TOBACCO A NERVE SOOTHER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20959, 24 February 1930, Page 5

TOBACCO A NERVE SOOTHER.

DOCTOR’S VIEW ON SMOKING. The cigarette has its virtues. Since Sir James Barrie wrote “ My Lady Nicotine,” poets, 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 held a high place of 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 forme a medium for relaxation of mind and body is commendable. Tobacco, especially in. the form of cigarettes, is a nerve soother—and a digestive stimulant. It is a solace in time's of worry, and for many » 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; hut that is no reason for a wholesale condemnation of the practice. The quantity of tobacco consumed must be dictated solely by the idiosyncrasies 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 docs not suit everybody. Some people never get over the initial intoxication, and have to give the uabit 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 Chinese opium eater can get up to a dose that would send a village snoring, and the Styrian climber will eat enougn 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 get used to a mild cigarette, and scores of others who never turn a hair ♦hough their consumption of cigarettes may run to 50 per day over a long period o< years.

No doctot is needed to diagnose the symptoms of excessive smoking. Restlessness, irritability, loss of appetite, and painful eyes all provide danger signals. The remedy is obvious. Excessive snicking 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 be halved'again *