Matthew
Jedi Master
You are more than welcome. Have fun with your new device; it's an impressive looking device.
You are more than welcome. Have fun with your new device; it's an impressive looking device.
I'm using manual tobacco cutter for whole leaf tobacco, but it is one time investment because it is pretty durable.
In EU you can buy it as "manual herbal cuter" or "manual tea leaves cutter". In Croatia you can't buy anything with prefix "tobacco" except standard packaged products.
I'm using this kind of cutter: Manual Tobacco Cutter
It cuts a tobacco in a little bit coarser pieces but it’s fine for my needs.
The one you have, i had, but it broke on the stems of the whole leaves i was cutting. The Tabletop fine cut shredder is much more durable, necessary when you smoke a lot. I used the 0.8mm.
My mate cuts it with a paper shredder, ok if you only fill up prefabricated filter cigarette tubes.
My mate cuts it with a paper shredder, ok if you only fill up prefabricated filter cigarette tubes.
The below concerns Gustave Le Bon, and many know his work, such as his book The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind which points out back in time when he wrote it, what was the going on today (especially in the age of mass media and social media on steroids) . Have a listen at this good talk from 2018 on Herd Behavior on SoTT to get an idea, if not known.
Now, what does the above have to do with tobacco, nothing, however was surprised by Le Bon's other work, which included, I'm guessing, near the first scientific (if it can be called that) publication on experimentation with tobacco, or more so, nicotine. When looking the other night into some of Le Bon's more obscure works (hopefully to find them translated into English from French), found that in the year 1880 Gustave published La Fumée du Tabac or, The Tobacco Smoke.
Upon looking at this title, what was this all about - Gustave Le Bon and smoking. Looked for a translated copy and there was none, so settled in to translating it by internet means. The online copy said:
After translating it into English, it quickly became apparent that it was much worse than that percentage above as an optical scan, or at least Google Translate made it worse, and in retrospect, perhaps should have used DeepL to check the difference. If an English version can be found, great...
Anyway, the following are a few key points (and they were doing some strange and inhuman things on animals (killing with pure nicotine) and experiments on humans), and the rest can be read on its own.
If read, you will see that Gustave was also working on (very likely) the first 'Second Hand Smoke' experiment by filling up a closed in motor vehicle and seeing how they were felling (he participated as a subject). Le Bon was picking up on experiments done, and also doing them and writing them up.
Snip:
It seems Le Bon started working with experiment data eight years prior (1872) from the 1880 publication date - with a first edition followed by a second more complete edition - here is what he says (translated - and it is not a great translation at that and did not attempt to correct it either - note there are lab illustrations added):
Here are the chapters (shown in the main translation at the end):
As for the conclusion, here they are and one can then check on the main body to look at Le Bon's description and methodologies:
Sure needed a
when done.
Now, what does the above have to do with tobacco, nothing, however was surprised by Le Bon's other work, which included, I'm guessing, near the first scientific (if it can be called that) publication on experimentation with tobacco, or more so, nicotine. When looking the other night into some of Le Bon's more obscure works (hopefully to find them translated into English from French), found that in the year 1880 Gustave published La Fumée du Tabac or, The Tobacco Smoke.
Upon looking at this title, what was this all about - Gustave Le Bon and smoking. Looked for a translated copy and there was none, so settled in to translating it by internet means. The online copy said:
After translating it into English, it quickly became apparent that it was much worse than that percentage above as an optical scan, or at least Google Translate made it worse, and in retrospect, perhaps should have used DeepL to check the difference. If an English version can be found, great...
Anyway, the following are a few key points (and they were doing some strange and inhuman things on animals (killing with pure nicotine) and experiments on humans), and the rest can be read on its own.
If read, you will see that Gustave was also working on (very likely) the first 'Second Hand Smoke' experiment by filling up a closed in motor vehicle and seeing how they were felling (he participated as a subject). Le Bon was picking up on experiments done, and also doing them and writing them up.
Snip:
It seems Le Bon started working with experiment data eight years prior (1872) from the 1880 publication date - with a first edition followed by a second more complete edition - here is what he says (translated - and it is not a great translation at that and did not attempt to correct it either - note there are lab illustrations added):
Here are the chapters (shown in the main translation at the end):
As for the conclusion, here they are and one can then check on the main body to look at Le Bon's description and methodologies:
Sure needed a
when done.PURPOSE OF THIS WORK
Physiological experiments attempted so far on tobacco
were made exclusively with the alkaloid, nicotine,
that we remove leaves from this plant. By doing so,
the experimenters were exposed to very critical
founded, because nothing showed that there was the slightest analogy
between tobacco smoke and nicotine The first,
in fact, is a very complex mixture in which the main
various pes that the leaves contain may have been
profoundly modified by combustion.
Does tobacco smoke actually contain nicotine
and would it not contain other toxic principles? These
various principles are they absorbable in the conditions where
are smokers and in what proportions can
will they be absorbed?
It is for the purpose of resolving these various questions that
I had undertaken 8 years ago, the research including the first
edition (1) of this thesis contained the presentation. On request
that the French Society made against tobacco abuse,
by the organ of its Secretary-General, Dr. Goyard,
I recently completed them by addressing points that
I had entirely left out in the past. \.
This second edition differs entirely from the first with which it has in common only the only chapter
(1) This tM edition, crowned following a competition opened by
the Liège Medical and Surgical Society was published in the Annals
of this Society, His conclusions have been reproduced in most
medical journals and various works of classical chemistry,
the great Treatise of Professor Girardin, in particular.
2 -
sacred to the dosage of nicotine. Among the new research
as it contains, I will mention the search for acid
prussic and carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke,
the determination of the principles which give smoke its
special aromo and many physiology experiments
executed on animals and on man.
I do not think it is necessary to point out that this brief is a
pure science work and that I leave to people that
this is interesting, the task of drawing conclusions from your work
that will please them. The field of facts on which I am
maintained is too solid for me to consent to deviate from it.
I will not finish this short introduction without thanking
sincerely the scholars who facilitated me the long and
difficult researches which I carried out. I mention-
among them Mr. Rolland, from the Institute, Director-General
from the tobacco administration, which authorized me to take
the Paris factory, all the information that
will be useful to me, Mr. Schloesing, Director of the school
tobacco, which provided me with various chemical
and delivered significant quantities of pure nicotine,
Dr. Gréhant, Assistant Director of the Physics Laboratory
siology at the Museum, which lent me for several days,
for very delicate chemical analyzes, the competition
more graceful, and finally my friend before D 1 'Georges Noël,
former preparer at the Collège de France, our late
master Claude Bernard. It was with his help that
do research related to prussic acid and
termination of the principles that give tobacco smoke
her perfume.
THE
TOBACCO SMOKE
RESEARCH
CHEMICAL & PHYSIOLOGICAL
CHAPTER I
RESEARCH OF PROPORTIONS OF NICOTINE AND AMMONIA
WHAT CAN SMOKERS ABSORB
§ 1. Conditions under which absorption can take place
nicotine and various principles of tobacco smoke. -
The question that we propose to resolve in this cha-
clown is this: At what dose nicotine that smoke
tobacco can it be absorbed in various
circumstances in which smokers are placed? Before
to approach it we must first list these conditions.
They can, we believe, be summarized as follows:
boasts:
Tobacco is smoked in the form of cigars, cigarettes,
short pipe, long pipe or hookah pipe
and the smoker placed outdoors or in a room
closed swallows or does not swallow - depending on the expression
usual - its smoke. To these various cases can be added still
that of a person who, not smoking, is in
_ 4 _
a room where one or more smokers are staying, such as
than a cafe or railroad car, for example (*).
Let’s examine now, theoretically first, what
must happen in the different cases that we just
to list. We will then confirm, by experience,
the accuracy of our assumptions.
Let us first consider the case of smoked tobacco in the form of
cigar or cigarette and let's see what takes place. We
first admit that the smoker does not swallow his smoke and
is in the open air, so as not to
breathe an atmosphere charged with the smoke it produces.
During the combustion of the first parts of the cigar or
cigarettes, the various compounds that tobacco contains
(water, nicotine, ammonia salts, etc.), carried by the neighbor-
the incandescent part swims at a high temperature,
reduce to vapor. A portion of this vapor is
dense in the cold upper layers of tobacco, where it
is attracted to the smoker's aspiration; the other arrives in the
mouth and in contact with the wet surface and relatively
cold of the oral mucosa, partially condenses and
mix with saliva to be absorbed. Which
escaped condensation is released into the atmosphere.
As the cigar or cigarette continue to burn, the
layer of tobacco that the smoke has to go through to get to
the mouth being less and less thick, the condensation
it becomes more and more imperfect and the smoke reaches the
mouth more and more loaded with active ingredients. When
finally the cigar or the cigarette is almost finished, the smoke
which arrives in the mouth of the smoker, not only has not
been stripped by the condensation of part of its principal
cipes, but also contains the materials previously
(*) Auctioneers and chiqueurs are not included in these di-
for categories. Their study was outside the scope of our work which does not
concerns that tobacco smoke. -
li-
condensed in the upper layers of tobacco and
which, carried by combustion at a high temperature,
find themselves volatilized again. This is precisely what
explains this fact, well known to smokers, that the last
part of the cigar tastes much more pronounced than the first
mother. People not used to smoking even arrive
difficult to completely finish a cigar without testing
nausea, and we see them frequently rejecting their
live (loaded with active ingredients), which the
habitual smoker.
We see, by the previous explanation, that when
smokes cigars or cigarettes, many of the main
active pipes smoke comes into your mouth, especially if you
burns the cigar or cigarette entirely, which happens,
for example, when using a cigar holder. The pro-
portion of nicotine and other active ingredients absorbed must
therefore be very high, and we will see, by our experiences,
that it really is.
We have admitted, in the previous case, that the smoker
was in the open air and did not inhale its smoke, it did not
can therefore absorb while the materials which condense
smells on the relatively small surface of the mouth.
Now suppose that the same subject, instead of
find outdoors, smoke in a closed apartment. To the
instead of the pure air that he previously breathed, he breathes
then an air more or less charged with smoke and, consequently,
active ingredients it contains. This air charged with fu-
mée passes and passes successively through the lungs and
each time divests itself of some of the conden-
sands mixed there. The smoker will therefore absorb
then not only the principles that condense in
his mouth while he sucks the smoke from his cigar but
still those that will have kept the smoke that it releases in
the atmosphere. The absorption will be all the more considerable as more smokers are found
gathered in the same place.
6 -
If the same cigar or cigarette smoker is found
placed under the conditions previously indicated, but
moreover, following a common habit in some
country, it swallows, as we vulgarly say, the smoke of
his cigar or his cigarette before rejecting it by the nose or
through the mouth, the absorption will be much more considerable
core only in the cases we have examined. Smoke,
who did not have, as in the previous hypothesis, the
time to cool down in the atmosphere, get to the
mons, having only lost its active ingredients
which could condense in the mouth, and, in contact with the
large area of the pulmonary mucosa, it strips
of a large proportion of the materials it contains (va-
fear of water, nicotine, ammonia, carbon monoxide, resin,
etc.), but all physiologists know how quickly
produces absorption on the surface of the pulmonary mucosa.
The reasoning that we applied to the three cases
Previous: Smoking outdoors, smoking in an apartment
closed, smoking while breathing in smoke, can be applied to
pipe smokers as well as cigar or cigarette smokers
cigarette. However the dose of the principles absorbed by the
pipe smokers is very different from that absorbed by
Cigar or cigarette smokers, because the smoke, before
river to the mouth, crosses a cold tube or it condenses
in part. The product of this condensation constitutes this
semi-liquid substance that concentrates in the pipes
pipes and to which smokers give the name of juice.
It is easy to predict that the longer the pipe the pipe will be
the longer the condensation of the active ingredients in the smoke
will be complete and the more it will arrive stripped to the bou-
che and lungs. Long pipe pipes constitute,
as we will see later, one of the devices with
who are less likely to smoke.
- 7 -
Some superiority, however, of the long pipe
pipe on the short pipe, and especially on the cigar and
on the cigarette, it is still very inferior to the hookah
of the Orientals. In this device, in fact, the smoke does not
only after passing through a container full of water
and a very long tube. She then comes into contact with the
mouth surface, not completely stripped of its
principles because we have seen in our experiences that three
wash bottles weren't enough to strip her whole-
but at least infinitely less loaded with materials
active than with the ordinary pipe. We can easily explain
that with similar devices the Orientals can
smoke for a long time without being bothered.
We successively considered the different cir-
constants in which a fun eur can be found. he
we still have to look at the case, relatively
very frequent, where a person who does not smoke is
in a room (railway wagon, coffee, smokehouse, etc.)
where the atmosphere contains tobacco smoke.
It would be wrong if the people placed in these
conditions believe they can escape the effects of tobacco.
Man, as we know, breathes about eighteen times
per minute, and, with each new inspiration, half a liter
about air comes into his lungs. So it's nine liters
of air approximately per minute, which pass through these organs. This
air supplying the elements it contains to the lungs,
dividu who is near a smoker makes pass and re-
pass successively through its mouth a mass of air
shutting off the harmed smoke partly condenses on the vast
surface provided by the mucous membrane of the mouth, trachea
and lungs. No doubt it absorbs fewer principles
than the smoker himself, because the latter, in addition to the charged air
smoke, that he breathes, passes in his mouth of the
almost unmixed smoke; but however it absorbs some
still a notable proportion, as we will see
in our experiences. If I had to decide on the question
tion of whether to smoke outdoors without inspiring your smoke
is less dangerous than staying long without smoke
sea in an atmosphere laden with tobacco smoke, I
would not hesitate to do so for the affirmative.
- 8 -
In the different cases that we have listed, we
did not take into account the species, the tobacco used. he
it is obvious that the amount of nicotine and other main
the absorbed pes will be all the stronger as the tobacco con-
itself will hold a greater amount of these
principles. The composition of cigars varies significantly
according to their origin, but the ordinary tobacco sold in
France by the administration is a mixture of a composi-
tion fairly constant, and, as its usage is much more
general as that of the cigars, it is he that we have taken
applied for all our experiments relating to the dosage of
nicotine.
§ II. Device used to find the proportion of
nicotine absorbed by smokers. - We come from ex-
to pose the theory of the condensation of the active principles of
tobacco smoke in the smoker's organs we will
now approach the experimental side of the question.
Perhaps the most perfect way to analyze the main
active pes of tobacco smoke absorbed would consist in making
pass through the respiratory organs of an animal, from the
smoke of known composition, then to collect it at its exit,
to see what she would have lost. But this means
which I had thought of at first, presents difficulties of execution
insurmountable, and I had to look for another one.
To get to the goal I set out to do, I tried to imitate
ter the mechanism of the condensation of the active ingredients of
smoke in the smoker's organs.
9 –
When smoke enters the mouth, it encounters a
relatively cold moist mucosa, in contact with which
it condenses in part, and the condensed principles,
dipped in saliva, are then absorbed, either through the mucosa
mouth, or that of the digestive tract, when the saliva is
swallowed. Obviously if the saliva is thrown out,
only part of the active ingredients it dissolved
will be absorbed but everyone knows that habitual smokers
spit very little.
In the lungs, things happen in an ana-
logue, and it is useless to dwell on this point, the pro-
absorbent priety of the pulmonary mucosa being well
known.
Suppose now that instead of passing air
loaded with smoke in the mouth, we passed it on
an area exactly equal to that of the mucous membrane buc-
wedge, wet like her, and, like her too, at a time
temperature of about 37 ° centigrade; it is obvious that the
liquids which will condense on contact with this surface
show exactly which liquids have condensed
in contact with the oral mucosa itself during
aspiration of tobacco smoke.
If now we want to find the proportion of
active ingredients condensed in the lung we will not have
as well as passing air loaded with tobacco smoke
on contact with a surface - this time equal to the dimension
from the lung lining and collect the fluids that
will condense.
It is on these bases that we built, for
collect the active ingredients which condense in the or-
ganes of smokersv the following devices:
i> Device intended to collect the active principles of
tobacco smoke that condenses in the mouth of a
10-
Cigar or cigarette smoker who does not swallow his or her smoke.
A is a vase intended to replace the mouth. Due to
its numerous folds (mucous membrane of the cheeks, gums,
the tongue, the palate, the throat, etc.), the mucosa
of the mouth has an extensive surface. By measures
direct repeated on several corpses, I evaluate it at, approximately
300 square centimeters. The interior of vase A, chosen from
suitable size, is therefore upholstered with a sheet of paper
filter pier kept wet, 300 square centimeters
approximately of surface, intended to represent the mucous membrane
mouth itself. Vase A is immersed in a container
maintained at 37 °, usual temperature of the mouth.
It is a metal funnel in which we burn the
tobacco; it represents the cigar or the cigarette. We bent it
at the bottom to prevent ashes from falling
in the vase A. Tobacco, as in the cigar or the cigar
rette, burns in almost all of it, and the products of the com-
bustion pass entirely into the mouth, which replaces
the interior surface of vase A.
D D are wash bottles full of water that have
used to wash smoke to study products that escape
pay for condensation in the mouth.
li -
E is a balloon containing sulfuric acid intended for
retain nicotine and ammonia that would not have been
retained by the other bottles.
F is a suction tube intended to replace the res-
piration, that is to say to attract into the vase A} which represents
mouth, tobacco combustion products. When
combustion is regulated, the appliance can operate as long
that it contains tobacco, without requiring any monitoring.
2. Apparatus intended to collect the active principles of
smoke that condenses in the mouth of the pipe smoker.
This device is similar to the previous one, but the arrangement
tion of the funnel is a little different. Before arriving
in the vessel A, the smoke passes through a tube of length
riable, representing the pipe of the pipe. At the lower end
lower of this pipe, is placed a capsule intended to
collect the liquid part which condenses in the tube and
represents what is commonly called juice.
We used in our experiments, tubes of
10 centimeters and 50 centimeters in length, intended for
represent short pipes and long pipes.
3. Apparatus intended to collect the active ingredients which
condense in the mouths and lungs of smokers who
breathe their smoke.
This device is similar to system # 1, only the
vase is larger, so that its inner surface can
represent not only the surface of the mucous membrane buc-
wedge, but also that of the pulmonary mucosa; as
in device 1, this surface is lined with a sheet
wet paper, intended to represent the mucosa of
lungs and mouth.
Approximately calculate the area of the mucosa
buccal is fairly easy thing but it is almost impossible
to determine that of the pulmonary mucosa. All
that we were able to do is to appreciate it from the
pacified lung. In the normal state, this organ receives by
inspiration half a liter of air which is added to the reserve
about two liters it usually contains.
- 12 -
In the impossibility of calculating the extent of the surface of the
pulmonary mucosa, I assumed it equal to that of a
. cylindrical vase of three liters capacity, and I added to
this area that calculated above for the mucosa
buccal; this figure is obviously much lower than that
would represent the area of the lung lining because
the folds of the latter are extremely numerous;
but by operating as I did, I am at least certain
to have avoided any exaggeration, and the results that I got-
nudes will only be more convincing. The relative value of
results remains the whole thing, because all of my experiences
were made with the same devices.
4. Apparatus intended to receive the active principles of
smoke that condenses in the mouth and lungs of a
person who, without smoking, is in an atmosphere
charged with smoke.
The apparatus simply consists of a vase of the dimen-
version of the one used in the previous system and upholstered
like him of a wet leaf representing the mucous membranes
buccal and pulmonary. This vase, open at its upper part
is placed in a room with several
smokers and put in communication with a vacuum cleaner which
passes the smoke-laden air through the device. This last-
nière partly condenses.
§ III. Tobacco smoke products that condense in
the apparatus representing the mouth and lungs of the fu-
dies. - Products from the condensation of tobacco smoke
in the vase lined with wet paper, representing the surface
oral and pulmonary mucosa, consists of two
liquids of very different appearance, one yellowish, of odor
ammoniacal, almost as fluid as water; the other
thick, viscous, much more unpleasant odor than
the first, on the surface of which it comes to float. This last
represents exactly as color, odor and properties,
the blackish liquid which condenses in pipes having long
time served and which is commonly referred to as
juice.
