The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-05-18
TOBACCO TRADITIONS.
Smoke of the Weed Thought to Be
Disinfectant.
(From the Lancet.)

(t'rOu the LduCel)
The belief that tobacco smoke is q dis
;nfectant has long been popularity held.
AS long ago as 1883 DR.. Paul Tassinari,
Of Pisa, subjected the germs of various
deadly diseases (such as anthrax, chol-
era and typhus fever to the action OF
dense clouds of imprisoned tobacco smoke
curing periods of 100 to $50 hours, and
he came to the conclusion that III most
cases, and especially when large cigars
had been employed as generators. the
development of pathogenic bacteria was
either partially or wholly arrested But
rrbody retains smoke in his mouth for
1U hours at a time! An occasional pipe.
indeed scarcely counts in comparison
with DR.. Tassinaris intense soaking pro-
cess. Besides, under the conditions I'M
posed by the Italian investigator. would
not the smoke of coal or wood produce
the same results as that of cigars?
II is recorded that during the Great
Plague children were told to smoke in
their school-roorns. The idea was prob
atly borrowed from the custom OF the
buriers of the dead on their way, in
charge of dead-carts, to Holyweii Mount
we read in "a Brief Abstract of the Viz
tues Of THE American Tobacco Plant.
published in 1888, that at first these per-
sons only used tobacco as a deodorizer
"httle thinking that what they used for
1nomentary relief would prove a con-
s,snt preventative When the plague
was happily stayed. the virtues of to-
bacco began to be investigated; it was
found that those persons who plentlfully
used 1t, either in smoking or snuffing
had most wonderfully escaped the dire
contagion; for though they visited the
chambers of the sick, attended the fu-
rerals of carloads at a time. they I'M
expectedly avoided the infection" The
writer even goes Sc far as to advance
the theory that since Europe took to
smoking epidemics had greatly decreased,
ald we find him stating the belief that
dealers in tobacco We're secure from
plague infection. Yet he can assign no
liable as a disinfectant, except in so far
as it fortifes the head against "exhala-
tions."
Workmen in tobacco factories are often
cited as being immune from cholera and
ether epidemics. It is interesting to
trace this belief back. Abroad it proba-
bly, received it's first impetus in Toulouse,
where, shortly before the Revolution. the
wcrkmen in the State tobacco factory
are said to have remained immune dur
ing a deadly epidemic of suette (sweat-
ing sickness). The belief may, perhaps
be Of the nature of folklore. The medical
man attached to the Bordeaux State fac
try thought that this local industry was
veritable blessing to- a. damp and foggy
tGwn. "The piquant and ammoniacal EN-
anations arising from the tobacco quail
Try the air and diminish its insalubrity
Before the establishment of this factory
tho poorer parts Of Bordeaux had been
r.vished by epidemics and contag ions now
unknown. The death rate among the
tobacco workmen is, he adds, very low
While very few cases of illness occur
among them. although they are in gem
erafill lodged and clothed and even worse
fed.''
We have no new facts to add in evil
=cence Of the value of tobacco smoking
IN epidemic disease. And yet, at any
rate, there is nothing authoritative to
be said.