With old people a broken bone is often a serious matter, and may cripple them for life or prove fatal.  A trifling fall, for instance, may cause a broken hip (popularly so called, though really a fracture of the neck of the femur), from the shock of which, and the subsequent pain and exhaustion, an aged person may die in a few weeks.  In young people, however, the parts of a broken bone will knit together in three or four weeks after the fracture is reduced; while in adults, six or even more may be required for firm union.  After a broken bone is strong enough to be used, it is fragile for some time; and great care must be taken, especially with children, that the injured parts may not be broken again before perfect union takes place.[7]

62.  The Effect of Alcohol upon the Bones.  While the growth of the bones occurs, of course, mainly during the earlier years of life, yet they do not attain their full maturity until about the twenty-fifth year; and it is stated that in persons devoted to intellectual pursuits, the skull grows even after that age.  It is plainly necessary that during this period of bone growth the nutrition of the body should be of the best, that the bones may be built up from pure blood, and supplied with all the materials for a large and durable framework.  Else the body will be feeble and stunted, and so through life fall short of its purpose.

If this bony foundation be then laid wrong, the defect can never be remedied.  This condition is seen in young persons who have been underfed and overworked.  But the use of alcoholic liquors produces a similar effect, hindering bone cell-growth and preventing full development.[8] The appetite is diminished, nutrition perverted and impaired, the stature stunted, and both bodily and mental powers are enfeebled.

63.  Effect of Tobacco upon the Bones.  Another narcotic, the destructive influence of which is wide and serious, is tobacco.  Its pernicious influence, like that of alcohol, is peculiarly hurtful to the young, as the cell development during the years of growth is easily disturbed by noxious agents.  The bone growth is by cells, and a powerful narcotic like tobacco retards cell-growth, and thus hinders the building up of the bodily frame.  The formation of healthy bone demands good, nutritious blood, but if instead of this, the material furnished for the production of blood is poor in quality or loaded with poisonous narcotics, the body thus defrauded of its proper building material becomes undergrown and enfeebled.

Two unfavorable facts accompany this serious drawback:  one is, that owing to the insidious nature of the smoky poison[9] (cigarettes are its worst form) the cause may often be unsuspected, and so go on, unchecked; and the other, that the progress of growth once interrupted, the gap can never be fully made up.  Nature does her best to repair damages and to restore defects, but never goes backwards to remedy neglects.