WHY DO WE SMOKE?

Evening Star, Issue 19793, 17 February 1928, Page 7

WHY DO WE SMOKE?

FACTS ABOUT NICOTINE [By“ Stethoscope,” in the Melbourne ‘ Argus.’] Columbus noticed the natives of America smoking tobacco on his first voyage in 1492, and early Spanish voyagers noted that the natives also chewed tobacco leaves and powdered them for use as snuff. The tobacco plant was taken to Spain in 1558, and seeds were sent to France in 1560 by Jean Nicot, the French Ambassador at Lisbon. From him is derived the scientific name of the genus Nicotiana. Tobacco smoking is said to have been introduced into Europe from England. Ralph Lane, the first Governor of Virginia, and Sir Francis Drake brought the necessary equipment to England in 1586, and gave it to Sir Walter Raleigh, and thus set the fashion of smoking at Queen Elizabeth’s Court. At first the plan twas thought to have miraculous healing properties, and smoking was believed to be a disinfectafit and a prophylactic against infectious diseases, ouch as plague. The tobacco habit soon spread throughout Europe, and it has never died out, in spite of many efforts to stamp it out. To-day it is world-wide. The answer to the question ‘‘Why do we smoke?’’ is not easy to find. The alcoholic habit arises from the desire to quench a natural thirst, and the liquors taken in the beginning are pleasant to the palate. It is only later that the drinker craves alcohol for its stimulating and narcotic properties, and not to satisfy his thirst. Smoking, on the other hand, has an irritative action on the mucous membrane of the mouth and throat, besides causing collapse and vomiting if indulged in too freely when the system is unused to it. The habitual smoker finds that tobacco soothes his nerves, and he also derives from the aroma and puffing and watching the smoke. Smoking, moreover, gives him an excuse to do nothing while he is apparently occupied. Tho sense of sight plays an important part. Smokers who have become blind seldom continue the habit, and not many people smoke in the dark. WHAT THE SMOKE CONTAINS. The smoke from any _ smouldering vegetable contains ammonia gas and other irritating products, chiefly pyridine and its derivatives, as well as carbon a poisonous gas found also in coal gas and in petrol exhaust fumes. Tobacco smoke also contains nicotine and allied alkaloids. Dr W. E Dixon, of Cambridge, who has studied the question thoroughly, points out that the composition and action of the smoke, not as it leaves the pipe, cigar, or_ cigarette, hut after its absorption into the system, depend on a great many factors, such as the speed of smoking, the heat of the pipe, and the composition of the tobacco, whether held in the mouth or inhaled into the lungs. The irritating pyridine bodies are responsible for such trials as smoker’s throat, morning cough, and the red eyes from which some smokers suffer. Though not nearly as poisonous as nicotine, they can cause sickness and vomiting if taken in excessive amounts. The effects of carbon monoxide poisoning aro headache, slight nausea, rapid pulse, and muscular weakness, leading to collapse. Although there may he 6 per cent, of this gas in the smoke from cigars, unless the smoke is inhaled vfery little of the gas will be absorbed. Cigarette smokers who inhale absorb a large proportion of carbon monoxide. The percentage of the gas in cigarette smoke is not nearly as high as in pipe or cigar smoke; yet the blood of cigarette smokers will show a larger proportion of this poison than that of the pipe or cigar smoker. The most important and most powerful alkaloids in tobacco are nicotine and its allies. It is to nicotine that most of the characteristic effects of tobacco snioking aro due. Nicotine is a volatile oily substance, soluble in water. When pure it has very little odor, but an intensely irritating taste. It is one of the most fatal and rapid pbisons known, acting as quickly as prussic acid. Two drops placed on a dog’s tongue will kill it almost immediately. The amount of nicotine varies in different tobaccos, Virginian tobacco having the highest percentage. It also depends on the soil on which the tobacco is grown and on the method of drying and curing the leaf. Part of the nicotine is destroyed by heat during the process of smoking, and pari passes over unchanged in the smoke. The proportion of nicotine in the tobacco is not necessarily the same as in the smoke, nor may the amount present in the smoke he absorbed. A most important factor is the dryness of the tobacco. The drier the tobacco the more nicotine is destroyed. Hence the water content of tobacco may be more harmful to the smoker than the original nicotine content. During the slow burning of a cigar there is -an area immediately behind the point of combustion in which the water, nicotine and other volatile substances condense, and when the smoke is inhaled through this moist area it carries with it the nicotine and other _ volatile gases. Hence the smaller this moist area or the cooler the smoke the less nicotine is carried to the mouth. This is why thin cigarettes, with double the nicotine in their tobacco, jvill yield less

nicotine in their smoke than an equal weight of “fat” cigar. Hence the unpleasant effect of relighting a halffinished cigar or pipe. A long, thin cigar is less “ deadly ” than a short, thick one of equal weight. The speed of smoking has a simirar action. The slower the smoke the less nicotine passes over. Every beginner can smoke a mild cigar with comfort if he goes slowly, but if he is in a hurry the results are usually disastrous. Pipe smokers should never use a “ hot pipe. SOME PHYSICAL EFFECTS. Chronic cigarette smokers, if inhalers, are particularly liable to chronic sort throat, cough, bronchitis. If the smoke is concentrated on a particular part of th 6 tongue by the use of a cigarette holder or pipe, the constant irritation may lead to cancer of the tongue. Cancer of the lips may be caused by using a short, hot, clay pipe stem—the Irish “ dudeen.” During smoking the salivary and gastric glands are stimulated, causing increased secretion, but this .s followed by depression in both cases, hence the morning dry mouth, and in excessive smokers the tendency to gastric hyperacidity and duodenal ulcer. The heart is always affected by smoiang. A single cigarette will cause the heart rate to rise seven to eleven beats a minute, the rate being higher when the smoke is inhaled. _ Many soldiers suffering from too rapid a heart rate and various other cardiac irregularities grouped under the heading “D.A.H.” (disordered action of the heart) were merely showing the effects of excessive cigarette smoking. Not only is the rate of action increased, but the blood_ pressure is also raised, the effect being to make the smoker breathless on exertion and unable to recover as quickly. Hence the athlete must give up smoking when in strict, training. Heavy smokers may find their,hearts permanently affected. The shaky hand of tbs confirmed cigarette smoker is due not to the action of nicotine on the nervous system so much as to carbon monoxide poisoning. Nicotine acts on the nerves as a mild sedative, and it is for this soothing action that it is usually used. Too much smoking, however, gives rise to irritability and insomnia. The most serious effect of nicotine on the nervous system is its action on the retina. Once the heavy smoker notices defective vision and slight fogginess, particularly in bright daylight, this will continue until_ the vision is entirely lost. This condition is due to excess of nicotine, usually through using too damp_ a tobacco. Once it has arisen there is no known cure. It canonly be arrested by immediately giving up smoking. THE MARGIN OF SAFETY. The resistance to nicotine conferred by constant smoking does not increase with advancing years. It seems to diminish after middle age, so that heavy smokers find that they must reduce their smoking at this stage of life. Any other drug, once the system is habituated to it, has usually a, less marked reaction, and increasing doses are necessary to produce the same„,effect. The consensus of medical opinion may be summed up in a very few words. Taking into account the action of nicotine on various parts of the human body, smoking is not beneficial, and excessive smoking is certainly harmful. Inhaling is decidedly an unhealthy habit, and on this account, and also because of their convenience and the constant temptation to smoke them, cigarettes are less desirable theft a pipe or cigar*