Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-01-12
THE USE OF TOBACCO.
THE QUESTION BRIEFLY DISCUSSED
 BY A MEDICAL MAN.

4 NEattor of Importance to smokers
 Habits to Be Avoided-The Cigarette
 Acknowledgements of Nicotine-Experi-
 mental Observation-The nEaoris.
 Tobacco contains an acrid, dark brown oil, an alkaloid, nicotine and another substance called nicOtianine, in which exist its odorous and volatile principles. This description of the active principles of tobacco is of importance to smokers; for, when tobacco IS burned. new set of substances is produced. some of which arc less harmful than the nicotine. and are more agreeable in effect, and much of the acrid oil-a substance quite as irritating and poisonous as nicotine-is carrid of. These fire produced sub stances are called, from their origin, the ''pyridine series" By great heat the more aromatic and less harmful members of the series are produced, but the more poisonous compounds are gen erated by the slow combustion of damp tobacco. This oil, which is liberated by combustion, is bad both in flavor and in effect, and 1t is better, even for the in- mediate pleasure of the smoker, that it should be excluded altogether from his mouth and air passages.
 Smoking in stub of pipe is particu- larly injurious, for the reason that in it the oil is stored in condensed form, and the smoke is therefore highly charged with the oil. Sucking or chew ing the stub of cigar that one is smok- ing is serious mistake, because the nicotine in the unburned tobacco dis solves freely in the saliva, and is ab- sorbed Chewing" is on this account the most injurious form of the tobacco habit, and the use of cigar holder is an improvement on the custom of holding he cigar between the teeth.
 MISCHIEF OF CIGARETTES.
 Cigarettes are responsible for a great amount of mischief, not because the smoke from the paper has any particu- larly evil effect, but because smokers and they are often boys or very young men-are apt to use them continuously or at frequent intervals, believing that their power for evil is insignificant. Thus the nerves are under the constant influence of the drug, and much injury to the system results. Moreover, the cigarette smoker uses very considerable amount of tobacco during the course ot a day Dipping" and "snufing" arc l se1ni-barbarities which need not be dis cussed Not much effect Is obtained 1 from the use of the drug in these vari eties of the habit.
 Nicotine is one of the most powerful of the nerve poisons" known. Its viru lence is compared to that of prussic acid 1 If birds be made to inhale it's vapor il amounts too small to be measured, they are almost instantly killed. It seems t( destroy life, not by attacking few, bu all of the functions essential to it, begin ming at the center, the heart. A signih cant indication of this is that there is nt substance known which can counterac it's effects: the system either succumb or survives. Its depressing action or the heart is by far the most noticeabl and noteworthy symptom of nicotin poisoning. The frequent existence O what is known as smokers heaIt" i men whose health is in no other respec disturbed is due to this fact.
 AN EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATION. In an experimental observation O thirty eight boys of all classes of societ and of average health, who had beel using tobacco for periods rangin! from two months to two years, twenty seven showed severe injury to the con stitution and insufficient growth; thirty two showed the existence of irregularit of the hearts action, disordered ston achs, cough, and craving for alcoho thirteen had intermittency of the pulse and one had consumption. After the had abandoned the use of tobacco, withi six months time one-haf were free froI their former symptoms, and the remain der had recovered by the end of the yea
 A great majority of men go far b< yond what may be called the temperat use of tobacco, and evidences of injUr are easily found. It is only necessary [ have some record of what the gener; health was previous to the taking up ( the habit, and to have observation cove long enough time. The history of tC bacco in the Island of New Zealand flu nishes quite suggestive illustration fc our purpose, and one on large seal
 When Europeans first visited Ne Zealand they found in the native Maor the most finely developed and powerf, men of any of the tribes inhabitiag u islands of the Pacific. Since the intr, duction of tobacco, for which the Maor developed passionate liking, they hay from this cause alone, it is said, becon decimated in numbers, and at the san time reduced in stature and in physic;
 well being so as to be an altogether inf , rior type of men.-C. W. Lyman in Ne ) York Medical Journal.