Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1912 — Tobacco as Disinfectant. [ARTICLE]

Tobacco as Disinfectant.

x The Lancet has been making some experiments to test the truth of the popular belief that tobacco smoke is a ’ disinfectant These experiments, says our contemporary, “seem to confirm the observation that one of the principal constituents accounting for the germicidal properties of tobacco smoke is the powerful antiseptic formaldehyde. The amount present is more than just appreciable. for if water through which a row puffs of tobacco smoke have been passed is tested for formaldehyde the result Is strikingly positive. The quantity of formaldehyde in tobacco smoke would/appear to depend on the quality and kind of tobacco smoked. Thus the cigar appears to yield more formaldehyde than the pipe, and the pipe more than the cigarette. It has more than once been stated that tobacco smokers enjoy an Immunity from certain diseases, and the frequent presence of a powerful antiseptic in the mouth, nasal passages, and sometimes the lungs (as in the case of those who foolishly inhale tobacco smoke), would to some extent justify the statement Formaldehyde is one of the most powerful disinfectants we possess, 1 part in 10,000 parts of water serving to destroy all microbes, while such a dilute solution has practically no poisonous action on the human organism. AU the same. It is most undesirable that this fact should stimulate the practice of smoking tobacco absurd excess, for tobacco pelsbnlng Is a greater reaUty than many persons titink.—London Telegraph.