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Show Tobacco Discussion by Prominent Educator i X Several years ago a Baltimore doctor doc-tor (Dr. Htrschfcld) in the Maryland Medical Journal, severely criticised the Antl-Cigarct League, the W. C. T. U. and the school physiologies for teaching what he called "big lies' about tobacco. The statements he so lhbeled were shown (School Physiology Physiol-ogy Journal, January, 1907) to bo In exact accord with standard authorities authorit-ies such as Taylor's Treatise on Poisons," Pois-ons," I'aterson and Barnes Textbook of Legitl Medicine, The United States Dispensatory kndwn to the trndo as The Druggist Bible, and a number or Individual physicians, Including Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, whoso pclen-tlflc pclen-tlflc knowledge and veracity are quitb generally nccepted. But as a defender of tobheco Dr. Hlrschfleld evidently knows no defeat, de-feat, for In January, 1913, T-.o ngnln assailed tobacco critics through the columns of Harper's Weekly. The complete refutation of these renewed charges by an experienced tehcher of Philadelphia nre l.ere lie-sented lie-sented In condensed form partly because be-cause when error gets a first start truth needs all possible assistance in overtaking It, nnd partly because Mr. Taylor's reply Is valuable In Itself slnco It answers several -iurrent mischievous mis-chievous fallacies about tobacco. The first point raised by Mr. Taylor Tay-lor is that Dr. HlrschfeM cites no statistical studies In support of his assertions. The second point Is that It Is utterly utter-ly absurd to say as Dr. HlrschfeM does that tho great opposition to .tho uso of tobacco Is based largely upon a kind of puritanic dlsllko of anything any-thing that gives too much pleasure. As a matter of fact, says .Mr. Taylor, Tay-lor, nnyono who knows 'inythh',-; at all about the question knows that the most consistent and dctsrmlnol opponents op-ponents of smoking arc tho tclicol teachers of the country, and thg phjN slcnl directors and athletic coaches a In dialogue form tho dlscutisioa from there on would run something llko this: Dr. Hirschfeld Those wno know no better obJcctNto It becauso It glves( Its users contentment, peace, and a healthful animal -aort of enjoyment, a subllmo callousness to tho ethical and theological puzzles, which fret and frazzlo Its enemies, a beautiful and Irritating indifference to all but the pleasant things of life. Mr. Taylor Why consider a callous cal-lous Indlfferenco In the liner things of lite as a distinct advantage? It' Is true that heavy smokers, especially juvenile smokers, are often callous and insensitive; that is one of jthe serious charges laid against the Use of tobacco; but why advertise that effect as one to be desired?. I doubt fr'an unnarcotized public will agree to this. Dr. Hlrschfeld-Practlcally all of tho world's gigantic store of anti-tobacco literature is based upon four fundamental propositions: 1 . Tobacco contains nicotine, which Is a powerful narcotic and poison. 2. In the process of smoking, nlc-otlno nlc-otlno Is absorbed Into the body and produces or induces many deadly mplAdies, Including cancer, paralysis, heart disease, bronchitis, blindness, aud tuberculosis. 4. Nlcotlno Is such a powerful poison poi-son (this Is n classical argument and appears in nil tho school physiologies) that ono drop placed upon the tongue of a dog Is sufficient to kill thu animal, ani-mal, Nlcotlno Is In fact a decided narcotic nar-cotic and poison, but tho drug enters I tho body In such small quantities and "tho body so soon grows Immune to Its effects, that It does no harm whatever." what-ever." Mr. Taylor As to tho smallncss of tho entering quantity', first of all,' Infinitesimal In-finitesimal as it Is, It is yet powerful enough to produce very palnMi and characteristic disorders. Dr. Hirschfeld People who have once had yellow fever, or smallpox, become Immune to those diseases. It Is the same with nicotine poisoning. Tho man who has gone through tho mild poisoning that attacks beginners Is thereafter immune to tobacco. Mr. Taylor That sounds well, but drugs and poisons do not all act In the same way. Alcoholic poisoning is a beautiful example of the group of bablt forming drugs. No matter how a man is poisoned no matter how drunken he is upon his first close acquaintance ac-quaintance with alcohol, he is hardly hard-ly less affected