142 APPLIED PHYSIOLOGY 



and forms a substance called pyridine, which is even more 

 poisonous than nicotine. In a cigar the burning is more 

 complete, and less pyridine is formed. Cigarettes are small 

 cigars made of shredded tobacco. They are cheap and 

 may be quickly smoked, and are less liable to produce imme- 

 diate sickness than a cigar. So the young are especially 

 apt to use them. But they are commonly used to excess, 

 and so make up in quantity of poison what they lack in 

 quality. 



234. Chewing. Chewing tobacco is the most harmful 

 form of its use, for all the nicotine is taken into the mouth. 

 Few people can chew tobacco without spitting out the 

 saliva which contains the nicotine. The continuous spit- 

 ting which is necessary to get rid of the saliva makes this 

 form of using tobacco offensive to everybody near the 

 chewer. This reason alone should deter any one from the 

 practice of chewing tobacco. 



235. Snuff. Snuff is powdered tobacco. A hundred 

 years ago it was fashionable for women, as well as men, 

 to use snuff. Now a snuffbox is a rare curiosity. 



236. Adulteration of tobacco. The nicotine from stalks and 

 remnants is extracted by boiling, and the liquor is used to saturate poor 

 tobacco and the leaves of other plants. 



Chewing tobacco owes much of its taste to rum, molasses, licorice, 

 and other things with which it is flavored. 



Most cigarettes are flavored with drugs which color the fingers of 

 the smokers. Cigarettes are harmful enough at best, but the harm is 

 far greater when they contain opium. Probably a great part of the 

 craving which cigarettes induce is caused by the opium. 



237. Tobacco habit. Like all other narcotics, when it 

 is used for a short time tobacco produces a persistent crav- 

 ing. Men laugh at the idea of being slaves to such a 

 small thing as smoking or chewing, and yet when the habit 



