LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. =1389= Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius The Truth About the Tobacco Habit T. Swann Harding HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS GIRARD, KANSAS Copyright, 1929, Haldeman-Julius Company PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TOBACCO HABIT A young friend of mine of the trouser-wearing male sex recently developed a pain in his stomach. He decided to wait it out. But it was an indecent as well as an insidious sort of pain and finally persisted so long that he was driven to consult a physician for moral support. The physician said, “Do you smoke?” My friend said “Yes.” The physician said, “That’s it, of course. Quit smoking. Three dollars, please.” My friend went away, quit smoking, and the pain persisted. He returned to the doctor. He was now given a little silver nitrate. He went away, but he came back again. By that time the physician was really angry. He said, “You’ve smoked yourself into a nice stomach ulcer, you have. I’ll have to operate. I hate to but I have to.” Just then buckwheat cakes and sausage made my friend violently ill one day and he deleted them from his diet. The pain left and has not yet played a return engagement. He smokes more than ever now, but he throws away longer butts. Another friend of mine classifying in the male sex which so far tends to avoid wearing trousers--much--went to a physician. She complained of a rash which she said afflicted her all winter. Fortunately for the physician she smoked energetically. He therefore told her to quit and called the next patient. Since she knew that she smoked in summer as well as in winter she did not quit but, by chance, consulted a scientific nutrition investigator. There was no reason for this; she did it irrationally and by pure inadvertance. But he asked, “Do you eat anything in winter that you do not eat in summer?” And she at first said, “No,” because that is the most natural answer to make under the circumstances. Then later, after a half an hour’s cross-examination, she said, “Yes, oatmeal.” He said, “Try cutting that out for a while.” So she conquered this craving, but continued to smoke, and the rash departed for parts unknown. She had an idiosyncrasy for oatmeal proteins just as some people have for strawberry or egg proteins, and her rash was thus caused. In a moment of more violent perversity I went not long ago to a lecture advocating ruthless war on tobacco. In spite of the success women have just had in smoking anti-cigarette reformers into comas, the speaker, Daniel H. Kress, M. D., was President of the Anti-Cigarette Alliance. Since he was a regular doctor in active practice I had a right to expect the presentation of a scientific case against tobacco.