Cigarette Smoking in America.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 226, 29 October 1887, Page 3

Cigarette Smoking in America.

A vkry complete rdporb has been published in New Yovk City containing statistic 8 concerning the manufacture, sale, and tax !of cigarettes, together with tho views of varkms physicians and chemists as to health or harmfulness of ' the article. During the last year, says the "Jersey City Argus," the revenue received by tho Government from cigarette manufacturers was nearly 60,000d015., and tho number of cigarottcs manufactured was about 1,200,000,000. Tho internal revenue on each cigarette is ono-twontieth of a cent. Two-thirds of the cigarettos manufactured in the United States are made in New York State, mostly in New York City and Rochester. Virginia manufactures about 150,000,000, and North Carolina about 140.000,000. These three have practically a monopoly of the business, although Michigan and Massachusetts are making rapid strides in cigarette manufacturing. Missouri made its first cigarette last year, and did not get beyond 2,000. It is calculated that as many cigarettes are made every year by the sniokors as by the manufacturers, so that the total number of cigarettes consumed would be 2,400,000,000—68 cigarettes for each man, woman, and child in tho United States, or about 100 for each male inhabitant. Tho estimate does not include imported cigarettes from Turkey, Russia, France, and other European countries. About 50,000,000 were imported from these countries last year. Jn the United States four cities have a monopoly of the manufacturing, New York, Richmond, Rochester and Durham, North Carolina. Detroit has just put up some big factories, and San Francisco promises to rival the eastern cities The incresibC in tho cigaictte business in the United States dunng^the last ten year^ has been enormous. Fifty per cent, a year is said to have been the average increase. As the cigar trade has also increased, though not in such a large proportion, it appears that the country is^ becoming a nation of cigarette smokers. What is the oili-fit of cigarette smoking on the health of the people? is therefore a pertinent question. It is a difficult one to answer. Some physicians and chemists agree uith the manufacturers in declaring that the cigarette is a much-slandered article, and tint it is no worse than a cigar. Others pronounce the cigarette a slow poison, a poison that is undermining the constitutions of the coming generations. _ The moregeneral opinion among medical men is that the cigarette should be avoided, especially by the young. Dr. William A. Hammond said: "1 would not recommend the cigarette to anybody : still 1 must say that it is a much maligned little article. Smoked moderately it will not hurt any man with a good constitution, but to young boys it is poison. The same might be said of all kind of .smoking, though the cigarette [ i«> tho uorst or the least beneficial of all. Everybody knows that excessive smoking 1 will stunt' the growth of tho young and sow the seeds of diseases which will develop in later years. Well, cigarettes will only drop the seeds a little faster. In my opinion it it? only a question of the amount of nicotine absorbed, and the intensity of the heat carried into the lungs. On these two points the cigarette surpasses the cigar or pipe, because it is gcneuilly inhaled, thus carry ing into the system the largest possible quantity of nicotine, and because, on account of its shortness, the smoke that passes through the mouth and nostrils is hotter."'