NICOTIANA TABACUM 181 



takes them in the midst of perfect health, serve as arguments 

 for the defenders, to prove the innocence of the custom. The 

 antiseptic qualities of the smoke and of the entire plant also 

 lend the smoker a defensive argument, as he may uphold the 

 habit as hygienic and highly useful in preventing microbic in- 

 fection. The antiseptic power of tobacco smoke is undoubted, 

 but it is intolerable that a physician under the pretext of avoid- 

 ing self infection should enter the house of his patient and con- 

 tinue smoking at the bedside. 



Chronic nicotine poisoning is the result of a gradual intoxi- 

 cation by the absorption of the active principle of tobacco, the 

 alkaloid nicotine. Excessive smoking conduces to nicotism, 

 more common in Europe than in the tropics, because the na- 

 tives of Europe smoke the pipe and being confined in closed 

 dwellings, breathe continuously an atmosphere of smoke ; in 

 the Philippines, on the contrary, the pipe is almost unknown 

 and owing to the nature of the dwellings the smoking is car- 

 ried on practically in the open air. An injurious practice of 

 the Filipino smokers is that of "swallowing the smoke/' and 

 this is a fitting point to call attention to an error of Dujardin- 

 Beaumetz, who states that " in those who habitually swallow 

 the smoke the nicotine acts directly upon the stomach." The 

 expression " swallow smoke " (tragar el humo) does not mean 

 to force it into the stomach by an act of deglutition, and I am 

 sure no one attempts to dispose of it in that way ; but to in- 

 spire or breath it into the air passages. It is evident that this 

 latter habit does not involve the stomach, but those who prac- 

 tice it expose themselves more to nicotism than those who keep 

 the smoke in the mouth or expel it through the nose. 



The first cigar causes symptoms familiar to nearly everybody ; 

 dizziness, malaise, cold sweat, vomiting, diarrhoea, dilatation 

 of the pupils and rapid heart action — an acute intoxication. 

 Chronic intoxication or nicotism manifests itself by disturbances 

 of digestion, vision and especially circulation. It has been as- 



