--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Social Advisory Committee collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 4 published: 1921-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Social Advisory Committee, "The Effects of Nicotin and Tobacco," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 4 (February 1921): 338–340.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2404unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2404unse start_page: 338 end_page: 340 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2404unse publication_year: 1921 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Effects of Nicotin and Tobacco The Effects of Nicotin and Tobacco From Pamphlet No. 8, Social Advisory Committee It should be a matter of more than passing interest to Church members, that according to conservative estimates, sufficient money is being spent for tobacco in Utah alone to defray the entire expenses of more than 5,000 "Mormon'* missionaries. The most serious objection to tobacco is its harmful effect upon the human body. These harmful effects have been repeatedly demonstrated and are no longer matters of opinion. The following quotations are taken from How to Live, by Fisher and Fisk, (15th edition) Funk and Wagnalls, 1920, probably the most widely circulated scientific book on health in the English language: "In experiments on animals nicotin extracts from tobacco and inhalation of tobacco smoke have produced hardening of the large arteries. Clinical observation by some of the world's best authorities indicates that the same conditions are brought about in man by heavy smoking. "Disturbance of the blood pressure, rapid heart action, shortness of breath, palpitation of the heart, pain in the region of the heart, are important effects. Tobacco heart is often lightly spoken of because the abandonment of the habit will often restore the heart to its normal condition, but tobacco heart sometimes causes death, especially under severe physical strain or in the course of acute disease, such as typhoid or pneumonia. Surgeons have noted failure to rally after operation in tobacco users, who are, of course, deprived of their accustomed indulgence immediately before and after operation." (Page 351) "No doubt pyridin and furfural are factors in the drug effects of tobacco, but recent painstaking experiments by high authorities have shown the presence of nicotin in tobacco smoke, and when we reflect that there is sometimes sufficient nicotin in an ordinary cigar to kill two men, it is not strange that enough of it may be absorbed from the smoke passing over the mucous membranes of the nose, throat and lungs to produce a distinct physiological effect." (Page 342) Some users of tobacco repeatedly assert that the nicotin present in unburned tobacco is completely destroyed during EFFECTS OF NICOTIN AND TOBACCO 339 smoking. This, however, is a mistake. The London Lancet, regarded as the highest authority in British medical circles, has proved that while varying amounts of nicotin are destroyed in the different forms of smoking, yet in no case is it completely eliminated. The Lancet experiments, (1904 and 1912) prove that from twenty to eighty percent of the nicotin is actually taken into the smoker's mouth and lungs. Not all of this i9 absorbed by his system of course; otherwise he would be fatally poisoned almost immediately. "The United States Department of Agriculture has also found in tobacco smoke about 30% of the nicotin originally present." (Page 343) "Nicotin causes brief stimulation of brain and spinal cord, followed by depression. There is an increased flow of saliva, followed by a decrease (large doses diminish it at once) and often nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The heart action is at first slowed and the blood pressure increased. Subsequently there is a depression of the circulation, with rapid heart action and lowered blood pressure. In habitual smokers this preliminary stimulation may not occur. The stimulating effect on the brain is so brief that tobacco can not properly be termed a stimulant. Its effect is narcotic or deadening. Those who fancy that their thoughts flow more readily under the use of tobacco are in the same case with any other habitue whose thoughts can not flow serenely except under his accustomed indulgence. That a sound, healthy man, who has never been accustomed to the use of tobacco, can do better mental or physical work with tobacco than without it has never been shown. Indeed, such experiments as have been made on students and others show to the contrary." (Pages 344-5.) Dr. George J. Fisher and Elmer Berry, (Physical Effects of Tobacco, Association Press, New York.) in a series of careful tests found: "1. Cigaret smoking caused an increase in the heart-rate. "2. Cigaret smoking maintained a blood pressure which, under the circumstances of the experiment, would otherwise have dropped. "3. Cigar smoking caused a considerable increase in heartrate and blood pressure. "4. In a number of instances, in the cigar test, the heart was unable to maintain, with a vertical position, the increased blood pressure found in the horizontal position, showing a disturbance of the control of the blood-vessels. This latter effect was more pronounced in tests taken on non-smokers. "5. It was also noted that smoking was not conducive to 340 IMPROVEMENT ERA concentration upon the reading, which the men attempted during the tests." Arthur D. Bush, (Tobacco Smoking and Mental Efficiency, N. Y. Med. Jour., 1914, p. 519.) in a series of tests on each of 15 men in several different mental fields found the following conditions among smoking students immediately after the period of smoking was completed: "1. A IOV2 percent decrease in mental efficiency. "2. The greatest actual loss was in the field of imagery 22 percent. "3. The three greatest losses were in the fields of imagery, perception, and association. "4. The greatest loss, in these experiments, occurred with cigarettes." The Man with a Grouch Did you ever, dear friends, meet the man with the grouch The dear man who his grievance ne'er put in a pouch? He just airs it and pairs it and hugs it all day, And he always, yes always, has something to say. His poor wife is no good, and his boys are the same, And he never, no never, has a cent to his name; There was never a creature he ever has known, Whose weak brains are worth quarter as much as his own. The dear man is not born, he's not yet come to earth, Who could come up to him in the matter of worth; His own logic is perfect, he knows things are so, In plain fact he knows all that one ever can know. This dear man with the grouch I do herewith declare, Is the worst thing on earth we are called on to bear; He finds fault with this world, with the world of the elf. But he never, no never finds fault with himself. I care not what the weather nor state of my purse, For if things reach the limit they cannot get worse; I'll not murmur if days I must spend on a couch But long may I be kept from the man with the grouch. Ogden, Utah. MoUie Higginson