WOMEN AND SMOKING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14167, 15 September 1906, Page 8

WOMEN AND SMOKING.

(By ELIZABETH SLOAN CHESSER, M. 8., in the “ Daily Chronicle.”) J The number of women who have adopted the habit of cigarette smoking lias increased enormously of late years.; Ten or fifteen years ago smoking amongst women in this country was more or less confined to isolated cases of young girls, who thought it clever or amusing, and elderly females-of the tramp class, who found solace for an uncomfortable existence in sucking an aged pipe of unclean description. It is very different to-day. There are women smokers in every class of the community ; students, society women, shopgirls and journalists, artiste, girls in business and girls who stay at home; young girls and married women. Even the grandmothers are not beyond suspicion., although the very word seems incompatible with cigarettes. It is, perhaps, too much to assert that most women smoke; but that a great many of them appreciate the soothing influence of what man has so long considered his pet luxury cannot ,bo denied. ’ Women smokers are increasing, and at the same time, man is becoming more tolerant and more accustomed to the sight of a woman manipulating a cigarette. It seems as if woman means to smoke, in spit© of the fact that the habit has been condemned on moral, (esthetic and medical grounds. WOMEN PHONE TO EXTREMES. The cliief argument against women smoking is that—it is always best to acknowledge a self-evident fact right away—women are more prone to the

extreme than men. When smoking is once acquired as a habit, it is a difficult matter to keep it within strict' and sensible limits; and what, may he' very moderate smoking for ‘a man is dangerously near excess for a'young girl. A man may smoke a dozen cigarettes in twenty-four hours without any apparent damage to his health; the girl who habitually disposes 'of six or eight cigarettes a day is deliberately undermining her constitution. One of the first duties of woman is to preserve her health; because, in spite of ail the assertions and indignant denials of the shrieking sisterhood, the chief reason of our very existence is to provide the mothers of future generations. The woman, who smokes to excess is reducing her potential' energy for this Important function almost as much as if she habitually drank too much wine. 1 have often been told by women that they had started smoking more as a joke; and that the habit had grown upon them, until they could not imagine existence without their cigarette-case. And there is no more pathetic figure than the heavy smoker of the ■ gentler sex. Thin, anaemic, highly strung, irritable, with cold, clammy hands, and stained fingertips, she is one of the least admirable products of the woman movement. She is either a brave woman 'or she is ignorant of the dangers she runs in smoking what she calls a harmless nerve-soothing cigarette. Those who argue that a woman should smoke to soothe her domestic worries , might as well say that a girl should take brandy or opium to counteract the depressing effects of an unfortunate love affair. Smoking in that sense is drugging, the tobacco is to be regarded as a narcotic, and. all narcotics are to be avoided unless ordered by a doctor. SMOKING AND DYSPEPSIA. One cause of the prevalence, of dyspepsia nowadays is smoking, and dyspepsia acts as a brake on an ambitious woman and a blot on a pretty one. And -yet, few women will believe that the red nnse-of dyspepsia is secondary to their habit of smoking.' In strict moderation, smoking ,is apparently harmless; but what is moderation? “ Four cigarettes a day cannot possibly be the cause of my ill-health,” plaintively asserts the martyr to palpitation and indigestion. But nicotine affects different people in varying degrees. Two cigarettes a day is excess for the neurotic woman, who should never smoko at all. When women begin to smoke, they Jike to do it thoroughly, and a visit to the smoking-room of any of the women’s clubs is sufficient to prove to tho observer that the dangeroufe habit of “ inhaling ” is far too common. Most people have a hazy glimmering of the fact that much smoking, especially accompanied by inhaling, is a bad thing. The physiological effects of tobacco are due to an alkaloid, nicotine, which acts chiefly upon-the heart, causing irregular action, and producing the condition known as smoker’s heart. The girl who is an habitual smoker undermines her health and unfits herself for work. A frequent complaint of the smoker is Loss of mental tone and inability to concentrate the attention. Nervous symptoms will be more apparent in a woman smoker than a man, because woman’s nervous organisation is of a more delicate order, and more ’easily .upset. That smoking, even in moderation is harmful to women is very probable. There are many who assert that liabttual smoking has a deteriorating effect on the race, and if parents of both sexes smoke it would follow that the chudien would’be physically inferior-to tne children of non-smokers, other things being equal. THE ETHICS OF SMOKING. This is mainly a personal consideration. It is nob so much what we do that seems to matter, but how we do it, and this is true of smoking as of everything -else. To smoke in a public place lays a woman open to tho criticism of strangers; and, although a girl is not necessarily “fast” because she enjoys an occasional cigarette, the true gentlewoman avoids doing anything unconventional in public. If a girl will smoke, she should only do so amongst friends, in. the privacy of her own house, and, preferably, in a gathering of women, and of women who smoke themselves. There are people who consider a girl peculiar if she smokes a cigarette; then why shock their susceptibilities by what is, in their opinion the brazen display of an umvomanly act? Others are as much surprised at tho women who don’t smoke. “ Only the’ middle-class British matron is a non-smoker nowadays.” I have been told, and can only reply that the opinion of the average middle-class British matron is generally a very sound one. Tho modern young, mother and her cigarettes is something of a novelty even yet; if she pays proper attention to her house and her nursery, she will not have much time to waste in smoking. "Whatever he may say on the subject, in his heart of hearts the average man disapproves of women smoking. It may bo inherent selfishness, it may b© association and a sensitive regard and desire to keep his women-folk unspotted from the w r orld; the fact remains that 90 per cent of nien prefer women not to smoke. Tho few r who do not mind have generally- a sister, wife or woman friend whom they particularly respect, and who has succumbed to the fascination of smoking. How often wo hear a man declare: “I do not- mind girls smoking at all, but 1 should not like my wife to smoke cigarettes.” A masculine inconsistency which has reason behind it.

There are women who smoke, not because they care for it, but under the mistaken impression that it is “smart,” and there are girls who smoke only because their friends enjoy it, and consider them old-fashioned if they don’t. These types never smoke to excess, and generally give up the habit when they attain years of discretion. Some women smoko because they honestly enjoy, not so much the smoking itself, but the feeling of good-fellowship which smoking in congenial society produces. The worst type of woman smoker is the heavy habitual smoker considered above.

Smoking is something of a fad amongst women at present, and there are many who will give it up when it ceases to be a novelty. The vast majority of women will not smoke. A natural feminine fastidiousness makes the average woman dislike the association of taste, odour and stained fingertips. The domesticated woman will prefer her tea, and the society woman some new fad. Women smokers will bo found mainly amongst the ranks of

working women—who, although they are doing good, useful, necessary work in the world, are not of the type which goes to make the normal, healthy, domesticated woman whom the average man I 'desires for the mother of his children.