13
The total amount of liquid produced by condensation
smoke on the surface of the vase representing the mouth and
the lung has varied in our experiments from 20 to 25 gram-
mes per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. The amount of
viscous liquid noted above hardly exceeded
1 gram.
The fluid which was in large quantity at the
bottom of the condensation vessel consisted of holding water
in dissolution or suspension of very diverse matters
among which I will now only mention the nico-
tin, carbonate of ammonia, and various colo-
rantes.
The thick, viscous liquid consisted mainly of nico-
tine, ammonia, red coloring substance,
resins, various salts and various organic materials,
especially those giving tobacco its special smell. It is
not very soluble in water, but very soluble in alcohol,
to which it communicates a beautiful red color. When we
heats it, it spreads vapors with the smell of
tobacco smoke and ends up burning with a nice flame
white leaving a very weak residue with an alkaline reaction.
§ IV. Determination of nicotine and ammonia which is
denser in the respiratory organs of smokers. - The
nicotine in tobacco smoke is easy ù
notice by the ordinary reagents of this substance, and I
amazes me that its existence has never been disputed. Yes
2, tobacco smoke does not contain nicotine, it
in any case holds a substance which resembles it so much
by its chemical, physical and physiological properties
that it cannot be distinguished from it. The demonstration of his
presence had been made a long time ago by the rest by Melsens.
14-
We "have done a lot of research
to be able to exactly dose the nicotine in the
smoke condensation. After trying
successively the Schloesing process (exhaustion by
ther), direct nicotine extraction, and finally the dosage
by the volumetric method, we recognized that this
last process quickly delivered sufficient results
skilfully accurate.
We operated as follows:
The liquid condensed in the vase representing the mouth
or the lung, and the paper wash waters representing the
mucous membrane, were evaporated to drive out all the ammonia
niac that they could contain. I got as residue
a thick black liquid, no longer containing a sensitive trace of
ammoniacal salts (*),
This liquid, mixed with a small amount of distilled water,
was then dosed with titrated sulfuric acid. The tint
black of the mixture in no way prevents the color
ingestion of litmus paper which marks the end of the
reaction, because as the nicotine becomes saturated, the material
dye to which it is mixed, separates, and it is
easy to take with a glass rod, a drop of barely colored liquid,
to put it on the paper nesol. With a little habit, you can easily reach a
very exact dosage.
(*) The difficulty of completely removing all the ammonia is the par-
weak co-process. There are probably still some traces
of this substance, therefore the nicotine figures obtained by
the titration may be a little too high 3. Physiologically-
the thing is, moreover, unimportant. M, Schloesing showed me
a new nicotine dosing process he is currently using
at the tobacco factory in Paris. He is very ingenious, but a little
complicated in its details.
, to put it on the paper nesol. With a little habit, you can easily reach a
very exact dosage.
15 -
One cubic centimeter of normal sulfuric acid (49 gr. Of a-
cide per liter) contains 0 gr. 049mm sulfuric acid and cor-
corresponds to 0 gr. 162mm of nicotine; but the liquid thus em-
folded would be too concentrated, so it is necessary to extend
dre. The liqueur we used contained 9 gr. 8
acid per liter. One cubic centimeter then corresponded to
32milligr. 4 nicotine and, as with narrow cruets,
we easily appreciate a tenth of a cubic centimeter,
i.e. a quantity of liquid corresponding to 3 mil-
about nicotine ligrams I easily got to a
sufficiently precise result.
The ammonia existing in the liquid condensed in the
vase representing the mouth and lungs was also
dosed by the volumetric method and by means of the liquor
indicated above. The liquid formed by the condensation of
the smoke was divided into two perfectly equal parts:
one which was used for the dosage of nicotine, the other for that of
ammonia. That intended for the dosage of ammonia
was immediately treated with the titrated liquor, and we noted
the number of cubic centimeters necessary for saturation
tion. By subtracting from this figure the quantity of centimeters
cubes used to saturate nicotine in the second
portion of liquid previously evaporated as we
as we said before, we knew exactly the
amount of sulfuric acid saturated with ammonia, and it
was easy to deduce the proportion of this substance.
The tobacco used was, as we said, tobacco
ordinary (scaferlati) that the administration sells in packages.
The average richness of this nicotine tobacco varies little
corn; we will point out only for instruction
chemists who would like to repeat our experiments, that
the one sold in closed packages, the price of which is determined
in advance by the administration, is much drier and by
therefore, for equal weight, richer in nicotine than that
sold in retail, because the retailers always put this
last in a very humid place to increase the
weight. ''
16 -
Here are the results of our analyzes:
1. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed in the mouth when
we smoke cigars or cigarettes outdoors without inspiring
smoke.
We operated on a hundred grams of tobacco with the device
reil n ° 1. The liquid condensed in a vase representing the
mouth contained:
Nicotine 0sr550mm
Ammonia 0er490mm (representing in ammonia
2sr45 laboratory liquid (*).
2. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed when we smoke
cigar or cigarette in an enclosed space.
Add to the figures of the previous operation those obtained
naked in operation n »iO.
3. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed through the mouth and
lungs when we smoke cigars or cigarettes while inhaling
smoke.
It is in this operation that we obtained the
highest figures. They are however still certain-
lies below the truth; because, as we have
says, the surface of the lungs is actually a lot
higher than the one we adopted for our app-
the same.
(*) The ammonia which we have thus determined is ammonia
pure, but like the 22 "commercial ammonia solution
contains only 1 | 5 of its weight of ammonia, it is necessary
multiply our results by 5 so that they represent ammonia
niac as we know it in laboratories and in industry,
17 -
The apparatus used for the experiment was len ° 3; as
previously we operated on 100 grams of tobacco. The
figures obtained were as follows:
Nicotine. . ls "-037mm
Ammonia 0er945ram (representing in ammonia
liquid 4sr725 "will go).
4. Nicotine absorbed by mouth when smoking a pipe
short outdoor hose.
We operated with device # 2 and obtained for 100
grams of burnt tobacco the following results:
Ammonia 0sr205mm
Nicotine existing in the capsule that was
under the pipe to collect the part
liquid flowing from it 0er325, nm
Nicotine condensed in the vase representing the
mouth 0 & r227-nm
Our device was arranged so that everyone
liquid which condensed in the pipe, fell into the cap-
sule placed below. This is a similar provision ù
that of German pipes. In ordinary pipes, the
liquid part which condenses in the pipe falls back into
part in the hearth and is volatilized there again. most
or less porosity of the pipe, the time since which the
pipe is used, etc., vary the amount of liquid that
can come back into the foyer. It's to avoid these chances
error that we have adopted the above provision.
5. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed through the mouth and
lungs when smoking a short pipe in a
closed room.
Add to the results of the previous operation those provided
nis by operation n ° 10.
6. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed through the mouth and
lungs when we smoke a short pipe inhaling
smoke. / 'v' '! "' '', C \
- 18 -
By operating on 100 gr. tobacco with device # 3 and
a 10 cm tube, we got the results
following:
Nicotine 0 * r70imm.
Ammonia 0erG87mm (representing in ammonia li-
quide 3er 435).
7. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed by mouth and by
the lungs when you smoke the long pipe right in the middle
air.
By operating on 100 grams of tobacco with device # 2
and a tube 50 centimeters in length, we got
the following results:
Nicotine 0wlb6mm.
Ammonia OBr140uun.
8. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed when smoking
long pipe in an enclosed space.
Just add to the figures of the previous operation
those provided by operation n ° 10.
9. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed when we smoke
hookah.
The analysis of our washers' water repeated many times
proved to us that the smoke is largely cleared
in the first nicotine and ammonia it
contains. This count is related to several
conditions, including the amount of water the smoke should
cross, and the greater or lesser speed with which
it crosses it. It would therefore be useless to give figures. I
note, however, that one and even two scrubbers do not
not enough to remove all the nicotine and even less,
as we will soon see, the other toxic principles
that tobacco smoke contains. So we can say
hookah, I believe, that if it is the means of smoking the
less dangerous of all, it only partially strips
during the smoke of its active ingredients.
- 19 -
10. Amount of active ingredients absorbed by mouth and
through the lungs, when you breathe in a confined space
holding smoke.
The apparatus used was No. 4. It was placed in a
room where several smokers were and stayed two
hours. The results obtained were highly variable, which
is easily understood, since instead of operating as
in previous experiments, with doses of tobacco
constant, we operated on an amount of smoke which
was nothing specific. Indeed, depending on the size of the
room, the greater or lesser speed of ventilation, the
quantity, of burnt tobacco, etc., the air is mixed with a
very different proportion of smoke and therefore the quantity
of nicotine condensed in the device may vary in
very wide limits.
However, after staying for several hours in a
smoke-laden atmosphere we have always managed to re-
draw several milligrams of nicotine from the vase representing
lungs and mouth. To have applicable results
in well-defined cases, these experiments should be repeated in
placing the device in a coffee room, then in rooms
of known capacity, receiving a constant volume of air and
where a predetermined amount of tobacco would burn.
We had to settle temporarily for the der
demonstration of the absorption of the active ingredients from smoke
tobacco from the lungs and mouths of people who,
even without smoking, are in a vicious atmosphere
by smoke.
CHAPTER II
RESEARCH OF CARBON OXIDE PROPORTIONS THAT MAY
ABSORB SMOKERS AND STUDY OF ITS ACTION
Doctor Gréhant pointed out a few years ago the
presence of carbon monoxide in products of the com-
tobacco bustion. By repeating his experiences, I found
like him that tobacco produced by burning, a proportion
carbon monoxide varying between 7 and 800 centimeters
cubes per 40 grams of tobacco.
Carbon monoxide is, as we know, a gas ex-
very toxic. It's him, not carbonic acid,
as was long believed, which determines death in
asphyxiation by coal vapor. Claude Bernard has-
shown to act in combination with the
moglobin, essential base of the globules, and making it inca-
able to absorb oxygen. It unites with the globules,
way that a volume of carbon monoxide is substituted
to a volume of oxygen. When an animal stays
hour in an atmosphere containing only 1 / iOOO
carbon monoxide, 100v cubic centimeters of his blood
contain, according to the experiences of M. Gréhant, 40 cent
cubic meters of carbon monoxide which took the place of
40 cubic centimeters of oxygen. The same proportion of
blood that can hardly dissolve more than 20 cubic centimeters
of this last gas, it's absolutely as if we had removed
subject half of his blood. In an atmosphere at 1/1500,
only a quarter of the globules lose their property
absorb oxygen. In an atmosphere that contains
20-
CHAPTER II
21 ~
1/100 carbon monoxide, a dog dies in 20 minutes.
Fortunately for subjects who have absorbed a quan-
insufficient amount of carbon monoxide to produce death,
the combination of this gas with hemoglobin is not
not stable. This gas ends up being eliminated in the form where it is
entered the body, as shown by Mr. Gréhant, and not
as carbonic acid, as was once believed.
. The combination of carbon monoxide with hemoglo-
binese dissociates in the lungs where it is absorbed
tion. Like alcohol, this gas therefore crosses the body without
transform, but not without acting, as the evidence shows
nervous nerves that individuals such as cooks
exposed to breathe it frequently. Their state of ané
special crumbs, the irratibility of their character were noted by
several observers. The formidable influence of oxide
carbon is also highlighted by the fact that the
people exposed to its action remain unwell enough
long time.
The determination of carbon monoxide in an atmosphere
any is very easy by means of the protochloride of
copper. It is enough to pass the atmosphere to be analyzed to
through scrubbers containing a saturated solution of this salt.
The absorption of carbon monoxide by this compound being
finished, the liquids are brought together in a flask
nication by a tube with a graduated bell, and we wear them
at the boil; the gas released under the bell is constituted
killed almost entirely by carbon monoxide.
This very simple process is not applicable
that in an atmosphere containing a somewhat no-
carbon monoxide table. When it contains only
traces, it is not sufficiently accurate, because it happened
always some parts of carbon monoxide escape
absorption by copper chloride, which, in cases
small quantities to analyze, distorts the results of the ex-
Fie 2. - Apparatus used by the Author for the determination of carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke.
The first three bottles, on the left side of the drawing, contain a deposit solution intended to subject a first wash with burnt smoke in the funnel. It then goes through a ball washer containing
barite water - thus stripped entirely of its carbonic acid, it goes into a tube containing
copper oxide heated by the gas grid, which we see in the middle of the drawing. The carbon monoxide that contained the smoke comes out transformed into carbonic acid which then passes to. the state of barite carbonate, crossing barite water from the following scrubbers. The last of them is related to the trunk that ï*on see on the right of the drawing and which determines the passage of tobacco smoke through the whole system. We are sure that all the carbonic acid which the smoke of tobacco could contain was well absorbed by the test tubes containing potash when the barite water contained in the ball washer preceding the gas grill remains clear: the slightest traces of carbonic acid would immediately disturb its purity-
- 23 -
perience. It is then necessary to have recourse to a process Irès-ingô-
nieux and very exact, but very complicated, imagined by M. Gre-
binder, and which consists in passing the air to be analyzed, first
through vials containing a potash solution which
retains carbonic acid, then through barite water
intended to prove by his lack of trouble that everything
carbonic acid has been absorbed well and finally in a long
glass tube filled with copper oxide which is kept at
red by means of a gas grill. Carbon monoxide,
transformed into carbonic acid, then passes through
barite water, where it turns into barite carbonate
that we decompose "by hydrochloric acid in a vacuum, at
using a mercury pump. Analysis of 50 liters of air
requires at least 24 hours.
Having noted the superiority of Mr. Gréhant's method
for analyzes of mixtures where carbon monoxide is
found in small quantities, I had, despite its difficulty, to adopt it
ter for my research. Unable to use it in my
laboratory where the necessary devices were not found,
I went to the laboratory of the Museum, where I
received from M. Gréhant the contest the graceful fold. I do not
rais express too moment my thanks to this
eminent physiologist.
A. How Much Carbon Oxide Can, Without Being Fatal,
start producing accidents? In what pro-
portions can it meet in the atmosphere of smokers?
Can we attribute to its influence the toxic action of
tobacco smoke? these are the questions, unresolved
still, that I had to seek to resolve.
Mr. Gréhant had once killed dogs by forcing them
to breathe air that had passed through a pipe containing
a few grams of burning tobacco, and had recognized
by spectroscopic analysis that 'the blood of the animal
contained carbon monoxide. Repeated again, this
experience gave me absolutely the same results. With
a pipe containing 4 grams of lit tobacco, and
making the animal breathe by means of a muzzle
communication with the pipe by a rubber tube,
we saw him succumb in a quarter of an hour. At the autopsy,
the heart of the animal contained clots and the blood did not return
closed only traces of carbon monoxide.
- 24 -
Could we, - even when the blood would have contained
notable proportions of carbon monoxide, as had been
produced in other experiments - thereby
results applicable to smokers? I do not think so. No
only, in fact, the air introduced into the lungs,
contained a considerable proportion of carbon monoxide
that we artificially forced to go entirely through
lungs, but in addition the air supplied to the animal was almost
stripped by its passage through glowing tobacco
of much of its oxygen. This air contained
besides a high proportion of nicotine and various products
toxic from tobacco smoke. No smokers were seen
never been found in similar conditions.
To prove something, these experiences had to be
repeated in an entirely different way.
To avoid these causes of error, I resolved
to use tobacco stripped of nicotine by washing
several hours in boiling ammonia ether,
then boiling water, and add to the products of the
burning tobacco enough oxygen to
replace the one destroyed by combustion.
Ten grams of tahaG thus stripped of nicotine were
burned in a pipe. The gas that was released was collected
in a 25 liter bell, then introduced into a flask
with the amount of oxygen needed to replenish a
sufficiently oxygen-rich atmosphere. A dog from
weight of 11 kilog. having been fixed on a content device,
28-
we made him breathe the air from the bag by means of a muzzle
attached to a valve organized so that the products
of breathing escaped into the atmosphere instead
to return to the bag. After 14 minutes, the animal
was dead. Spectrpscopic examination of the blood indicated the
presence of carbon monoxide. Other toxic principles
that the nicotine in tobacco having been very likely to
no doubt entrained by the washes intended to strip it
of this alkaloid, and the atmosphere where the dog was breathing
enough oxygen to maintain breathing it was rational
to admit that the animal had been killed solely by the oxide
of carbon in tobacco smoke. This result
was nothing unexpected, because the amount of tobacco
burned had produced a proportion of carbon monoxide
more than enough to cause death, given the
volume of air that contained it.
But this experience and those of the same kind do not prove
see that one thing is that by introducing the proportion
carbon bone produced by a small amount of tobacco
in a confined atmosphere you can quickly find
undermine the death of an animal. No more than the previous one, this
experience was only applicable to smokers who are not found
never indeed in an atmosphere confined enough to
contain such high proportions of carbon monoxide
than in the previous case.
To appreciate the influence that can have on humans
the carbon monoxide that tobacco smoke contains, you had to
first find out the proportion of carbon monoxide that
must contain an atmosphere to be dangerous without
to be lethal, and then what proportion of carbon monoxide
can be found in the atmosphere of smokers.
To resolve the first question, that is, to determine
the proportion of carbon monoxide that air must contain to
become dangerous, physiologists' work on this
- 26 -
point could not provide any information. They we
indeed only say in what proportion the oxide of
carbon must exist in the atmosphere to kill an animal,
while we wanted to know in what proportion it
must exist to inconvenience a man.
To determine this proportion, I turned on two ovens.
neaux in one of these narrow kitchens that we meet in
the small apartments in Paris, and where, despite a
you can hardly stay under pain of suffocation without
leave the door open. I locked myself in there until a
violent headache and nausea make me stay
impossible. At that moment, and before opening the door, I
filled with a rubber balloon
25 liters. Brought to the laboratory and analyzed, I found
that this air contained a proportion of carbon monoxide
representing only 325 cubic centimeters, or about
ron 1/3000 in the atmosphere. I will mention for the record
that the amount of carbonic acid in it was 12
times stronger (almost 4 liters per cubic meter), quantity
absolutely insufficient from the rest to produce the slightest
discomfort, since it is assumed that the air must contain 10/0 of acid
carbon dioxide to be unbreathable, and that this gas does not
begins to inconvenience that when it is there in proportion
tion of 1 0/0.
According to the experiences mentioned above, it is sufficient
to produce the small proportion of carbon monoxide
found in this experiment, to burn 4 grams of
tobacco per cubic meter of air. At first, and not
considering that this figure of 4 grams of tobacco, it seems
that a very small quantity of this substance would suffice
to vitiate by carbon monoxide a quantity of air well
great, but a very simple calculation proves, on the contrary,
that it is not.
Consider the size of the most
- 27 –
small where several smokers can be gathered. In
taking for type a student room whose capacity
, is about 30 cubic meters, we see that, for the
mosphere contains 1/3000 of carbon monoxide, i.e.
ten liters for 30 cubic meters, -
figure of 800 cubic centimeters of carbon monoxide per
10 grams of tobacco - smoking 125 grams of this
substance. If we consider that a pipe contains approximately
2 g. 5 of tobacco, which the smokable part of a cigarette weighs
0 g. 50, that a 10 cent cigar weighs about 5 gram-
mes, we see that we should smoke 50 pipes, or 250 cigarettes
or 25 cigars to produce these ten liters of car- bon oxide
bone. In fact, the amount to smoke should be a lot
even more significant if we wanted to take into account the
newly air through the doors. But even if you don't
taking into account that the figures that I have just given, a
such consumption would obviously be impossible by the
small number of individuals that such a room can contain
bre. By admitting for a moment that it was, it is easy to
experience, simply by burning tobacco
in a funnel, that long before the 125 grams of
tobacco were burned, the room would contain such a cloud
opaque and foul that one would be absolutely obliged from where;
open doors and windows to renew the atmosphere
sphere.
But there are circumstances where multiple individuals
can be in a much smaller space
than the one I just assumed. These circumstances prevail
feel whenever smokers are gathered in
a railway compartment or a closed car.
