The weekly Arizona miner., 1872-01-27
Que ~Miner.
SMOKING.

Tn .n article on the medical aspects OI smoking tobacco, in the fo'd 9voThd', UT h. Gray asks:
 ais smoking injurious z" This is an every day question apt to be put by patients 70 the doctors kike most broad questions of 'he kind it involves far too many considerations to admit of being answered in plain yes or no. A medical man, who has long been moderate smoker. and watched the effect of the habit on himself and others, here oilers what he believes to be the true answer to the question:
 First of all, there must be an understand inc about the quality of the tobacco to be smoked. Bad, | c., rank, quickly intoxicat- inp and prostrating tobacco, (certain kinds of sbae and cavendish, for instance), must always be injurious Few can smoke them at ali-none habitually at Least, with impu- niey. So too, with regard to quantity even good tobacco smoked to excess will to a cer- tainty be injurious to the smoker, sooner or later. in some way or another. Of all the various evil effects of excessive 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, vomiting, palor and alarming prostration. Such people never get seasoned to its effect, even after repeated trials and if they are wise they will forever let it alone. They will display still further wisdom by not presum- ing to make laws for others who have not the same idiosyncrasy.
 No one can enjoy smoking, or smoke with impunity, when out of health. The phrase tout of health," though it may sound vague, is definite enough to frame general rule.
 Tobacco should be used as supplementary to food. not as a substitute for it. The season, therefore, for healthy smoking is after meal Tobacco should not be taken on an empty stomach (unless to stave off bunger), any more than alcohol Smoking merely to kill time, or to color pipe @ is childish abuse of tobacco.
 Against moderate smoking i'll a healthy | person who enjoys it, not single argument of any weight has yet been advanced. Per haps the most plausible of them is this: That every smoker daily imbibes a small quantity of tobacco oil and nicotine and as these substances, taken by themselves in the pure concentrated state and in very large doses are highly poisonous, therefore every habit ual smoker is slowly poisoning himself. Just as reasonable is it to condemn all alcoholic drinks, such as wine, beer, etc, as perniciOus, because draft of pure alchOhol will nearly or quite kill man; or to condemn tea and coffee as dangerous drinks, because their na- tive principles, theine and caffeine, taken alone and in large doses, are poisonous. One of the best established truths in medical sci ence is that the same physiological agent, ac- cording to the dose given, may produce ef- fccts which fifTcr not merely in degree but In kind. T.. dea of small doses of tobacco, or eay such agent. slowly accnmuiating in the -satss.. aa1 a+l-~yth prodnring thc afIact ef single large dose Is e .e-a-s saSurd, and also lsu,sadie,ed 5Y experience.
 So much and 0ttc8 80 much nonsense. Is pratej about the evils of tohaccn that it's yir- trcs rarely get hearing, and get the latter are many and great. To quiet nervous un- rest; to soothe a ruffied temper; to favor calm and impartial thought; to steady and clear (not cloud) a confused, over-worked brain; to counteract the effects of physical exhaustion--theso are just the things which tobacco does, and if it can effect these end. safely and pleasantly, who shall deny it q place among Gods good gifts to mcnl