THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 890, 21 November 1871, Page 3

THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO.

There are people to whom any tobacco, however smoked, is simply poison, causing, even in small doses, vomiting, pallor, and alarming prostration. SuL'h peoplo never get seasoned to its effects, even after repeated trials; and if they are wise they will for ever let it alone. They will display still further wisdom by not presuming to make laws for others who have not the same idiosyncracy. No one can enjoy, or smoke with impunity, when out of health. The phrase " out of health," though it may sound vague* is hardly definite enough to frame a general rule. At the same time it is useful to know what, if any, are the particular disorders and conditions of health in which tobacco does special harm. As far as the writer's knowledge goes, these have been specified by medical writers as clearly as is desirable. To begin, a man with a bad appetite will, if he smoke, most assuredly eat less—a noteworthy fact for smokers or others recovering from wasting illness, or " off their feed," from whatever cause. This effect of tobacco, by the way, while an evil to the sick man who cannot eat enough, becomes a boon to the starved man who cannot get enough to eat; and ample illustration of this was furnished among the Prench and German soldiers in the recent war. Again, no man should smoke who has a dirty tongue, a bad taste in his mouth, or a weak or disordered digestion. In any such case he cannot relish his tobacco. It should be a golden rule with smokers, that the pipe or cigar which is not smoked with relish had better not be smoked at all. Indigestion in every shape is aggravated by smoking, but most especially that form of it commonly known as atonic and accompanied with flatulence. Diarrhoea, as a rule, is made worse by smoking. One of the commonest and earliest effects of excessive or untimely smoking is to make the hand shake. This gives the clue to another class of persons who ought not to smoke —persons, namely, who have weak, unsteady nerves, and suffer from giddiness, confusion of sight, tremulous bauds, tendency to stammer, or any such symptoms. And if tobacco does harm in mere functional weakness, still less allowable is it in actual organic disease of the nervous system ; as, for instance, where there exists any degree of paralysis or other sign of degenerative change in the brain or spinal cord. The improper use of tobacco does beyond question somehow interfere with the due nutrition of nerve substance. Now, after eliminating|those who from idiosyncracy cannot, and those who from bodily ailment or from tender years should not smoke, there will still always be a large residue of happy folk who can smoke enjoy smoking, and are indeed the better for it. These are they who use tobacco without abusing it—use t, thxfc is to say, in moderate quantity, in due season, and honestly for the sake of the comfort wince it gives them—a comfort every bit as legitimate) as that which drinkers of tea, coffee, or win?, extract in each case from their favourite beverage. A few words on each of these points. By moderate smoking is meant smoking only just so much and so often as each man finds to be good for him. It is with tobacco as with alcoholic drinks. Every man of mature years, sound health, and ommon sense, soon gets to know what is the limit of safe indulgence for himself. However widely this limit may vary in different individuals, the following rule is absolute and unalterable—that when a smoker begins to ail bodily, or to be getting listless, dreamy, and disinclined for serious thought or action, or to shirk the duties of social intercourse, this limit has been exceeded. Tobacco should be used as supplementary to food, not as a substitute for it. The season, therefore, for healthy smoking is after a meal. Tobacco should uoc be taken on an empty stomach (unless to stave off hunger) any more than alcohol. Smoking merely to kill time, or to colour a pipe (!), is a childish abuse of tobacco. Against moderate smoking in a healthy person who enjoys it, not a single argument of any weight has yet been advanced. Perhaps the most plausible of them is this : that every smoker daily imbibes a small quantity of to-bacco-oil and nicotine; and as those substances taken by themselves in the pure, concentrated state and in large doses are highly poisonous, therefore every habitual smoker is slowly poisoning himself. Just as reasonable is it to condemn alcoholic drinks, such as wine, beer, &c, as pernicious, because a draught of pure alcohol will nearly or quite kill a man; or tea and coffee as dangerous drinks, because their active principles, theine and caffeine, taken alone and in large doses are poisons.

Brave Enough.—-A thoughtful observer on women's rights comes to their defence very effectively, as follows : " ] have seen women so delicate that they were atraid to ride for fear of the horse running away ; afraid to walk, for fear the dew might fall; afraid to sail, for fear the boat might upset; but I never saw one afraid to be married, which is more riskful than all the others put together." A Chicago paper politely remarks that it has ' another flagrant fiction impaled upon the fork of fact,' and recommends this to editors as much more gentlemanly than the rough word ' another lie nailed.'