102 TOBACCO. 



AN ANTISEPTIC ; PRESERVING OF THE TEETH. 



" Tobacco-smoke is not a vile, noxious exhala- 

 tion," declares someone. " It does not contaminate 

 the air, but tends to purity it. It is an antiseptic 

 principle, taking up and destroying poisons in the 

 air." 



As to the remarkable negative assertion in the 

 above passage, let it be referred to those whose 

 senses have not been impaired by the use of the 

 weed. Just what the writer means by terming 

 tobacco-smoke " a principle " one can only guess. 

 But what of the benefit he claims ? 



It has been my great aim to prove that tobacco 

 4 n all its forms — snuffing, chewing, and smoking, 

 — is poisonous. If the proofs are not convincing, 

 let them be challenged. But I make my appeal to 

 Caesar. 



As to preserving the teeth, the claim was utterly 

 denied by Dr. "Warren, of Boston, who asserted 

 that it was positively injurious to them. 



In order to treat this subject with entire candor, 

 I have written to a good number of eminent 

 dentists. From their uniformly kind and cour- 

 teous replies I will quote several passages, giving 

 the names when at liberty to do so. 



Dr. French, of Rochester, New York, while 

 himself a smoker, and claiming that tobacco is 

 antiseptic, states, in the Odontography Journal, 

 that a physician for whom he was operating 

 called his attention to certain teeth which were de- 