the next time and the next time. In fact he can readily be poisoned to the end of his days, which are not likely to be many. Also, by taking small doses of opium, one does not seem to become immune. In fact, as In alcohol poisoning, and also in nicotine poisoning, the pressure- of tho drug in the system seems to set up a craving for more of tho drug, often of-ten with serious results. However, there Is no need to pursue this particular par-ticular line further. The figures given giv-en by Dr. Seaver and Dr, Pack show that the regular taking of nicotine even in very small quantities, doen not make the taker "Immune" at all, but causes serious and perhaps permanent per-manent effects. Dr. Hirschfeld After nil, tho ejnoV-er, ejnoV-er, even the clgaret smoker, lenlly obtains but a very small amount of nicotine, a fraction Indeed of the amount of the drug which existed In the smoked cigars, clgarets aud pipes. Tho clgaret user receives no worse effects than could bo obtained by smoking klndting wood, hay, or (tiled leaves. Mr. Taylor Tho smoker does,' In fact, receive very.llttte of the amount of nlcotlno existing In his 'Cigar or clgaret, but that little, as our Etiitlo- tics seem to show, has some effect after all, and one not to be left unconsidered. un-considered. VDr. .Hirschfeld Tpbaceojiqar,!. lies nothing whatever to do with tobacco. Cardiac pain without evldcnci of arteriosclerosis ar-teriosclerosis (hardened arteries) or valvula disease Is not of much moment. mo-ment. Mr. Taylor This Is truo enough, for "ordinary cardiac pain, 113 nnyonu who knows anything about U1.3 he'.rt will tell you, Is no ovldenco that nny-thing nny-thing is the matter with the heart itself. it-self. But have you ever heard of a sphymograph, or of a plethysmograph and If so have you ever obtained pulse records of numbers of smokers and non-smokers with the aid of these Ingenious' In-genious' Instruments? I have made many such records and I have seen 'the trembling finger of the instrument moving lightly oyer the blackened paper, mark the characteristic little irregularities that appear lrrtho pulse of the habitual smoker. There is no cardiac pain at all. One may havo a cardiac trouble without pain in the heart. And so one may have tobacco heart without pain, too. There Is no question of pain at all. But that the regular use of nicotine does cause the introduction -of an Irregularity Into the pulse Is easily demonstrated and anything that will causa an Irregularity Irregular-ity in something as important as the pulse, must be a matter of serious consequence Indeed. Dr. Hirschfeld Many have poinded out the Indubitable fact that the average av-erage boy smoker is not as bright as the boy who does not smoke. Only stupid boys smoke any way, boys who aro stupid from birth and who will remain stupid through life. Bright and healthy boys, If kept away from ovifcompanlonB, will not smoke. If you do not believe it, ask any observant observ-ant school teacher. Mr. Taylor Well, for one, here is a former school teacher writing this present article, a teacher who has Incidentally In-cidentally made physical measurements measure-ments and Individual study of many hundreds of boys. This particular teacher does not believe any such a thing. Why do boys smoke? Not because they are stupid from birth, 1 not at all. Merely because they wish to imitate grownups. In two things a boy can imitate a man one kind of a man. A boy can be as profane aud a boy can smoke as much, or almost us much, Then too, active boys like to be considered sports, and are not generally gen-erally shown the difference between cheap sports and real sports. The cheap sport Is usually in evidence; ho Is no ijtlilctc, ho Isusually a corner corn-er lounger, and of course ho smokes largely; also ho Is usually profano. So the boy wishing to bo looked upon n ol'ler nnd nioro mature than ho Is, udoptB the striking vices of this striking strik-ing tvnc of sport, and so becomes n smoker. This has been shown not only by my own observation, but by that of nil close students of the quss-tio'n quss-tio'n with whom I have become acquainted, ac-quainted, ono of whom I may mention Dr. Arthur Holmes, late Assistant Professor of Psychology In tho University Uni-versity of Pennsylvania. The boy, the average boy nnd not the abnormal one smokes In Imitation, and suffers serious consequences thereby. Scientific Sci-entific Temperance Journal. |