THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8269, 24 October 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1906.

In the September number nf the Grand Magazine there is au interesting discussion on that by no means new theme, "Is Smoking Injurious?" Dv Robert JBell, M.D, F.RP.S., etc., says "no," and Dr R. Brudenell Carter, F.R.0.5., says "yeß," and of course, when two "authorities" express diametrically opposite opinions the man in the street must simply preserve oreet silence, whatever he may think, because, as he is not an authority on the question, anything he might say will not only carry no weight whatever, but will also enable people to see how very ignorant he is. "Who shall decide when dootora disagree," wearily queries the editor of the Grand, but who wants to deoide, and what odds would it make if someone were able to make a definite pronouncement on the subject that would be generally aooepted? But to return to Or. Bel), whose arguments all smokers will approve of, especially those who indulge to excess in the fragrant weed. The learned dootor points out that there are individuals so constituted who, were they to sniff the odour of a

rose, would immediately have an attaok of asthma; others, again, if they expose their uncovered heads to the sou's rays are taken with a fit of sneezing; others, after partaking of certain kinds of shell-fish, Buffer the penalty of an attack of nettlerash, with all its disagreeable symptoms. There are still otitis who are unusually sensitive to the action of certain drugs, and yufc otbers who are intolerant of tobaooo. "Now it sometimes happens,'' declares Dr. Bell, "that certain of this last clasH of sufferers, who by force of circumstances, are debarred from partaking of the pleasures whioh tobaooo affords because it upsets their digestion, and possibly produces other iisagreeahle symptoms as well—accept their limited exoeri- | enoe as convincing evidence that smoking must necessarily produce a like injurious effect upon their neighbours." Ihe fallacy 'of this assumption is, of course, pointed out by Dr. Bell, <\nd he goes on to ask, in reply to the argument that smoking acts moat prejudicially upon the intellectual faculties, and the oervoua system as a whol*», how is it 'that we find so many smokers occupying the highest positions, dis charging tbeir duty so ably as administrators and statesmen, and in the realms of Art, Literature and Science. In the end, however, Dr. Bell falls baok upon that very guarded, and by no meaus original answer, that smoking is not injurious to health, "providing always that the consumption of the weed be kept within proper bounds." On the whole we do not think Dr. Bell has made oat a very good oase—he gives one the impression of a man arguing against his innermost oonvintions. Dr. Brudenell Carter's affirmative article is, on the other hand, of a most interesting character, but limited space precludes quoting from lit to any extent. He remarks that a fair average sample of tobacco owes its properties chiefly to two substances, both formed within the plant during its growth. Tbero are "niootiania," or tobacco camphor, I a resin to which tobaooo is ma'.nly j indebted for its flavour, and "nicotine," an alka'oid akin to the alkaloids of night shade, and oenbaue, and a very deadly poison, to which tobacco is indebted for, its sedative properties. is found in different proportions in different tobaccos, and may range from lees than one to more than 10 per oent. of the finished product. The average is from one to two per cent, in Syrian tobacco, from one to three per cent, in Manila and Havana tofcaooos, up to seven per cent, in Virginian and Kentucky, and uy to nine per cent, in Pronob and Algerian. There is no known example of human poisoning by pure nicotine, but a tenth of a grain of it is suffioiont to kill a large dog, and the common estimato is that a uigar contains enough to kill two men. Dr. Carter oomludea by stating that be has no wish to advocate asceticism. He knows that some people are of opinion that smoking helps them; but on the oridence, so far as he is acquainted with it, he thinks they are mistaken, and that tbey are possibly not the best judges of tbeir own work. If a man says to him that be likes smoking, that ho smokes baoause be likes it, and that he is not conscious of any harm from su doing, the doctor has no more to say except that the man is not, master of bis own actions.