THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD 159 



While tobacco may cause a more or less injurious effect 

 upon other organs of the body, it is upon the heart that it 

 may work its most serious wrong. Upon this most impor- 

 tant organ its effect is often to depress and paralyze. 

 Especially does this apply to the young, whose bodies are 

 not yet knit into the vigor of manhood. 



219. Heart Disease caused by Tobacco. There are few 

 conditions more distressing than the suffering produced by 

 a palpitating heart. It is claimed by medical men that 

 about one in every four tobacco users is subject, in some 

 degree, to this disturbance. Test examinations of a large 

 number of boys who had used cigarettes showed that only 

 a very small percentage escaped cardiac trouble. 



The condition of the pulse is a guide to this state of the 

 heart. In this the physician reads plainly the existence 

 of the " tobacco heart," an affection clearly recognized by 

 the medical profession. 



Many of the young men who made application to enlist 

 during our war with Spain, in 1898, were rejected because 

 the physical examination revealed a tobacco heart. 



Of older tobacco users there are very few but have some 

 warning of the effects of overindulgence in this narcotic. 

 Generally they suffer more or less from the tobacco heart, 

 and if the nervous system or the heart be naturally feeble, 

 they suffer all the more speedily and intensely. 1 



1 The irregularity in the heart's action, which tobacco causes, is one of 

 its most conspicuous effects. Candidates, who are annually rejected for 

 cardiac disturbances, have subsequently admitted the use of tobacco ; the 

 annual physical examination of cadets reveals a large number of irritable 

 hearts tobacco hearts among boys. Surgeon General U. S. Navy. 



Tobacco, and especially cigarettes, being a depressant upon the heart, 

 should be positively forbidden. J. M. KEATING, M.D., on " Physical 

 Development," in Cyclopcedia of the Diseases of Children. 



