INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO SMOKING ON PUBLIC HEALTH.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 364, 19 April 1861, Page 4

INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO SMOKING ON PUBLIC HEALTH.

Sir Charles Hastings, M.D.,D.C.L., read the following paper on this subject at Glasgow :—

In the progress of this Association for the Advancement of Social Science, its co-rela-tion with sanitary science has been conspicuous, and must ever remain so. The truth is, that preventive medicine is of the highest importance in connexion with advancing civilization.

Mr. Oowper's masterly address at the Congress last year was well calculated to awaken an interest in the public mind on this subject. There can be no doubt that many habits and customs exist in society highly prejudical to health, and that the alteration of them would tend to the prolongation of life. This Association will well perform its duty by leading the public mind, on these matters, in the right direction. It is notorious that many active agents are in daily use by the community which act deleteriously on the system, and produce, in various ways, injurious consequences. It may be well considered one of the functions of this enlightened body, to point out the evil tendency of these agents, and thus induce persons to study for themselves the physiological action of such substances, by which a more correct appreciation of their action will be realised.

I may mention as agents more or less poisonous in their tendency, which are, nevertheless, extensively consumed in all civilised countries, tobacco, opium, alcohol, and even tea and coffee may, though in much less degree, be considered so.

I am not about to enter into the arena of disputation on these active agents. There is doubtless great difference of opinion in the medical profession on these questions. But all will admit that they are potent agents, and that it is desirable for the public good that they should be used discreetly.

The tobacco question is the one to which I shall now draw your attention. Few will be disposed to deny that at the present time tobacco is extensively consumed by all classes of the community. Still fewer will be disposed to deny that it is a very active narcotic agent, that its empyreumatic oil acts most deleteriously on the nervous system, and in a concentrated form, death speedily ensues from it. Professor Johnstone, of Durham, as the result of his analysis, states that 'the chemical constituents of tobacco are three in number —a volatile oil, a volatile alkali, and an empyreumatic oil. The volatile oil has the odour of tobacco, and possesses a bitter taste. On the mouth and throat it produces a sensation similar to that caused by tobacco smoke. When applied to the nose it occasions sneezing, and when taken internally it gives rise to giddiness, nausea, and inclination to vomit. The volatile alkali has the odour of tobacco, an acrid, burning, long-continuing tobacco taste, and possesses narcotic and very poisonous qualities. In this latter respect it is scarcely inferior to prussic acid, a single drop being sufficient to kill a dog. Its vapour is so irritating, that it is difficult to breath in a room in which a single drop has been evaporated. A hundred pounds of the dry tobacco leaf yield about seven pounds of nicotia. In smoking a hundred grains of tobacco, therefore, say a quarter of an ounce, there may be drawn into the mouth two grains or more of one of the most subtle of all known poisons. The empyreumatic oil is acid and disagreeable to the taste, narcotic and poisonous. One drop applied to the tongue of a cat brought on convulsions, and in two minutes occasioned death. The Hottentots are said to kill snakes by putting a drop of it on their tongues. Under its influence the reptiles die as instantaneously as if killed by an electric shock. It appears to act nearly in the same way as prussic acid. Experience proves that a large proportion of those who smoke or chew tobacco, do so under the conviction that it is always innocuous in its effects, and often beneficial. Now, this is a mistake which the every-day observation of medical practitioners can attest. For amongst the patients who consult us for various nervous and stomach complaints, it will be found that tobacco smokers form a large proportion. Indeed, we find, unexpectedly sometimes, on enquiry, that the habit of smoking is the source of very distressing ailments, which immediately or gradually subside on omitting the use ot this drug.

It is grievous to observe that this habit is prevailing among young people, upon whom its effects are most likely to be prejudicial. Strikingly illustrative of this position is the fact, which has been very recently made public, that in competitive examinations to which young persons are submitted in the military schools of France, the smokers of tobacco occupy the lowest place.