Tell in advance by simple calculation what the atmosphere
may contain carbon monoxide after combustion
of a given amount of tobacco, is obviously impossible,
because the very active ventilation which is done by the parties
- 28 -
poorly joined doors and windows replenishes the air quickly
dement. Experience alone could indicate the quantity
carbon monoxide which, after a while, would
contained in such an atmosphere. If, by putting us in
the worst possible conditions we don't find
in the air only a very small quantity of carbon monoxide,
we could conclude that this is only a very exceptional-
nally that this gas can meet in proportions
dangerous in the atmosphere of smokers.
One of the most disadvantageous conditions
find a smoker from the point of view of reducing the
pace is obviously the stay in one of these narrow
named tures cut. So it's a car of this kind
that I chose for the seat of my experiences.
April 28, 1879, Mr. Callamand, young doctor whose I had
to appreciate goodwill and kindness many times, has
kindly get in a car, called a coupe,
of which the interior capacity, net of the benches and
of travelers, was about 4,200 cubic decimeters. The
car, the windows of which had been closed, circulated during
for 3/4 of an hour, and during this space of time, Mr. Calla-
mand and I smoked between us 7 gr. 50 sca- tobacco
ordinary ferlati. The interior temperature of the car, which
was 13 ° at the start of the experiment, was 22 °
at the end. Beginning to be a little inconvenienced, we have
stopped the experiment and filled a rubber bag of 25
liters with the car air. According to the proportion of tobacco
burnt, we should have found 500 cubic centimeters
carbon monoxide per cubic meter; but we don't
we found that barely 100, insufficient quantity for in-
seriously committing. Despite the closing of the windows and
doors, most of the carbon monoxide
had therefore escaped outside, thanks to the renewal
air through poorly attached doors or windows. The fu-
- 29 -
therefore is not exposed in analogous cases to breathe
noticeable amounts of carbon monoxide.
Suppose, however, for a moment that the smoker is
locked in a car whose construction is enough
perfect so that air can't get in and out, and where,
therefore carbon monoxide can accumulate without
to get lost. Well, even in this unlikely case, it
1 is a major reason that would prevent the smoker from being
exposed to breathe carbon monoxide in mor-
such, or even really dangerous. At the same time
effect of carbon monoxide on combustion of
tobacco, it forms a series of products such as nicotine
and various principles that I will study soon, all more toxic
than carbon monoxide, and which, mixed with the atmosphere,
would have made it unbreathable to the point of forcing the smoker to
flee it before carbon monoxide could produce its
action. I noticed several times, moreover, when I was doing
my experiences on the dosage of nicotine in smoke
tobacco, that an atmosphere can only contain
insufficient proportions of carbon monoxide for incom-
moder, could be made almost entirely breathable
by the products I just mentioned.
Direct human experiments confirm
what precedes. Dr. Périgord reports, in a thesis
interesting about tobacco smoke, that one of his friends, fu-
dying, having consented to smoke back to back two
10 cent cigars, breathing in their smoke, soon found
so indisposed that it was impossible for him to finish the second
cigar. The products of his breathing, collected during
some time in a balloon, however did contain
only insignificant traces of carbon monoxide, which
proves that nicotine and other smoke products from the
tobacco condensed in the lungs, and absorbed by the body
circulatory had produced their toxic action well
3.
~ 30 -
before carbon monoxide was found in sufficient quantity
to produce its own.
We will conclude from all of the above that if the oxide of
carbon adds its action to that of other products
contained in tobacco smoke, it is not his however
Dant, as has been claimed recently in Germany,
that this latter owes its dangerous properties. She has it
owes not only to undecomposed nicotine it
contains in a very high proportion, as we have
shown, but also to other equally toxic compounds
than this alkaloid that we are going to search for now.
[SPOILER/]
Physiological experiments attempted so far on tobacco
were made exclusively with the alkaloid, nicotine,
that we remove leaves from this plant. By doing so,
the experimenters were exposed to very critical
founded, because nothing showed that there was the slightest analogy
between tobacco smoke and nicotine The first,
in fact, is a very complex mixture in which the main
various pes that the leaves contain may have been
profoundly modified by combustion.
Does tobacco smoke actually contain nicotine
and would it not contain other toxic principles? These
various principles are they absorbable in the conditions where
are smokers and in what proportions can
will they be absorbed?
It is for the purpose of resolving these various questions that
I had undertaken 8 years ago, the research including the first
edition (1) of this thesis contained the presentation. On request
that the French Society made against tobacco abuse,
by the organ of its Secretary-General, Dr. Goyard,
I recently completed them by addressing points that
I had entirely left out in the past. \.
This second edition differs entirely from the first with which it has in common only the only chapter
(1) This tM edition, crowned following a competition opened by
the Liège Medical and Surgical Society was published in the Annals
of this Society, His conclusions have been reproduced in most
medical journals and various works of classical chemistry,
the great Treatise of Professor Girardin, in particular.
2 -
sacred to the dosage of nicotine. Among the new research
as it contains, I will mention the search for acid
prussic and carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke,
the determination of the principles which give smoke its
special aromo and many physiology experiments
executed on animals and on man.
I do not think it is necessary to point out that this brief is a
pure science work and that I leave to people that
this is interesting, the task of drawing conclusions from your work
that will please them. The field of facts on which I am
maintained is too solid for me to consent to deviate from it.
I will not finish this short introduction without thanking
sincerely the scholars who facilitated me the long and
difficult researches which I carried out. I mention-
among them Mr. Rolland, from the Institute, Director-General
from the tobacco administration, which authorized me to take
the Paris factory, all the information that
will be useful to me, Mr. Schloesing, Director of the school
tobacco, which provided me with various chemical
and delivered significant quantities of pure nicotine,
Dr. Gréhant, Assistant Director of the Physics Laboratory
siology at the Museum, which lent me for several days,
for very delicate chemical analyzes, the competition
more graceful, and finally my friend before D 1 'Georges Noël,
former preparer at the Collège de France, our late
master Claude Bernard. It was with his help that
do research related to prussic acid and
termination of the principles that give tobacco smoke
her perfume.
THE
TOBACCO SMOKE
RESEARCH
CHEMICAL & PHYSIOLOGICAL
CHAPTER I
RESEARCH OF PROPORTIONS OF NICOTINE AND AMMONIA
WHAT CAN SMOKERS ABSORB
§ 1. Conditions under which absorption can take place
nicotine and various principles of tobacco smoke. -
The question that we propose to resolve in this cha-
clown is this: At what dose nicotine that smoke
tobacco can it be absorbed in various
circumstances in which smokers are placed? Before
to approach it we must first list these conditions.
They can, we believe, be summarized as follows:
boasts:
Tobacco is smoked in the form of cigars, cigarettes,
short pipe, long pipe or hookah pipe
and the smoker placed outdoors or in a room
closed swallows or does not swallow - depending on the expression
usual - its smoke. To these various cases can be added still
that of a person who, not smoking, is in
_ 4 _
a room where one or more smokers are staying, such as
than a cafe or railroad car, for example (*).
Let’s examine now, theoretically first, what
must happen in the different cases that we just
to list. We will then confirm, by experience,
the accuracy of our assumptions.
Let us first consider the case of smoked tobacco in the form of
cigar or cigarette and let's see what takes place. We
first admit that the smoker does not swallow his smoke and
is in the open air, so as not to
breathe an atmosphere charged with the smoke it produces.
During the combustion of the first parts of the cigar or
cigarettes, the various compounds that tobacco contains
(water, nicotine, ammonia salts, etc.), carried by the neighbor-
the incandescent part swims at a high temperature,
reduce to vapor. A portion of this vapor is
dense in the cold upper layers of tobacco, where it
is attracted to the smoker's aspiration; the other arrives in the
mouth and in contact with the wet surface and relatively
cold of the oral mucosa, partially condenses and
mix with saliva to be absorbed. Which
escaped condensation is released into the atmosphere.
As the cigar or cigarette continue to burn, the
layer of tobacco that the smoke has to go through to get to
the mouth being less and less thick, the condensation
it becomes more and more imperfect and the smoke reaches the
mouth more and more loaded with active ingredients. When
finally the cigar or the cigarette is almost finished, the smoke
which arrives in the mouth of the smoker, not only has not
been stripped by the condensation of part of its principal
cipes, but also contains the materials previously
(*) Auctioneers and chiqueurs are not included in these di-
for categories. Their study was outside the scope of our work which does not
concerns that tobacco smoke. -
li-
condensed in the upper layers of tobacco and
which, carried by combustion at a high temperature,
find themselves volatilized again. This is precisely what
explains this fact, well known to smokers, that the last
part of the cigar tastes much more pronounced than the first
mother. People not used to smoking even arrive
difficult to completely finish a cigar without testing
nausea, and we see them frequently rejecting their
live (loaded with active ingredients), which the
habitual smoker.
We see, by the previous explanation, that when
smokes cigars or cigarettes, many of the main
active pipes smoke comes into your mouth, especially if you
burns the cigar or cigarette entirely, which happens,
for example, when using a cigar holder. The pro-
portion of nicotine and other active ingredients absorbed must
therefore be very high, and we will see, by our experiences,
that it really is.
We have admitted, in the previous case, that the smoker
was in the open air and did not inhale its smoke, it did not
can therefore absorb while the materials which condense
smells on the relatively small surface of the mouth.
Now suppose that the same subject, instead of
find outdoors, smoke in a closed apartment. To the
instead of the pure air that he previously breathed, he breathes
then an air more or less charged with smoke and, consequently,
active ingredients it contains. This air charged with fu-
mée passes and passes successively through the lungs and
each time divests itself of some of the conden-
sands mixed there. The smoker will therefore absorb
then not only the principles that condense in
his mouth while he sucks the smoke from his cigar but
still those that will have kept the smoke that it releases in
the atmosphere. The absorption will be all the more considerable as more smokers are found
gathered in the same place.
6 -
If the same cigar or cigarette smoker is found
placed under the conditions previously indicated, but
moreover, following a common habit in some
country, it swallows, as we vulgarly say, the smoke of
his cigar or his cigarette before rejecting it by the nose or
through the mouth, the absorption will be much more considerable
core only in the cases we have examined. Smoke,
who did not have, as in the previous hypothesis, the
time to cool down in the atmosphere, get to the
mons, having only lost its active ingredients
which could condense in the mouth, and, in contact with the
large area of the pulmonary mucosa, it strips
of a large proportion of the materials it contains (va-
fear of water, nicotine, ammonia, carbon monoxide, resin,
etc.), but all physiologists know how quickly
produces absorption on the surface of the pulmonary mucosa.
The reasoning that we applied to the three cases
Previous: Smoking outdoors, smoking in an apartment
closed, smoking while breathing in smoke, can be applied to
pipe smokers as well as cigar or cigarette smokers
cigarette. However the dose of the principles absorbed by the
pipe smokers is very different from that absorbed by
Cigar or cigarette smokers, because the smoke, before
river to the mouth, crosses a cold tube or it condenses
in part. The product of this condensation constitutes this
semi-liquid substance that concentrates in the pipes
pipes and to which smokers give the name of juice.
It is easy to predict that the longer the pipe the pipe will be
the longer the condensation of the active ingredients in the smoke
will be complete and the more it will arrive stripped to the bou-
che and lungs. Long pipe pipes constitute,
as we will see later, one of the devices with
who are less likely to smoke.
- 7 -
Some superiority, however, of the long pipe
pipe on the short pipe, and especially on the cigar and
on the cigarette, it is still very inferior to the hookah
of the Orientals. In this device, in fact, the smoke does not
only after passing through a container full of water
and a very long tube. She then comes into contact with the
mouth surface, not completely stripped of its
principles because we have seen in our experiences that three
wash bottles weren't enough to strip her whole-
but at least infinitely less loaded with materials
active than with the ordinary pipe. We can easily explain
that with similar devices the Orientals can
smoke for a long time without being bothered.
We successively considered the different cir-
constants in which a fun eur can be found. he
we still have to look at the case, relatively
very frequent, where a person who does not smoke is
in a room (railway wagon, coffee, smokehouse, etc.)
where the atmosphere contains tobacco smoke.
It would be wrong if the people placed in these
conditions believe they can escape the effects of tobacco.
Man, as we know, breathes about eighteen times
per minute, and, with each new inspiration, half a liter
about air comes into his lungs. So it's nine liters
of air approximately per minute, which pass through these organs. This
air supplying the elements it contains to the lungs,
dividu who is near a smoker makes pass and re-
pass successively through its mouth a mass of air
shutting off the harmed smoke partly condenses on the vast
surface provided by the mucous membrane of the mouth, trachea
and lungs. No doubt it absorbs fewer principles
than the smoker himself, because the latter, in addition to the charged air
smoke, that he breathes, passes in his mouth of the
almost unmixed smoke; but however it absorbs some
still a notable proportion, as we will see
in our experiences. If I had to decide on the question
tion of whether to smoke outdoors without inspiring your smoke
is less dangerous than staying long without smoke
sea in an atmosphere laden with tobacco smoke, I
would not hesitate to do so for the affirmative.
- 8 -
In the different cases that we have listed, we
did not take into account the species, the tobacco used. he
it is obvious that the amount of nicotine and other main
the absorbed pes will be all the stronger as the tobacco con-
itself will hold a greater amount of these
principles. The composition of cigars varies significantly
according to their origin, but the ordinary tobacco sold in
France by the administration is a mixture of a composi-
tion fairly constant, and, as its usage is much more
general as that of the cigars, it is he that we have taken
applied for all our experiments relating to the dosage of
nicotine.
§ II. Device used to find the proportion of
nicotine absorbed by smokers. - We come from ex-
to pose the theory of the condensation of the active principles of
tobacco smoke in the smoker's organs we will
now approach the experimental side of the question.
Perhaps the most perfect way to analyze the main
active pes of tobacco smoke absorbed would consist in making
pass through the respiratory organs of an animal, from the
smoke of known composition, then to collect it at its exit,
to see what she would have lost. But this means
which I had thought of at first, presents difficulties of execution
insurmountable, and I had to look for another one.
To get to the goal I set out to do, I tried to imitate
ter the mechanism of the condensation of the active ingredients of
smoke in the smoker's organs.
9 –
When smoke enters the mouth, it encounters a
relatively cold moist mucosa, in contact with which
it condenses in part, and the condensed principles,
dipped in saliva, are then absorbed, either through the mucosa
mouth, or that of the digestive tract, when the saliva is
swallowed. Obviously if the saliva is thrown out,
only part of the active ingredients it dissolved
will be absorbed but everyone knows that habitual smokers
spit very little.
In the lungs, things happen in an ana-
logue, and it is useless to dwell on this point, the pro-
absorbent priety of the pulmonary mucosa being well
known.
Suppose now that instead of passing air
loaded with smoke in the mouth, we passed it on
an area exactly equal to that of the mucous membrane buc-
wedge, wet like her, and, like her too, at a time
temperature of about 37 ° centigrade; it is obvious that the
liquids which will condense on contact with this surface
show exactly which liquids have condensed
in contact with the oral mucosa itself during
aspiration of tobacco smoke.
If now we want to find the proportion of
active ingredients condensed in the lung we will not have
as well as passing air loaded with tobacco smoke
on contact with a surface - this time equal to the dimension
from the lung lining and collect the fluids that
will condense.
It is on these bases that we built, for
collect the active ingredients which condense in the or-
ganes of smokersv the following devices:
i> Device intended to collect the active principles of
tobacco smoke that condenses in the mouth of a
10-
Cigar or cigarette smoker who does not swallow his or her smoke.
A is a vase intended to replace the mouth. Due to
its numerous folds (mucous membrane of the cheeks, gums,
the tongue, the palate, the throat, etc.), the mucosa
of the mouth has an extensive surface. By measures
direct repeated on several corpses, I evaluate it at, approximately
300 square centimeters. The interior of vase A, chosen from
suitable size, is therefore upholstered with a sheet of paper
filter pier kept wet, 300 square centimeters
approximately of surface, intended to represent the mucous membrane
mouth itself. Vase A is immersed in a container
maintained at 37 °, usual temperature of the mouth.
It is a metal funnel in which we burn the
tobacco; it represents the cigar or the cigarette. We bent it
at the bottom to prevent ashes from falling
in the vase A. Tobacco, as in the cigar or the cigar
rette, burns in almost all of it, and the products of the com-
bustion pass entirely into the mouth, which replaces
the interior surface of vase A.
D D are wash bottles full of water that have
used to wash smoke to study products that escape
pay for condensation in the mouth.
li -
E is a balloon containing sulfuric acid intended for
retain nicotine and ammonia that would not have been
retained by the other bottles.
F is a suction tube intended to replace the res-
piration, that is to say to attract into the vase A} which represents
mouth, tobacco combustion products. When
combustion is regulated, the appliance can operate as long
that it contains tobacco, without requiring any monitoring.
2. Apparatus intended to collect the active principles of
smoke that condenses in the mouth of the pipe smoker.
This device is similar to the previous one, but the arrangement
tion of the funnel is a little different. Before arriving
in the vessel A, the smoke passes through a tube of length
riable, representing the pipe of the pipe. At the lower end
lower of this pipe, is placed a capsule intended to
collect the liquid part which condenses in the tube and
represents what is commonly called juice.
We used in our experiments, tubes of
10 centimeters and 50 centimeters in length, intended for
represent short pipes and long pipes.
3. Apparatus intended to collect the active ingredients which
condense in the mouths and lungs of smokers who
breathe their smoke.
This device is similar to system # 1, only the
vase is larger, so that its inner surface can
represent not only the surface of the mucous membrane buc-
wedge, but also that of the pulmonary mucosa; as
in device 1, this surface is lined with a sheet
wet paper, intended to represent the mucosa of
lungs and mouth.
Approximately calculate the area of the mucosa
buccal is fairly easy thing but it is almost impossible
to determine that of the pulmonary mucosa. All
that we were able to do is to appreciate it from the
pacified lung. In the normal state, this organ receives by
inspiration half a liter of air which is added to the reserve
about two liters it usually contains.
- 12 -
In the impossibility of calculating the extent of the surface of the
pulmonary mucosa, I assumed it equal to that of a
. cylindrical vase of three liters capacity, and I added to
this area that calculated above for the mucosa
buccal; this figure is obviously much lower than that
would represent the area of the lung lining because
the folds of the latter are extremely numerous;
but by operating as I did, I am at least certain
to have avoided any exaggeration, and the results that I got-
nudes will only be more convincing. The relative value of
results remains the whole thing, because all of my experiences
were made with the same devices.
4. Apparatus intended to receive the active principles of
smoke that condenses in the mouth and lungs of a
person who, without smoking, is in an atmosphere
charged with smoke.
The apparatus simply consists of a vase of the dimen-
version of the one used in the previous system and upholstered
like him of a wet leaf representing the mucous membranes
buccal and pulmonary. This vase, open at its upper part
is placed in a room with several
smokers and put in communication with a vacuum cleaner which
passes the smoke-laden air through the device. This last-
nière partly condenses.
§ III. Tobacco smoke products that condense in
the apparatus representing the mouth and lungs of the fu-
dies. - Products from the condensation of tobacco smoke
in the vase lined with wet paper, representing the surface
oral and pulmonary mucosa, consists of two
liquids of very different appearance, one yellowish, of odor
ammoniacal, almost as fluid as water; the other
thick, viscous, much more unpleasant odor than
the first, on the surface of which it comes to float. This last
represents exactly as color, odor and properties,
the blackish liquid which condenses in pipes having long
time served and which is commonly referred to as
juice.
13
The total amount of liquid produced by condensation
smoke on the surface of the vase representing the mouth and
the lung has varied in our experiments from 20 to 25 gram-
mes per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. The amount of
viscous liquid noted above hardly exceeded
1 gram.
The fluid which was in large quantity at the
bottom of the condensation vessel consisted of holding water
in dissolution or suspension of very diverse matters
among which I will now only mention the nico-
tin, carbonate of ammonia, and various colo-
rantes.
The thick, viscous liquid consisted mainly of nico-
tine, ammonia, red coloring substance,
resins, various salts and various organic materials,
especially those giving tobacco its special smell. It is
not very soluble in water, but very soluble in alcohol,
to which it communicates a beautiful red color. When we
heats it, it spreads vapors with the smell of
tobacco smoke and ends up burning with a nice flame
white leaving a very weak residue with an alkaline reaction.
