The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-04
The Throats of Smokers. (From the New York Commercial Adverti


 When the most successful military commander of modern times became the victim of a throat disorder as an ef- feet of smoking, probably more than half the tobacco burners of the country were disturbed in their minds, and a good many reduced the daily number of cigars or pipes until their scare was over. The prominence that is given to the similar fatal aff1iction of an emil nent baronet and painter in England, will be likely to produce the same ef- feet in a less degree. If the reduction in smoking were permanent there would be no blame in any neglect to re- assure the smokers, since it is a mistake to cut down the daily con- sumption by one-half. The fact is, however, that reforms of this kind ef- fected through fear are never enduring. The most of smokers torture them- selves for a few weeks and then gradu- ally resume their former excesses.
 Nearly every smoker who is worthy of the name smokes too much. EXces- sive consumption of tobacco is apt to produce dyspeptic conditions, common ly indicated by what is erroneously called heart burn.' In a less number of instances an enfeebled condition of the heart follows excessive smoking and in majority of cases, according to medical authority, the smoker is less able to resist the ordinary diseases of life than the non smoker It is well es- tablished, however, that nearly every nervous disorder of the stomach in- duced by the excessive use of tobacco, every case of diminished muscular &C., tion of the heart and every case of de- bility due to the same cause, is specdi- ly, almost instantly, cured by cessa- tion of smoking, or even by a consider able diminution in the quantity of to- bacco used. The medical verdict of to- tobacco heart' sounds more serious than it is.
 In the civilized world perhaps one mature man in every five is the victim of some peculiarity or defect that dis qualities him as a smoker. It may be a predisposition to a cancerous growth, as in the case of General Grant, and of the father of the present emperor of Germany, and of Sir John Millais, or it may be a wife or 8 mother -ln- law. The remaining four are in the enjoy ment of all their faculties and of liber- ty to pursue happiness through clouds of tobacco, without serious danger to health unless they smoke to excess. What is excess varies with every per- son, and the great trouble is that few Inc crossed the boundary of moderation. It is pleasing but pernicious quality of tobacco that deludes its victim-de- ludes him into the fond but foolish be- lief that he can quit when he will and that the pains of tobacco are distinctly due to something else. Any smoker for most women and for all young persons is dangerous excess.
 Nobody under twenty-five should use tobacco and the later in life it is begun the less danger. It is poison, certain 1 ly, but poison to which the system readily adapts itself According to ex- perience, only one in many scores of or dinary smokers is in danger of fatal throat disease. The man who smokes a short -stemmed clay pipe may become the subject of a virulent tumor of the l lip. not because of the tobacco, but be- cause of the hot pipe-stem. Those who have any frequent trouble with the throat should not hesitate to relinquish l the habit of smoking, but other persons of mature age who find tobacco so- lace and who are not disposed on any other account to abandon it have no causedto be alarmed by reports of occa- sionaI eminent victims. In times of panic over such reports, the reasonable smoker remembers how insecure life is at best, and how brief ordinarily, and allays the perturbation of his mind by another sedative cigar or pipe.