Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/89

Rh the other hand, tobacco stands in no want of facts or of able advocates in its favor.

It has been proved, beyond question, that, where men have been exposed to the combined influences of cold and want of food, those who smoked displayed most endurance. Dr. Hammond states that smoking in moderation, if the food be at the same time sufficient, increases the weight of the body. The author of a clever work on physiology states that a cigar after dinner notably assists his digestion. I am often told by patients that the sense of oppression felt after meals is relieved by smoking. The explanation depends on the strong sympathy which exists between the stomach and the salivary glands. One proof of this dependence is that sickness of stomach is commonly attended by salivation. This makes it probable that, when the salivary glands are stimulated by smoking, the gastric glands, in obedience to a sympathetic action, pour out their secretion more freely. But, if a depressing effect on the nervous system is induced by smoking too much, digestion is certain to be impeded. On the whole, smoking is the cause of more harm than good to digestion. That kind of chronic nervous depression which belongs to hard and inveterate smokers is always accompanied by dyspepsia.

The effects of taking snuff are more insidious, as no warning is given by immediate bad consequences. Great snuff takers are often sufferers in the stomach. In addition to the specific effects of tobacco, the continued stimulating and mechanical action of snuff on the mucous membrane of the nose is injurious. Irritation is directly transmitted from the nasal surface to that of the stomach, with which it is continuous. Dry snuffs are more hurtful than moist, as they penetrate farther.

The difficulty of breaking off or even moderating this habit is well known, and the following plan, practised with success by an inveterate snuff taker, is worth mention: Instead of pure snuff, he kept in his box a mixture in equal parts of snuff and powdered valerian root. His theory was, that the valerian repaired the ravages of the snuff upon his nerves, but the more probable explanation of the benefit is, that he consumed much less of the disagreeable compound than he did of pure snuff.

Persons engaged in offices are exposed to a directly exciting cause of indigestion. The stooping posture in which they write, mechanically interferes with the stomach's action. I have even traced well marked dyspepsia to sitting immediately after dinner in a low armchair, so that the body was curved forward and the stomach compressed. In some trades, the pressure of certain implements upon the pit of the stomach, as in the case of curriers, bootmakers, and weavers, produces severe dyspepsia. Many bad cases, attended with water brash, occur among the weavers of Spitalfields.