The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-21
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ATION
BUREAU
TREDBR1c !. RAA1CxS, parossog.
WaaAangtaa. n. @
THE FIGHT AGAINST TOBACCO.

have noticed, you don't. Not only do
you survive the experience. but you
derive considerable satisfaction from
1t. And you can go on doing 1t sew
eral times a day all your life, and yet
live to be eighty years old. do your
work, raise a family and enjoy first
class health.
That Is about all science can tell
you about smoking. And science Is
just now being asked a great many
questions about smoking. for 1t has
been published in the newspapers that
those cFusading moralists who have
relegated liquor to a place in the
home, are now preparing to make US
all either give up smoking or raise
tobacco in the backyard.
There are several scientists in the
employ of the government who de-
vote all of their time to a study of
the chemistry, physics and botany OF
tobacco. All Of them are willing to
talk about II, and none OF them are
willing to be quoted.
According to these men, the rela-
ton between tabacco and man is q
mystery. Theoretically, the anti-to-
bacco crusaders have a perfect case
against the weed, but practically they
have no case at all.
An old book on physiology that was
long used in public schools, contained
the statement that tobacco Is HARM
nicotine Is so deadly that IL a drop of
1t is placed on the tongue of a dog he
Will lie down and die without hesita-
ton or delay
This is perfectly true. A single
cigar contains enough nicotine to kill
several men, II that nicotine were dis
titled and administered pure. Not
only that, but II the same nicotine is
placed in a retort and heated, the
vapor rising from 1t Is enough to
mr. ~ 10 AhA h.. L.
customed to smoking. This was dis
covered by a government worker who
was so Frustrated in his own labora-
tory that he was unable to rise until
stimulants had been administered.
A vapor of steam very closely re-
sembles a smoke. Nicotine conveyed
to the human system thru the nose
and mouth in the form of smoke
ought to have much the same effect
as that conveyed by the same route in
! the form of a vapor. But it doesn't.
Despite all logic to the contrary,
smoking does not kill. nor. as far as
scientific investigation can discover,
seriously fnjure.
Various reasons suggest themselves
why smoking is not Injurious. You
might think. for example, that most
| OF the nicotine is burned up in the
process and does not reach the sys-
tenn. But this explanation has been
put to the test and found waiting. Some
of the nicotine is burned up. but ana
lyses of the smoke show that most of
| the nicotine Is in 1t.
| It has also occurred to scientists
that perhaps the nicotine stays in the
smoke, so that you take 1t in and blow
| 1t out again, merely harboring the
poison for second or so. This sounds
| plausible but there is nothing in IT.
Examination of the smoke after it
comes out of the mouth shows that
| the nicotine has been extracted. It re-
\ mains in your system.
1t has also been thought that in the
| course of combustion. the nicotine
| may combine with some other sub
stance which neutralixes it's effect,
but no evidence of such a combination
has been found. The strange and in
applicable fact remains. When you
smoke your cigar you take into your
system enough poison to kill you sew
eral times over. but in that particular
form the poison operates only as a
mild Sedative.
Man is not the only creature at
| fected variously by nicotine in differ
ent forms. For example, there are
! certain insects, known as thrips, which
| feed upon tobacco. They are capable
| of living exclusively upon a diet of
good hurley, and often destroy whole
crops of 1t. In 50 doing. they eat and
| digest large quantities of nicotine, and
| 1t seems to agree with them and make
| them fat. Yet the insecticide used for
| destroying these Nbugs Is nothing less
than a spray of which the chief con-
stituent is nicotine! The very sub
stance which is their food in one form
\ kills them instantaneously in another
| form.
| Perhaps the most convincing proof
| that tobacco is comparatively harmless
to man is found in the statistics and
practice of the life insurance COM
| ArCnrdfnQ IN fad
government expert. no discrimination
| is made against the smoker by any
| life insurance company. II tobacco
| shortened human life, the insurance
| companies could not afford to over
| look the fact. II 1t considerably i'm
paired human efficiency, they could
not disregard that fact either. for 1t
would tend indirectly to shorten life,
and would materially affect the max
ing of payments.
The fact that all of the governments
! engaged in the war provided their
troops with tobacco rations. while try
ing in every way to keep them in per-
feet physical condition. is also evidence
that 1t does not seriously injure health.
| 1t Is admitted. however, that tobacco
! affects different individuals very diff
ferently. There are some men who lit
Il orally cannot smoke One government
| scientist who spends much of his time
| working with tobacco, has never been
able to smoke with any satisfaction.
Moreover, working in a tobacco ware
house. he has been made violently sick
by the mere smell of the plant. which
is pleasant to many persons who never
smoke.
In the same way. Tolstoi, the great
Russian writer, gave up smoking be-
cause he said il clouded his mind.
But many other writer's always smoke
when writing because it stimulates
thier minds Thomas Carlyle, one of the
greatest thinkers England has pro-
duced. was an inveterate smoker Al
fred Tennyson, the poet, was another.
He said that he did his best work when
smoking his after breakfast pipe.
Both of these men lived to old age.
Smoking has been so generally re-
garded as a minor vice. or seIf-in-