Man’s Higher Consciousness
Page 25
“The nearer you live to the center of a large city, the more likely you are to go insane. These are the conclusions of a study of the geography of insanity in five large cities of the U.S.A.
“Psychiatrists have long known that city people go crazy more often than country people do, but the discovery of well-defined insanity zones within cities surprised even them. The rate of lunacy lessens as you travel from the center of a city.”
The highest incidence of insanity occurs in the center of cities where the air is more heavily charged with carbon monoxide gas from motor cars, trucks, coal smoke, tobacco smoke, etc.
As we move out toward the periphery of the cities, there is less carbon monoxide in the air and less insanity among the people. As we reach the better air of the open country, the incidence of insanity diminishes still more, and perhaps would disappear entirely if country folks never visited the cities, and if their homes were not frequently filled with tobacco smoke, fumes of cookery, of the heater and cook-stove, and perhaps of an oil-burning lamp.
Certain so-called diseases are but the symptoms of slow carbon monoxide asphyxiation. These symptoms are chiefly: Headache, dizziness, nervousness, nerve and muscle pains, digestive disturbances, restlessness, weakness, impairment of vision and hearing, shortness of breath, anemia, hyperaemia, angina pectoris.
Frequently the appearance of the victim is that of one drunk. The eyes may appear dull, more or less fixed, and somewhat bulging. The order of the respiration changes—the rate is first increased, and later slowed and irregular.
When birds are exposed to carbon monoxide gas they appear moribund. They show signs of distress when exposed for an hour to air containing 0.1 percent of carbon monoxide, and within two to five minutes when exposed to air containing 0.2 percent.
PERNICIOUS ANEMIA
Koren showed that progressive pernicious anemia is a symptom of carbon monoxide poisoning, and he described the following pathological effects:
Dilation of the heart, enlargement of the spleen, large decrease in the number of red blood corpuscles, and peptornuria.
Post-mortem of a fatal case showed that all internal organs exhibited great pallor; the heart muscles were thickened; the heart was microscopically yellow dotted and showed advanced fatty degeneration; spleen was considerably enlarged and of hard consistency
There are various causes of hardening of the blood vessels, and one of these is carbon monoxide poisoning.
Mott made a post-mortem examination in the case of a woman found unconscious from illuminating gas poisoning and who died four days later without regaining consciousness. He said that he never saw such extensive and general capillary hemorrhage in the brain as in this case.
Pulvertaft reported a case of spontaneous rupture of the heart of a youth of 19 due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Lewin found that carbon monoxide destroyed brain function of a dog so it did not know its master. He stated that in cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, great changes of deterioration in the brain occur sooner or later.
Symptoms of paralysis and other nerve disorders present in cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, show the specific effect of the poison of the brain and other nerve centers. For this reason, carbon monoxide gas is called a brain poison.
Wendell Willkie, Republican candidate for president in 1940, died in December 1944 in his sleep in a certain hospital. The report said, “His wife, standing by, looked down into his still boyish face as his life flickered out.” Basic cause of death, carbon monoxide gas.
On March 13th, 1943, J. P. Morgan, noted New York banker, “who made his banking firm a colossus of the financial world and his very name a symbol of extreme wealth and power,” died of “a heart ailment.” Basic cause of death, carbon monoxide gas.
In February 1945 Chief Justice Edward C. Eicher of the U. S. District Court, “died in his sleep at his home, age 65.” Basic cause of death, carbon monoxide gas.
December 5th, 1944, Roger Bresnahan, considered by many as one of the greatest major league catchers of all-time, died of “a heart attack.” He was 64. Basic cause of death, carbon monoxide gas.
CEREBRAL HEMORRHAGE
Cerebral hemorrhage caused the death of General Edwin M. Watson on February 27th, 1945, age 61. He was the late President Roosevelt’s military aide and made his official appointments. Basic cause of death, carbon monoxide gas.
In April, 1945, President F. D. Roosevelt died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage; age 63. Basic cause of death, carbon monoxide gas.
The press of January 31st, 1948, reported the death of Herb Pennock, one time star baseball pitcher, age 53. He died “after a cerebral hemorrhage.”
This man “collapsed as he entered the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (in New York City) to attend a National League meeting. There was no hint that he was ailing. A few hours before his death he had invited friends to attend the fights at Madison Square Garden tonight,” said the report.
LUNG CANCER
Dr. T. R. Van Dellen, who writes a daily column on human ailments, says that 62 percent of the cobalt miners in Schneeberg, Germany, die of lung cancer, and adds, “A similar catastrophe occurred among the neighboring pitchblende miners of Joachimsthal.” The cause is poisoned air.
Chemists who analyze the chemical content of the air of some of our big cities, found that there is a very high content of different chemical by-products definitely harmful to man. The list included some 27 poisonous by-products in every cubic centimeter of air.
The press of August 7th, 1945, stated the gun crews on war ships, “choking, gasping, wiping their streaming eyes, keep feeding the guns,” until they collapse into unconsciousness from the fumes and smoke that fill the turrets, and must be carried out.