§ IV. Determination of nicotine and ammonia which is
denser in the respiratory organs of smokers. - The
nicotine in tobacco smoke is easy ù
notice by the ordinary reagents of this substance, and I
amazes me that its existence has never been disputed. Yes
2, tobacco smoke does not contain nicotine, it
in any case holds a substance which resembles it so much
by its chemical, physical and physiological properties
that it cannot be distinguished from it. The demonstration of his
presence had been made a long time ago by the rest by Melsens.
14-
We "have done a lot of research
to be able to exactly dose the nicotine in the
smoke condensation. After trying
successively the Schloesing process (exhaustion by
ther), direct nicotine extraction, and finally the dosage
by the volumetric method, we recognized that this
last process quickly delivered sufficient results
skilfully accurate.
We operated as follows:
The liquid condensed in the vase representing the mouth
or the lung, and the paper wash waters representing the
mucous membrane, were evaporated to drive out all the ammonia
niac that they could contain. I got as residue
a thick black liquid, no longer containing a sensitive trace of
ammoniacal salts (*),
This liquid, mixed with a small amount of distilled water,
was then dosed with titrated sulfuric acid. The tint
black of the mixture in no way prevents the color
ingestion of litmus paper which marks the end of the
reaction, because as the nicotine becomes saturated, the material
dye to which it is mixed, separates, and it is
easy to take with a glass rod, a drop of barely colored liquid,
to put it on the paper nesol. With a little habit, you can easily reach a
very exact dosage.
(*) The difficulty of completely removing all the ammonia is the par-
weak co-process. There are probably still some traces
of this substance, therefore the nicotine figures obtained by
the titration may be a little too high 3. Physiologically-
the thing is, moreover, unimportant. M, Schloesing showed me
a new nicotine dosing process he is currently using
at the tobacco factory in Paris. He is very ingenious, but a little
complicated in its details.
, to put it on the paper nesol. With a little habit, you can easily reach a
very exact dosage.
15 -
One cubic centimeter of normal sulfuric acid (49 gr. Of a-
cide per liter) contains 0 gr. 049mm sulfuric acid and cor-
corresponds to 0 gr. 162mm of nicotine; but the liquid thus em-
folded would be too concentrated, so it is necessary to extend
dre. The liqueur we used contained 9 gr. 8
acid per liter. One cubic centimeter then corresponded to
32milligr. 4 nicotine and, as with narrow cruets,
we easily appreciate a tenth of a cubic centimeter,
i.e. a quantity of liquid corresponding to 3 mil-
about nicotine ligrams I easily got to a
sufficiently precise result.
The ammonia existing in the liquid condensed in the
vase representing the mouth and lungs was also
dosed by the volumetric method and by means of the liquor
indicated above. The liquid formed by the condensation of
the smoke was divided into two perfectly equal parts:
one which was used for the dosage of nicotine, the other for that of
ammonia. That intended for the dosage of ammonia
was immediately treated with the titrated liquor, and we noted
the number of cubic centimeters necessary for saturation
tion. By subtracting from this figure the quantity of centimeters
cubes used to saturate nicotine in the second
portion of liquid previously evaporated as we
as we said before, we knew exactly the
amount of sulfuric acid saturated with ammonia, and it
was easy to deduce the proportion of this substance.
The tobacco used was, as we said, tobacco
ordinary (scaferlati) that the administration sells in packages.
The average richness of this nicotine tobacco varies little
corn; we will point out only for instruction
chemists who would like to repeat our experiments, that
the one sold in closed packages, the price of which is determined
in advance by the administration, is much drier and by
therefore, for equal weight, richer in nicotine than that
sold in retail, because the retailers always put this
last in a very humid place to increase the
weight. ''
16 -
Here are the results of our analyzes:
1. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed in the mouth when
we smoke cigars or cigarettes outdoors without inspiring
smoke.
We operated on a hundred grams of tobacco with the device
reil n ° 1. The liquid condensed in a vase representing the
mouth contained:
Nicotine 0sr550mm
Ammonia 0er490mm (representing in ammonia
2sr45 laboratory liquid (*).
2. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed when we smoke
cigar or cigarette in an enclosed space.
Add to the figures of the previous operation those obtained
naked in operation n »iO.
3. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed through the mouth and
lungs when we smoke cigars or cigarettes while inhaling
smoke.
It is in this operation that we obtained the
highest figures. They are however still certain-
lies below the truth; because, as we have
says, the surface of the lungs is actually a lot
higher than the one we adopted for our app-
the same.
(*) The ammonia which we have thus determined is ammonia
pure, but like the 22 "commercial ammonia solution
contains only 1 | 5 of its weight of ammonia, it is necessary
multiply our results by 5 so that they represent ammonia
niac as we know it in laboratories and in industry,
17 -
The apparatus used for the experiment was len ° 3; as
previously we operated on 100 grams of tobacco. The
figures obtained were as follows:
Nicotine. . ls "-037mm
Ammonia 0er945ram (representing in ammonia
liquid 4sr725 "will go).
4. Nicotine absorbed by mouth when smoking a pipe
short outdoor hose.
We operated with device # 2 and obtained for 100
grams of burnt tobacco the following results:
Ammonia 0sr205mm
Nicotine existing in the capsule that was
under the pipe to collect the part
liquid flowing from it 0er325, nm
Nicotine condensed in the vase representing the
mouth 0 & r227-nm
Our device was arranged so that everyone
liquid which condensed in the pipe, fell into the cap-
sule placed below. This is a similar provision ù
that of German pipes. In ordinary pipes, the
liquid part which condenses in the pipe falls back into
part in the hearth and is volatilized there again. most
or less porosity of the pipe, the time since which the
pipe is used, etc., vary the amount of liquid that
can come back into the foyer. It's to avoid these chances
error that we have adopted the above provision.
5. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed through the mouth and
lungs when smoking a short pipe in a
closed room.
Add to the results of the previous operation those provided
nis by operation n ° 10.
6. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed through the mouth and
lungs when we smoke a short pipe inhaling
smoke. / 'v' '! "' '', C \
- 18 -
By operating on 100 gr. tobacco with device # 3 and
a 10 cm tube, we got the results
following:
Nicotine 0 * r70imm.
Ammonia 0erG87mm (representing in ammonia li-
quide 3er 435).
7. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed by mouth and by
the lungs when you smoke the long pipe right in the middle
air.
By operating on 100 grams of tobacco with device # 2
and a tube 50 centimeters in length, we got
the following results:
Nicotine 0wlb6mm.
Ammonia OBr140uun.
8. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed when smoking
long pipe in an enclosed space.
Just add to the figures of the previous operation
those provided by operation n ° 10.
9. Nicotine and ammonia absorbed when we smoke
hookah.
The analysis of our washers' water repeated many times
proved to us that the smoke is largely cleared
in the first nicotine and ammonia it
contains. This count is related to several
conditions, including the amount of water the smoke should
cross, and the greater or lesser speed with which
it crosses it. It would therefore be useless to give figures. I
note, however, that one and even two scrubbers do not
not enough to remove all the nicotine and even less,
as we will soon see, the other toxic principles
that tobacco smoke contains. So we can say
hookah, I believe, that if it is the means of smoking the
less dangerous of all, it only partially strips
during the smoke of its active ingredients.
- 19 -
10. Amount of active ingredients absorbed by mouth and
through the lungs, when you breathe in a confined space
holding smoke.
The apparatus used was No. 4. It was placed in a
room where several smokers were and stayed two
hours. The results obtained were highly variable, which
is easily understood, since instead of operating as
in previous experiments, with doses of tobacco
constant, we operated on an amount of smoke which
was nothing specific. Indeed, depending on the size of the
room, the greater or lesser speed of ventilation, the
quantity, of burnt tobacco, etc., the air is mixed with a
very different proportion of smoke and therefore the quantity
of nicotine condensed in the device may vary in
very wide limits.
However, after staying for several hours in a
smoke-laden atmosphere we have always managed to re-
draw several milligrams of nicotine from the vase representing
lungs and mouth. To have applicable results
in well-defined cases, these experiments should be repeated in
placing the device in a coffee room, then in rooms
of known capacity, receiving a constant volume of air and
where a predetermined amount of tobacco would burn.
We had to settle temporarily for the der
demonstration of the absorption of the active ingredients from smoke
tobacco from the lungs and mouths of people who,
even without smoking, are in a vicious atmosphere
by smoke.
CHAPTER II
RESEARCH OF CARBON OXIDE PROPORTIONS THAT MAY
ABSORB SMOKERS AND STUDY OF ITS ACTION
Doctor Gréhant pointed out a few years ago the
presence of carbon monoxide in products of the com-
tobacco bustion. By repeating his experiences, I found
like him that tobacco produced by burning, a proportion
carbon monoxide varying between 7 and 800 centimeters
cubes per 40 grams of tobacco.
Carbon monoxide is, as we know, a gas ex-
very toxic. It's him, not carbonic acid,
as was long believed, which determines death in
asphyxiation by coal vapor. Claude Bernard has-
shown to act in combination with the
moglobin, essential base of the globules, and making it inca-
able to absorb oxygen. It unites with the globules,
way that a volume of carbon monoxide is substituted
to a volume of oxygen. When an animal stays
hour in an atmosphere containing only 1 / iOOO
carbon monoxide, 100v cubic centimeters of his blood
contain, according to the experiences of M. Gréhant, 40 cent
cubic meters of carbon monoxide which took the place of
40 cubic centimeters of oxygen. The same proportion of
blood that can hardly dissolve more than 20 cubic centimeters
of this last gas, it's absolutely as if we had removed
subject half of his blood. In an atmosphere at 1/1500,
only a quarter of the globules lose their property
absorb oxygen. In an atmosphere that contains
20-
CHAPTER II
21 ~
1/100 carbon monoxide, a dog dies in 20 minutes.
Fortunately for subjects who have absorbed a quan-
insufficient amount of carbon monoxide to produce death,
the combination of this gas with hemoglobin is not
not stable. This gas ends up being eliminated in the form where it is
entered the body, as shown by Mr. Gréhant, and not
as carbonic acid, as was once believed.
. The combination of carbon monoxide with hemoglo-
binese dissociates in the lungs where it is absorbed
tion. Like alcohol, this gas therefore crosses the body without
transform, but not without acting, as the evidence shows
nervous nerves that individuals such as cooks
exposed to breathe it frequently. Their state of ané
special crumbs, the irratibility of their character were noted by
several observers. The formidable influence of oxide
carbon is also highlighted by the fact that the
people exposed to its action remain unwell enough
long time.
The determination of carbon monoxide in an atmosphere
any is very easy by means of the protochloride of
copper. It is enough to pass the atmosphere to be analyzed to
through scrubbers containing a saturated solution of this salt.
The absorption of carbon monoxide by this compound being
finished, the liquids are brought together in a flask
nication by a tube with a graduated bell, and we wear them
at the boil; the gas released under the bell is constituted
killed almost entirely by carbon monoxide.
This very simple process is not applicable
that in an atmosphere containing a somewhat no-
carbon monoxide table. When it contains only
traces, it is not sufficiently accurate, because it happened
always some parts of carbon monoxide escape
absorption by copper chloride, which, in cases
small quantities to analyze, distorts the results of the ex-
Fie 2. - Apparatus used by the Author for the determination of carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke.
The first three bottles, on the left side of the drawing, contain a deposit solution intended to subject a first wash with burnt smoke in the funnel. It then goes through a ball washer containing
barite water - thus stripped entirely of its carbonic acid, it goes into a tube containing
copper oxide heated by the gas grid, which we see in the middle of the drawing. The carbon monoxide that contained the smoke comes out transformed into carbonic acid which then passes to. the state of barite carbonate, crossing barite water from the following scrubbers. The last of them is related to the trunk that ï*on see on the right of the drawing and which determines the passage of tobacco smoke through the whole system. We are sure that all the carbonic acid which the smoke of tobacco could contain was well absorbed by the test tubes containing potash when the barite water contained in the ball washer preceding the gas grill remains clear: the slightest traces of carbonic acid would immediately disturb its purity-
- 23 -
perience. It is then necessary to have recourse to a process Irès-ingô-
nieux and very exact, but very complicated, imagined by M. Gre-
binder, and which consists in passing the air to be analyzed, first
through vials containing a potash solution which
retains carbonic acid, then through barite water
intended to prove by his lack of trouble that everything
carbonic acid has been absorbed well and finally in a long
glass tube filled with copper oxide which is kept at
red by means of a gas grill. Carbon monoxide,
transformed into carbonic acid, then passes through
barite water, where it turns into barite carbonate
that we decompose "by hydrochloric acid in a vacuum, at
using a mercury pump. Analysis of 50 liters of air
requires at least 24 hours.
Having noted the superiority of Mr. Gréhant's method
for analyzes of mixtures where carbon monoxide is
found in small quantities, I had, despite its difficulty, to adopt it
ter for my research. Unable to use it in my
laboratory where the necessary devices were not found,
I went to the laboratory of the Museum, where I
received from M. Gréhant the contest the graceful fold. I do not
rais express too moment my thanks to this
eminent physiologist.
A. How Much Carbon Oxide Can, Without Being Fatal,
start producing accidents? In what pro-
portions can it meet in the atmosphere of smokers?
Can we attribute to its influence the toxic action of
tobacco smoke? these are the questions, unresolved
still, that I had to seek to resolve.
Mr. Gréhant had once killed dogs by forcing them
to breathe air that had passed through a pipe containing
a few grams of burning tobacco, and had recognized
by spectroscopic analysis that 'the blood of the animal
contained carbon monoxide. Repeated again, this
experience gave me absolutely the same results. With
a pipe containing 4 grams of lit tobacco, and
making the animal breathe by means of a muzzle
communication with the pipe by a rubber tube,
we saw him succumb in a quarter of an hour. At the autopsy,
the heart of the animal contained clots and the blood did not return
closed only traces of carbon monoxide.
- 24 -
Could we, - even when the blood would have contained
notable proportions of carbon monoxide, as had been
produced in other experiments - thereby
results applicable to smokers? I do not think so. No
only, in fact, the air introduced into the lungs,
contained a considerable proportion of carbon monoxide
that we artificially forced to go entirely through
lungs, but in addition the air supplied to the animal was almost
stripped by its passage through glowing tobacco
of much of its oxygen. This air contained
besides a high proportion of nicotine and various products
toxic from tobacco smoke. No smokers were seen
never been found in similar conditions.
To prove something, these experiences had to be
repeated in an entirely different way.
To avoid these causes of error, I resolved
to use tobacco stripped of nicotine by washing
several hours in boiling ammonia ether,
then boiling water, and add to the products of the
burning tobacco enough oxygen to
replace the one destroyed by combustion.
Ten grams of tahaG thus stripped of nicotine were
burned in a pipe. The gas that was released was collected
in a 25 liter bell, then introduced into a flask
with the amount of oxygen needed to replenish a
sufficiently oxygen-rich atmosphere. A dog from
weight of 11 kilog. having been fixed on a content device,
28-
we made him breathe the air from the bag by means of a muzzle
attached to a valve organized so that the products
of breathing escaped into the atmosphere instead
to return to the bag. After 14 minutes, the animal
was dead. Spectrpscopic examination of the blood indicated the
presence of carbon monoxide. Other toxic principles
that the nicotine in tobacco having been very likely to
no doubt entrained by the washes intended to strip it
of this alkaloid, and the atmosphere where the dog was breathing
enough oxygen to maintain breathing it was rational
to admit that the animal had been killed solely by the oxide
of carbon in tobacco smoke. This result
was nothing unexpected, because the amount of tobacco
burned had produced a proportion of carbon monoxide
more than enough to cause death, given the
volume of air that contained it.
But this experience and those of the same kind do not prove
see that one thing is that by introducing the proportion
carbon bone produced by a small amount of tobacco
in a confined atmosphere you can quickly find
undermine the death of an animal. No more than the previous one, this
experience was only applicable to smokers who are not found
never indeed in an atmosphere confined enough to
contain such high proportions of carbon monoxide
than in the previous case.
To appreciate the influence that can have on humans
the carbon monoxide that tobacco smoke contains, you had to
first find out the proportion of carbon monoxide that
must contain an atmosphere to be dangerous without
to be lethal, and then what proportion of carbon monoxide
can be found in the atmosphere of smokers.
To resolve the first question, that is, to determine
the proportion of carbon monoxide that air must contain to
become dangerous, physiologists' work on this
- 26 -
point could not provide any information. They we
indeed only say in what proportion the oxide of
carbon must exist in the atmosphere to kill an animal,
while we wanted to know in what proportion it
must exist to inconvenience a man.
To determine this proportion, I turned on two ovens.
neaux in one of these narrow kitchens that we meet in
the small apartments in Paris, and where, despite a
you can hardly stay under pain of suffocation without
leave the door open. I locked myself in there until a
violent headache and nausea make me stay
impossible. At that moment, and before opening the door, I
filled with a rubber balloon
25 liters. Brought to the laboratory and analyzed, I found
that this air contained a proportion of carbon monoxide
representing only 325 cubic centimeters, or about
ron 1/3000 in the atmosphere. I will mention for the record
that the amount of carbonic acid in it was 12
times stronger (almost 4 liters per cubic meter), quantity
absolutely insufficient from the rest to produce the slightest
discomfort, since it is assumed that the air must contain 10/0 of acid
carbon dioxide to be unbreathable, and that this gas does not
begins to inconvenience that when it is there in proportion
tion of 1 0/0.
According to the experiences mentioned above, it is sufficient
to produce the small proportion of carbon monoxide
found in this experiment, to burn 4 grams of
tobacco per cubic meter of air. At first, and not
considering that this figure of 4 grams of tobacco, it seems
that a very small quantity of this substance would suffice
to vitiate by carbon monoxide a quantity of air well
great, but a very simple calculation proves, on the contrary,
that it is not.
Consider the size of the most
- 27 –
small where several smokers can be gathered. In
taking for type a student room whose capacity
, is about 30 cubic meters, we see that, for the
mosphere contains 1/3000 of carbon monoxide, i.e.
ten liters for 30 cubic meters, -
figure of 800 cubic centimeters of carbon monoxide per
10 grams of tobacco - smoking 125 grams of this
substance. If we consider that a pipe contains approximately
2 g. 5 of tobacco, which the smokable part of a cigarette weighs
0 g. 50, that a 10 cent cigar weighs about 5 gram-
mes, we see that we should smoke 50 pipes, or 250 cigarettes
or 25 cigars to produce these ten liters of car- bon oxide
bone. In fact, the amount to smoke should be a lot
even more significant if we wanted to take into account the
newly air through the doors. But even if you don't
taking into account that the figures that I have just given, a
such consumption would obviously be impossible by the
small number of individuals that such a room can contain
bre. By admitting for a moment that it was, it is easy to
experience, simply by burning tobacco
in a funnel, that long before the 125 grams of
tobacco were burned, the room would contain such a cloud
opaque and foul that one would be absolutely obliged from where;
open doors and windows to renew the atmosphere
sphere.
But there are circumstances where multiple individuals
can be in a much smaller space
than the one I just assumed. These circumstances prevail
feel whenever smokers are gathered in
a railway compartment or a closed car.
Tell in advance by simple calculation what the atmosphere
may contain carbon monoxide after combustion
of a given amount of tobacco, is obviously impossible,
because the very active ventilation which is done by the parties
- 28 -
poorly joined doors and windows replenishes the air quickly
dement. Experience alone could indicate the quantity
carbon monoxide which, after a while, would
contained in such an atmosphere. If, by putting us in
the worst possible conditions we don't find
in the air only a very small quantity of carbon monoxide,
we could conclude that this is only a very exceptional-
nally that this gas can meet in proportions
dangerous in the atmosphere of smokers.
One of the most disadvantageous conditions
find a smoker from the point of view of reducing the
pace is obviously the stay in one of these narrow
named tures cut. So it's a car of this kind
that I chose for the seat of my experiences.
