The record-union., 1896-03-07
TOBACCO FOR THE SICK.
Use Of the Weed Urged in Certain
Diseases.
Cases in Which Tobacco May be Safely
Used-In Other Cases It is
Condemned.

| Score one for the weed. The hun
| dreds of millions of men who smoke
tobacco will be pleased to learn that DR..
Jankau, a German physician, and a
| specialist in nervous diseases, after
making a careful study Of the effect OF
nicotine on the system, declares the
moderate use of the weed to be quite
| harmless. Indeed, there are numerous
! instances, he says, in which tobacco
may be used to advantage as a. remedy,
and he even goes so far as to recon-
mend cigar smoking in the case of cer-
tain patients who are recovering from
sickness.
| For years it has been customary to
regard the use of tobacco as injurious
to health, and DR.. Jankau'S statement
cannot fail to come into violent conflict
with long grounded opinions. He has
| not however, come forward as the
| champion of the weed without due prep
aration. Having made a thorough study
of the matter, he is able to state the di-
rect results of experience, and these
statements will probably have more
weight than the unsupported vaporings
of anti-smokers, whose notions are
based only on theory.
clusions it is we'll to state a few facts
about tobacco which are not generally
known. A million and quarter acres
of the earth are devoted to the culti-
vation of tobacco. The leaves of the
plant contain principles common to all
vegetable substances, such as starch
cellulose, sugar, organic acids and salts
and peculiar alkaloid to which the
.l0f itc a;oI
nicotine. This alkaloid was discovered
in lSO9. 1t is an oily liquid, transparent
and colorless, which becomes brown and
thick in the air by absorbing oxygen.
1t is this substance which gives the pc
eullar odor and flavor to tobacco; it has
burning taste, and it's vapor is so ir-
ritating that breathing is painful in
room where a drop of pure nicotine has
fallen.
The quantity of nicotine present in the
growing plant varies directly with the
thickness of the leaves. The fermenta-
ton to which tobacco is subjected in
! manufacturing dissipates a part of the
nicotine and substitutes for it ammonia,
and consequently there is less nicotine
IN tobacco prepared for consumption
than there was in the dry leaves before
| the preparation.
or the nicotine that is left in the
manufactured plant about two-thirds is
destroyed by combustion Nicotine is
the active principle of tobacco. as NOR
phine is of opium. There are other sub
stances present in tobacco, most of
which condense during combustion and
produce the brownish liquid which "col-
ors" pipes and which is entirely alb
sorbed in the water of nargilehs.
Among the substances that pass into
smoke along with nicotine are HYDRO
cynic acid and carbonic oxide. 1t has
been shown that a notable quantity of
| these is absorbed by rapid smokers
swallowing the smoke, and the gas
passes into the circulation of the blood
The results are usually injurious, show
ing that nicotine is not the only part of
the plant that is harmful AS for the
nicotine itself it is virulent poison.
Two drops are enough to kill a large
dog; eight drops will kill a horse in four
minutes. Under it's influence he RACES.
prances, writhes, falls down and dies in
convulsions. In its action it is very
much like prussic acid When taken
into the system in minute doses the eff
fects are vomiting, vertigo and faint
ness. The face grows pale, the skin
covered with sweat, the head confused.
and the patient falls into a deep stupor,
with general trembling and convulsions.
These phenomena are of course, very
well known to Dr. Jankau, but he ex-
plains them away by asserting that the
smoker need not take any of the in
furious principles of tobacco into the
system. Cigar smoking, he says. is the
best way to enjoy tobacco, but it should
be INDUCED in moderately, and the to-
bacco should not be strong. The doc
tor grows especially interesting when he
discusses the effect of tobacco-smoking
on persons convalescing from sickness,
for surely If a sick man may smoke, so
also may a man who is we'll
He holds that as a general rule there
is no need to forbid the use of tobacco in
surgical affections and during conval-
escence after operations with the ex-
ception of those on the eye, the abdo-
men and the bladder AS to the ques-
tion whether the use of tobacco plays
any part in the pathology of cancer of
the lips and of the tongue, the doctor is
not certain. Tobacco, he says, should
be forbidden, as general rule, in affec-
| tions of the throat and of the pharynx
and with certain restrictions in nasal
catarrh.
DR.. Jankau has been struck by the
fact that whenever patient feels un-
well he evinces disinclination to use
tobacco, and he therefore considers it a
good sign when the convalescent shows
| a desire to smoke, as this indicates a
return to the normal condition. Tobacco
e hn fTia n n
| in cases of peritonitis And patients
| who suffer from organic affections of
the heart cannot generally tolerate to-
bacco with any ease. Nevertheless. a
| habitual smoker may be allowed two
or three mild cigars day.
| AS to pulmonary affections DR.. jan
kau takes a decided stand, and declares
| that the use of tobacco is highly bene-
| fetal Experiments have shown that
| tobacco destroys such germs of car
| buncle, typhoid fever and pneumonia
as may exist in the mouth The same
| effect of tobacco is seen in the case of
| the bacilli of tuberculosis. He also con-
| siders it a great mistake not to allow
those in the first stages of phthisis to
| smoke; on the contrary, he would en-
| courage them to do so even more than
| formerly.
| Tobacco has favorable influence on
| the central nervous system, both on ac-
count of its slightly narcotic action and
| by distracting the patients thoughts
| from himself and his illness to his
| smoking, and the associations it brings
with it. It is most important that cer-
| tain patientsAshould be prevented from
continually thinking of themselves and
| their malady.