THE DEADLY CIGARETTE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1957, 17 October 1889, Page 4

THE DEADLY CIGARETTE.

The dissecting room of the hospital preached a terrible sermon for cigarette smokers the other afternoon. If the crowd of young men just starting lu tbi- leadly habit, just learning to suck the poisonous aud lifesapping smoke charged with nicotine and burnt paper into their lungs, could have Beeu the body of a colored man cut open, an object lesson might have been learned which would have produced an effect where advice, exhortation, the sight of ashen-faced, fishyeyed young consumptives with stooped shoulders and hollow chests have all failed, This young man had come to the hospital in the last stages of *ome wasting disease. His frame was large and had the foundation for great muscular development. But emaciation hardly expresses its lean and shrunken condition, His chest was much sunken and the broad shoulders in consequence drawn in. His face was covered with large, ugly-looking Bores, that stood out in etarnge contrast upon his yellow sunken cheeks. During the last four years of his life he had been an inveterate cigarette smoker. Of course, that meant inhaler of cigarettes also. ISo one persists in smoking " coffin tacks " long without inhaling them also. His death could be traced immediately to this habit, For almost a year before the end came he had been sinking. The film over the eye, peculiar to the cigarette smoker, was constantly present. Violent pains similar to heartburn, shot across his chest in the region of his heart.

These pains increased in frequency aDd yiolonce. His throat became inflamed, and a species of catarrh of the very worst type began to afflict him. Every once in a while he would have fits of suffocation that would leave him weak and on the verge of death. After one of these attacks he was induced to quit the habit, but with returning health he renewed it, and was Boon worse off than ever. At last his condition became almost hopeless, apd he was takem to the hospital, The doctors soon gave him up, and all that remained to be done was to let him die as easily as possible. But his death was far from easy. The cough which racked him, the pains in the lungs and hearty all kept him in constant misery. His brain became affected, and high fever deprived him of all power aave to suffer. Day after day he lingered in this pitiable condition. Each day was thought to be his last. The cigarette disease is not kind to the sufferer, like consumption. That constantly allures him with hope, eo quiet and pamloss is it. Bat this wears and tears with increasing fury, and in a paroxysm of pain life is driven from the bodv.

So recent "ha? been this form of death that doctors have had but little opportunity to diagnose it. The physicians and surgeons seized upon this chance eagerly to observe the exact effect upon the system. Often cigarettes aggrieve a disease already in the system. But with this man such was not the case. No finer specimen of a cigarette ruin could have been found, as the young man up to the time of contracting the habit had been unusually healthy. Therefore the only complications of disease to be found would be the direct result of one sufficient and efficient cause. After the usual removal and examination of intestines the work of removing the lungs was begun. A sharp gleaming knife in the handa of the surgeon in charge laid bare the ribs and breast bone. Then the saw and hammer were called into requisition, and the sound of Bteel grating against osseous tissue, broken now and then by the tapping of a hammer, mingled with the trickling of water. Soon the heart that so short a time before bounded with life, and the lungs that were filled with life-giving air, lay in full view. The usual odour of a dissectingroom ia sickening enough, but it has little effect upon. accustomed nostrils.. The smell that eame from the lungs of this dead young negro made even the old surgeon look uneasy. It was simply revolting. The strongest component of it was the same smell which renders a cigaretta ao unpleasant to all but the smoker, except that this smell was intensified and concen- ] trated. But the appearance of the lungs dispelled all surprise at the sickening odour they exhaled. The lungs even of a person who has died of disease are usually of a pinkish hue, resembling nothing so much as a pair of pink sponges of fine texture. In the case of this man's lungs both the color and the appearance were lacking. Both parts were shapeless masses of flesh in a state of absolute decay. The cellular formation had almost entirely disappeared. The mass was covered with small ulcers, which gave it a most loathsome appearance. The color of the mass was a dark muddy yellow. Here and all through the lungs were interspersed long strings of darker hue than the rest of the tissue, which were evidently pieces of tobacco drawn into the lungs. As the knife cut through, a liquid exuded from the sores which possessed even a fouler odour, now that it was brought to the surface. Pieces of the tissues were washed ] under the hydrant, but even thorough I rinsing failed to remove the unnatural color or to remove the unnatural smell

Here and there through the lungs | were found patches in a somewhat better condition. These spots, diseased though they were, yet enabled the man to live as long as he did. The throat and bronchial tubes were found tobeiu an equally terrible state. The mucous membrane lining them was covered with a thin scum, also dark yellow in color, smelling and looking exactly like the thick liquid taken from a pipe that had not been in use for some time. 'I he membrane was also dotted with the small ulcers, the bursting of which doubtless gave rise to the slimy covering of the entire surface. The flow of this into the already overcharged lungs produced the violent fits of coughing and suffocation. So terrible had beea the ravages of catarrh that the vocal chorda were visibly affected and decayed. The brain, which is so delicate, and yet so slow to show the ravages of disease, was also afflicted by the constant stream of bad blood which flowed through it. In some places it showed slight traces of ulceration. As the entire interior of the young man lay upon the table it presented a most horrible spectacle. The yellowish tinge which prevaded it aH and which deepened into green, the frightful odor, the emaciation, the flabbiness of the muscles, the horrible ulcers, all spoke of the horrors of the cigarette habit. One would have thought that any one who stood there convicted of smoking cigarettes would have resolved to cease from cultivating such an interior, from courting such a death. One of the doctors in attendance stood by cooly puffing and inhaling a cigarette during the entire operation. The lesson was lost upon him.