The Portland daily press., 1897-03-27
Concerning the Cigarette.
To the Editor of the Press:

PREACHERS have preached against it, lee
turers have lectured against it, reformerf
have. made it a special object of reform.
in the newspapers announced the death
of some luckless subject who has fallen
victim. to the "deadly cigarette" YET
the praotioing physician would be far &c
seek who had ever met with death thai
could be fairly attributed to she uss OF
cigarettes, per sc.
So far this sounds very much as II thlf
were thesis in defense of the cigarette,
but such is far from being the case.
Cigarettes are bad in their effects upon
those who use:them, but they are bad be-
cause they are made of tobacco, and only
on that account. This is something
that the deolaimer against cigarettes II
| wont to lose sight of. To hear his TRADE
one would think that to use tobacco in
other forms was but mild evil com
pared with the use of cigarettes. Tobacco
is actually beneficial to tho health OF
very few; in rare cases of asthma and
perhaps of other affections it may be used
with advantage. TO the vast majority
OF mankind tobacco is injurious: to many
the injury is slight, ordinarily map
preciable, but there are by no means 9
few of it's devotees who suffer refcept1bly
and distinctly from the use or the weed,
chiefly In the way Of disorder OF the nerv-
Gus system upon which tobacco acts as
= prison, always slightly and sometimes
in a very considerable deGrse, the more
decided effects showing themselves by
distuE Dances of the heart and OF the
stomach, with extreme results otherwise.
But there is vast army OF lovers OF the
weed who are never conscious OF bad re-
suits from their indulgence. and whose
health snffers infinitely less from the
effects of tobacco poison than 1t does
from rapid eating. lack OF exercise. liy-
ing in close rooms and otter violations of
sound hygienic principles.
ITO come back to the Cigarette itself
and the special injurious effects with
which IL is charged. these are ably dis
oussed in paper some months ago pre-
sentsd to the American Laryn golioal As
ISOLATION by DR.. j. q. Mulhall, OF st.
Louis specialist in diseases of the
throat, who has made the effects of the
oigaIett upon toe organs whose diseases
he treats subject of special study. 1t Is
refreshing to meet with scientific and
cigarette aftsr enoountering the whirl-
pools of rubbish that have drifted about
it during its discussion by ignorant
writers prompted by prejudice and not
BY actual knowledge of facts,
As to the claim tnat cigarettes contain
opium, cannoiis lndica and other MR.
cotics, as asse ted by the VI. q. 7. u.
and Others. the careful analysis of DIR.
Ledaux, of New York, who examined
many brands of cigarettes and reported
his results to the New York Academy Of
Medicine, was that the cigarettes contain
no drug but tobacco, and the paper In
which they are wrapped is only harmless
cellulose The cigarette then Is an in
furious form in which to use tobacco only
because it is SO convenient az to encOur-
age the consumption of a larger quantity
than would be used in pipe or as cigars,
and because it is within the easy reach
of the young, upon whom tobacco exerts
an injurious influence far greater than
that upon adults.
The well known fact that the cigarette
smoke is much inhaled into the lower
air passages, while the SMOKE from pipes
and cigars is drawn only into the mouth,
has led to ebs belief current even among
that cigarette smoking causes
serio US injury to the larynx. traohea ana
even to the lungs. Upon this point DR..
Mulhall hos something very positive to
say as an expert upon diseases of the
air passages and as special student of
the effect of cigarettes. He declares that
it is his experience as it was that OF
MorrelL Mackenzie, that the use of tobac-
CO in any form, in cigarettes or otherwise,
produces little or no effect upon the
upper air passages and from the nature
of the respiratory act it is improbable
that the smoke penetrates desper into
the lungs than the first divisions OF the
bronchi. Upon the mucous membrane
of the larnyx, trachea and bronchi to-
baccO smoke produces merely a transitory
hyperaemia Cor blush), with slight in
crease Of secretion, never inflammation.
That It may aggIRvate the Inflammation
already existing is undoubtedly true,
hut quite another proposition. This
0pinion Is based upon the study of many
cases in the clinic and post mortem room ;
among the latter mention is made of
the case Of Maxwell, the murderer of
Preller. who during two years confine-
melt In Jail inhaled cigarettes of the
ege age mum Der of forty q day. After
the execution, examination was made of
Maxwells larynx and trachea, but there
could be found no evidences of % morbid
change neyood fracture of the hyoid bone
by the hangman's rope. 1t is also we'll
known to larynaologists ii. 9. specialists
upon diseases of the throat), that some Of
the great professional singers. as, for iu-
stance Mario, the tenor, have been
cigarette smokers, and that they have
inhaled the smoke between the acts OF an
opera without perceptible effect uron
the voice.
To attack the cigarette is to attack an
evil in the wrong place. The work of
reform should he done with the boys
that are injured by the smoking ana not
with the form in which tobHcco is most
attractive TO the young. In the bands of
adults cigarettes are as propersas cigars.
IF legislation is invoked to protect the
Young, the laws should be framei against
tobacco In general and not against cigar
cites in particular; otherwise the form
and rot the substance of the evil il the
thing attacked.
1t is to he SINGER ely hoped that the
remarks in this communication, indiffer-
emily but honestly formulated by physi-
clan, may not be const ned as an attack
upon the vote upon the anti cigarette
bill lately cast at Augusta hi the eTudite
solons of the legislature. 1t is simply q
statement of facts. w. a.
McA1I Mission in Paris.
Prof. Bracy, who is himself from
Paris, will address the lovers of Protes-