MY LADY NICOTINE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 887, 3 February 1930, Page 5

MY LADY NICOTINE

tVhether we like the idea or not, cigarette smoking is now too general to be disregarded. Many sound arguments can be advanced against it; but it has become largely a matter of individual taste. Many women, with not a suggestion of puritanism about them, would never dream of smoking; others, quite fastidious in their make up, frankly indulge the habit. The cigarette habit, like the alcohol habit, Is apt to be overdone, but there Is less harm in an occasional cigarette than in an occasional cocktail. It has been asked: Why should a woman be denied a soothing puff any more than a man? Many doctors, in answer, 'maintain that a woman should not smoke at all because her nervous system is more highly strung than is that of a man; but their main objection is that a woman is more likely to overdo the habit. The average woman, however, will claim that she is as self-controlled or even more so than the average man, and less likely to abuse the habit of smoking. A woman who smokes usually does so with her coffee or tea after a meal or after wrestling with a big dose of work; she finds it soothing to brain and nerves to sit back and take a puff at her ease. This form of smoking on the part of the matured woman really is comforting, since it quietens nerves which might otherwise be further frayed, and if the woman smoker does not inhale the smoke there is a possibility of not much harm resulting.

However, there is always a “but,” and there are women who make an absolute orgy of cigarette smoking. Sometimes as many as fifty cigarettes a day constitute the usual quota of this type of smoker, who may be dubbed an addict to the cigarette evil. J he woman who smokes as excessively as this is doing herself harm. She is usually suffering from “smokers’ throat” and probably has a nasty cough, which is just as annoying to those around her as it is irritating to herself. One who goes to such extremes will soon lose her youthful freshness, and the best thing that can happen to her is early defeat at the hands of the habit. Nicotine will then bring her abruptly to a halt with what is known as “smoker’s heart.” Continued indulgence in the cigarette habit tends to excite the heart (although the immediate effect of smoking is to make the heart beat more slowly but very powerfully), the pulse becomes irregular and intermittent. until finally it is permanently enfeebled. In a word, excessive smoking debilitates the reserve power of the heart, so that in a serious illness there is always the danger of heart failure. Too much smoking may seriously affect the eyes. The sight becomes so seriously dimmed that an occulist is usually employed for a lengthy period in attempting to cure the trouble, and if the cigarette habit still persists he may not be able to cure it at all. But before anything serious happens to the eyes the smoker will probably suffer from headaches and indigestion; 1 hroat troubles will follow, and, finally, insomnia. The foregoing are some of the dire penalties that will be exacted if you become an excessive smoker, but there are minor health troubles which to some fastidious women appear even more serious. The fingers become stained an ugly yellow colour, which extends to the nails and, if neglected, deepens to a dark brown. This condi-

tion may be warded off by daily attention with the jfumice tablet. Other effects are yellowed or nicotinebrowned teeth, bloodshot eyes, and yellow skin. But before you lose your complexion, your teeth their lustre or your eyes their sparkle, you will be warned by palpitation, giddiness, and your nervous system in general that it is time to ease down, and woe betide you if you do not heed the warning. If you cannot smoke without carrying the habit to excess—drop it altogether. Of course—as is the case with regard to alcohol—no expectant or nursing mother should smoke, because tobacco is to the child a slow poison, and by yielding to the temptation to indulge in it the parent may unwittingly do the little one incalculable harm. Girls in their teens should not smoke at all; to them the practice should be absolutely forbidden. It is an ugly habit, and the girl who begins early to smoke usually develops into the incurable addict. Most young girls intend or expect to marry, and they should certainly shun the smoking habit until they have reached years of discretion. Though there is no great harm in an occasional cigarette for any adult, the trouble is that what is at first an occasion tends to become a custom. The woman who has carved out her own career or the mother whose family is past baby stage may smoke with impunity to all with, perhaps, the exception of herself. These are a few of the troubles that excessive cigarette smoking can bring in its train. If girls in the first flush of their beauty elect to puff, t hey must take the risk of spoiled complexions, teeth, health and temper. The older woman who has established herself successfully will smoke, but the very fact that she has been stable enough to carve a niche for herself generally makes of her the smoker who extracts from her cigarette the soothing comfort that strict moderation will bring.