Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-05-09
Theories About Tobacco.

| ed by our protest against cigarette
smoking, which, it will be remember
ed, first raised the question about this
form OF the use of tobacco, it is now
generally admitted that we were right
and our opponent wrong in the mat
ter. The rapid consumption of the
tinely-shredcd leaves very close to the
mouth has been proved to render the
practice of smoking cigarettes
peculiarly Objectionable. Moreover,
it has been shown that, although the
use of a tube and the provision OF
plug of cotton will lessen the evil they
do not wholly deprive the cigarette of
! its Objectionable qualities We are
not, as is well known, advocates of
! the disIse of tobacco. If moderately
! and wisely employed it is a valuable
sedative to the nerves. and has an
especially soothing influence in the
majority of instances. There are,
however, certain properties of the
tobacco smoke which ought to be
more generally understood. 1t is I'M
questionably in some way a special
sedative to the hearts action. We are
not in the least surprised to find it
stated that considerable proportion
of the boys medically examined for
the United States navy are rejected on
the score of weakness of the heart
and that this should be attributed to
the habit of smoking cigarettes. AS
we pointed out when first directing
attention to the subject, the sphygmo-
graph shows peculiar influence to
be exerted by the smoking of tobacco,
particularly in the form of cigarettes,
on the pulse, partly due to the depres-
sion of the hearts action and partly
to the loss of Vasomotor tone in the
arteries. Those practitioners who do
not habitually use the sphygmograph
in their daily work, but content them
selves with simply feeling the pulse
with the fingers, may not be aware of
this fact. 1t is fact, nevertheless.
To the sedative action of the tobacco
on the heart may possibly be due that
agreeable sense of quietude and Of
cooling" which is commonly ex-
perienced when smoking in the heat
OF summer.
The points for which we are now es-
pecially anxious to call considerat ton
are these: l. The influence of tobacco
is apparently cumulative. A warning
sense of excess IN the use of tobacco
generally comes too late. The pipe,
cigar, or cigarette may be laid aside,
but the depressing or nauseating eff
feet increase for some time. Never
theless there is no valid reason to sup
pose tobacco or nicotine does not actu-
ally accumulate. 2. Excitation of the
nerve ceDters, as by oxidation, seems
to intensity the effects of tobacco when
once taken into the system. On going
out into the air and breathing quickly
the characteristic sensations are near
ly always for time aggravated. 3.
A cigar or cigarette smoked through
fine tube is generally stronger" in it's
influence than the same smoked with
out tube. These three results of OBJ
servation and experiment seem to sug-
gest the conclusion that the action of
tobacco is topical as regards the
nerves, the afferent radicles being first
acted upon, and when these are
brought under its influence the centers
being affected from the periphery. In
short, we incline to think tobacco is
not absorbed, or if it be, its action is
not due to absorption, but that it oper-
ates as peripheral sedative, like CO.
caine, and produces it's general effects,
as cocoa stops the sense of hunger, by
numbing the nerves of the stomach,
the central effects being secondary,
add to some extent reflex 1t is worth
while to pursue this subject still fur
Their. We incline to think that tobac-
co may be found to have as yet unsus-
pected value Independently, if we can
only arrive at a correct notion of the
precise manner in which its effects are
produced, and then determine how to
use it, Great good would result from
the recognition of tobacco as drug,
if only because then its abuses could
restrained. In the old days, before
chloroform and other anesthetics
were discovered, the use of tobacco as
a potent sedative to relax the muscles
in dislocations and to facilitate the re-
duction of hernia was a clumsy expe-
dent. 1t was speedily abandoned
when better stupefying agents were
provided. 1t would, however, have
been wiser to investigate the action of
the agent more closely instead of
throwing it wholly aside.-Londo''
Lancet.