The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-11-26
TOBACCO SMOKE DIsINFECTs.
DIR. NOrman Kerr Thinks 1t Has Some
Power for Good.
Westminster Gazett.

odEtlANs
Why one should associate a teetotaler
with hatred to tobacco would be difficult to
say; but one does, and that is why /
brought this matter under DR.. Kerr's notice.
The inmates who had been great smokers,
or who had been in the habi of chewing
tobacco, had not been touched by the epf-
demie. Nearly every man in the work.
house was or had been a smoker, and the
statistics of the epidemic showed that only
eighty-three men had been attacked as
compared with $50 women.
us, then, tobacco a diSinfectant? II
asked.
'It is not easy, nor is 1t wise, to reason
upon such a case without full knowledge
of the facts. 1t is very easy to mistake
the effect for the cause. But L am quite
sure that tobacco smoking does act ae a
disinfectant. l do not smoke now at all. 1
used to smoke, and / always made a point
of smoking in cases of cholera, and in every
other kind Of infectious disease, when I
could manage it, and especially when at
tending patients in the hospital or on board
You regard it. then, as a thorough dis
i~nfectant?"
IL is a disinfectant. 1t has some power.
and especially IL a person has not a good
square meal inside him: Then ii has an
81 should have thought that smoking,
tending to depress the nervous system,
would have laid the smoker open to the in
lection"
Yes, you must remember 1 have spoken
of a man with whom smoking does not dis
agree. A good deal depends on the idiosyn-
cracy of the person who smokes. If he can
not stand smoking well then it may depress
his heart action and enfeeble his constitu-
ton. and so lessen the resisting power TO
throw off the infectious germs. But, on
broad, general grounds, l am decidedly OF
opinion, from my own experience and OBJ
servation, that tobacco srloking-other
things being e~qual-does give any one ex-
posed TO infection a considerable amount
of immunity. And then smoking has a dis
infectant power on the microbes them
selves. The smoke being retained in the
mouth is a sort of disinfecting filter
through which the germs have to pass,
and some of them certainly are destroyed,
or ar least deprived of their vitality.
cit is recorded that TaSSinarf found that
tobacco smoke. on being passed through the
interior of hollow bulbs lined with g~elatine
containing disease germs, for from ten to
thirty minutes, destroyed the bacilli Of
Asiatic cholera and pneumonia.
az would add it Is always desirable to
have a good square meal before one goes
where there is any kind of infectious dis
ease. especially in diphtheria and feverS of
all kinds. / always make 1t a rule to go
with a full stomach when L am called into
the midst OF infected districts. On one oc-
aston. some years ago, | had to see, in
succession. three very infectious cases, all
most serious. in the houses of the poor.
There were two typhus fever cases, and the
last was diphtheria. They were in a fright
fuI condition., and so were the rooms, and
7 felt as if I had inhaled the poison all
through nv system. 1t was two and a
half hours since l had had nay breakfast.
I left my carriage, jumped into a hanson,
and went straightway to Birch's and had
n basin of turtle soup. l had no 1urther
trOuble."