William Augustine Brennan

“ Most medical investigators have based their results clearly on the excessive use of tobacco. It is a very rare thing to find a medical investigator drawing attention to any harmful results following the moderate use of tobacco, and it appears a just statement to make that the majority of men use tobacco in moderation. It appears to be true that excessive smoking is harmful and is capable of producing deleterious effects on the respiratory and nervous systems in man, but it has never been scientifically proved that the moderate use of tobacco has any particularly harmful effects. ”

“ It was inevitable that modern progress should invade and revolutionize the old and slow methods of cigar making; and so it has. Smoking is a sentimental occupation and lends itself easily to romantic associations. A good deal of romance and sentiment still hangs around the hand-made cigar and cigarette. In an up-to-date cigar factory, however, the whir of machinery and the precise, regular movements of automatic contrivances give little scope for sentiment. ”

“ As a matter of fact and record, however, the concentration of buying power by eliminating the middleman and the small dealers has not only placed the grower in a better position by giving him a better price, as recent records show, but it has benefited the consumer also who can obtain the superior grades at a lower price. It is the middleman’s profit that has been cut. Moreover, the concentrated buying power of the large interests here has been an effective force in keeping up tobacco leaf prices against the foreign buyers. It must be remembered that about half of our crop is exported. ”

“ The most important foreign tobacco as regards U. S. consumers is that known as Turkish. The leaves of the Turkish tobacco are small (about 8′′ long) , clear yellow in color, and have a special aroma, which renders them peculiarly suitable for the manufacturing of cigarettes. The principal producing centers are Macedonia, Albania, Syria, Palestine and Trebizond, that raised in Macedonia being per-haps the most celebrated. Just like the Cuban leaf, the very best grades of Turkish tobacco are not exported, but are kept for domestic consumption. ”

“ Judged from these viewpoints the best and most expensive thick cigar is likely to be more harmful than the very worst kind of a cigarette, for although there may be a much smaller percentage of nicotine in the cigar tobacco, a much larger proportion of it may reach the mouth of the smoker through the water produced by combustion, in the case of the cigar than in the case of the cigarette.
Every cigar and cigarette smoker should use a holder for the reason stated. The cigarette from the nicotine point of view is the least objectionable form of smoking. ”

“ It is quite conceivable that a man may investigate the evil effects which follow from wearing clothes and shoes and he could undoubtedly find some evil effects; but the users of such articles could very justly say that the beneficial results of such habits more than outweighed the demonstrated harm that might occur. And then the user of tobacco might say that the beneficial effects of smoking more than compensated for any slight harm that may happen. For tobacco has undoubtedly many excellent effects, and no one knows this better than [Pg 179] the smoker himself. ”

“ While much has been written on the effects of excessive smoking on the nervous system little has been said of the good effects of moderate smoking. Every smoker realizes that the soothing effects of tobacco on the nerves is perhaps its most valuable property. Clouston’s opinion, already quoted (and none could be better) , is [Pg 203] that “tobacco exercises a soothing influence when the nervous system is in anyway irritable; it tends to calm and continuous thinking.” Fullerton says, “It gives a composure and feeling of well-being which are beneficial to mind and body.” ”

“ On the other hand the users of tobacco are scarcely less vehement in holding that no harmful effects follow, but ascribing all kinds of virtue as resulting from its use. It is not our object in this chapter to justify or recommend the use, or to advise the avoidance of tobacco; we think it is a matter that the individual should decide for himself. ”

“ Not only for free burning is the potash valuable, but also for the better volatilization of the nicotine and other substances. [Pg 60] The more perfect the combustion, the fewer deleterious compounds are formed.
Chlorides, if present, retard the burning of the tobacco, and hence a tobacco which contains a high percentage of chloride, even if it is rich in potash salts, is a poor burning tobacco and therefore faulty. While it is important that the burning should be free and the volatilization as perfect as possible, yet the smoker does not want his tobacco to burn too rapidly. ”

“ Thus most varied opinions exist on the subject of nicotine. The result is that it is difficult for the average man to come to a satisfactory conclusion on the subject; for it cannot be said that the scientific knowledge of the effects of tobacco smoking on the human system as presented to us today is final or sufficiently well determined to enable definite and true conclusions to be arrived at. ”

“ The color term refers to the wrapper only. Many smokers judge the mildness or strength of a cigar by its outside color. This is a fallacy. The wrapper constitutes only about 2 per cent of the cigar weight. Moreover color is no criterion of strength. The darkest cigar may be and usually is very mild. The color is due (1) to the soil, (2) to the age of the plant when cut, and (3) to the length of time of curing and fermentation. As a general rule the lighter the color the more inferior and immature is the tobacco. Cigar smokers should remember this. ”

“ Men are well within their rights in forbidding cigarette smoking and other pleasures and distractions to their employes; it is another matter when they seize an opportunity to compound with vices they have a mind to, by damning one they’re not inclined to, especially when the latter affords solace and recreation to millions perfectly capable of judging what is and what is not good for them. ”

“ There is very little doubt that tobacco is a strongly protective agent against infection from disease. Its germicidal qualities are well-known and recognized. It is now recognized by medical writers that the mouth is one of the principal, if not the principal channel of infection for many infective diseases. The cavities of the teeth are the breeding places of hosts of pathogenic bacteria, of which there are about 100 different varieties arising from decaying food and other sources. ”

