The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1886-08-19
WHAT CHEWING GUM DOES.
Doctors Declare that. Ht! Causes serious Bron
chial and Other Troubles.
(From tho New York star.) ,53t.f1g

(From the New York star.) ty3ytyNg
In the thousand and one shops sprinkled
through the narrow streets of this city,
whore youngsters buy lollipops, where
boys invest their savings in base balls
and cigarettes at q penny apiece, and
where the young ladies' of the tenements
purchase the latest yellow-boupd itera-
ture, there is always for sale o. substance
known as black chewing gum. Whether
it is done up in spangled tinfoil, or re-
splendent in gaudy tissue paper, or
decorated with parti-colored ribbon, it is
still black chewing gum. 1t is made
generally out of refuse gum arabic-stuff
that cannot be used in the apothecary
shops, and is favored variously with the
cheapest of cheap extracts, icorice, win
tergreen, peppermint, or, more usually,
one OF those poisonous favorings that
are compounded from acids. The manu-
facturcrs cut huge slab of the gum into
Iquadrangular pieces about the size of O.
domino. In cool weather the bits are
friable and break easily; when it is
warm, they have the consistence of O.
piece of idea rubber.
1t is surprising how much of this
black chewing gum is used. A little
girl gets hold Of penny somehow, and
she cannot get to shop quick enough
to buy some of it. She chews and cheWs
and chews on it, her jaws working as
regularly and vigorously as those of O.
Fourth Of July orator. If she has O.
wish to show particular favor to her
five-year-old sweetheart, she gives him O.
morsel. The young ladies who devour
the yellow bound novels devour gum,
too. They place fragment of it be-
tween tho hindormost of their pearly
teeth, and while their souls go out to
Elvira in her prison, or their hearts hut-
ter in sympathy with Edgar de Mont
morenci i'll his attempt to carry off tho
heircss, they don't forget to chew that
gum. Young beaus, the leaders in tene-
mcnt house society, chew it, too; for the
men who mako it advertise that it per-
fumes the breath and lends tho mouth
tho odor of n new-mown field, also that
it aids digestion and clears tho voice and
is harmless and beautiful substitute for
tobacco; that it is, i'll fact, penny bit
of ambrosial food for the gods.
1t isn't. Tho physicians of Amster-
| dnm, N. T., have just declared in solemn
conclavo that the practice of chewing
this black gum is most harmful and
pcrniclous. They have traced directly
to it innumerablc cases of sore mouth
and sore throat that they have treated of
late. Their brethren of the medical pro-
fcssion i'll Now York agree with them,
and not only condemn black chewing
gum, but all chewing gum of whatever
color.
The physician who has charge of tho
throat dispcnsary in one of the largest
hospitals in New York said few DAYS
ago: ebay after day patients, nearly all
girls between 8 and 18 years of age,
come in here and complain that it hurts
them when they swallow, or else that
their mouths sting whom they drink any
thing warm. On examining their throats
L find the delicate mucous membrane
marked here and there with ittlo in
famed patches. In nine cases out of ten
it is caused by chewing gum"
why is the gum hurtful?"
'"The tlavoring is usually poisonous"
replied tho doctor, "and by its constant
presence, in however small n quantity,
it sets up IN inflammation. But the
habit is otherwise pcrnicious. The un-
tlrlng motion of q gum chcwors jaws
provokes superfluous flow of saliva
just as If there was always pinch of salt
on the tongue-and wears out tho saliva
glands. Gum chewing retards digestion.
If woman fills her stomach with wator
or saliva she browns tho gastric Juices;
also the intcrminablc attrition wears out
the teeth, and foreign flavor by degrees
renders the breath moro and moro dis
agreeable. The practice is bad in every
way"