Year: 1871

els smoking injurious ?" This is al
everyday question apt to be put by pa
tients to their doctors. Like most broat
questions of the kind, it involves far toe
many considerations to admit of being
answered by plain yes or no. A medica
man, DR.. E. B. Gray, who has long beer
moderate smoker, and watches the effect
of the habit on himself and others, here
offers what he believes to be the true an
swer to the question.


First of all, there must be an under
standing about the quality Of the tobacco
to be smoked. Bad, 1, e, rank, quickly
Intoxicating and prostrating tobacco (cer,
tain kinds of shag and cavendish, for in
stance)must always be injurious. Few
can smoke them at all-none habitually,
at least-with impunity. So too with re-
gard to quantity: even good tobacco
smoked to excess will to certainty be in
furious to the smoker, sooner or later, in
some way or another. Of the various
evil effects of excessive smoking, more
will be said presently.


Next, as to the smokers. There are
people to whom any tobacco, however
smoked, is simply poison, causing, even
in smaller doses, vomiting, pallor, and
alarming prostration. Such people never
get seasoned to its effects, even after re-
peated trials, and if they are wise they
will forever let it alone. They will dis.
play still further wisdom by not presum,
ing to make laws for others who have not
the same idiosyncrasy.


No one can enjoy smoking or smoke
with impunity, when out of health. The
phrase s'out of health," though it may
sound vague, is definite enough to frame
general rule. At the same time it is
useful to know what, if any, are the par
ticular disorders and conditions of health
in which tobacco does special harm. AS
far as the writer's knowledge goes, these
have never been specified by medical wri-
ters as clearly as is desirable.


To begin, man with bad appetite
will, if he smoke, most assured eat still less
"a noteworthy fact for smokers or others
recovering from wasting illness or "off
their feed'' from whatever cause. This
effect of tobacco, by the way, while an
evil to the sick man, who cannot eat
enough, becomes a boon to the starved
man, who cannot get enough to eat, an
ample illustration of this was furnished
among the French and German soldiers
in the recent war. Again, no man should
smoke who has dirty tongue, bad taste
in his mouth, or weak or disordered di-
gestion. In any such case he cannot rel
ish his tobacco. 1t should be a golden
rule with smokers, that the pipe or cigar
which is not smoked with relish had bet
ter not be smoked at all. Indigestion in
every shape is aggravated by smoking,
but most especially that form of it COM
monty known as atomic and accompanied
with flatulence. DiarrhGa, as rule, is
made worse by smoking.


One of the commonest and earliest ef-
fects of the excessive or untimely smok-
ing is to make the hand shake. This
gives the clue to anther class Of persons
who ought not to smoke-persons, name
ly, who have weak, unsteady nerves,
and suffer from giddiness, confusion OF
sight, tremulous hands, tendency to STAN
mer, or any such symptoms. And if TO-
bacco does harm in mere functual weak
ness, still less allowable is it in actual
organic disease of the nervous system; as,
for instance, where there exist any degree
of paralyses or other sign of degenerative
change in the brain or spinal cord. The
improper use of tobacco does beyond
question somewhat Interfere with due
nutrition of nerve substance. An illus.
tration of this, familiar to oculists and
medicine men, is the so-called tobacco
amaurosis, failure of vision occurring ir
excessive smokers from mal-nutrition O.
the retina. Another class of persons who
ought not to smoke, are those who have
weak or unsteady circulations and com
plain of such troubles as palpitation, car