April 28, 1879, Mr. Callamand, young doctor whose I had
to appreciate goodwill and kindness many times, has
kindly get in a car, called a coupe,
of which the interior capacity, net of the benches and
of travelers, was about 4,200 cubic decimeters. The
car, the windows of which had been closed, circulated during
for 3/4 of an hour, and during this space of time, Mr. Calla-
mand and I smoked between us 7 gr. 50 sca- tobacco
ordinary ferlati. The interior temperature of the car, which
was 13 ° at the start of the experiment, was 22 °
at the end. Beginning to be a little inconvenienced, we have
stopped the experiment and filled a rubber bag of 25
liters with the car air. According to the proportion of tobacco
burnt, we should have found 500 cubic centimeters
carbon monoxide per cubic meter; but we don't
we found that barely 100, insufficient quantity for in-
seriously committing. Despite the closing of the windows and
doors, most of the carbon monoxide
had therefore escaped outside, thanks to the renewal
air through poorly attached doors or windows. The fu-
- 29 -
therefore is not exposed in analogous cases to breathe
noticeable amounts of carbon monoxide.
Suppose, however, for a moment that the smoker is
locked in a car whose construction is enough
perfect so that air can't get in and out, and where,
therefore carbon monoxide can accumulate without
to get lost. Well, even in this unlikely case, it
1 is a major reason that would prevent the smoker from being
exposed to breathe carbon monoxide in mor-
such, or even really dangerous. At the same time
effect of carbon monoxide on combustion of
tobacco, it forms a series of products such as nicotine
and various principles that I will study soon, all more toxic
than carbon monoxide, and which, mixed with the atmosphere,
would have made it unbreathable to the point of forcing the smoker to
flee it before carbon monoxide could produce its
action. I noticed several times, moreover, when I was doing
my experiences on the dosage of nicotine in smoke
tobacco, that an atmosphere can only contain
insufficient proportions of carbon monoxide for incom-
moder, could be made almost entirely breathable
by the products I just mentioned.
Direct human experiments confirm
what precedes. Dr. Périgord reports, in a thesis
interesting about tobacco smoke, that one of his friends, fu-
dying, having consented to smoke back to back two
10 cent cigars, breathing in their smoke, soon found
so indisposed that it was impossible for him to finish the second
cigar. The products of his breathing, collected during
some time in a balloon, however did contain
only insignificant traces of carbon monoxide, which
proves that nicotine and other smoke products from the
tobacco condensed in the lungs, and absorbed by the body
circulatory had produced their toxic action well
3.
~ 30 -
before carbon monoxide was found in sufficient quantity
to produce its own.
We will conclude from all of the above that if the oxide of
carbon adds its action to that of other products
contained in tobacco smoke, it is not his however
Dant, as has been claimed recently in Germany,
that this latter owes its dangerous properties. She has it
owes not only to undecomposed nicotine it
contains in a very high proportion, as we have
shown, but also to other equally toxic compounds
than this alkaloid that we are going to search for now.
[SPOILER/]
Part II
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH AND DETERMINATION OF THE PRUSSIAL ACID CONTAINED IN
TOBACCO SMOKE.
When I was doing the research that took place eight years ago
served as the basis for the first edition of this thesis, I had
been struck by this fact, that the tobaccos that act the most on
the nervous system, especially those with which it is made
the strong cigars of Havana, and some so-called tobacco
Levant, contain much less nicotine than>
common cigars or regular scaferlati as smokers
the most inexperienced smoke without difficulty. So it was
obvious that apart from nicotine and the products that I have
tobacco smoke must have contained other substances
active tances, but for lack of time I did not take care
on this side of the question.
The method we used for our news
research, which involves passing smoke through
different liquids each intended to strip it of,
certain principles led us to isolate substances
that help make tobacco smell, and that
would be enough in the complete absence of nicotine to give it
toxic properties. Some are aromatic principles
which I will talk about in a later chapter, the others are
of the prussic acid that we're going to deal with now
nant. All the part of this work relating to the extraction of
prussic acid and aromatic principles was made with
the collaboration of my friend Dr Georges Noël whose
extensive science and skill had already been invaluable to me
31 -
- 82 -
in delicate physics and mechanics research.
We were able, ncn-only to dose exactly the pro-
portion of prussic acid found in tobacco smoke,
but still to extract from it in a state of purity a notable quantity
tity which has been presented to various learned societies.
Leaving ribbed prior research that we have
had to do to arrive to discover the existence of prus acid "
sic in tobacco smoke I will describe the method that
we used to extract it in kind and the
dose.
Tobacco is processed in a device similar to that pre-
previously described. The products of combustion pass through
first sulfuric acid scrubbers that retain the nico-
tine, ammonia and other bases that smoke can
contain and release prussic acid which could
to be combined with these bases. The smoke then passes
in a series of potash washers
which retains prussic acid and various acids, in particular
carbonic acid. Tobacco combustion finished, all
the alkaline liquids are collected in a balloon, in
munication with a coil, into which we pour by pe-
small quantities, using a tube, of sulfuric acid
intended to neutralize potash. Carbonic acid which
gives off does not cause any portion of prussic acid, as
we can convince ourselves by passing the first through
a bottle containing a silver nitrate solution.
When saturation is complete, sulfuric acid is poured
that in excess to displace the prussic acid and we heat
the flask containing the mixture. Distilled products are
collected until they no longer contain traces
prussic acid. This is ensured by treating part of the
liquid distilled by ammonium sulphide which trans-
forms prussic acid into ammonium sulfocyanide, which
then give the iron perchloride a nice color
33 -
red. This reaction is, as we know, extremely
sensitive. Experience has shown, moreover, that the prussi-
that happens in the first products of distillation.
By submitting to several corrections these first pro-
duits, we get a very concentrated prussic acid solution
very, having the extremely penetrating smell of this
acid and all of its chemical characters. It is mixed
however to a certain amount of water and has various principles
aromatic. To separate it and at the same time dose it
exactly, just distill it again and collect
distillation products in a standard solution of
silver nitrate which transforms prussic acid into cyanide
silver. The operation finished, the solution is titled do
new and the difference - correction of volume -
gives the weight of silver cyanide that can be
then filter and weigh. With the silver cyanide thus obtained,
then absolutely pure prussic acid is prepared. This is
as well as the bottles of prussic acid extracted
tobacco smoke that we presented to various
learned societies.
The weight of prussic acid obtained in the experiments
above has varied considerably with tobacco
bent. The smoke of ordinary tobacco, hardly gives that
3 to 4 milligrams per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. That
from the Levant, 7 to 8 milligrams for the same amount of
burnt tobacco.
Because of the losses that necessarily entail
operations as long as the ones I have just summarized,
the above figures are obviously far below
real numbers. As they are however, they are still
high. We will easily understand this by remembering that
prussic acid is the most violent of the known poisons, and
that a single drop placed on a dog's eye makes it ins-
both perish.
_ 34 -
When we compare the effects that some
tobacco on smokers not exercised or even on smokers
exercised dies who consume too much
great, we are struck by the analogy that these effects present
with those produced by prussic acid. I will come back to
this question in the chapter on experiences,
and I will limit myself to saying that it is partly up to them
richness in prussic acid that these tobaccos owe their
toxic properties. They still owe it, like us
let's see it soon, has particular aromatic principles
that the various tobaccos contain in different proportions
annuities. Their influence, joined to that of prussic acid,
allows us to understand the fact so far unexplained, and
that I pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, that this is
no greater or lesser wealth of tobacco
that depend only on its toxic properties.
It is very probable that prussic acid is formed
during the burning of tobacco and does not exist in the plant.
It is obviously there in combination with some
one of the many bases that tobacco smoke contains.
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH OF THE AROMATIC PRINCIPLES THAT GIVE TO
TOBACCO SMOKING ITS PERFUME.
Less exercised smokers, or even people
never smoked, know there are differences
considerable between the smell of various qualities of tobacco.
No one will confuse the scent that emanates from a pipe
or a bad cigar "with the pleasant smell that produces
the smoke of Havana cigars, even less with the smell
nicotine in the purity state. The latter contributes
no doubt, as well as ammonia, to give to the smoke of the
tobacco its perfume, but it is obvious that it must be met
langée has other very different principles that
search.
Several chemists have already addressed this problem, but
without success. Long research done at the factory
tobacco from Paris by the skilled engineers who run it
did not provide them with any results. Very long experiences
which involved 500 kilograms of tobacco (including the
their would be more than 5000 fr. in debits), have only provided
other result than the production of 2 or 3 grams of a
thick liquid of indeterminate nature, and foul odor
having no analogy with that of tobacco smoke
or tobacco before it burns.
The extraction of these aromatic principles was not
remains easy; on the one hand, in fact, tobacco smoke
contains a considerable number of different compounds, and,
on the other hand, it is evident that the special scent of smoke
~ 36 -
is the product of the mixture of already very odorous bodies, of which
we found the presence, such as nicotine, am-
moniac, prussic acid, etc., with the aromatic substances
ticks that need to be recognized. We cannot hope,
even after isolating these, reproduce the smell of the
smoke from taiïac other than by means of strong mixtures
used by perfumers.
But if we cannot hope to isolate in the smoke of the
tobacco a special product with precisely its odor,
the less we can find some odor product there
characteristic obviously contributing by its mixture
with those above to give smoke its scent
pleasant. This is precisely the goal that could not have been achieved.
extend the experiences made so far and that have been able to solve
the ones we're going to talk about. By processes that we al-
Let’s make it known now, we were able to extract from the
tobacco smoke two peculiar aromatic bodies
very characteristic.
To isolate these aromatic principles, we used
the device shown in the attached figure. The first
bottle above which is placed the funnel where the
combustion is a very extensive sulfuric acid scrubber, which
retains ammonia and nicotine. The first bubbler
contains the same liquid. The last one contains
distilled water ; intended to retain the aromatic principles
volatile that may have escaped. In our latest
experiences, we have tripled the number of bubblers.
As soon as the tobacco smoke has been stripped of its
ammonia and its nicotine, by its passage through
sulfuric acid, it immediately takes on an odor
particular aromatic, very pleasant and extremely penetrating
trante. With certain tobaccos, those which serve for example
to make Regalias-Britannica cigars, at 0 fr. GO c,
the smell is so penetrating that two cigars are enough to give
- 37 -
at 50 cubic centimeters of water a very agreeable odor can be
keeps unchanged for more than a year. The
aromatic liquid thus obtained varies a little odor with
the various tobaccos used. The ordinary scaferlati gives
a much weaker and less pleasant odor than
some tobacco from Havana.
The operation finished, the liquids of the various bottles la-
are subjected to a series of repeated distillations which
Flg. 3.
purifies and concentrates them more and more. The first of
aromatic bodies go into 1RS first products of the
distillation. The latter only goes on the contrary when the
liquids have been concentrated by a large number of distillates
successive tions.
The two principles thus obtained are liquid bodies,
the first slightly soluble, the second completely insoluble
in water; the latter alone has a smell reminding
- 38 -
that of tobacco. The smell of the first is very pleasant, it
is so penetrating that a glass rod that we dived into
and then stirred in a large amount of water is enough
to communicate to it a very intense odor.
Its proportion varies considerably, depending on the tobacco
employees. It is more abundant in tobacco from
Havana and Levant than in common tobacco. In
Levant tobacco, smoke contains at least one
gram per kilogram of tobacco burned;
It is an extremely toxic compound and at least also
as dangerous as nicotine. The twentieth part of a drop
enough to kill a frog. Death comes quickly
after paralysis which usually begins with the mem-
earlier bres. Breathed for a while, it produces
various disorders and in particular repeated dizziness, as well
that we will see in the chapter devoted to the study of its
physiological effects.
It would have been naturally interesting to measure out exactly
the proportion of these principles contained in the various ta-
bins, and clearly determine their chemical nature. Yes
we didn't do it, it's just because, for
obtain sufficiently precise figures, it would have been necessary to operate
on large quantities of substances and that these experiments
They are excessively long and costly (1). All
the experiences discussed in this memoir have been
made at our expense, and, apart from two boxes of cigars
that the Society has kindly offered me against the abuse of
tobacco, we had to buy all the necessary tobacco
(I) To burn i kilogr. tobacco in devices imitating
conditions where smokers are, it takes about 40 hours, and
the operation must be constantly monitored. To get some
grams of product, it is necessary to operate on several kilogr. tobacco. Gold>
the cigars from London that have been used in our businesses, cost around
50 fr. lekilog. I also operated on qualities (Regalias-Britannica)
which are worth 600 fr. the thousand cigars,
- 39 -
to this research. After devoting to this study much
suddenly more time and money than I thought of-
on board, I had to suspend it.
But if we haven't determined the chemical nature
of the two principles we just talked about, at least
were we able to successfully make this determination to
the most important of them. This aromatic body, of
such a penetrating smell, to which the smoke must obviously
much of its scent, and whose toxic properties
are so characteristic, is none other than an alkaloid, the col-
lidine. This base had already been reported in the products
dry distillation of several compounds? organic,
but no one had suspected to our knowledge yet
its physiological properties, and the fact that the fu-
tobacco contains an alkaloid other than nicotine and
as toxic as it was completely unexpected. '. *
Collidine is an alkaloid belonging to the pyri- series
dique. It is part of this series of homologous bases
which originate in the distillation of many
organic matter and here are the first tarnishes;
Pyridine C:> 1P Az.
Picoline W II 7 Aa.
Lutidine C7 H »Az.
Collidine C8 H »Az.
Parvoline C9 H 13 Az,
Etc.
As for the second of the aromatic principles which we
have talked about and whose boiling point is much more
higher than that of collidine and the odor is entirely different
rent, we will not talk about it, not having obtained it
enough to study. Maybe
does he also belong to the pyriJique series, but that's an opinion
that we only risk in a hypothetical state. We don't
we won't even comment on his reactions,
-40-
its odeiirèt its physiological properties, being * not certain
pity to have obtained it in a state of purity.
To obtain a sufficient quantity and power it is--
dier, it will suffice to operate on a quantity of tobacco
nable.
With the previous indications, our experiences will be
easily completed by people who have at their disposal
sition of large quantities of tobacco, such as scientists
engineers in our factories. There are many things to find-
worm of the rest still in tobacco smoke. I will report
including a compound - probably a hydrocarbon -
of a very unpleasant special odor, which one cannot breathe
rer for some time without being bothered, that it has been
impossible to retain by any solvent, and that smell
perceives in the air current that has passed through all the scrubbers.
I will conclude by concluding that the principles aro-
matics I mentioned are without any analogy 1 with the
a solid compound called nicotianin that was once removed
tobacco by distilling its leaves with water.
41 -
CHAPTER V '
EXPERIENCES DONE ON ANIMALS AND ON MAN WITH
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS OF THE CONDENSATION OF TOBACCO SMOKE.
§ I. EXPERIENCES DONE WITH ALL THE PRODUCTS
OF THE CONDENSATION OF SMOKE
Most of the experimenters who wanted to study
the action of tobacco on animals used nicotine.
Tobacco smoke contains ^ it is true, a notable propor-
tion of this substance, but it also contains, as
as we have said, other active ingredients. By operating
as we did with condensed smoke, we
obviously comes to much more practical conclusions.
only by confining themselves to experimenting with nicotine. We
we have completed our research by experimenting
then on the various products that the smoke contains, so
to be able to fully appreciate the role of each of them.
Experiments made with tarry liquid which is
dense in pipe pipes and jwrte-cigars. - This li-
which forms what smokers commonly refer to as
the name of juice. A drop is introduced into the mouth of a
strong frog. The animal first appears struck down as
if we had used pure nicotine, but it gets up,
makes some movements and dies after 20 minutes
about with symptoms of poisoning by;
nicotine: early convulsions of the muscles of the abdomen,
flbriliary tremors of muscles, etc. As we
_ 42 -
see, this liquid has been shown to be almost as toxic as
nicotine itself may have been.
Experiments with smoke that has condensed in
the vases representing the lungs and the mouth. - Pheno-
leads similar to those observed in the previous experiment
toothed. The animal appears struck by lightning, then gets up, but does not
makes little movement when pinched. It is com-
fully recovered after a quarter of an hour, but its
clothes remain embarrassed for several hours. The dose
used three drops.
Ten cubic centimeters of liquid from the condensate
tion of smoke in the vases representing the lungs and
the mouth are thrown into an empty 1 liter jar, and a
strong frog is introduced. The animal makes the efforts
more violent to get out of the vase, but his efforts slow down
weave quickly and after a few minutes it seems
dozing. It does not wake up unless it is forcefully pinched.
After half an hour, the head, which had remained raised,
sags forward and the animal becomes completely numb
ble stings. All the efforts made to bring him back to life
are unsuccessful.
The phenomena observed have come closer to those
previously mentioned, with this important difference
however; that the abdominal muscles did not exhibit the
tetaniform contraction that we have reported.
Ammonia as condensed smoke
contain in such a large proportion has she added
its action this nicotine? Wouldn't that be what
asked what was the death of the animal '? The two experiences
The following comments were made to elucidate the question.
Ex}). A. A frog is introduced into a jar of
1 liter capacity with 10 cm of water, containing a
amount of nicotine precisely equal to that contained in
the solution used in the previous experiment. The-
- 43 -
nimal dies very quickly with all the symptoms of
nicotine poisoning (tetaniform contraction
muscles of the abdomen, etc.)
Exp. B. Another frog is then introduced into a
other jar of the same capacity as the previous one and we pour it
\ 0 cent, water cubes containing an amount of ammonia
precisely equal to that contained in the liquid which had
was used in the experience described above. The animal
makes desperate efforts to get out of the jar, but falls back
soon inanimate. He seems completely insensitive and the
bites, which, in previous experiments, caused
energetic movements, have no effect; it's only
spontaneously that the animal comes out of its immobility. He performs
then violent movements which slow down more and more
more. Finally, the animal only shakes its legs
from behind, without stirring. the front ones that seem
completely paralyzed. Death comes at the end of a quarl-
hour.
The dose of ammonia contained in the products of the
condensed tobacco smoke is, as can be seen, sufficient to
it alone to bring death, in pet animals, but
the difference in symptoms between the effects of ammonia
and those of nicotine used separately or simultaneously-
ment, as we have just done, is notable.
§ II. EXPERIENCES WITH NICOTINE SUN LES
ANIMALS AND ON MAN.
Although we have not intended to study
in this work the action of nicotine, but that of
tobacco smoke, which is not at all the same thing
- • we were naturally led several times to
study the effects of pure nicotine so that you can understand
counteract its action with that of tobacco smoke itself. The
~ 44 _
most of our experiences, especially those relating to
the action of boiling nicotine vapors, or nicotine
in small doses, do not double the rest, use with
those published so far on the toxic action of this subs-
tance.
Nicotine exists in tobacco in the form of combinations
still poorly defined with organic acids ?. Its owners
toxic tees have been known for a very long time; because at
In the seventeenth century, there was talk of a "quintessence of tobacco" prepa-
born in Florence, and of which “a drop introduced into a
qûre made die at the same hour. »Red skins pa-
allow the concentrated juice removed from the tobacco to enter, and by
consequently very rich in nicotine, in the composition of
poisons that serve to poison their arrows. I will
note in passing that this toxic influence that can
exercising the nicotine introduced into wounds has an im-
lift which we generally forget to emphasize. he
is hardly a smoker who does not expose himself to this kind of into-
xication by cleaning with sharp instruments, such as
we generally do this for pipes or cigar holders,
the pipe is dirty with this tarry black matter,
commonly called pipe juice and which, according to experience
riences mentioned above, is very rich in nicotine
and almost as toxic as it. An injury with a
instrument impregnated with this substance could determine
rapidly fatal accidents.
Regarding the physiological action of nicotine, I
will limit myself to recalling that, according to the authors, it acts on
the upper regions of the spinal cord. The effects
that it produces in high doses, and that, like all ex-
perimenters I have observed, are a teta-
violent nick of the muscles following their excitement.
The arterial vessels also contract, narrow
smells and drains. If the animal survives, a period of resolved '
- 4b -
the complete tion follows the tetanus stiffness. Violently
excited first, the body then experiences depression
proportional to this very excitement, which is over-
plus the case of most physiological stimulants.
Several authors have pointed out the singular ease with which
we get used to a. the action of nicotine, and I have myself
noted this addiction. Trauhe was forced to arrive
in four days give five drops of nicotine to pro-
reduce the effect i / 24mo of drop would produce on the first day.
