Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-08-24

POISON CAN SOON GET WELL IF CAREFUL.
Is the use of tobacco injurious?
On this question no two doctors agree.
Some say that brain workers should use to-
bacco moderately and that they will derive
benefit for so doing
Others say that tobacco used in any form is
injurious. One doctor claims that it will hurt
| the literary man or the man of sedentary
habits. but that the laborer and artisan can
smoke all he wants to without injury. Several
doctors were seen recently and talked on the
tobacco question. The following are their
| views: One has studied this question thor
oughly and is particularly posted on the effects
| OF tobacco on the nerves. heart and brain. He
| makes specially of studying nervous dis
orders. This is what he said about tobacco:
| 1.-The habit of smoking tobacco is very per-
| nlcious one if INDUCED in by boys who are
| growing or by young men. A complication Of
| nervous disorders Is produced by excessive
tobacco smoking. Boys ought not to smoke.
have seen boys who told me that they COM
| menced to smoke when they were eleven or
| twelve years of age. Many of them have start
ed by picking up their fathers half smoked
| cigar or by stealing his tobacco. When these
| boys come to be seventeen or eighteen years of
age they are thin, pale faced, short and their
| vitality Is seriously impaired. l don't think
| smoking hurts the laborlng classes as much be-
cause they have no nerves. A great, strong,
| well developed bricklayer can smoke almost
| anything and it will not hurt him at all.
| Tobacco first affects the nerves and then it
| affects the heart when used to excess in any
| form. Brain workers should smoke in modera-
ton. The most injurious shape in which to-
| bacco can be used, L think, is the cigar. Ordi-
| nary cigarette smoking is not as injurious as
| many believe it is, but il the smoker inhales
the smoke from the cigarette. as a great many
| men do. then it is most decidedly the most in
| furious form of smoke. Usually only about
two-thirds of cigarette is smoked. and then
| the tobacco is of mild kind that doesn't con-
| tain anything like much nicotine in proper
| ton as there is in cigar. One cigar will weigh
| nearly as much as all the cigarettes a man will
smoke in day. Pipe smoking is the least in
FURIOUS when the pipe is kept clean. Those
| old-fashloned long stemmed pipes are the best
| that can be used. Tobacco acts as slight
stlmulant at first, and its final action is that of
| depressont. 1t is q nerve poison, and it picks
out certain systems on which 1t works.
THE SMOKERS HEART.
The first effects it will have on a smoker is to
produce what is called the smokers heart and
dyspepsia. The smokers heart is a palpitation
or irregular motion of the heart. 1t is very
hard to state how much man can smoke with
out being injured by its effects. A man of
nervous temperament should not smoke at all.
Inc average New Yorker perhaps smokes on an
| average three or four cigars day. Some
| men limit themselves to one or two.
and are much better off for so doing.
Some men again smoke from fifteen
| to twenty cigars day. The only thing that
| can be said about these men is that they are
| phenomenal and no one can understand how
| they can do it. The best time to smoke is after
| meals. Smoking stimulates the flow of saliva
and flow of the gastric juice, and in this way
| can be said to aid digestion. One always seems
| to feel a sort Of relief from smoking
after eating. At least l know l do,
and several others 1 have met tell me the
same thing. Smoking to excess after eating,
though, will injure digestion. Smoking
acts as stimulant to the BRAIN too, for a
| short time. but it soon goes off. You ask me
| IL not some benefit derived from smoking l
don't want to go before the world and state
| that men would be great deal better off if
! Sir Walter Raleigh had never discovered this
| narcotic. / think tobacco used judiciously
will not hurt one much. 1t produces GER
| tain pleasures. 1t Is company for man, and
| comfort that will outweigh any number of evils
Nicotine is quickly eliminated from the BODY
1t is very powerful poison. A drop is said to be
sufficient to kill an animal How much it takes
to kill man is not known, as there are on
ly two cases of fatal nicotine poisoning on re-
cord. imagine, though, that if a man were to
swallow tablespoonful of plug tobacco that
would be sufficient to kill him. Some people
| smoke very Unexpectedly. and here are q few
OF the troubles that arise from so doing: They
get partial nervous weakness, which will event
ually produce nervous breakdown; they get the
smokers heart, which is irregular and palpitat-
ing, ataxia, which causes the body to sway and
tumble; dyspepsia. and in connection with
alcohol, partial blindness. Tobacco does not
produce any organic disease; and one suffering
from excessive tobacco smoke will soon recover
If he puts the tobacco on one side. The nico-
tine will soon pass out of his system
PIPE SMOKING THE LEAST INJURIOUS.
Another prominent physician said: Smoking
tobacco will not injure anybody if INDUCED in
moderately. The most injurious form in which
tobacco can be used is the cigarette, the cigar
next and lastly the pipe. The reason cigarette
smoking is SO bad is on account of the paper.
This paper absorbs the nicotine and conducts
it to the mouth. Pipe smoking may become
very injurious if the pipe is not properly
attended to. The pipe used should be a long
stemmed one. and it should be well cleaned
This can be easily accomplished by pouring
little alcohol through the bowl of the pipe
which will cut out the nicotine. Nicotine is an
oil and the alcohol cuts it out. Tobacco causes
an irregular action of the heart, which is easily
diagnosed and is called by physicians tobacco
or smokers heart. 1t is hard to determine how
much a man can smoke without injuring him
self. A tieshy man can smoke much more than
a nervous man. 1t depends entirely on the
temperament of the smoker. The best time to
smoke is after eating as then it promotes di-
gestion. Tobacco acts as stimulant to the
brain and produces quiet to the nervous sys-
tem." Men working in the open air and who
enjoy good health and have strong constitu-
tions can smoke great deal without feeling
any serious injury from so doing. In fact, you
will see them nearly all the time with clay
pipe stuck in their mouths
TOBACCO IN ANY FORM VERY BAD.
A certain female physician is more opposed
to the use of tobacco than she is to the use of
intoxicating drinks. She won't allow it inside
her house. When asked recently il the habit
of smoking tobacco was injurious. she said:
''Yes. most decidedly it is. Tobacco used in
| any shape has no good qualities at all in it.
| The most injurious form of smoking in nv
opinion is the cigarette. l don't know much
| about the smoking habit from experience but
only from study and what others have told me.
| The cigarette, should think was the most
| injurious because the tobacco is put right
| in the mouth, and the nicotine poison
| in the tobacco is absorbed that
way through the paper. Cigars, too, are iniu-
| rious for the same reason. Then the cigarettes
| are made Of inferior tobacco; men and bows
smoke moro of them, and there is a poison con-
tanned in the paper. don't think a man can
smoke at all without being injured by its effects.
And can't find any good in it at all. Tobacco
| Is a sedative and smoking acts as a stimulant
Nicotine acts as a stimulant to the brain.
| These sedatives and stimulants are not at all
| necessary. IL one would rest more and take
| more recreation and do without tobacco they
would ind they would enjoy great deal better
| health, live longer and be able to attend to