Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1889 — The Influence of Tobaceo. [ARTICLE]

The Influence of Tobaceo.

The “smoker’s sore throat” is more* easily induced by the use of cigars than the pipe. When once it is fully j established it is quite incurable so long as the cause that excites it is allowed to continue; The effects of tobacco on the spinal cord, and the cord of sympathetic gang- ' lia are often pronounced. An injurious influence on the spinal cord and its ; nerves would be shown in tho production of external insensibility, or in disturbed action of the muscles by convulsion or paralysis. In the blood, the prolonged inhala-. tion of tobacco produces changes very marked in character. The fluid is made thinner than is natural, and in extreme cases, paler. In such instances the deficient color of the blood is communicated to the body altogether, rendering the external surfaco yellowish, white, and pa9ty. The nicotine plays a very important part on the motor fibers of the spinal ! nerves, and probably on the cord itself. It excites through these structures muscular agitation, followed by temporary suspension’of action and paralysis. In like manner tobacco smoke has I the property of acting on the sympathetic system of nerves exciting them, to produce muscular spasm, followed by deficient power. It is from this cause that the organs of organic life aro so irritable, sluggish, and powerless in confirmed smokers. —Dr. B. W. Richardson, in St. Louis Magazine,_____