I find in several authors that Ilaugton would have given 54
nicotine drops in 4 days to a patient with tetanus.
I fear, however, that there has been some error of im-
pressure in the indication of this last digit. Dose
similar would certainly be sufficient to kill a double
zaine of vigorous individuals.
Anyway, it is certain - and this is fortunate
for smokers, - that if nicotine is, after the acid
prussic, the most energetic of the known poisons, it is also
the one you get used to the fastest-
is lying.
Experiments with nicotine on animals, -
A drop of pure nicotine placed at the end of a
glass rod is introduced into the mouth of a
strong frog; the animal we were holding by the legs
from behind makes a few movements, then crosses his
forelegs and remains motionless. Placed on the table,
we observe the following phenomena: rigidity of the mem-
bres, tetaniform contractions of the lateral walls of the abdomen
men, who seem to be pressed against the spine,
muscle fibrillary tremor. During a shift
about an hour, we can cause movements in
strongly pinching the animal, but these movements only carry
only on the rear axle only, because the front axle
4.
- 40 -
is almost completely paralyzed. Soon the pinches
more energetic remain without action. Contractility under
the influence of electricity persists for longer,
but the electric currents are powerless to bring back
the animal in life. The heart beat continues for a long time.
time after death.
Nicotine was given at 10 a.m. at 40 a.m.
hours 45 minutes the animal is opened and the heart exposed.
It beats 53 times a minute, at 6 o'clock in the evening it beats 34 times,
h 8 hours 10 times, at 9 hours and a few minutes, the beats
They stopped completely.
Experiments with boiled nicotine vapor
lante on animals. - Two drops of nicotine intro-
picks in a platinum capsule are brought to the boil
and I expose the head of a frog to the vapors which escape
nice. The animal makes a few movements, then extends its
legs, tip the head back and stay completely
motionless. The muscles of his abdomen contract
as in most previous experiments and it
performs a few movements when pinched. The death
complete arrives at the end of a quarter of an hour.
Experiments with nicotine placed on the skin
of an animal. ~ Two drops of nicotine are placed on
the back of a frog. In less than two minutes, the
breathing stops and the abdominal muscles
contract vigorously as before, Pen-
in about ten minutes, we cause a few rare
movements by pinching the animal.
The action of the poison has therefore been shown at least as
energetic in this last experience than in those
who preceded it.
Experiments with nicotine in very small doses.
- 47 -
solution containing a drop of nicotine in one liter
of water, or a solution around 1/20000 has an odor
very sensitive. One hundred cubic centimeters of this liquid is in-
products in a jar where a frog is placed. The animal
soon goes numb and falls into a drowsy state and
of stupor from which he only emerges when he is pinched.
After 24 hours I replace the liquid the next day
I find the dead animal there, the front limbs contracted.
The same experiment is repeated by bringing nicotine to
the dose of 4 drops per liter of water. The animal is immersed in
200 cubic centimeters of the liquid. After twelve hours
we find him dead.
To appreciate the action of nicotine vapors, at low
dose, pour a drop of nicotine into cotton wool
under a glass funnel where there is a frog.
ill soon exhibits symptoms of paralysis, and the
death arrives after 1 3/4 hours.
Induced directly in the circulatory torrent, the nico-
tine is also very toxic in small doses. A drop
a 1/20 aqueous nicotine solution is injected under
the skin of a frog. After 3 minutes, contraction
of the four limbs, fibrillary tremor of the muscles,
and the animal no longer reacts against the excitations. Abandoned
to himself, he returns to. h life after 3/4 hour.
It was interesting to study the action of the
nicotine on the nervous system. The frog having been
placed on the board of our myograph (1), we make it
(l) For the description of the myograph used in our research,
I will refer the reader to the work I recently published under this
liter: The graphic method and its applications to the physical sciences,
mathematics and biology (in-8 °, 1879, at Lacroix). This work
contains 69 engravings drawn in part in my laboratory, from
new instruments due to my research and that of my colla-
borateur, Dr. Noël.
- 48 -
trace several circumferences on the black paper placed
around the cylinder to have normal curves, and we
injects him with a drop of the 1/20 solution.
The study of the traces shows that under the influence of the nico-
tine, contractions under the influence of electricity are
more energetic than normal, but that contractility
Fig. 4. Myogical curve traced to black laboratory by a
frog under the influence of nicotine.
runs out quickly. If we let the animal rest for some
time, conlractility reappears.
These experiments seem to prove that nicotine is a
exciting powerful, which allows the animal to instantaneously spend
temporarily all that it has of force in reserve, that is to say
say to immediately transform into the most powerful
much of its tension forces. This provision being
exhausted, he remains naturally in a state of depression
deep, during all the time necessary to repair it.
If we place on the sciatic nerve of the animal exposed for
previous experience, a drop of pure nicotine,
muscle contractions become much stronger under
the influence of electricity, but they run out quickly,
and soon the muscles no longer contract.
- 49 -
Experiments with pure nicotine on humans. -
Nicotine is certainly a formidable poison. The
previous experiences prove it enough. It is necessary
recognize, however, that we have exaggerated
effects on large animals and humans. We read, in
indeed, in most of the special works that a goulf.e
of this substance can kill a human or animal
large size, but this assessment seems to me little founded.
By operating with very pure nicotine from the
tobacco factory that we were obligated to
Mr. Schloesing, we have convinced ourselves by experience
leaked feelings about ourselves, that a drop of this liquid
placed on the tongue produced no other appreciable effects
unbearable flavor, and at most what
that palpitations. It is not without apprehension without
doubt that we tried this experiment for the first
first time, but convinced of its harmlessness, we have it
repeated for several times.
We also read in all the chemistry treatises, that the
vapor that nicotine spreads cold, is so irri-
aunt "we hardly breathe in a room where we have
spilled a drop of this alkaloid. " We can not
further admit the accuracy of this assertion, because we
worked on nicotine and tobacco, several months
in a narrow laboratory where the atmosphere was constantly
impregnated with nicotine vapor without having experienced
no discomfort in breathing.
Nicotine vapor is dangerous to breathe only
when heating this substance. The thick vapors which
are then released, are excessively toxic; We have
as they almost instantly struck animals
that was exposed to it, and man himself could not breathe it
a few seconds without danger of death. One or two eats
inadvertently breathing fairies immediately determined
- BO -
with us a lively suffocation, prolonged palpitations,
precordial anxiety, dizziness, and onset
syncope. Experience voluntarily repeated a
this time produced exactly the same symptoms.
These are the effects, I have seen, of nicotine and
do its vapor on man. We understand that it was different for me
cile to push my experiences further on this point.
§ III. EXPERIENCES WITH PRUSSIAL ACID
CONTENT IN TOBACCO SMOKE.
The effects produced by prussic acid extracted from smoke
of tobacco are naturally exactly the same as those
produced by prussic acid obtained by any other process,
and its lightning action is too well known to be
useful to recall it here. The relation of experiences made
with this substance would be otherwise of no practical interest,
since prussic acid is only found in tobacco smoke
only at a very low dose and mixed with other principles.
So I wouldn't have dedicated a special paragraph to
his study, if we hadn't found by handling this acid
physiological effects which appeared to us to have certain
analogies with those produced by tobacco smoke and con-
has to admit, therefore, that it's partly acid
prussique that are due to the toxic effects of certain tobacco,
Havana cigars in particular.
When we expose ourselves for a while, like us
did it, Dr. Noël and I in our experiments, at
vapors of prussic acid, we soon see a series
of symptoms described in the recent works of
toxicology: palpitations, nausea, headache, heaviness
headache, dizziness, muscle weakness, etc.
exactly those you see when smoking strong cigars
we're not used to. Palpitations, weakness
- 81 -
muscle, and especially dizziness are three pheno-
leads that I have observed frequently on me while I
were experimenting on tobacco. I first attributed these
nicotine effects, when I did not know the presence
prussic acid in tobacco smoke; but their ana-
living with those produced by prussic acid itself
led to conclude, as I just said, that it is in
part of this compound due to the toxic effects observed
vés. I say in part, because at the same time that we
were exposed to prussic acid fumes, we were
also to that of the aromatic principles of tobacco, which
have similar properties. Although accustomed to live
in the laboratories, Dr. Noël cannot breathe
recent times without being caught violent soon
dizziness.
Prussic acid is also believed to be due
the antiaphrodisiac effects attributed by many
for long-term tobacco use. This compound has h what
point of view of the properties very well known to all those who
have had occasion to handle potassium cyanide for
some time.
I will finish with regard to the action of prussic acid
remembering that this toxic agent is, like
carbon, which it is very similar to in its properties
physiological, a poison of blood cells. Same
that carbon monoxide it forms with hemoglobin
globules a crystallizable combination which removes these
- their property of absorbing oxygen. To this poison-
However, there must be a special action.
on the nervous system, otherwise it would be difficult
to understand that a single drop of this acid placed on the
a dog’s tongue could instantly strike him down.
- K2 -
§ IV. EXPERIENCES MADE ON ANIMALS AND ON MAN
WITH THE AROMATIC PRINCIPLES CONTAINED IN THE
TOBACCO SMOKE.
The experiments focused almost exclusively on the
aromatic principle slightly soluble in water and odor
very penetrating obtained as I indicated in a pre-
this chapter, that is to say on collidine.
One drop of this alkaloid is dissolved in about
40 drops of water. 10 drops of the solution thus obtained
therefore containing a quarter of a drop of collidine
are injected under the skin of a vigorous frog. We
first observe a lively restlessness replaced after
a few minutes by numbness, then by a
full paralysis of previous limbs. The animal reacts violently
slowly when pinched; but only by shaking the
hind legs. Death occurs in about 10 minutes
without anything resembling this tetaniforran contracture of
muscles, characteristic of nicotine poisoning.
If we consider that in this experiment the quantity
of the injected liquid contained only a quarter of a drop of
aromatic principle, we can conclude certain-
ment that this compound is actually as toxic as ni-
cotine and prussicx acid
The same experiment is repeated with only two drops.
of the previous solution, or therefore with
a twentieth drop of pure product. Same symptoms
than before, but death only comes to an end
about three hours. In several sem-
blables, it sometimes seemed that the animal would escape the ac-
tion of poison; but however he always ended up
succumb.
-B3 -
Instead of operating with the collidine obtained by the processes
long and complicated that I have described, we can use them simply
plement of water through which smoke is passed
tobacco that first passed through acid & wash bottles
sulfuric intended to retain nicotine, and ammonia.
To make sure I get rid of the
nicotine, I first subjected tobacco to cleansing
lined with ammoniac ether and boiling water. But I
recognized that this was an unhelpful complication. In this
part of the aromatic principles is
retained by sulfuric acid and only part of it arrives
in the water washer. However, the content of the latter is
so toxic that by collecting smoke from 10 grams of tobacco
from the Levant or a simple Régaliabritannica cigar at 0 fr.CO
in 50 cubic centimeters of distilled water, after washing
beforehand in a sulfuric acid bubbler,
to let a frog stay in the
clear and fragrant liquid thus obtained to see it
paralyze and succumb.
These aromatic principles have been isolated, as I have
indicated in a previous chapter.
I said in a previous chapter that it was partly
the aromatic principles contained in tobacco smoke,
that seemed to me to be attributed to the toxic effects that
produce some of them, including palpitations
and dizziness. I had already observed them on me as I
said so and Dr. Noel, who was not warned of this result
of my observations, found on himself to several
exactly the same effects during the manipulations
lations necessary to rectify these products. I even
profiled from an occasion where he had just been exposed to breathe
their vapors, to measure their aclion on the system
nervous by the new chronoseopic method that we
have recently made known. With the chronoscope at
- B4 ~
conical pendulum (1) of Doctors Noël and Gustave Le Bon,
which marks exactly on a dial in hundredths of
seconds the time elapsing between a tactile excitation,
visual or acoustic and a reaction, I examined, on my
collaborator, - the time which elapsed between the excitations
and reactions. Under the influence of the action exerted on the
nervous system by aromatic principles, speed
transmission of excitations in the nerves had been con-
dramatically delayed with regard to reactions
acoustic as shown by the following figures:
Time required to react against an audio excitation
tive in normal state (average of 50 observations): 0.308 million
tenths of a second.
Time needed to react against the same excitations
after being exposed for a while to Influence
vapors released by the aromatic principles of tobacco
(average of 25 observations): 0.931 thousandths of a second.
The time necessary to react against the excitations
touch was not changed by the toxic influence which I
just spoke. Before and after the experience, it was
about 13 hundredths of a second (average of 75 observations).
We can conclude from the above that the principles
tobacco aromatics exert at an extremely low dose,
an eminently toxic action on animals and
the man. I would gladly compare their action to that
that exert on the nervous system, although to a degree
infinitely less, the scents of certain plants, such
as lilac, jasmine, etc. We know that, breathed several
(1) The description of this method and the results can be found
that it provides to observe the state of the nervous system and monitor the
march of certain diseases whose diagnosis at the beginning was
impossible in the past, in a memoir currently in press. The
chronoscope of which I spoke and whose volume does not exceed that
of a small pendulum, recently functioned before the Society of
practical medicine.
KH
hours in a bedroom that is too narrow, they have
often produces fatal accidents. We attributed them
formerly to the influence of carbonic acid than plants
clear overnight; but the proportion of carbo-
what is happening then is obviously too minimal,
given the considerable dose of this gas that an atmos-
sphere must contain before you start to inconvenience
so that, in the current state of our knowledge, this
opinion can be sustained for a moment. Influence
that certain toxic agents exert in imponderable doses
introduced by the lungs is a chapter in physiology a
barely explored and that we propose to address some
day.
§ V. EXPERIENCES DONE ON ANIMALS AND ON MAN,
WITH CARBON OXIDE CONTAINED IN THE SMOKE OF
TOBACCO.
Unable to isolate these experiences from the processes which
allowed to look for the carbon monoxide contained in the
tobacco smoke, I had to describe them in the chapter devoted
to the determination of the carbon monoxide content in the smoke of the
tobacco. I will therefore confine myself to referring the reader to it. They
Have shown that although carbon monoxide is small
dose a highly toxic compound, it is not to him that the
tobacco smoke owes its dangerous properties.
§ VI. EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS RELATING TO IN-
FLUENCE OF TOBACCO SMOKE ON THE MAN.
Despite the above experiences, it is very difficult
to say precisely what is the action that produced at the
long the abuse of tobacco smoke in humans. All
these experiences indeed represent the immediate results
- 36 -
a sufficient dose to produce a toxic action,
but they do not tell us anything about the effects that
may in the long run produce doses too small to
determine immediate effects.
This question, whose solution is very complex, does not seem
not have embarrassed much most authors who
treated her. Without bothering to support their assert-
on some evidence, they see in tobacco the origin
a large number of nervous system conditions, plus
today than in the past, and comparing their ac-
growth to that of tobacco use (1), they ensure that
the increase of some is the sure effect of the progress of
consumption of the other. But these are assumptions
that does not support any serious evidence; and not being offered to me
in this work than to give the results of experiments
precise, jo can not attach importance to them.
We will therefore confine ourselves to drawing observations from the
authors who have studied like us without bias action
the facts that our observations tell us about tobacco
to be regarded as incontestable. We believe that we can
sea in the following way the effects that seem to produce
certainly the abuse of tobacco.
(1) I borrow from the official statistics of the Ministry of Finance,
tobacco consumption growth figures.
Number of kilog. of
Tobacco years sold Recedes
1815 9.7o3.000 53.S72.O0O
1820 12,615,000 64,171.0 ^ 0
1830 11,169,000 67,290,000
1840 16,018,000 95,188,000
1850 19,218,000 122,113,000
1860 29,580,000 195,325,000
1870 31.349.000 241.2i8.000
1,875 30,371,000 313,516,000
The published official statistics go no further than the year 1875.
The figures that precede slow show that, in a period of 60 years,
consumption has more than tripled and revenue has become
six times higher.
- 37 -
Visual disturbances. - I am putting these visual disturbances first-
rank constant effects of tobacco abuse, because
that they have been noted by all ophthalmologists and few
can be seen with an ophthalmoscope. They translate
first by the appearance of flying flies, then by a
central scotoma which blurs vision and can lead to
subject to blindness. With the suppression of tobacco, the disorders
disappear. As heavy smokers are generally
heavy drinkers, it's hard to share in
observed accidents of alcohol-related phenomena of those
tobacco products.
Nervous system and circulation disorders. - The action
annoying that tobacco exerts on the nervous systems and
circulatory system has been noted by several authors who have
ate under his influence intermittences of the pulse, pal-
pitations and dizziness. In support of these observations I
then give the results of my experience. When i
resumed my experiences on the search for toxic principles
What about tobacco smoke, I operated in a small laboratory
where I burned daily for several weeks
fairly considerable amounts of tobacco. The atmosphere was
this point steeped in various tobacco smoke products,
that this odor attached itself most persistently to
my beard and my clothes. Usual but moderate smoker, I
I was used to this atmosphere which did not bother me
not. After a few days, however, I noticed
circulation and nervous system disorders,
laughed by intermittences of the pulse, and dizziness
would come back in the morning when I got up. They continued
all the time experiences and even persisted
several days after their cessation. They were due
to the influence of tobacco, because having had the opportunity to resume
these experiences, they reappeared immediately. I also have them-
observed on Dr. Noël, as I said above. Gepen-
- 88 -
In the past, our colleague had not had an opportunity to breathe, the
tobacco smoke products that much more rarely
than me. These phenomena seem to me to be principally
ascribed, as I pointed out, to acid
Prussic and aromatic principles contained in the tobacco.
As for the phenomena of paralysis that were reported to the
following the abuse of tobacco, I did not have occasion to cons-
tater, but they seem perfectly admissible to me,
being known the action exerted on the spinal cord by the
toxic products from tobacco smoke. We saw in
effect that they quickly determine phenomena of para-
lysia in animals subject to their action.
Disorders of the digestive organs and respiratory tract. -
Various disorders of the digestive tract have been reported by
several authors, but I have not had occasion to find them
ter. The large amount of ammonia that smoke con-
perhaps could explain them. As for the troubles
respiratory tract characterized mainly by irritation
special throat, I had the opportunity to observe them
on several smokers, and even on experienced smokers. I
believe them exclusively due to the action of ammonia, because
they breed in experienced smokers who come
to smoke tobacco including manufacturing accidents or al-
increased the richness in ammonia.
Decreased memory. - The fact of the decrease in
memory under the influence of prolonged smoking is
one of the most certain since
my attention has been drawn to this point, that is to say since
ten years. I have so often had occasion to.
to observe that it is not possible for me to doubt it.
If the fact of the decrease in the memory of words under
the innocence of tobacco is, as I believe, incontestable,
it must be able to be verified in people who live in
an atmosphere imbued with the active ingredients of tobacco. In
-59 -
interviewing a large number of workers in the manufac-
ture of Strasbourg, at the time when this city was under the
French domination, we learned from their mouths that
those who work in fermentation rooms, including
the atmosphere contains a high proportion of nicotine and
ammonia vapors, momentarily lost,
almost completely, during hot weather, the
remember the names of the streets, and couldn't find the
names of their acquaintances.
Disorders of various functions. - I will mention again
among the effects observed by several authors and which
seem certain, but that I have not observed, the depres-
genital functions. It is mostly attributed, I
believe, as I said before, in the influence of acid
prussic. I will also report a cachectic state by-
peculiar that can be observed among factory workers,
but I would point out that in the latter case, it is the
tobacco and not the tobacco smoke that acts; however, this is obviously
lie to the action of the latter that smokers are
exposed. So I don't have to deal with the action of the
first.
The above summary may seem a bit short maybe
to the enemies of tobacco. It is certain, however, that it
closes everything we know about
the action of tobacco smoke on humans. I will finish it
with a remark that I think is essential because it can
explain the difference in action that tobacco smoke produces
in subjects subject to its action. Each of us has
more or less resistant organs, leaving more or less
weak. Given a toxic substance capable of acting
on several of them, it will act first on the least
resistant, or better said, it will act equally on all,
but it will only be the least resistant who will suffer
first. In individuals whose vision is delicate, it is
on the visual apparatus which its action will first bear; in
others it will be on the circulatory system or the system
nervous, etc.
