Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-09-19
THE DEADLY CIGARETTE.
A Hospital Scene Which Should
Convey Warning to Thousands.
How the Body OF = Cigarette Consumes
Was Affected by the Fumes Of Poison
Gus Nicotine and Burnt Paper
Some Curious Revelations.

The dissecting-room of the hospital
preached terrible sermon for cigarette
smokers the other afternoon, says the New
York Press. Is the crowd of young men
just starting in this deadly habit, Just learn
ing to suck the poisonous and hfe-sapping
smoke, charged with nicotine and burnt
paper, into their lungs, could have seen the
body of young colored man cut open. an
object lesson might have been learned
which would have produced an effect where
advice, exhortation, the sight of ashen-
faced, hshy-eyed young consumptives with
stopped shoulders and hollow chests have
all failed.
This young man had come to the hospital
in the last stages of some wasting disease
His frame was large and had the foundation
for great muscular development. But
emaciation hardly expresses its lean and
shrunken condition. His chest was much
sunken and the broad shoulders in conse-
quence drawn in. His face was covered
with large, ugly-looking sores that stood
out in strange contrast upon his yellow
sunken cheeks.
During the last four years Of his life he
had been an inveterate cigarette smoker.
OF course that meant inhaler of cigarettes
also. No one persists in smoking "coffin
lacks" long without inhaling them also
His death could be traced Immediately to
this habit.
For almost year before the end came he
had been sinking. That film over the eye,
peculiar 10 the cigarette smoker, was con-
stantly present. Violent pans, similar to
heartburn, shot across his chest in the re-
gion of the heart. These pains increased in
frequency and violence His throat became
infiamed and a species of catarrh of the
very worst type began to affiict him. Every
once in awhile he would have fits of suffo-
cation that would leave him weak and on
the verge of death.
After one of these attacks he was induced
to quit the habit, but with returning health
he renewed it, and was soon worse OF than
ever. At last his condition became almost
hopeless, and he was taken to the hospital.
The doctors soon gave him up, and all that
remained to be done was to let him die as
easily as possible. But his death was far
from easy. The cough which racked him,
the pains in the lungs and heart, all kept
him in constant misery. His brain became
affected, and high fever deprived him Of all
power save to suffer. Day after day he
fingered in this pitiable condition. Each
day was thought to be his last. The
cigarette disease is not kind to the sufferer,
like consumption. That constantly allures
him with hope, so quiet and painless is it.
But this wears and tears with increasing
fury, until in a paroxysm Of pain life Is
driven from the body.
So recent has been this form of death that
doctors have had but little opportunity to
diagnose it. The physicians and surgeons
seized upon this chance eagerly to observe
the exact effect upon the system. Often
cigaretts aggravate disease already lurk-
ing in the system. But with this man such
was not the case. No finer specimen of q
cigarette ruin could have been found as the
young man up to the time of contracting the
habit had been unusually healthy. There
fore the only complications of disease TO be
found would be the direct result of the one
sufficient and efficient cause.
After the usual removal and examination
of the intestines the work of removing the
lungs was begun. A sharp, cleaning knife
In the hands of the surgeon in charge laiC
bare the ribs and breast bone. Then Tho
saw and hammer were called into requisl
ton, and the sound of steel teeth grating
against osseous tissue, broken now and then
by the tapping of the hammer, mingled will
the trucking of the water. Soon the hear
that so short a time before bounded with life
and the lungs that were filed with ife-giv
lug air lay in fullview
The usual odor of dissecting-room i.
sickening enough, but it has little effect up
on accustomed nostrils. The smell tina
came from the lungs of this dead young
negro made even the old surgeon look un
easy. 1t was simply revolving. The strong
est component of it was that Same smell
which renders a cigarette so unpleasant Il
| all but the smoker, except that this smei
was intensified and concentrated.
But the appearance Of the lungs dispelleC
all surprise at the sickening odor they ex
hailed. The lungs even of a person who hal
died of disease are usually of a pinhsh hue
resembling nothing so much as pair o
pink sponges of fine texture. In the case o
this mans lungs both the color and the ap
| pearance were lacking. Both parts wer
shapeless masses of flesh IN a state Of abso
lutte decay. The cellular formation had al
most entirely disappeared. The mass wa
covered with small ulcers, which gave it
most loathsome appearance. The color o
the mass was a dark, muddy yellow. Herr
and the all through the lungs were inter
spersed long strings of darker hue than tn
rest of the tissue, which were evidentl
pieces of tobacco drawn into the lungs. A
the knife cut through liquid exuded iron
the sores which possessed even foule
odor, now that it was brought to the SUI
face.
Pieces of the tissues were washed unde
the hydrant, but even thorough rinSini
failed TO remove the natural color or to re
move the unnatural smell. Here and Their
through the lungs were found patches in
somewhat better condition. These spots
diseased though they were, yet enabled tn
man to live as long as he did.
The throat and bronchial tubes wer
found to be in an equally terrible state. Tn
mucous membrane lining them was COY
cred with thin scum, also dark yellow i
color, smelling and looking exactly like tn
thick liquid taken from a pipe that ha
been in use for some time. The membran
was also dotted with the small ulcers, tn
bursting of which doubtless gave rise I
the Shiny covering of the entire surfacs
The flow Of this into the already ovel
charged lungs, produced the violent fits Q
coughing and suffocation. So terrible ha
been the ravages of catarrh that the vocs
chords were visibly affected and decayed.
The brain, which is so delicate and yet s
slow to show the ravages Of disease, wa
also afflicted by the constant stream of ba
blood which flowed through it. In som
places it showed slight traces of liberation
As the entire interior of this young ma
lay upon the table it presented a most hol
rible spectacle. The yellowish tinge whic
pervaded it all and which deepened int
green, the frightful odor, the emaciatior
the fiabbiness of the muscles, the horribl
ulcers, all spoke of the horrors of the els
arctic habit. One would have thought ths
any one who stood there convicted Of smol
ing cigarettes would have resolved to ceas
from cultivating such an interior, frol
counting such a death.
e One of the doctors in attendance stoo
r by cody putting and inhaling cigaret'
9 during the entire operation. The lesson wa
lost upon him.
BIaine's Bosh.
. "If we had free trade" said Carnegie
: friend at Boston, "the factories may not b
!, closed, but if they keep open they will b
! run at half the wages"
j. Coming from the guest of the millionair