TOBACCO A NERVE SOOTHER

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 39, 15 February 1930, Page 20

TOBACCO A NERVE SOOTHER

The cigarette has its virtues. Since Sir James Barrie wrote "My Lady Nicotine" jpoets, essayists, and novelists have sounded its praises, writes Dr. Frederick Graves in the "Daily Express" (London).

Mid-Victorian doctors had a habit of condemning everything that makes life tolerable as bad for health, and nicotine heldiahigh place* on their list of things forbidden.■

The new schools of medicine take a different point of view. Pure nicotine, like strychnine and arsenic, is recognised as a deadly poison, but, like them, it is now generally recognised as a valuable adjunct in curative and preventive medicine.

Smoking is a sociable pastime. In these days of strain and stress, anything that forms a medium for relaxation of mind and body is commendable. ,

Tobacco, especially in the form of cigarettes, is a • nerve eoothor—and a digestive stimulant. It is a solace in times of worry, and for many a direct aid to mental effort and concentration.

The danger lies in excess. Many men and women who have fallen under the spell of the cigarette smoke too many; but that is no reason for a wholesale condemnation of the practice. .

. The quantity of tobacco consumed must be dictated solely by the idiosyn-

DOCTOR'S VIEW ON SMOKING

crasiea'of the individual constitution,

Moderation for one person may be excess for another. As the old saw says, "One man's meat is another's poison." (

Smoking does not suit everybody. Some people never get over the initial intoxication, and have to give tho habit up; others get inured to heavy smoking quickly. Like opium, arsenic, and some other drugs, tobacco accustoms a system in most cases to its use. ■

The Chiiieso opium eater can get up to a dose that would send a village snoring, and the Styrian climber will eat enough arsenic to poison a household. But there is very little chance for nicotine or pyridine absorption from the cigarette. . . .

There are. men and women who can never got used' to a mild cigarette, and scores of others who never turn a hair though thoir consumption of cigarettes may run to fifty per day over a long period of years.

No doctor is needed to diagnose the symptoins_ of excessive smoking. Eestlessness, irritability, loss of appetite,and painful eyes all provide danger signals. ' ,

The remedy is obvious. Excessive smoking can be cured by cutting down the daily quota of cigarettes or pipes to half—and if that is not enough the remaining half should bo halved again.