Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-07-03
NUMEROUS DISEASES DUE TO
SMOKING HABIT.
is THE CAUSE OF CANCER
Nicotine Enough to Kill a Man
CIings to Every Old Pipe
Beast Affected Very Badly by the
Weed-Trembling Muscles Are Evi-
dence of the Poison.


to his friend who asks with reference
to his pipe, cigar, or his cigarette.
IF | ever catch you with tobacco IN
your mouth" says this same man to
his son, taking his own cigar out ut
his mouth for emphasis. "Pll take all
the hide off your back"
But, according to a medical expert
this man, neither as friend nor father
conveys a shadow of the seriousness
of his vice to either friend or son.
| He does not know it himself, says the
physician, and, more than that, he
doctor says that not even the pro-
tession appreciates the serious con,
sequences that are inseparably con
nected with the smoking habit
ut is a queer situation" he says,
! while every authority is agreed that
the use of tobacco is most harmful to
a young person, there are physicians
who will even prescribe it to a man
as sedative And it is a soothing
influence lor just so far as it's use as
a drug makes tolerable; but one pipe
too many makes it a source of IT.
ritability and nervous excitement.
Look at it as poison. Every pipe
which has been used half dozen
| times has enough nicotine in it to kill
! the smoker several times over. That
it has not killed him is due to the
disposition of the poison to stick 70
the pipe. But not all of this does 90.
How, then, about its unquestioned IL
auence upon the system?
Again, as to tobacco, there is the
unquestioned story of the man who
| stole bunch of tobacco leaves from 4
Havana dock, secreting them under
his clothes next the skin. He went
on with his work, perspiring freely,
and suddenly fell unconscious to rh3
floor. Treating him first for sun.
stroke, the mans plight was dis
covered, but not till he had nearly
lost his life.
There are other stories sufficiently
authenticated showing how man who
rubbed tobacco decoctions over his
body for skin disease was nearly
killed by the poison; of the mother
who rubbed tobacco ointment on her
child's head and face, causing tho
little ones death; and of the man who
died from swallowing an accidental
dose of tobacco water
Probably every pipe that has been
used half dozen times contains a
dose of poison sufficient to kill the
smoker in a few minutes. For
tunately, it stays in the pipe as a rule.
But most of us get q taste of what's
there now and again.
On one case a man got a PAL
tiCularly large quantity of this poison
Gus juice into his mouth. In a few
seconds he fell, unconscious, and but
for the presence of a doctor he would
inevitably have died, AS it was, his
life hung in the balance for a long
time, but was ultimately saved.
Even animals are affected in 4
severe manner by tobacco. A calf
washed with a tobacco infusion, as ii
remedy for some disease, died in i
few hours. DR.. Murray filled three
glass jars with tobacco smoke N
placed in them sparrow, a magpl4,
and a frog. All three died.
Lastly, we have something to learn
from the effects of tobacco on dogs.
If a dash of tobacco juice be given 10
dog daily, he soon loses his hair,
then his teeth drop out, and next lie
becomes blind. Perhaps this eXper-
ment supplies an answer to the que
ton: Why are men bald?'
"a Nrnrly nf rpfnrnnppC
has injured me educational prospe It's
Of the would-be tobacco users. These
Teformers so often have-spoiled all
that they might have accomplished by
putting coffee and tea into the sam
category with tobacco. These fatal
tiles from nicotine show to the
simplest that neither of these tabl9
drinks can be compared to the
poisons of tobacco, and the cry OF
the reformer becomes at once TO
of much wolf
But to come to the certain in,
fuences of nicotine. Both SiChel and
Critchett. well-known English oculist,
discovered that a smoker who used
! even so little as five-eights of an ounce
of tobacco a day for any sustained
period suffered a wasting of the optic
nerve, called amaurosis. The disease
J is a dulling of the sight, yet no eX
animation of the eye will reval TIL
; defect Whether it is caused by thu
, irritating effect of the smoke. 81
, whether it operates through thu
i nervous system, is a question, but II
any case, other things being equal, i,
, is recognized that the smoker has ao'
. as good sight as has the non-smoker.
r If the eyes suffer, so does the nose
and Dr. Armory Hare, who liked 7
. Whit of the pipe as we'll as the ney,
one. has Ian stress upon the state
. ment that every chronic smoker
4 suffers more than his share Of nasa
. catarrh.
Chronic laryngitis is one of tn;
recognized effects of too much smoIl
3 ing. 1t may begin with the victims
, remarking that he becomes hoac Sc