THE TOBACCO HABIT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 178, 28 July 1913, Page 6

THE TOBACCO HABIT.

A LADY LXXTIOR'S PROTEST. The average man who iae the tobacco habit is familiar with the average female views about smoking, and usually associates them with the first smoke headache and other such experiences winch -beset a youth when he starts out firmly to fulfil his boyish idea, of what constitutes the complete man. But the average man dors not often get an opportunity of hearing a lady doctor express her opinions on the subject, consequently the views voiced on the subject by Dr. Florence Keller in a short address at the Salvation Army Hall, on Thursday evening, will probably be of interest. Dt. Keller has a pungent personality as a platform speaker, and her points, condemnatory of the smoking habit, were made in characteristic manner. Dealing with the liistory of tobi.ifco, she pointed out that the "drea-dful weed" had been a gift from the 'heathenism of the West indies to the so-called Christian nations of the worid. She showed how the tobacco habit had prevailed over the probatory laws of such rulers as James 1. of Kngland, and the all-powerful Duke of Moscow. She considered that a triumph of evil, and stated her opinion that smoking was a habit both thought-destroying and soul-destroying. When the burning of tobacco in cigars and cigarettes produced such poisonous products as prussic acid, carbonic acid, nicotine, and the oil of tobacco, most of which products came in contact with the absorbent cells of the lungs, she could not see that smoking could be other than harmful to the system. She had 6een d-ozens of small boys picking up cigar and cigarette "butts'' on the sidewalks and in the gutters of Chicago, and had been credibly informed that these butts were sold to manufacturers, who treated them and had them re-made into cigars and cigarettes for the market. Then, too, the papers of the cigarettes were frequently soaked in cocaine in order to mark© the smoke "soothing." A remarkable thing was the growth of cigarette smoking. The first cigarette was manufactured in 1576, only :'" years ago, yet last year, in New York alone, fifteen million cigarettes were 6old to tbe men, women, and children of New York. Dr. Keller remarked that in every ease of cancer of the lips the patient bad been a smoker, and that it was the general opinion of the medical profession that 6moking was injurious. Respecting its mental effect she. referred to the banishment of tobacco from the Polytechnic School of Paris by Napoleon LTJ. because he had discovered that every boy who failed in the school wj»B a smoker; and she stated that for the last 15 years not a student had graduated with honours at Harvard University who had used tobacco. Incidentally she deplored tbe spread of the tobacco habit to women, a'<d mentioned that she frequently observed the tell-tale yellow tinge on the fingers of women who i came to consult her at her office in Auckland. Even those engaged in the tobacco I business, she said, recognised that smoking was injurious, and in support of that she quoted an instance that had come i under her notice. Some of the tobacco firms offered premiums for the collection of tags from boxes of cigarettes of their make. A boy collected 15,000 tags of a particular brand, and wrote to the manager of the firm in Pennsylvania asking where he should send them, and what the premium, or prize, would be. The reply was: "Our firm does not give premiums, but if you smoke 15,000 more boxes of cigarettes we. will send you a coffin. When you have smoked 10,000 send us your measurement, so that it will be a sure fit." After quoting other personal observations of the effect of using tobacco. Dr. Keller concluded by saying that she had when a child heard un old couplet:—

"Tobacco is a filthy weed. Of which the devil sowed the seed and she believed it was true.