Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/661

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HYGIENE FOR SMOKERS.
645

Frankfort, where cabbage-leaf cigars are sold as real Havanas under the government stamp, which they have acquired the right to bear by being sent out to meet vessels coming in from Cuba, whose arrival in the Baltic or in the Channel has been signalized. The cigars go through the custom-house, get the government mark, and are worth ten times as much as they were before their little excursion. It is a good hygienic precaution to choose dry cigars. The nicotine, being volatile, gradually escapes during the drying process, and the smoker consequently absorbs less of it. The absorption is also less when the smoking is done slowly; but, if one smokes fresh cigars fast and without spitting, his mouth and nervous system become so saturated with the narcotic ingredients of the smoke that, according to Professor Johnston, every kind of pipe becomes insipid to him.

Tobacco rolled up in a thin, combustible substance, which is burned with it, forms a cigarette. Many doctors regard this as the most dangerous form in which tobacco can be smoked. Dr. Barre recently invited smokers of cigarettes, in the journal "Le Peuple Français," to observe if they did not, after having smoked ten or a dozen of them, feel a pressure on the left side, with palpitation of the heart. The more we advance in the practice of medicine, he added, and the more we question our fellow-doctors, "the more we are convinced that the abuse of the cigarette is one of the most frequent causes of diseases of the heart." As for myself, I have never observed the troubles noticed by Dr. Barre; but I have remarked others, particularly inflammatory angina and laryngitis. The irritation of the back part of the mouth and respiratory channels probably arises from the habit, common with smokers, of swallowing the smoke. This is a noxious practice, and must be avoided. In some countries cigarettes are rolled in corn or plantain leaves; in France, we roll them in paper. A great many persons think that the mischievous effects of the cigarette are due to this envelope. I owe it to the truth to say that the accusation has not been established. If the use of the cigarette is really more injurious than that of the cigar, it is probably because, in cigarette-smoking, we have to use tobacco that is more moist, and consequently more charged with nicotine. The question respecting the envelope is not yet solved. The makers of cigarette-paper certainly take great care to fill the public with the idea of danger attending the use of paper of bad quality. They all offer the smoker superior papers, of pure fiber. The more refined offer coal-tar paper, to prevent chest-irritation; ferruginous paper, as a guard against anæmia; and even pepsin-paper, to facilitate digestion. It is all smoked, and that is the end of it. Use any paper you please, gentlemen; the important thing for hygiene is, that you do not use too much. The same recommendation is addressed to the ladies—for there are ladies who smoke; the Society of Public Medicine was occupied with them in 1880. MM. Decaisne, Delaunay, Thévenot, Bouley, Brouardel, and Goyard said some very interesting things on the occasion; but.