Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1884 — HYGIENE FOR SMOKERS. [ARTICLE]

HYGIENE FOR SMOKERS.

A Scientific Man Tells Hon to Minimize the Evils of the Habit. In the Journal d ’ Hygiene Dr. Felix Bremont discusses some laws of health in their special application to smokers. He says caustically, to begin with, that he is not talking to schoolboys who puff cigarettes, ntjr to children who try to play the man by taking up one of his faults, but addresses himself to sure-enough smokers, the number of whom he lias no particular care to increase. The prime rule of hygiene in the code is radical enough, to be sure, and would very speedily, if consistently followed, do away with all the ills of smoking. It is the simple advice not to smoke at all, an injunction that seems to negative the learned Doctor’s preface that he is not aiming his remarks at children. We will take his word for it that hardly an old smoker but would avow it had been better for him had he never touched pipe or cigar: but popular science does not really comprehend a discussion of abstract morals, and it is the practical phase of the Doctor’s article rather than its aesthetic that we wish to consider. The evils of smoking may be granted off-hand, but since men will smoke the thing to be considered is how to diminish the bad effects of the practice. Happily M. Bremont is not a fanatic, and scorns not to point out means by which the delicious vice may be indulged at least expense to the system. Imprimis, the cigar smoker should use a holder. By that means les3 nicotine is absorbed, and the necessity for spitting is not so urgent. Long holders are better than short, because they better cool the smoke, and cheap ones are better than expensive ones becauso they will oftencr be renewed. There is, besides, a gain in point of cleanliness in the use of a holder. Too many hands touch the tobacco in its manufacture for it to escape soil, and sometimes it carries with it filth and diseased germs as well. Havana cigars are recommended as by all odds the best, though the difficulty of getting the genuine article is painfully recognized. There is very great imposition in the matter of Havana cigars. Very cheap and inferior goods are made in various part 3 of Europe and the United States, shipped to Havana for packing, and returned thence with the brand and label of genuine Havan,a cigars. At Hamburg, indeed, cigars are made from cabbage-leaf tobacco, and right there done up as Havanas, without the troublesome formality of shipping to Cuba. We suspect the samo thing is done in markets nearer home. Those cigars are run through the custom house with no greater bother to the manufacturers than taking them out to meet an incoming vessel, upon which they are dumped for this purpose. This simple act augments their value tenfold.

It is recommended as a good hygienic precaution to select dry cigars for smdking, as they are free from nicotine. Slow smoking is another excellent specific against the too great absorption of the toxic principles of tobacco. The fast smoker of wet cigars who does not spit during the process dangerously saturates his nervous system with poison. To such a person a pipe is altogether insipid. The more thoroughly the matter is medically considered the more positive becomes the judgment that cigarette smoking is the most pernicious use of tobaceo, and is one of the most frequent causes of disease of the heart. This is not perhaps due to the wrapper as much as to the habit cigar smokers have of inhaling the smoke, and to the further fact that cigarette tobacco is usually more moist than others, that it may be easily rolled. The pipe is, after all. the nearest approach to hygienic excellence the smoker may attain. But there are pipes and pipes. The best are the most porous, whatever the material. They are good in proportion to their absorption of the nicotine, and cease to be good after they have become seasoned. A seasoned meerschaum, for example, is no better than a metallic pipe, and "should, for health’s sake, at whatever sacrifice of nut-brown beauty, be boiled into its original usefulness as an absorbent. The bowl being well chosen, the stem should be long. With such precautions, and the use of dry, pure tobacco, the. smoker has the highest form of hygienic smoking, and the one that should really be most delightful tc the sense, soothing without stupefying, exhilarating without exciting the nerves. Shortstemmed pipes have been very properly termed “scorch-throats, ” and are most pernicious in their effects. Not only do they admit to the mouth all the poisons of the tobacco, but send in a smoke hot enough to burn any tongue that has not. been injuriously toughened by long abuse. The thickening of the epithelial layer is one effect of the use of these pipes which the French have named brule-gueule. Liberal ventilation of apartments in which smoking is indulged should be observed. The inhalation of foul smoke is a sure means of giving delicate membranes an injurious coating of nicotine. Cleanliness is strongly urged, not only for the benefit of the smoker, but for the sake of those who may be brought in contact with him. The odor and effect of tobacco exhaled from the smoker are not pleasant even to smokers, and there cannot be too much care given to the cleansing of tlie mouth. The teeth should be welt brushed, night and morning, and the valuable hint is given that a gargle of aromatized water is better to neutralize the odor of tobacco than the best scented pellets. —Chicago Inter Ocean.