The press of March 14th, 1946, stated that acid soot falling in some of the large cities was so strong, that when it lodged on the nylon stockings of the women “it ate holes right through them.”
What does that acid soot do to the delicate lining of the nose, sinuses, trachea, bronchi, and cells of the lungs And each city is trying for more factories, which means more acid soot for those in the cities to inhale.
Professor H. Landsburg, Geophysical Laboratory, Pennsylvania State College, stated that wherever human dwellings are, wherever industry has found a foothold, the air is polluted with poisonous fumes and gases. He said:
“Among the more dangerous compounds in the air, nitric acid and sulphuric acid are always present in combustion gases. Sulphuric acid fumes, being heavier than air, float like a death-pall over large cities, and are so corrosive that they injure everything with which they come in contact. Man’s breathing organs are consumed by the corrosive action of the acids, causing his voice to weaken and sometimes it fails entirely.”
The rapidly increasing mental weakness of the people in the U.S.A. is startling evidence of the deadly effect of carbon monoxide gas. The press of November 28th 1947, stated the psychiatrists estimate that 1 in 16 in the U.S.A. is mentally weak.
Damage to the brain caused by poisoned air was studied by Dr. John Chornyak and Dr. R. R. Sayers of the U. S. Public Health Service.
They examined under microscopes the brains of four dogs, each killed by breathing for less than thirty minutes a small percentage of carbon monoxide gas in motor car exhaust fumes.
NERVE CELLS DESTROYED
They found that nerve-cells of some of the most vital parts of the brain were almost entirely destroyed. Some cells had ruptured (cerebral hemorrhage), and were partly liquefied. Others were shrunken and distorted.
Blood vessels in the dogs’ brains were swollen and clogged with stagnant red blood corpuscles, as the body forces tried to give aid by rushing larger supplies of life-sustaining oxygen to the damaged brain-cells.
These doctors’ findings showed that “cerebral hemorrhage” results from a rush of blood to the endangered area, as the body’s vital force tries to carry more oxygen to the brain-cells.
An item in the press of September 24th, 1930, stated,
BLACK LUNGS
An item in the press of November 13th, 1938, headed Cleveland, said:
“Fifty thousand tons of soot, tar and other filth float in the air of this city of a million people—100 pounds for each person. One of the dirtiest sections produced 87.15 tons of grime and insoluble solids, such as carbons, tar, fly ash and ferrous oxide.”
City air is a poisonous mixture of smoke, soot, fumes and acids, which include such poisons as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, hydrocyanic acid, benzene, methane, and other dangerous chemicals.
In addition to these poisons, city air is saturated with the exhaust fumes of motor cars, trucks, buses, gas engines, etc. These exhaust fumes consist of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, lead oxide, lead carbonates, free gasoline and complicated benzene chain compounds of the hydrocarbon series.
Tasteless, colorless, odorless, invisible, carbon monoxide gas takes a terrible toll of human life in the cities. The larger cities have a huge, dark, gas blanket hovering over them that holds down the gases and tends to smother those living and laboring in the cities.
Writing on “Our Smoky Cities” in Collier’s Weekly, W. B. Courtney said:
“As you fly across the U.S.A. you see a chain of dark smudges on the skyline, like blots from a cosmic thumb. Those are the cities. Certain pilots in daytime will name the cities without consulting maps. They do it by the size of the black umbrella that hangs in the air above it. Sometimes the larger cities raise smoke umbrellas with 200 square miles of spread.
“I have looked at Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City, among other cities, on clear days, and seen nothing but a pall of smoke and soot. The disturbing thought is that under those black, poisonous umbrellas millions of people live, labor, sleep, seek health, happiness and fortunes; that millions of children struggle under those poisonous umbrellas for a chance to grow into sound maturity and optimistic citizenhood.”
The Cincinnati Post of April 1946, stated that the fall of soot and ash on that city’s 73.9 square miles during March amounted to 2725 tons or 227 railway carloads. It was sufficient to have covered a 40 x 150 feet lot to a depth of more than 75 feet. During the year 1945 Cincinnati was deluged with 33,231 tons of soot and ash; and air pollution in that city is no worse than in other cities of similar size.
Some of the disaster that comes to those living under these poisonous umbrellas was contained in a report made in 1931 of a two-year survey by the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh. In part that report said:
“Constant inhalation of poison-laden air results in a gradual process of absorption of the body of the poisonous products of combustion. This insensible intake may cause any acute disorder. The process of slow-poisoning eats away insidiously at the vital tissues, making it impossible for the body and brain to function properly.”
Investigations show that the lungs of those living in the larger cities become black as coal. Dr. Thomas Darlington, former health commissioner of New York, wrote:
“I have performed many autopsies upon New Yorkers, and almost without exception their lungs were as black as night.”
Harold D. Blackwell, educational director of the Smoke Prevention Association, in an address in Milwaukee, said:
“The lungs of anyone living in Milwaukee for five years, become as black as coal; but if that person lived in the country where the air is better, his lungs would be pink and grey, the natural, healthy color.”
