Evening star., 1939-08-12
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henri.

~ ThOn1GS Il. Henry.
A wide individual variation in toler-
alton of tobacco, especially as regards its
effects on the digestive tract, has just
been reported to the Journal Of the
American Medical Association by two
Chicago physicians, Drs. j. G. Chendorf
and A. c. Ivy.
The habitual user of tobacco, they
found, experiences restful pleasure
which favors digestive activities as long
as the limit of tolerance is not too closely
approached. Since some tolerance to
tobacco is developed many chronic smok-
ers experience no significant changes.
When the limit of tolerance is ap-
preached. the Chicago doctors found,
the activity of both stomach and colon
is affected. The activity of the stomach
tends TO be depressed while that of the
colon is stimulated. Hunger pain, they
say, is the activity of the stomach most
readily and uniformly depressed by
nicotine
But" they continue, while the usual
effect of smoking on gastric activity Is
depression, it does not necessarily follow
that this will occur in all persons. For
example, the stomachs of some persons
as they approach the limit of nicotine
tolerance may show that type of excessive
motility or contraction which precedes
vomiting. Again it may cause an excess
sive type of nervous contraction of the
lower end of the stomach
Some of the apparently deleterious
effects of tobacco smoking in some
patients with gastro-intestinal COM
plants may be secondary to disturbances
OF the heart and blood vessels Those
persons who show marked changes in the
heart rate and blood pressure in response
to smoking should be advised not to
smoke. These changes determine the
deleterious effect of smoking on the
heart and blood vessels of the patient.
Those patients in whom a definite delay
of gastric evacuation occurs on smoking
should not smoke"
Persons with stomach ulcers. they
stress, should be careful not to stretch
their tolerance to tobacco to the danger
point. At the same time, they believe
there is no sense in cutting out the habit
entirely. Persons with a tendency to
lrrltabllty of the colon from nicotine
stimulation probably should not smoke.
None of their data, the two Chicago
physicians stress, can be interpreted as
indicating in any sense that smoking
has beneficial effect on activities of the
almentary tract. Neither can it be
demonstrated that. if one stops short of
the limit of tolerance, there is any yerv
pronounced bad effect
About the most elementary form of
society known to mankind existed a few
generations ago among the Ute. Paiute
and Shoshoni Indians, who lived in the
area OF the Great Basin west of the
Rocky Mountains
Ihe backWardness of these people re-
suited largely from their isolation in
the sage-covered valleys and mountains
of their infertile land BY necessity thev
were essentially food gatherers. They
had no domesticated crops and lived
largely on the nuts, berries, seeds and
roots they could gather. They ate deer.
mountain sheep and antelope when they
could get them, but usually had to be
content with rabbits, gophers, rats and
mice
Because of the simplicity of customs
and the close association of man and
nature in this area, the anthropologist
Is able to trace the effect of the quest
for food upon many features of society.
This is the view of Dr. Julian H. Steward.
smithsonian Institution anthropoIopist.
who has just made a comprehensive
report on the social and political sys-
TENS of the nomadic Indians of the
Great Basin.
He shows that the structure of native
society depended to very considerable
extent upon the exigencies of life in
this area. He does not seek, the report
stresses, to lay down any laws of eco
nomlc determlniSm. Historical, biologi-
cal and psychological factors have played
important roles. Many features of Great
Basin society, however, were strictly de-
limited by activities concerned with
finding enough to eat.
Outstanding differences, DR.. Steward
sfound, followed regional variations in the
natural environment. Some localities,
such as the habitat of the Gosiute and
Western Shoshoni in the central part of
the area, were in famine belt. Starva-
ton was frequent and cannibalism not
unknown The population density was
as low as one person to 30 40 or even
SO square miles. Because there was not
enough food in any locality to support
large numbers, individual families we're
obliged to remain in isolation the greater
part of the year. Consequently the in
dividual family, or at best small group
of related families, was the largest per-
manent unit of society. The movements
of this tiny group were governed by the
family elder, or head man.
Occasionally, however, good pine nut
harvest or a successful community an
telope or rabbit hunt provided enough
food to support considerable group for
few weeks. Eager for association with
friends and relatives rarely seen dur
ing the year, many families assembled
to dance and enjoy festivities. At such
times temporary leaders took charge of
communal activities.
A few localities were well watered and
more fertile. These permitted from so
to 100 persons to live in more or less
permanent association. Gathering seeds
together, hunting together and dancing