Alaska sentinel., 1907-10-31
TOBACCO AS A DISINFEcTANT.
The Smoke, Containing FormaIde- hyde, Is Able to Kill Micr0bcs.


 Although there Is q general impres sion tha; tobacco smoke is T germicide, this property has not been assigned hitherto to any one particular constit uent of the smoke. The author of q note on the subject in the Lancet gives reasons for believing that among other germicldal constituents the smoke con. tains formaldehyde. He says:
 The composition of tobacco smoke Is, of course complex, but everybody knows that tarry oils are a principal constituent, and certainly many oils are powerfully antiseptic. Nicotine, again, Is a strong disnfectant, but the luanritJ- ss this nni5on i.I luDncev sm9Ke Is minute, if, indeed, it is present at all. At least in q number of chemical analyses of tobacco smoke made at diff. ferent times 1t was difficult to declare with absolute certainty that nicotine was an important constituent The oily matter which accumulates in tobacco pipe Is decidedly poisonous, but 1t does not contain any appreciable quantity of nicotine, the chief constituent being the very poisonous pyrldin.
 ssTobacco smoke contains a decided quantity of the very poisonous gas car hon monoxide which has been used for preserving purposes and which there fore must possess germicidal proper ties. Some simple experiments which we have recently made would seem to confirm the observation that one of the principal constituents accounting for the gerinicidal properties of tobacco smoke is the powerful antiseptic formal. dehyde. The amount present Is more than just appreciable, for If water through which few puffs of tobacco have been passed Is tested for formalde. hyde the result Is strikingly positive.
 ''The quantity of formaldehyde in to- bacco smoke would appear to depend on the quality and kind of tobacco smoked. Thus the cigar appears to yield more formaldehyde than the pipe, and the pipe more than the cigarette Possibly the peculiarly irritating prop. .rty of the smoke Issuing from the glow. Ing end of cigarette or cigar or from the bowl of a pipe Is due to formalde- hyde. It has more than once been stated that tobacco smokers enjoy an Immunity from certain diseases, and the frequent presence of powerful an- tiseptic In the mouth. nasal passages and sometimes the lungs Gas In the case of those who foolishly inhale to- bacco smoke) would to some extent jus tify the statement. When It Is consid. cred that In the nose a vast number of microbes are hourly deposited 1t is con- ceivable that these may be effectively destroyed by the frequent passage of tobacco smoke through that organ. Tn the same way the organisms exposed to tobacco smoke in the mouth would sue cumb.
 "Formaldehyde Is one of the most powerful disinfectants we possess, one part In 10000 parts of water serving to destroy all microbes, while such dilute solution has practically no poisonous same, 1t Is most undesirable that this fact should stimulate the practice of smoking tobacco to absurd excess, for tobacco poisoning Is a greater rarity than many persons think, and to em- ploy tobacco in abusive quantities for the sake of destroying microbes might amount possibly to killing the seeds of one disease only to counteract another.r