The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-25
TOBACCO IN MODERATION.

A correspondent writes: You say
there are many favorable things which
may be said of tobacco. Please men
ton some of them and oblige a skep-
tic"
That is not hard to do, if we may ac-
cept the words of eminent authorities.
A very respectable number of them
claim that tobacco used in moderation,
according to a mans physique, the
state of his nerves and his other hab-
its of life produces some beneficial re-
suits. OF course, this does not apply
to cigarettes.
It has been recently discovered that
microbes are responsible for the decay
of the teeth. The good effect of tobac-
co on the teeth is admitted by nearly
all dentists. They attribute it to the
neutralizing alkali of the smoke and
the antiseptic properties of nicotine and
pyridine, which destroy the vitality of
the microbes in the mouth.
1t is well known that smoking is for
hidden to physicians and employees in
laboratories given over to the cultiva-
ton and propagation of germs of diff
ferent diseases for experiments. Smoke
kills these minute organisms, and what
applies to a chemists workshop applies
equally to the human body.
Some doctors say that smoking a pipe
cures toothache; they affirm that
among smokers the teeth decay slowly
and imperceptibly, as the modification
of the dental pulp is gradual and long
The carbon from the smoke in settling
its deposits in the depressions and
cracks of the dental enamel, preserves
the ivory from the inroads of decay.
1t is also said that the use of smoking
tobacco overcomes certain gastric trou-
bles, and makes the need of nourish-
ment less urgent. Post prandial smok-
ing stimulates torpid digestion
People who camp out a great deal and
especially those who live in the low
lands and near the coast declare that
tobacco smoking is a remedy against
mosquitoes, fleas and vermin. By it's
use the workingmen in the tobacco
factories of Lyons were saved from the
contagion of typhoid fever, those of
Morlaix from dysentery, those of Sc
vile from epidemic of cholera. 1t is
we'll known that physicians about to
enter a house where a typhoid or diph-
iberia patient lies sick viii smoke Wig
orously beforehand, even if they are
habitual non-smokers. Tobacco has
been successfully used to destroy mi
crobes. The professors and students of
anatomy in marshy countries look upon
tobacco as the best preventive for in
termittent fevers, and Viscount Lii
neon has even found that it retards
consumption's progress up to certain
point.
Military writers recommend the use
of tobacco in the barracks and camps.
Could it not be equally applied to the
infected streets Of most of our cities?
Charles Robin exhibited at the Paris
Institute pieces of beef preserved for
four months after having been
thoroughly fumigated with tobacco. |
Such meat would doubtless taste bet
ter than the embalmed beef supplied
the army in the late war with Spain.
One German authority has found that |
smoking is a safeguard against inau- |
enza- Professor Haject,- the celebrated
Nlennese chemist, says that diphtheria |
is three times more frequent among
women than men owing to the use of |
tobacco as preventive more than any,
thing else. Falkenberg of Knew has
demonstrated that cholera bacilli are
effectually destroyed by tobacco smoke. !
Except in cases Of serious hemorr-
hayes, tobacco should never be forbid
den consumptives. especially in certain |
where the smoke becomes a !
sort of protective mask against the de- /