As for the meanings of this expression: Tobacco abuse, that
I used above, it obviously has only one value
absolutely relative. Respond with numbers to this
question: What is tobacco abuse? is impossible
for this simple reason that the resistance of the various indi-
vidus is very unequal. Two or three cigarettes will be one
abuse for some smokers, and an amount, four or
five times greater will represent insi-
rewarding for others. What seems to me, however,
the point is that smokers, even the most experienced,
feels in the long run, when they exceed a certain figure
daily tobacco consumption, by experiencing
various organic disorders which they often seek
vainly the cause. The body gets used easily without
doubt to bear many things, but that those
which he seems to get used to the most, such as alcohol, by
example, eventually produce irremediable
orders. Whatever one may say to defend tobacco, it
do not forget that its smoke contains toxic agents
formidable, and in particular the most violent of all
known poisons, prussic acid, nicotine, and the new
alkaloid which we have demonstrated the existence.
_ wire _
CONCLUSIONS
• 1. - The principles of tobacco smoke which condenses
felt by the cooling in the mouth and lungs of
smokers, or in the devices intended to collect them,
include nicotine, ammonium carbonate
niac, various tarry substances, substances
dyes, prussic acid combined with bases, and
finally very-odorous and very-toxic aromatic principles.
In smoke, these various substances are mixed
a large proportion of water vapor and compounds
various gases, carbon monoxide and carbonic acid
especially.
2.— The liquid resulting from the condensation of substances
above is endowed with extremely toxic properties. he
just inject very small amounts into the system
circulatory system, or to make it breathe during
some time to see him succumb after presenting
various symptoms of paralysis.
3. - The properties of tobacco smoke we had
so far attributed only to nicotine, are also due.
also with prussic acid and various aromatic principles
ticks, especially a particular alkaloid, collidine. This is
a liquid body with a pleasant and very penetrating odor,
had reported the presence in the products of distillation
of various organic materials, but whose properties
physiological were completely unknown. It contributes by
much to give the smoke its smell. ' Her perfume
is so penetrating that one drop is enough
a very strong odor to a large quantity of water.
-62-
4. - Collidine is an alkaloid as toxic as ni-
cotine. The twentieth part of a drop quickly kills a
frog by first producing symptoms of paralysis.
You cannot breathe it for a few moments without experiencing
muscle weakness and dizziness.
5. - It is due to the presence of prussic acid and various
aromatic principles due to several phenomena,
such as dizziness, headache and nausea
produce certain tobacco, low in nicotine or which
are private, while others, rich in nicotine, do not
have no similar accident.
G. - The proportion of prussic acid and aromatic principles
content in tobacco smoke varies according to
tobacco used. Those which contain the strongest do-
its are the tobacco of Havana and the Levant. By the pro-
ceded described in our brief, we easily withdraw
the state of purity prussic acid and collidine from the smoke
tobacco, and you can dose it.
7. - The semi-liquid dark matter which condenses in
the inside of the pipes and cigar holders contains all
the substances previously listed, and in particular
high amounts of nicotine. It is extremely toxic.
only in small doses. 2 or 3 drops are enough to kill a
little animal.
8. - The combustion of tobacco destroys only a small part
nicotine that it contains, and it ends up in
much of it in the smoke. The proportion likely to be
absorbed by smokers, and that we determined
in our experiences, varies according to the conditions where these
the latter are placed. It hardly descends below
50 centigrams per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. The quan-
amount of ammonia absorbed at the same time is little
almost equal.
9. - Various modes of smoking, the one where the number of
-03 -
nicotine and various toxic principles absorbed was the
greater is to smoke while breathing in smoke. The one where
it was less, consists in smoking the narghile or the pipe with
long pipe outdoors without breathing its smoke.
10. - Nicotine instantly kills animals with
dose of two or three drops, but in doses infinitely
smaller still, it soon produces phenomena of
paralysis and death. A frog introduced into a
jar containing an aqueous solution of nicotine at 1/20000,
or about a drop of nicotine in a liter of water, including
succumbs within hours. It is the same if we
place under a funnel containing a single drop of nico-
tine in a cotton ball. The steam that emerges
boiling nicotine instantly smashes
animals without giving them time to move.
11. - Tobacco smoke contains about 8 liters of oxide
of carbon per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. Experiences
recorded in our work prove that this is not what
gas it owes its toxic properties, as has been
recently supported in Germany.
12. - Among the most certain effects that smoke from
tobacco determines in the long run on humans, we can mention-
visual disturbances, palpitations, tendency
dizziness, and especially the decrease in; mempu; e7> -N
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. - Research of nicotine proportions
and ammonia that smokers can absorb. 1
§ 1. Conditions under which the absorption of
1 nicotine and various principles of tobacco smoke. . 1
^ 2. Apparatus used to find the proportion of nicotine
absorbed by smokers 8
| 3. Tobacco smoke products that condense in
devices representing the smoker's mouth and lungs. 12
§ 4. Determination of nicotine and ammonia which condense
in the respiratory organs of smokers 13
CHAPTER 11. - Research of the proportions of oxide of
carbon that smoke can contain and study of its
action 3 20
CHAPTER III. - Research and dosage of prus acid -
sic contained in tobacco smoke 31
CHAPTER IV. - Research of aromatic principles
that give tobacco smoke its scent. . 3o
CHAPTER V. - Experiments carried out on animals and
on man with various products of the conden-
tobacco smoke
§ 1. Experiences made with all the products of the conden-
smoke smoke ...... 41
§ 2. Experiments with nicotine on animals and
the man. . 43
§ 3. Experiments made with the prussic acid contained in the
tobacco smoke b0
§ 4. Experiments on animals and on humans with
aromatic principles contained in tobacco smoke. . . 132
§ b \ Experiments on animals and on humans with
carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke ... 55
S 6. Experiences and observations relating to innuençC.de-la
tobacco smoke on humans .
Conclusions,
Tobacco smoke: chemical and physiological research (2nd edition, ... Le Bon, Gustave (1841-1931). Author of the text
SAINT-QUENTIN. - JULES MOUREÀU PRINTER
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH AND DETERMINATION OF THE PRUSSIAL ACID CONTAINED IN
TOBACCO SMOKE.
When I was doing the research that took place eight years ago
served as the basis for the first edition of this thesis, I had
been struck by this fact, that the tobaccos that act the most on
the nervous system, especially those with which it is made
the strong cigars of Havana, and some so-called tobacco
Levant, contain much less nicotine than>
common cigars or regular scaferlati as smokers
the most inexperienced smoke without difficulty. So it was
obvious that apart from nicotine and the products that I have
tobacco smoke must have contained other substances
active tances, but for lack of time I did not take care
on this side of the question.
The method we used for our news
research, which involves passing smoke through
different liquids each intended to strip it of,
certain principles led us to isolate substances
that help make tobacco smell, and that
would be enough in the complete absence of nicotine to give it
toxic properties. Some are aromatic principles
which I will talk about in a later chapter, the others are
of the prussic acid that we're going to deal with now
nant. All the part of this work relating to the extraction of
prussic acid and aromatic principles was made with
the collaboration of my friend Dr Georges Noël whose
extensive science and skill had already been invaluable to me
31 -
- 82 -
in delicate physics and mechanics research.
We were able, ncn-only to dose exactly the pro-
portion of prussic acid found in tobacco smoke,
but still to extract from it in a state of purity a notable quantity
tity which has been presented to various learned societies.
Leaving ribbed prior research that we have
had to do to arrive to discover the existence of prus acid "
sic in tobacco smoke I will describe the method that
we used to extract it in kind and the
dose.
Tobacco is processed in a device similar to that pre-
previously described. The products of combustion pass through
first sulfuric acid scrubbers that retain the nico-
tine, ammonia and other bases that smoke can
contain and release prussic acid which could
to be combined with these bases. The smoke then passes
in a series of potash washers
which retains prussic acid and various acids, in particular
carbonic acid. Tobacco combustion finished, all
the alkaline liquids are collected in a balloon, in
munication with a coil, into which we pour by pe-
small quantities, using a tube, of sulfuric acid
intended to neutralize potash. Carbonic acid which
gives off does not cause any portion of prussic acid, as
we can convince ourselves by passing the first through
a bottle containing a silver nitrate solution.
When saturation is complete, sulfuric acid is poured
that in excess to displace the prussic acid and we heat
the flask containing the mixture. Distilled products are
collected until they no longer contain traces
prussic acid. This is ensured by treating part of the
liquid distilled by ammonium sulphide which trans-
forms prussic acid into ammonium sulfocyanide, which
then give the iron perchloride a nice color
33 -
red. This reaction is, as we know, extremely
sensitive. Experience has shown, moreover, that the prussi-
that happens in the first products of distillation.
By submitting to several corrections these first pro-
duits, we get a very concentrated prussic acid solution
very, having the extremely penetrating smell of this
acid and all of its chemical characters. It is mixed
however to a certain amount of water and has various principles
aromatic. To separate it and at the same time dose it
exactly, just distill it again and collect
distillation products in a standard solution of
silver nitrate which transforms prussic acid into cyanide
silver. The operation finished, the solution is titled do
new and the difference - correction of volume -
gives the weight of silver cyanide that can be
then filter and weigh. With the silver cyanide thus obtained,
then absolutely pure prussic acid is prepared. This is
as well as the bottles of prussic acid extracted
tobacco smoke that we presented to various
learned societies.
The weight of prussic acid obtained in the experiments
above has varied considerably with tobacco
bent. The smoke of ordinary tobacco, hardly gives that
3 to 4 milligrams per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. That
from the Levant, 7 to 8 milligrams for the same amount of
burnt tobacco.
Because of the losses that necessarily entail
operations as long as the ones I have just summarized,
the above figures are obviously far below
real numbers. As they are however, they are still
high. We will easily understand this by remembering that
prussic acid is the most violent of the known poisons, and
that a single drop placed on a dog's eye makes it ins-
both perish.
_ 34 -
When we compare the effects that some
tobacco on smokers not exercised or even on smokers
exercised dies who consume too much
great, we are struck by the analogy that these effects present
with those produced by prussic acid. I will come back to
this question in the chapter on experiences,
and I will limit myself to saying that it is partly up to them
richness in prussic acid that these tobaccos owe their
toxic properties. They still owe it, like us
let's see it soon, has particular aromatic principles
that the various tobaccos contain in different proportions
annuities. Their influence, joined to that of prussic acid,
allows us to understand the fact so far unexplained, and
that I pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, that this is
no greater or lesser wealth of tobacco
that depend only on its toxic properties.
It is very probable that prussic acid is formed
during the burning of tobacco and does not exist in the plant.
It is obviously there in combination with some
one of the many bases that tobacco smoke contains.
CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH OF THE AROMATIC PRINCIPLES THAT GIVE TO
TOBACCO SMOKING ITS PERFUME.
Less exercised smokers, or even people
never smoked, know there are differences
considerable between the smell of various qualities of tobacco.
No one will confuse the scent that emanates from a pipe
or a bad cigar "with the pleasant smell that produces
the smoke of Havana cigars, even less with the smell
nicotine in the purity state. The latter contributes
no doubt, as well as ammonia, to give to the smoke of the
tobacco its perfume, but it is obvious that it must be met
langée has other very different principles that
search.
Several chemists have already addressed this problem, but
without success. Long research done at the factory
tobacco from Paris by the skilled engineers who run it
did not provide them with any results. Very long experiences
which involved 500 kilograms of tobacco (including the
their would be more than 5000 fr. in debits), have only provided
other result than the production of 2 or 3 grams of a
thick liquid of indeterminate nature, and foul odor
having no analogy with that of tobacco smoke
or tobacco before it burns.
The extraction of these aromatic principles was not
remains easy; on the one hand, in fact, tobacco smoke
contains a considerable number of different compounds, and,
on the other hand, it is evident that the special scent of smoke
~ 36 -
is the product of the mixture of already very odorous bodies, of which
we found the presence, such as nicotine, am-
moniac, prussic acid, etc., with the aromatic substances
ticks that need to be recognized. We cannot hope,
even after isolating these, reproduce the smell of the
smoke from taiïac other than by means of strong mixtures
used by perfumers.
But if we cannot hope to isolate in the smoke of the
tobacco a special product with precisely its odor,
the less we can find some odor product there
characteristic obviously contributing by its mixture
with those above to give smoke its scent
pleasant. This is precisely the goal that could not have been achieved.
extend the experiences made so far and that have been able to solve
the ones we're going to talk about. By processes that we al-
Let’s make it known now, we were able to extract from the
tobacco smoke two peculiar aromatic bodies
very characteristic.
To isolate these aromatic principles, we used
the device shown in the attached figure. The first
bottle above which is placed the funnel where the
combustion is a very extensive sulfuric acid scrubber, which
retains ammonia and nicotine. The first bubbler
contains the same liquid. The last one contains
distilled water ; intended to retain the aromatic principles
volatile that may have escaped. In our latest
experiences, we have tripled the number of bubblers.
As soon as the tobacco smoke has been stripped of its
ammonia and its nicotine, by its passage through
sulfuric acid, it immediately takes on an odor
particular aromatic, very pleasant and extremely penetrating
trante. With certain tobaccos, those which serve for example
to make Regalias-Britannica cigars, at 0 fr. GO c,
the smell is so penetrating that two cigars are enough to give
- 37 -
at 50 cubic centimeters of water a very agreeable odor can be
keeps unchanged for more than a year. The
aromatic liquid thus obtained varies a little odor with
the various tobaccos used. The ordinary scaferlati gives
a much weaker and less pleasant odor than
some tobacco from Havana.
The operation finished, the liquids of the various bottles la-
are subjected to a series of repeated distillations which
Flg. 3.
purifies and concentrates them more and more. The first of
aromatic bodies go into 1RS first products of the
distillation. The latter only goes on the contrary when the
liquids have been concentrated by a large number of distillates
successive tions.
The two principles thus obtained are liquid bodies,
the first slightly soluble, the second completely insoluble
in water; the latter alone has a smell reminding
- 38 -
that of tobacco. The smell of the first is very pleasant, it
is so penetrating that a glass rod that we dived into
and then stirred in a large amount of water is enough
to communicate to it a very intense odor.
Its proportion varies considerably, depending on the tobacco
employees. It is more abundant in tobacco from
Havana and Levant than in common tobacco. In
Levant tobacco, smoke contains at least one
gram per kilogram of tobacco burned;
It is an extremely toxic compound and at least also
as dangerous as nicotine. The twentieth part of a drop
enough to kill a frog. Death comes quickly
after paralysis which usually begins with the mem-
earlier bres. Breathed for a while, it produces
various disorders and in particular repeated dizziness, as well
that we will see in the chapter devoted to the study of its
physiological effects.
It would have been naturally interesting to measure out exactly
the proportion of these principles contained in the various ta-
bins, and clearly determine their chemical nature. Yes
we didn't do it, it's just because, for
obtain sufficiently precise figures, it would have been necessary to operate
on large quantities of substances and that these experiments
They are excessively long and costly (1). All
the experiences discussed in this memoir have been
made at our expense, and, apart from two boxes of cigars
that the Society has kindly offered me against the abuse of
tobacco, we had to buy all the necessary tobacco
(I) To burn i kilogr. tobacco in devices imitating
conditions where smokers are, it takes about 40 hours, and
the operation must be constantly monitored. To get some
grams of product, it is necessary to operate on several kilogr. tobacco. Gold>
the cigars from London that have been used in our businesses, cost around
50 fr. lekilog. I also operated on qualities (Regalias-Britannica)
which are worth 600 fr. the thousand cigars,
- 39 -
to this research. After devoting to this study much
suddenly more time and money than I thought of-
on board, I had to suspend it.
But if we haven't determined the chemical nature
of the two principles we just talked about, at least
were we able to successfully make this determination to
the most important of them. This aromatic body, of
such a penetrating smell, to which the smoke must obviously
much of its scent, and whose toxic properties
are so characteristic, is none other than an alkaloid, the col-
lidine. This base had already been reported in the products
dry distillation of several compounds? organic,
but no one had suspected to our knowledge yet
its physiological properties, and the fact that the fu-
tobacco contains an alkaloid other than nicotine and
as toxic as it was completely unexpected. '. *
Collidine is an alkaloid belonging to the pyri- series
dique. It is part of this series of homologous bases
which originate in the distillation of many
organic matter and here are the first tarnishes;
Pyridine C:> 1P Az.
Picoline W II 7 Aa.
Lutidine C7 H »Az.
Collidine C8 H »Az.
Parvoline C9 H 13 Az,
Etc.
As for the second of the aromatic principles which we
have talked about and whose boiling point is much more
higher than that of collidine and the odor is entirely different
rent, we will not talk about it, not having obtained it
enough to study. Maybe
does he also belong to the pyriJique series, but that's an opinion
that we only risk in a hypothetical state. We don't
we won't even comment on his reactions,
-40-
its odeiirèt its physiological properties, being * not certain
pity to have obtained it in a state of purity.
To obtain a sufficient quantity and power it is--
dier, it will suffice to operate on a quantity of tobacco
nable.
With the previous indications, our experiences will be
easily completed by people who have at their disposal
sition of large quantities of tobacco, such as scientists
engineers in our factories. There are many things to find-
worm of the rest still in tobacco smoke. I will report
including a compound - probably a hydrocarbon -
of a very unpleasant special odor, which one cannot breathe
rer for some time without being bothered, that it has been
impossible to retain by any solvent, and that smell
perceives in the air current that has passed through all the scrubbers.
I will conclude by concluding that the principles aro-
matics I mentioned are without any analogy 1 with the
a solid compound called nicotianin that was once removed
tobacco by distilling its leaves with water.
41 -
CHAPTER V '
EXPERIENCES DONE ON ANIMALS AND ON MAN WITH
MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS OF THE CONDENSATION OF TOBACCO SMOKE.
§ I. EXPERIENCES DONE WITH ALL THE PRODUCTS
OF THE CONDENSATION OF SMOKE
Most of the experimenters who wanted to study
the action of tobacco on animals used nicotine.
Tobacco smoke contains ^ it is true, a notable propor-
tion of this substance, but it also contains, as
as we have said, other active ingredients. By operating
as we did with condensed smoke, we
obviously comes to much more practical conclusions.
only by confining themselves to experimenting with nicotine. We
we have completed our research by experimenting
then on the various products that the smoke contains, so
to be able to fully appreciate the role of each of them.
Experiments made with tarry liquid which is
dense in pipe pipes and jwrte-cigars. - This li-
which forms what smokers commonly refer to as
the name of juice. A drop is introduced into the mouth of a
strong frog. The animal first appears struck down as
if we had used pure nicotine, but it gets up,
makes some movements and dies after 20 minutes
about with symptoms of poisoning by;
nicotine: early convulsions of the muscles of the abdomen,
flbriliary tremors of muscles, etc. As we
_ 42 -
see, this liquid has been shown to be almost as toxic as
nicotine itself may have been.
Experiments with smoke that has condensed in
the vases representing the lungs and the mouth. - Pheno-
leads similar to those observed in the previous experiment
toothed. The animal appears struck by lightning, then gets up, but does not
makes little movement when pinched. It is com-
fully recovered after a quarter of an hour, but its
clothes remain embarrassed for several hours. The dose
used three drops.
Ten cubic centimeters of liquid from the condensate
tion of smoke in the vases representing the lungs and
the mouth are thrown into an empty 1 liter jar, and a
strong frog is introduced. The animal makes the efforts
more violent to get out of the vase, but his efforts slow down
weave quickly and after a few minutes it seems
dozing. It does not wake up unless it is forcefully pinched.
After half an hour, the head, which had remained raised,
sags forward and the animal becomes completely numb
ble stings. All the efforts made to bring him back to life
are unsuccessful.
The phenomena observed have come closer to those
previously mentioned, with this important difference
however; that the abdominal muscles did not exhibit the
tetaniform contraction that we have reported.
Ammonia as condensed smoke
contain in such a large proportion has she added
its action this nicotine? Wouldn't that be what
asked what was the death of the animal '? The two experiences
The following comments were made to elucidate the question.
