much greater care and cleansing of the teeth, 
yet the percentage of decay and disease was 
higher than in the case of men using tobacco. 
Fullerton says, “The smoking or chewing of 
tobacco is decidedly germicidal. Chewing, by 
exercising the teeth, helps nutrition and elimi- 
nates pathological agencies both by destroying 
them in situ and by removing them in the ex- 
pectoration.” Rideal (already quoted) men- 
tions that Dr. Burney, the senior medical officer 
of Greenwich Hospital, London, asserts that 
the tobacco smoking inmates of that institution 
enjoyed comparative immunity from epidemics. 
From these opinions and examples it seems 
quite clear that whatever portions of the de- 
composition products of tobacco reach the 
mouth and mix with the saliva, or propagate 
themselves in the immediate surroundings of the 
smoker, are likely to have extremely good ef- 
fects. It would be easy to multiply these 
opinions but there is no use laboring the argu- 
ment. There is a matter, however, it will do 
no harm to mention here. Today it is being 
gradually recognized by the medical profession 
that the conditions which lead ultimately to gas- 
tric and intestinal ulcer including appendicitis 
are entirely due to infection. At the 1912 meet- 
ing of the British Medical Association this was 
clearly manifested and some of the leading 
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