The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-07-06
Some Ideas Presented bv
Hudson Maxim
As VIEWED SCIENTIFICALLY
Boys With Every Breath of Cigar
cite Smoke mia Imbecility and
Manhood, They Are Letting
Out Life Blood as Though Their
Veins and Arteries Were Severed.

ell and Arteries Were Severed.
Learning that Hudson Maxim, the
leading ~gunpoWder and high explosive
expert in this country or in the world,
has strong convictions and valuable
information concerning the cigarette
evil, the editor of Boy Magazine re
quested an article for publication ana
circulation. No more valuable con-
tribution to the an~ti-cigarette cause
has been made than the following let
ter:
LAS I promised, I will now give ex-
preston to my opinion concerning he
cigarette evil. There has been so
much said upon the subject already
that it is difficult to present any new
Facts or ideas; but no new ideas are
needed to warrant the most antagO-
nlstic attitude toward the cigarette.
Nevertheless, the cigarette has it's
defenders as does every other poison
Gus drug, although in my opinion, the
cigarette is about the least defensible.
One Of the most common errors of
the defenders Of the cigarette is the
c~onfouflding Of cigarette smoking
those that are the products OF civil
lzation. Carbonic acid gas is q poison
but it is an ingredient of the
air and we are used to it. We exhaie
carbOnlc acid gas With evenly breath
as one Of the products of combostion
of carbon with oxygen in the blood
But the system has no acquaintance
with carboniC oxide and has no de-
tense against the insidions enemy
Taken into the lungs, it enters the
blood with which it reacts and which
it disintegrates. The blood of per
sons poisoned by Inhalation Of il1umi-
nation gas, rich in carbOnic oxide,
is found to be coagulated.
Nature has more or less fortified the
human economy against the intrusion
and the effects of poisons, however
Virulent, with which we habituaily
come in contact. Thus it is that poi
sons we in a state of nature
are not as insidious or pernicious as
with tobacco smoking in general.
While | am no friend of the cigar
or the pipe, and believe that the use
Of tobacco in other forms is but the
lesser evil, l hold that the cigarette
is in a class by itself and its evil eff
fects are not those common to users
Of tobacco in other forIns. The snok-
IT Of the pipe and cigar finds his in
jury in the nicotine, while the nicO-
inc of the cigarette is far less Eiru-
.ent thar the deadly carbonic oxide
other products of its poisonous
combustion. The cigarette burns
Owing to the loose structure Of the
cigarette, its combustion is modified
nd destructive distillation proceeds
With combustion, and owing to the
completeness Q oxidation, ~carDOnic
is largely produced instead of
acid. This carbonic kid
inhaled into the lungs enters the blood
and the damage it does is
n direct proportion to the quantities
inhaled. rho oxide when in
laled in small quantities produces
aintness, dizziness, palpitatiOn OF the
cart and a feeling of great heaVinesS
n the feet and legs. These are ex-
city the effects OF the cigarette and
he depression and nervousness which
olloW as a reaction make the victim
rave some balm or tonic for his ma
aise. He is then led to consume the
rug in ever increasing quantities.
This progressive use of the cjga-
cite is especially true with boys in
he period Of rapid growth. The
of cigarette smoke which curls
bout the head of the growing lad
olds his brain in an iron grip which
revents it from growing and his mind
developing just as the iron shoe
oes the foot Of the Chinese girl.
In the terrible struggle for revival
the deadly cigarette smoke de-
alopment and growth are sacrinced
! nature, which in the fight for life
self must yield up every vital lux
~ such as healthy body, growth OF
rain and mind.
If all the boys could be made TO
that with every breath OF ciga-
.tte smoke they inhale inbecility and
Shale manhood; that they are zap
ing their arteries as surely and letting
leir life's blood out as truly as though
leir veins and arteries were severed:
id that the cigarette is a maker OF
criminals and fools-not men
it ought to deter them some. The
finger stain is an emblem OF
aeper degradation and ~enslavenlent