Page:First course in biology (IA firstcourseinbio00bailrich).pdf/601

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

that they show us ways of living to be shunned in the future. Many persons, however, not only derive no profit from a headache, but by unwise efforts to cure the pain, bring permanent injury to themselves in addition to the suffering of the headache.

Bromides, opium, and other poisons deaden and weaken the nervous system while preventing the headache from being felt. Headache powders, phenacetin, acetanelid, antikamnia, and other vile poisons made from coal tar, shock and weaken the heart and reduce the vital activities so that the headache is no longer felt. In consequence of shocks from repeated doses of such drugs, the heart will not work so well, and may give way some time in the future when an effort or strain makes unusual demands upon it. Their use has made heart disease more prevalent. The liver and kidney cells and the white corpuscles have to destroy and remove the drugs. Many people are foolish enough to injure their bodies and risk death rather than suffer pain or avoid pain by prudent living.

Sick headaches are foretold by a dull feeling, sleepiness after eating, a coated tongue, and constipation. It would be better to remove the undigested, spoiled food from the stomach (four glasses of water will cause vomiting) than to take a drug. At the first indication of trouble, abstain from eating, or use a fruit diet for twenty-four hours, and drink water freely. This will enable the body to dispose of the excess of waste matter.

The Highest Living Medical Authority on Drugs.—Dr. Osler, formerly of Johns Hopkins University and now of Oxford University, says:


"But the new school does not feel itself under obligation to give any medicines whatever, while a generation ago not only could few physicians have held their practice unless they did, but few would have