M 



He would be practicallj unfitted for work but for the steadying effeel of 

 tobacco. It acted as a sedative. Why nol prevenl the reaction and maki 

 1 he use of tobacco unnecessary '.' When you point out I hese t hings you knock 

 the props from under t lie tobacco argumenl . I )octors are notorious smokers. 

 When they meet, especially at a banquet, the air is usually full of smoke, 

 so full that you can not see across tin- room. Naturally those who do not 

 smoke stay away, as they do from other "smokers." 



In a general way in youth and up to middle age individuals may lie 

 grouped under three classes according to the blood pressure low. medium 

 or high, under unsanitary city conditions. At middle aye and after there 

 are really only two groups, those with a low pressure and those with a bigfi 

 pressure. Ordinarily we speak of the action of tobacco on man; in reality 

 it is the reaction of man to tobacco. When the low pressure individual i> 

 exposed to tobacco smoke his pressure declines still more, his pulse may be- 

 come imperceptible, he feels bad, ami he gets out : lie is a victim of tobacco- 

 sis. On the other hand is the high blood pressure individual: To him 

 tobacco smoke may act as a sedative, it lowers the tension, he feels belter. 

 He is the one Avho attends "smokers;" he does not object to tobacco. But 

 as a rule he does not realize the significance of high blood pressure and the 

 danger he is in, how his very life hangs on a thread.* 



Moreover mental changes are marked. The low pressure man is stupefied 

 by tobacco smoke, he can not think. The bright things he might have said 

 come to him the next day. On the other hand the high blood pressure man 

 whose mind is constantly running riot is steadied. Such a statement taken 

 without the context might be considered as a plea for tin- use of tobacco! 



How do these two classes, the high and the low pressure, react from the 

 standpoint of coniosis under infected dust conditions and without tobacco 

 effects, say in the poorly ventilated church, as during the closed door season 

 when some leave early because they feel bad? As a general rule those who 

 leave "deathly pale" are low pressure with the pressure still further reduced, 

 while those who go out with flushed face are high pressure, with the pressure 

 heightened. We thus see the two-sided effect of bad air, air with infected dust. 



*In my scarcn for original data I have questioned many physicians, including both 

 smokers and non-smokers, as well as an occasional chewer. Strange to relate I have 

 met men whom I suspected to have a high blood pressure who refused to have the 

 pressure taken; they preferred to live on in ignorance and smoke. The average phy- 

 sician knows as little about the effect of tobacco as the man on the street who h;>s tio 

 education and in whom one does nol expect any matured opinion. 