I may also be permitted to state that one of the most severe cases of epilepsy I ever saw arose in a boy of twelve years of age, who had been for two years a tobacco smoker, which habit he continued after the disease attacked him, and it was in vain that remedies were applied so long as the habit was continued; but after it became known that he pursued this pernicious practice, and he was prevented continuing it, he speedily recovered, and has been since kept in good health. We shall be no doubt told that thousands pursue this practice without producing epilepsy, and this is true; but how many of those thousands suffer considerable inconvenience and derangement of the functions of the nervous and digestive

system, without tracing them to their true origin. If this be so, how important it is that this great Association should disseminate sound views with respect to the action of tobacco on the system, and the open declaration of such a congress as this that this drug should be used with caution, and not indifcriminately, would not fail to do some good. This Association cannot interfere with individual actions. It cannot venture to give precepts as to diet and regimen. This belongs to the medical practitioner; but how feeble is his voice, unless the person asking it is bowed down by disease and suffering.

But looking at this question in a sanitary point of view, this congress may point to the fact that the daily use of tobacco is not a negative thing. According to the laws which govern the human system it is an agent from which decided results are produced, and therefore the community should be on their guard. An admonition from such a body will come with tenfold greater effect than from a body of medical practitioners whose monitions only find their way among the sick and those needing medical care, while we feel that what is done here will permeate the community at large, and will find its way to those who are unconsciously poisoning themselves by an agent of whose injurious effects they are ignorant. Sir Benjamin Brodie, in his admirable letter, published extensively in the newspapers, in a very sensible manner points out the effects of this agent. He says:— the effects of this habit are indeed various, the difference depending on the differences of constitution, and difference in the mode of life otherwise. But, from the best observations which I have been able to make on this subject, I am led to believe that there are very few who do not suffer harm from it to a greater or lesser extent. The earliest symptoms are manifested in the derangement of the nervous system. A large proportion of the habitual smokers are rendered lazy and listless, indisposed to bodily, and incapable of much mental, exercise. Others suffer much from depression of the spirits, amounting to hypochondriasis, which smoking relieves for a time, but adds to the evil afterwards. Occasionally there is a general nervous excitability, which though very much less in degree, partakes of the nature of delirium tremens in drunkards. I have known many individuals to suffer from severe nervous pains, sometimes in one, sometimes in another part of the body."

The habit of smoking and of chewing tobacco is no doubt sometimes pursued without the practice being found to be detrimental to the persons themselves, owing to the fact that by its physiological action, it dulls sensibility, and relieves uneasy sensations, and with some it would appear to assist digestion when taken after a meal, but there is much deception in this, and when we come to examine those cases, it will usually be found that some injurious effect is being unconsciously produced. It truth, it is in this very circumstance that the danger of the practice consists, for it is evident that the people are indiscriminately using a poisonous agent, capable of producing pleasurable sensations, but productive in the end of very baneful consequences. How is this evil to be averted; one means of prevention is extensively circulating the knowledge of the fact that serious injury is being caused in the community by tobacco smoking, and the action of this association may effect this to a considerable degree, by widely disseminating correct views of the effects of tobacco on the system, and thus awakening people to a sense of the danger. The various institutions that are now formed and supported for the purpose of diffusing useful knowledge among the laboring classes, ought to be available to assist in this work, if their managers could be made awake to the importance of the question ; but I fear, in many instances, these societies are not aware of the baneful action of tobacco on the frame. If they were, smoking rooms would not form a part of the establishment, whereby the onward progress of civilization is proposed to be insured.

It is a sad reflection that it should be considered necessary to insure the attendance of members at a society, whose professed object is to advocate civilisation, by diffusing art and science, that there should be the means applied for indulging in the evil habit of smoking, as in the clubs. of the aristocracy. This Association may at any rate raise a warning voice against such erroneous proceedings, which must doubtless tend to enervate our population, and eventually to produce a degenerate race.

Conclusions—That the effects of tobaccosmoking are chiefly dependent upon an empyreumatic volatile oil, and other active principles, whose direct tendency is to act injuriously on the nervous system and digestive organs; That tobacco is extensively consumed by the community, and its use ought to be discouraged; That this Association emphatically records its conviction that societies formed for the purpose of promoting useful knowledge amongst the working classes should on no account provide smoking-rooms for the members.— Morning Mail.