulation, is thus described by Dr. Richardson:

"When we know the course which the alcohol takes in its passage through the body, from the period of its absorption to that of its elimination, we are the better able to judge what physical changes it induces in the different organs and structures with which it comes in contact. It first reaches the blood; but, as a rule, the quantity of it that enters is insufficient to produce any material effect on that fluid. If, however, the dose taken be poisonous or semi-poisonous, then even the blood, rich as it is in water and it contains seven hundred and ninety parts in a thousand is affected. The alcohol is diffused through this water, and there it comes in contact with the other constituent parts, with the fibrine, that plastic substance which, when blood is drawn, clots and coagulates, and which is present in the proportion of from two to three parts in a thousand; with the albumen which exists in the proportion of seventy parts; with the salts which yield about ten parts; with the fatty matters; and lastly, with those minute, round bodies which float in myriads in the blood (which were discovered by the Dutch philosopher, Leuwenhock, as one of the first results of microscopical observation, about the middle of the seventeenth century), and which are called the blood globules or corpuscles. These last-named bodies are, in fact, cells; their discs, when natural, have a smooth outline, they are depressed in the centre, and they are red in color; the color of the blood being derived from them. We have discovered that there exist other corpuscles or cells in the blood in much smaller quantity, which are called white cells, and these different cells float in the blood-stream within the vessels. The red take the centre of the stream; the white lie externally near the sides of the vessels, moving less quickly. Our business is mainly with the red corpuscles. They perform the most important functions in the economy; they absorb, in great part, the oxygen which we inhale in breathing, and carry it to the extreme tissues of the body; they absorb, in great part, the carbonic acid gas which is produced in the combustion of the body in the extreme tissues, and bring that gas back to the lungs to be exchanged for oxygen there; in short, they are the vital instruments of the circulation.

"A further action upon the blood, instituted by alcohol in excess, is upon the fibrine or the plastic colloidal matter. On this the spirit may act in two different ways, according to the degree in which it affects the water that holds the fibrine in solution. It may fix the water with the fibrine, and thus destroy the power of coagulation; or it may extract the water so determinately as to produce coagulation."

"With all these parts of the blood, with the water, fibrine, albumen, salts, fatty matter and corpuscles, the alcohol comes in contact when it enters the blood, and, if it be in sufficient quantity, it produces disturbing action. I have watched this disturbance very carefully on the blood corpuscles; for, in some animals we can see these floating along during life, and we can also observe them from men who are under the effects of alcohol, by removing a speck of blood, and examining it with the microscope. The action of the alcohol, when it is observable, is varied. It may cause the corpuscles to run too closely together, and to adhere in rolls; it may modify their outline, making the clear-defined, smooth, outer edge irregular or crenate, or even starlike; it may change the round corpuscle into the oval form, or, in very extreme cases, it may produce what I may call a truncated form of corpuscles, in which the change is so great that if we did not trace it through all its stages, we should be puzzled to know whether the object looked at were indeed a blood-cell. All these changes are due to the action of the spirit upon the water contained in the corpuscles; upon the capacity of the spirit to extract water from them. During every stage of modification of corpuscles thus described, their function to absorb and fix gases is impaired, and when the aggregation of the cells, in masses, is great, other difficulties arise, for the cells, united together, pass less easily than they should through the minute vessels of the lungs and of the general circulation, and impede the current, by which local injury is produced.

"As it passes through the circulation of the lungs it is exposed to the air, and some little of it, raised into vapor by the natural heat, is thrown off in expiration. If the quantity of it be large, this loss may be considerable, and the odor of the spirit may be detected in the expired breath. If the quantity be small, the loss will be comparatively little, as the spirit will be held in solution by the water in the blood. After it has passed through the lungs, and has been driven by the left heart over the arterial circuit, it passes into what is called the minute circulation, or the structural circulation of the organism. The arteries here extend into very small vessels, which are called arterioles, and from these infinitely small vessels spring the equally minute radicals or roots of the veins, which are ultimately to become the great rivers bearing the blood back to the heart. In its passage through this minute circulation the alcohol finds its way to every organ. To this brain, to these muscles, to these secreting or excreting organs, nay, even into this bony structure itself, it moves with the blood. In some of these parts which are not excreting, it remains for a time diffused, and in those parts where there is a large percentage of water, it remains longer than in other parts. From some organs which have an open tube for conveying fluids away, as the liver and kidneys, it is thrown out or eliminated, and in this way a portion of it is ultimately removed from the body. The rest passing round and round with the circulation, is probably decomposed and carried off in new forms of matter.

It is this power of absorbing water from every texture with which alcoholic spirits comes in contact, that creates the burning thirst of those who freely indulge in its use. Its effect, when it reaches the circulation, is thus described by Dr. Richardson:
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