73 



The Tobacco Problem. 



(Abstract) 



Robert Hessler. 



Tn going over a large mass of notes on the Tobacco Problem, I arranged 

 them for convenience of classification into periods of iny own life. After 

 1900 notes are grouped under papers published since, such papers forming 

 "nest eggs," so to speak. In practically every paper I have had before this 

 Academy during the last fifteen years the tobacco problem can be read 

 between the lines. Here I intend to go over the subject very briefly in the 

 light of observations and work done, merely a note here and there. 



As a boy I saw others smoke and tried it myself, with the usual result — 

 an acute tobaccosis. Should a teacher use tobacco and set a bad example? 

 Practically all my boy friends smoked and a few years later I became a pipe 

 smoker — influence of example. At the age of seventeen years there was a 

 change of environment; I came in contact with boys and young men who 

 did not smoke, and so I quit and bought books: Again influence of example. 



Then came a year in the southern mountains in which I saw many 

 things; others I did not see then but "saw" that is, understood, later. For 

 instance, why the mountaineer can use tobacco and alcohol with seeming 

 impunity. He takes these in pure air, without an admixture of infection 

 of all kinds. 



Next came college days. At that time few of the instructors set a 

 "horrible example" by smoking. Students with few exceptions, did not use 

 tobacco. 



Then came medical college days in a large city under horribly bad air 

 conditions, due to the many sick and diseased who visited the clinics. Here 

 for the first time I saw the vicious circle that exists between bad air and 

 tobacco, and, I might add, alcohol and sedatives and narcotics generally. 

 The building was gloomy and dirty; artificial light was used all day long. 

 Patients spat on the floor; students reacted more or less; they got relief by the 

 use of tobacco, and in turn spat on the floor and thereby set a bad example 

 to the patients who did not hesitate to add their catarrhal and tubercular 