“ Indeed the strenuousness of life in the age in which we live seems to demand such a help and nothing appears to supply the want so efficiently, so pleasantly, and with less harm, than a quiet smoke. It puts the smoker at peace with himself and at peace with others. Bush found in his investigations on the mental effects of tobacco on college students that there was a temporary loss of ten per cent in mental efficiency in certain faculties of the mind. ”

“ The properties which it possesses are essentially due to the peculiar method of curing and fermentation and not to any peculiarity in the leaf itself. It is the only tobacco in the United States that is grown and put in its final condition for the consumer by the farmer. It is said that the output of genuine Perique is small, being well under 50,000 lbs. annually. But there is a good deal of substitute Perique sold in lieu of the genuine kind.
The tobacco is raised on a black, deep, exceedingly rich soil. The leaf is medium in size, about 18′′ long, and a rapid grower. ”

“ The quantity of nicotine, essential oils, etc., on which flavor and strength depend, is regulated to the greatest extent by the time of cutting.
The nature of the soil is a very important matter in the culture of tobacco, for the color of the cured tobacco leaf depends almost entirely on the soil. The light colored leaf is grown on light colored soil and the darker leaf is grown on heavy, dark soil. The best type of soil for the raising of tobacco intended for the cigar trade is a warm, deep, sandy loam which rests on permeable well-drained subsoil. ”

“ Briefly it may be said that the process is an attempt by the plant to prolong its existence by feeding on its own substance, by drawing on its own reserves and on its own structure for the food which its cells no longer receive through the natural growing process. ”

“ As a general rule no adulterants of any kind are added to the tobacco except in some of the very cheap kinds in which the leaf is sometimes treated with a glycerine solution in order to give it a sweetish taste. The solution is quite harmless.
The machinery for the manufacture of cigarettes has been brought to such perfection that it is quite automatic. The only hand work required is the feeding of the tobacco into the hoppers. The cutting, rolling, wrapping, tipping and packing are all done quite mechanically, the cigarettes being turned out all ready [Pg 139] for the smoker. ”

“ For the work-a-day and knock-about pipe the wooden pipe with short stem is without a rival. The qualities which are essential for a wooden pipe are many and it is difficult if not impossible to get any material that will answer all of them. The wood for such a pipe must be hard and practically incombustible, yet light. It must be sapless and inodorous so that when heated the fragrance of the tobacco would not be mingled with that of the wood and be lost. ”

“ Although by processes subsequent to growth it is possible to darken the color of tobacco leaf, there is no known process that will make a dark leaf light in color.
Moreover, the soil must be very fertile and rich in the special substances needed by the growing plant. This is all the more necessary because tobacco is a rapidly growing plant, and reaches its maturity within a few months after its planting. The rapidity of growth therefore demands a rich fertile soil well stored with plant food. ”

“ The general principles underlying the culture of tobacco are the same whether it is intended for the cigar, pipe smoking or cigarette trade; but the treatment of the leaf after it is harvested differs considerably.
Tobacco is a perennial plant. It is, however, usually raised each year from seed. The seedlings are usually ready for planting towards the end of May and are generally planted between the last week in May and the middle of June. ”

“ When the Spaniards landed for the first time on American soil they found the natives smoking the rolled-up tobacco leaves, that is a cigar. For a cigar is nothing more, four centuries having made little change in the Cuban cigar. ”

“ Japan produces large and medium size leaf of good color but poor in quality. It is generally used for pipe and cigarette trade.
The statistics of production for Asia are extremely unreliable. When we consider the teeming populations of China, India and other Eastern countries and the prevalence of the smoking habit, it is very probable that the figure of production (350,000 tons annually) is much under the mark. There is very little export of tobacco from the United States or Europe to the East. Whatever tobacco is consumed there is mostly of its own production. ”

“ The qualities required in a cigar must be viewed both from the smokers’ and the manufacturers’ standpoints and the leaf must be such as to conform to these qualities. Thus the smoker is concerned with the burning quality, the taste, flavor, aroma, color, general appearance and strength of the cigar. The manufacturer in addition to seeking leaf that will answer the smokers’ requirements also has an eye to economy and requires the leaf to have qualities regarding size, weight, texture, etc. ”

“ If the average user of tobacco is questioned concerning the matters treated in the following pages, he will be found ignorant of them. This ought not be so. The custom of tobacco smoking is so general and so intimate a part of the daily life of the great majority of men, that a better acquaintance with the plant, its qualities, uses and effects, should be cultivated and welcomed. ”

“ Some authors are rather inclined to conclude that nicotine alone is the pathogenic factor in tobacco smoking, but since the presence of nicotine per se in tobacco smoke is debatable and since other toxic substances are demonstrable, it would seem as if the whole subject still remained open for investigation. ”

“ Whether the custom of tobacco smoking is desirable, whether in any individual case it would be beneficial or otherwise to smoke—these and similar questions are left to the reader’s own judgment from the facts and opinions presented, as well as from his own observations. The man who uses tobacco daily should know what he is doing. ”