The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-02-08
Who May and Who Ought Not
10 SmOke-A Doctors Views
on the Habit.


rank, quickly intoxicating and pros
trating tobacco Certain kinds of
shag and cavendish, for instance),
must always be injurious. Few can
smoke them at all-none habitually'
at least-with impunity. So, too,
with regard to quantity; even good
tobacco smoked to excess, will, to q
certainty, be injurious to the smOk-
er, sooner or later, in some way or
another. Of the various evil effects
of oxcessive smoking, more will be
said presently.
Next, as to the smokers. There
are people to whom any tobacco,
however smoked, is simply poison,
causing, even in small doses, vomit-
ing, PalIor, and alarming prostra-
ton. Such people never get sea-
soned to its effects, even after re- /
peated trials, and if they are wise
they will forever let it alone. They
will display further wisdom by not
presuming to make laws for others
who have not the same idiosyncracy. |
No one can enjoy smoking or
smoke with impunity, when out Of
health. The phrase scout of health"
though it may sound vague, is defn-
tie enough to frame general rule. /
At the same time it is useful to
know what, if any, are the particu
lar disorders and conditions of
health IN which tobacco does special /!
harm. As far as the writer's
knowledge goes, these have nevOr
been specified by medical writers as
clearly as is desirable.
To begin, a man with bad ap-
petite will, if he smoke, most as
suredly eat still less-a noteworthy
fact for smokers or others recover
ing from a wasting illness, or soft
their feed" from whatever cause
This effect of tobacco, by the way,
while an evil to a sick man, who
cannot eat enough, becomes a boon
to the starved man, who cannot get
enough to eat an ample illustra-
tion of this was furnished among
French and German soldiers in
the recent war. Again, no man
should smoke who has a dirty
tongue, q bad taste in his mouth, or
weak or disOrdered digestion. In
any such case he cannot relish his
tobacco. 1t should be golden rule
with smokers, that the pipe or cigar
which is not smoked with relish had
better not be smoked at all. Indi-
gestion in every shapeis aggravated
by smoking, but most especially
that form of it commonly known as
atomic, and accompanied with fatu-
Ience. Diarrhea, as rule, is made
worse by smoking.
One of the commonest and earli
est effects of excessive or untimely !
smoking is to make the hand shake.
This gives the clue to another class
! of persons who ought not to smoke
persons, namely, who have weak,
unsteady nerves, aud suffer from
giddiness, confusion of sight, trem-
ulous hands, tendency to stammer,
or any such symptoms. And if to-
bacco does harm in mere functional
weakness, still less allowable is it in
actual organic disease of the nerv-
GUS system; as, for instance, where I
there exists any degree of paralysis
or other sign of degenerative change
in the brain or spinal cord. The
improper use of tobacco does beyond
question somehow interfere with
due nutrition of nerve substance
An illustration of this, familiar to
oculists and medical men, is the So
called tobacco.amaurosis, a failure
of vision occurring in excessive
smokers from mal.nutrition of the
retina. Another class of persons !,
who ought not to smoke are those
who have weak or unsteady circu-
lation, and complain of such troubles
as palpitation, cardiac pain, inter
mittent pulse, habitualIy cold hands
and feet, and chronic languor.
Lastly, there is reason for believ-
ing that the habitual use of tobacco
! is likely to retard the due growth
and development of the body. If.
80, no one should become a smoker
till he is well past the period of pu
berty. Boys, moreover, have no
excuse for smoking, for they are
spared tho hard wear and tear of
adult life. /
Now, after eliminating those who
from idiosyncracy cannot, and those
who from bodily aiIment or from
tender years should not, smoke,
there will still always be a large re-
siduum of happy folks who can
smoke, enjoy smoking, and are in
deed the better for it. These are
those who use tobacco without abus-
ing it-use it, that is to say, in
! moderate quantity, iu due season,