This knowledge reveals the secret why people become short-winded as they grow older. The polluted air causes the walls of their lungs to thicken, and the walls to become coated with carbon, making it difficult for the gases of the air, needed by the body, to pass through the lung-walls into the blood. The result is labored breathing, especially on a little exertion.
Authorities have demonstrated a concentration of 0.62 parts of carbon monoxide per 10,000 cubic centimeters of air at street level in busy sections of cities of 500,000 population and over.
Few poisons in the air are more deadly than carbon monoxide. Air containing as little as one-twentieth of one percent will cause headache, and one-fiftieth of one per cent may cause total collapse.
Dr. L. Burns examined blood specimens of more than 20,000 persons to discover the effect of carbon monoxide on the body, and wrote:
“Carbon monoxide gas seeps into the blood through the lungs, and mixes with the hemoglobin to such extent that the blood cannot perform its normal function of carrying oxygen to the rest of the body.”
This gas seeps into the blood and it is absorbed by the hemoglobin, whose normal function is to carry oxygen to the cells. The hemoglobin has an affinity for this gas about 300 times greater than for oxygen, making very rapid the absorption by the blood of this gas.
As the hemoglobin becomes saturated with carbon monoxide, the oxygen in the blood is reduced in proportion. The first symptoms are headache and weakness. More serious symptoms soon appear as the condition progresses.
Scientists of Harvard Laboratories, risking their lives to learn more about the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, found the average man can endure it only until his blood is one third saturated.
The serious danger of the gas was shown by the way it affected one of the scientists. He had just finished some tests requiring great skill and was feeling no ill effects from the gas, when he suddenly collapsed and had to be carried out in the fresh air and revived.
Small concentrations of the gas soon bring man down to the breaking point. Five percent of the motor cars and closed trucks on the highways have sufficient concentrations of gas to be a menace to the drivers and passengers. Only one part of the gas in 1000 parts of air can render a man unconscious if he inhales it for 30 minutes.
There is no natural nor acquired immunity to the gas. Repeated exposures produce the same effect each time.
Hydrocyanic acid gas is worse. Only a few grains of it produces violent death. Most people who drop dead or die suddenly are not afflicted with heart ailments as is claimed. It is the work of polluted air.
CAUSES CANCER
In the press of August 19th, 1932, appeared excerpts from “the annual report of the Bernard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital,” in which it was asserted “that city dwellers, breathing polluted air, develop cancer of the lungs at a rate three times greater than inhabitants of rural districts.”
The press of October 24th, 1936, stated that evidence showed an increased occurrence of cancer of the eyes “resulting from colds,” according to the doctors. The report was made “at the closing session of the clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.” Quite an imposing body, but none of those present could offer any suggestion as to why an increased occurrence of cancer of the eyes should appear as the result of colds.
The Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh issued a report in 1931 of a two-year survey covering the effect of polluted air on human health. In part the report said:
“The inhalation of poison-laden air results in a gradual process of absorption by the human body of the poisonous products in the air. The effect of this insensible intake is cumulative and results in a condition of slow poisoning that insidiously eats away at the vital tissues of the body like cancer.”
The Chicago Health Department reported that in Chicago there is so much sulphuric acid gas in the air that it rots clothes hung on wash lines, and eats away at building stone and metal guttering.
The report stated that while copper guttering in rural regions beyond the smoke zone lasts almost indefinitely, in the larger cities it is destroyed in about ten years by the corrosive action of polluted air.
Can flesh and blood endure long under a condition that “eats away at building stone and metal guttering”? Think of babies and little c
hildren that must breathe that deadly air.
EAT UP THE BODY
Man does well to survive for thirty or forty years in air saturated with poisons and acids so destructive that they eat up clothing, copper guttering, stone and steel monuments.
The corrosive acids in city air attack the cells, tissues, throat, nose, lungs, and brain, and all organs and glands of the body.
They attack the blood corpuscles and cripple them so they cannot carry on their normal function. That condition is termed anemia.
They attack the nerves, and the resulting pains are called neuritis. As the nerves weaken, paralysis may result, and often does.
They attack the muscles, producing dull pains that puzzle us, this is called rheumatism or lumbago.
They attack the joints, and this is called arthritis. They attack the air chambers of the head, and it is called sinusitis.
They attack the throat and it is termed laryngitis, tonsillitis, diphtheria, etc. Hoarseness often follows, and in time one’s voice weakens, or may be lost.
They attack the muscles and nerves of the heart, and it is called heart disease.
They attack the lungs and it is called hay fever, asthma, or tuberculosis.
They attack the pancreas, and it is called diabetes. They attack all parts of the body.
Medical names, names, names mean nothing except to indicate that part of the body where degeneration is most serious from the evil work of polluted air.
The press of October 24th, 1936, quoted a report made “at a closed session of the Clinical Congress of American College of surgeons.” The report showed that increase in cancer appeared in patients following recovery from influenza, in workmen handling oil substances, such as garagemen, mechanics, oil station attendants, auto salesmen.
All the doctors present were puzzled. They had no answer; no suggestions. Not one of them had the slightest suspicion that polluted air had anything to do with the matter.