Ex}). A. A frog is introduced into a jar of
1 liter capacity with 10 cm of water, containing a
amount of nicotine precisely equal to that contained in
the solution used in the previous experiment. The-
- 43 -
nimal dies very quickly with all the symptoms of
nicotine poisoning (tetaniform contraction
muscles of the abdomen, etc.)
Exp. B. Another frog is then introduced into a
other jar of the same capacity as the previous one and we pour it
\ 0 cent, water cubes containing an amount of ammonia
precisely equal to that contained in the liquid which had
was used in the experience described above. The animal
makes desperate efforts to get out of the jar, but falls back
soon inanimate. He seems completely insensitive and the
bites, which, in previous experiments, caused
energetic movements, have no effect; it's only
spontaneously that the animal comes out of its immobility. He performs
then violent movements which slow down more and more
more. Finally, the animal only shakes its legs
from behind, without stirring. the front ones that seem
completely paralyzed. Death comes at the end of a quarl-
hour.
The dose of ammonia contained in the products of the
condensed tobacco smoke is, as can be seen, sufficient to
it alone to bring death, in pet animals, but
the difference in symptoms between the effects of ammonia
and those of nicotine used separately or simultaneously-
ment, as we have just done, is notable.
§ II. EXPERIENCES WITH NICOTINE SUN LES
ANIMALS AND ON MAN.
Although we have not intended to study
in this work the action of nicotine, but that of
tobacco smoke, which is not at all the same thing
- • we were naturally led several times to
study the effects of pure nicotine so that you can understand
counteract its action with that of tobacco smoke itself. The
~ 44 _
most of our experiences, especially those relating to
the action of boiling nicotine vapors, or nicotine
in small doses, do not double the rest, use with
those published so far on the toxic action of this subs-
tance.
Nicotine exists in tobacco in the form of combinations
still poorly defined with organic acids ?. Its owners
toxic tees have been known for a very long time; because at
In the seventeenth century, there was talk of a "quintessence of tobacco" prepa-
born in Florence, and of which “a drop introduced into a
qûre made die at the same hour. »Red skins pa-
allow the concentrated juice removed from the tobacco to enter, and by
consequently very rich in nicotine, in the composition of
poisons that serve to poison their arrows. I will
note in passing that this toxic influence that can
exercising the nicotine introduced into wounds has an im-
lift which we generally forget to emphasize. he
is hardly a smoker who does not expose himself to this kind of into-
xication by cleaning with sharp instruments, such as
we generally do this for pipes or cigar holders,
the pipe is dirty with this tarry black matter,
commonly called pipe juice and which, according to experience
riences mentioned above, is very rich in nicotine
and almost as toxic as it. An injury with a
instrument impregnated with this substance could determine
rapidly fatal accidents.
Regarding the physiological action of nicotine, I
will limit myself to recalling that, according to the authors, it acts on
the upper regions of the spinal cord. The effects
that it produces in high doses, and that, like all ex-
perimenters I have observed, are a teta-
violent nick of the muscles following their excitement.
The arterial vessels also contract, narrow
smells and drains. If the animal survives, a period of resolved '
- 4b -
the complete tion follows the tetanus stiffness. Violently
excited first, the body then experiences depression
proportional to this very excitement, which is over-
plus the case of most physiological stimulants.
Several authors have pointed out the singular ease with which
we get used to a. the action of nicotine, and I have myself
noted this addiction. Trauhe was forced to arrive
in four days give five drops of nicotine to pro-
reduce the effect i / 24mo of drop would produce on the first day.
I find in several authors that Ilaugton would have given 54
nicotine drops in 4 days to a patient with tetanus.
I fear, however, that there has been some error of im-
pressure in the indication of this last digit. Dose
similar would certainly be sufficient to kill a double
zaine of vigorous individuals.
Anyway, it is certain - and this is fortunate
for smokers, - that if nicotine is, after the acid
prussic, the most energetic of the known poisons, it is also
the one you get used to the fastest-
is lying.
Experiments with nicotine on animals, -
A drop of pure nicotine placed at the end of a
glass rod is introduced into the mouth of a
strong frog; the animal we were holding by the legs
from behind makes a few movements, then crosses his
forelegs and remains motionless. Placed on the table,
we observe the following phenomena: rigidity of the mem-
bres, tetaniform contractions of the lateral walls of the abdomen
men, who seem to be pressed against the spine,
muscle fibrillary tremor. During a shift
about an hour, we can cause movements in
strongly pinching the animal, but these movements only carry
only on the rear axle only, because the front axle
4.
- 40 -
is almost completely paralyzed. Soon the pinches
more energetic remain without action. Contractility under
the influence of electricity persists for longer,
but the electric currents are powerless to bring back
the animal in life. The heart beat continues for a long time.
time after death.
Nicotine was given at 10 a.m. at 40 a.m.
hours 45 minutes the animal is opened and the heart exposed.
It beats 53 times a minute, at 6 o'clock in the evening it beats 34 times,
h 8 hours 10 times, at 9 hours and a few minutes, the beats
They stopped completely.
Experiments with boiled nicotine vapor
lante on animals. - Two drops of nicotine intro-
picks in a platinum capsule are brought to the boil
and I expose the head of a frog to the vapors which escape
nice. The animal makes a few movements, then extends its
legs, tip the head back and stay completely
motionless. The muscles of his abdomen contract
as in most previous experiments and it
performs a few movements when pinched. The death
complete arrives at the end of a quarter of an hour.
Experiments with nicotine placed on the skin
of an animal. ~ Two drops of nicotine are placed on
the back of a frog. In less than two minutes, the
breathing stops and the abdominal muscles
contract vigorously as before, Pen-
in about ten minutes, we cause a few rare
movements by pinching the animal.
The action of the poison has therefore been shown at least as
energetic in this last experience than in those
who preceded it.
Experiments with nicotine in very small doses.
- 47 -
solution containing a drop of nicotine in one liter
of water, or a solution around 1/20000 has an odor
very sensitive. One hundred cubic centimeters of this liquid is in-
products in a jar where a frog is placed. The animal
soon goes numb and falls into a drowsy state and
of stupor from which he only emerges when he is pinched.
After 24 hours I replace the liquid the next day
I find the dead animal there, the front limbs contracted.
The same experiment is repeated by bringing nicotine to
the dose of 4 drops per liter of water. The animal is immersed in
200 cubic centimeters of the liquid. After twelve hours
we find him dead.
To appreciate the action of nicotine vapors, at low
dose, pour a drop of nicotine into cotton wool
under a glass funnel where there is a frog.
ill soon exhibits symptoms of paralysis, and the
death arrives after 1 3/4 hours.
Induced directly in the circulatory torrent, the nico-
tine is also very toxic in small doses. A drop
a 1/20 aqueous nicotine solution is injected under
the skin of a frog. After 3 minutes, contraction
of the four limbs, fibrillary tremor of the muscles,
and the animal no longer reacts against the excitations. Abandoned
to himself, he returns to. h life after 3/4 hour.
It was interesting to study the action of the
nicotine on the nervous system. The frog having been
placed on the board of our myograph (1), we make it
(l) For the description of the myograph used in our research,
I will refer the reader to the work I recently published under this
liter: The graphic method and its applications to the physical sciences,
mathematics and biology (in-8 °, 1879, at Lacroix). This work
contains 69 engravings drawn in part in my laboratory, from
new instruments due to my research and that of my colla-
borateur, Dr. Noël.
- 48 -
trace several circumferences on the black paper placed
around the cylinder to have normal curves, and we
injects him with a drop of the 1/20 solution.
The study of the traces shows that under the influence of the nico-
tine, contractions under the influence of electricity are
more energetic than normal, but that contractility
Fig. 4. Myogical curve traced to black laboratory by a
frog under the influence of nicotine.
runs out quickly. If we let the animal rest for some
time, conlractility reappears.
These experiments seem to prove that nicotine is a
exciting powerful, which allows the animal to instantaneously spend
temporarily all that it has of force in reserve, that is to say
say to immediately transform into the most powerful
much of its tension forces. This provision being
exhausted, he remains naturally in a state of depression
deep, during all the time necessary to repair it.
If we place on the sciatic nerve of the animal exposed for
previous experience, a drop of pure nicotine,
muscle contractions become much stronger under
the influence of electricity, but they run out quickly,
and soon the muscles no longer contract.
- 49 -
Experiments with pure nicotine on humans. -
Nicotine is certainly a formidable poison. The
previous experiences prove it enough. It is necessary
recognize, however, that we have exaggerated
effects on large animals and humans. We read, in
indeed, in most of the special works that a goulf.e
of this substance can kill a human or animal
large size, but this assessment seems to me little founded.
By operating with very pure nicotine from the
tobacco factory that we were obligated to
Mr. Schloesing, we have convinced ourselves by experience
leaked feelings about ourselves, that a drop of this liquid
placed on the tongue produced no other appreciable effects
unbearable flavor, and at most what
that palpitations. It is not without apprehension without
doubt that we tried this experiment for the first
first time, but convinced of its harmlessness, we have it
repeated for several times.
We also read in all the chemistry treatises, that the
vapor that nicotine spreads cold, is so irri-
aunt "we hardly breathe in a room where we have
spilled a drop of this alkaloid. " We can not
further admit the accuracy of this assertion, because we
worked on nicotine and tobacco, several months
in a narrow laboratory where the atmosphere was constantly
impregnated with nicotine vapor without having experienced
no discomfort in breathing.
Nicotine vapor is dangerous to breathe only
when heating this substance. The thick vapors which
are then released, are excessively toxic; We have
as they almost instantly struck animals
that was exposed to it, and man himself could not breathe it
a few seconds without danger of death. One or two eats
inadvertently breathing fairies immediately determined
- BO -
with us a lively suffocation, prolonged palpitations,
precordial anxiety, dizziness, and onset
syncope. Experience voluntarily repeated a
this time produced exactly the same symptoms.
These are the effects, I have seen, of nicotine and
do its vapor on man. We understand that it was different for me
cile to push my experiences further on this point.
§ III. EXPERIENCES WITH PRUSSIAL ACID
CONTENT IN TOBACCO SMOKE.
The effects produced by prussic acid extracted from smoke
of tobacco are naturally exactly the same as those
produced by prussic acid obtained by any other process,
and its lightning action is too well known to be
useful to recall it here. The relation of experiences made
with this substance would be otherwise of no practical interest,
since prussic acid is only found in tobacco smoke
only at a very low dose and mixed with other principles.
So I wouldn't have dedicated a special paragraph to
his study, if we hadn't found by handling this acid
physiological effects which appeared to us to have certain
analogies with those produced by tobacco smoke and con-
has to admit, therefore, that it's partly acid
prussique that are due to the toxic effects of certain tobacco,
Havana cigars in particular.
When we expose ourselves for a while, like us
did it, Dr. Noël and I in our experiments, at
vapors of prussic acid, we soon see a series
of symptoms described in the recent works of
toxicology: palpitations, nausea, headache, heaviness
headache, dizziness, muscle weakness, etc.
exactly those you see when smoking strong cigars
we're not used to. Palpitations, weakness
- 81 -
muscle, and especially dizziness are three pheno-
leads that I have observed frequently on me while I
were experimenting on tobacco. I first attributed these
nicotine effects, when I did not know the presence
prussic acid in tobacco smoke; but their ana-
living with those produced by prussic acid itself
led to conclude, as I just said, that it is in
part of this compound due to the toxic effects observed
vés. I say in part, because at the same time that we
were exposed to prussic acid fumes, we were
also to that of the aromatic principles of tobacco, which
have similar properties. Although accustomed to live
in the laboratories, Dr. Noël cannot breathe
recent times without being caught violent soon
dizziness.
Prussic acid is also believed to be due
the antiaphrodisiac effects attributed by many
for long-term tobacco use. This compound has h what
point of view of the properties very well known to all those who
have had occasion to handle potassium cyanide for
some time.
I will finish with regard to the action of prussic acid
remembering that this toxic agent is, like
carbon, which it is very similar to in its properties
physiological, a poison of blood cells. Same
that carbon monoxide it forms with hemoglobin
globules a crystallizable combination which removes these
- their property of absorbing oxygen. To this poison-
However, there must be a special action.
on the nervous system, otherwise it would be difficult
to understand that a single drop of this acid placed on the
a dog’s tongue could instantly strike him down.
- K2 -
§ IV. EXPERIENCES MADE ON ANIMALS AND ON MAN
WITH THE AROMATIC PRINCIPLES CONTAINED IN THE
TOBACCO SMOKE.
The experiments focused almost exclusively on the
aromatic principle slightly soluble in water and odor
very penetrating obtained as I indicated in a pre-
this chapter, that is to say on collidine.
One drop of this alkaloid is dissolved in about
40 drops of water. 10 drops of the solution thus obtained
therefore containing a quarter of a drop of collidine
are injected under the skin of a vigorous frog. We
first observe a lively restlessness replaced after
a few minutes by numbness, then by a
full paralysis of previous limbs. The animal reacts violently
slowly when pinched; but only by shaking the
hind legs. Death occurs in about 10 minutes
without anything resembling this tetaniforran contracture of
muscles, characteristic of nicotine poisoning.
If we consider that in this experiment the quantity
of the injected liquid contained only a quarter of a drop of
aromatic principle, we can conclude certain-
ment that this compound is actually as toxic as ni-
cotine and prussicx acid
The same experiment is repeated with only two drops.
of the previous solution, or therefore with
a twentieth drop of pure product. Same symptoms
than before, but death only comes to an end
about three hours. In several sem-
blables, it sometimes seemed that the animal would escape the ac-
tion of poison; but however he always ended up
succumb.
-B3 -
Instead of operating with the collidine obtained by the processes
long and complicated that I have described, we can use them simply
plement of water through which smoke is passed
tobacco that first passed through acid & wash bottles
sulfuric intended to retain nicotine, and ammonia.
To make sure I get rid of the
nicotine, I first subjected tobacco to cleansing
lined with ammoniac ether and boiling water. But I
recognized that this was an unhelpful complication. In this
part of the aromatic principles is
retained by sulfuric acid and only part of it arrives
in the water washer. However, the content of the latter is
so toxic that by collecting smoke from 10 grams of tobacco
from the Levant or a simple Régaliabritannica cigar at 0 fr.CO
in 50 cubic centimeters of distilled water, after washing
beforehand in a sulfuric acid bubbler,
to let a frog stay in the
clear and fragrant liquid thus obtained to see it
paralyze and succumb.
These aromatic principles have been isolated, as I have
indicated in a previous chapter.
I said in a previous chapter that it was partly
the aromatic principles contained in tobacco smoke,
that seemed to me to be attributed to the toxic effects that
produce some of them, including palpitations
and dizziness. I had already observed them on me as I
said so and Dr. Noel, who was not warned of this result
of my observations, found on himself to several
exactly the same effects during the manipulations
lations necessary to rectify these products. I even
profiled from an occasion where he had just been exposed to breathe
their vapors, to measure their aclion on the system
nervous by the new chronoseopic method that we
have recently made known. With the chronoscope at
- B4 ~
conical pendulum (1) of Doctors Noël and Gustave Le Bon,
which marks exactly on a dial in hundredths of
seconds the time elapsing between a tactile excitation,
visual or acoustic and a reaction, I examined, on my
collaborator, - the time which elapsed between the excitations
and reactions. Under the influence of the action exerted on the
nervous system by aromatic principles, speed
transmission of excitations in the nerves had been con-
dramatically delayed with regard to reactions
acoustic as shown by the following figures:
Time required to react against an audio excitation
tive in normal state (average of 50 observations): 0.308 million
tenths of a second.
Time needed to react against the same excitations
after being exposed for a while to Influence
vapors released by the aromatic principles of tobacco
(average of 25 observations): 0.931 thousandths of a second.
The time necessary to react against the excitations
touch was not changed by the toxic influence which I
just spoke. Before and after the experience, it was
about 13 hundredths of a second (average of 75 observations).
We can conclude from the above that the principles
tobacco aromatics exert at an extremely low dose,
an eminently toxic action on animals and
the man. I would gladly compare their action to that
that exert on the nervous system, although to a degree
infinitely less, the scents of certain plants, such
as lilac, jasmine, etc. We know that, breathed several
(1) The description of this method and the results can be found
that it provides to observe the state of the nervous system and monitor the
march of certain diseases whose diagnosis at the beginning was
impossible in the past, in a memoir currently in press. The
chronoscope of which I spoke and whose volume does not exceed that
of a small pendulum, recently functioned before the Society of
practical medicine.
KH
hours in a bedroom that is too narrow, they have
often produces fatal accidents. We attributed them
formerly to the influence of carbonic acid than plants
clear overnight; but the proportion of carbo-
what is happening then is obviously too minimal,
given the considerable dose of this gas that an atmos-
sphere must contain before you start to inconvenience
so that, in the current state of our knowledge, this
opinion can be sustained for a moment. Influence
that certain toxic agents exert in imponderable doses
introduced by the lungs is a chapter in physiology a
barely explored and that we propose to address some
day.
§ V. EXPERIENCES DONE ON ANIMALS AND ON MAN,
WITH CARBON OXIDE CONTAINED IN THE SMOKE OF
TOBACCO.
Unable to isolate these experiences from the processes which
allowed to look for the carbon monoxide contained in the
tobacco smoke, I had to describe them in the chapter devoted
to the determination of the carbon monoxide content in the smoke of the
tobacco. I will therefore confine myself to referring the reader to it. They
Have shown that although carbon monoxide is small
dose a highly toxic compound, it is not to him that the
tobacco smoke owes its dangerous properties.
§ VI. EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS RELATING TO IN-
FLUENCE OF TOBACCO SMOKE ON THE MAN.
Despite the above experiences, it is very difficult
to say precisely what is the action that produced at the
long the abuse of tobacco smoke in humans. All
these experiences indeed represent the immediate results
- 36 -
a sufficient dose to produce a toxic action,
but they do not tell us anything about the effects that
may in the long run produce doses too small to
determine immediate effects.
This question, whose solution is very complex, does not seem
not have embarrassed much most authors who
treated her. Without bothering to support their assert-
on some evidence, they see in tobacco the origin
a large number of nervous system conditions, plus
today than in the past, and comparing their ac-
growth to that of tobacco use (1), they ensure that
the increase of some is the sure effect of the progress of
consumption of the other. But these are assumptions
that does not support any serious evidence; and not being offered to me
in this work than to give the results of experiments
precise, jo can not attach importance to them.
We will therefore confine ourselves to drawing observations from the
authors who have studied like us without bias action
the facts that our observations tell us about tobacco
to be regarded as incontestable. We believe that we can
sea in the following way the effects that seem to produce
certainly the abuse of tobacco.
(1) I borrow from the official statistics of the Ministry of Finance,
tobacco consumption growth figures.
Number of kilog. of
Tobacco years sold Recedes
1815 9.7o3.000 53.S72.O0O
1820 12,615,000 64,171.0 ^ 0
1830 11,169,000 67,290,000
1840 16,018,000 95,188,000
1850 19,218,000 122,113,000
1860 29,580,000 195,325,000
1870 31.349.000 241.2i8.000
1,875 30,371,000 313,516,000
The published official statistics go no further than the year 1875.
The figures that precede slow show that, in a period of 60 years,
consumption has more than tripled and revenue has become
six times higher.
- 37 -
Visual disturbances. - I am putting these visual disturbances first-
rank constant effects of tobacco abuse, because
that they have been noted by all ophthalmologists and few
can be seen with an ophthalmoscope. They translate
first by the appearance of flying flies, then by a
central scotoma which blurs vision and can lead to
subject to blindness. With the suppression of tobacco, the disorders
disappear. As heavy smokers are generally
heavy drinkers, it's hard to share in
observed accidents of alcohol-related phenomena of those
tobacco products.
Nervous system and circulation disorders. - The action
annoying that tobacco exerts on the nervous systems and
circulatory system has been noted by several authors who have
ate under his influence intermittences of the pulse, pal-
pitations and dizziness. In support of these observations I
then give the results of my experience. When i
resumed my experiences on the search for toxic principles
What about tobacco smoke, I operated in a small laboratory
where I burned daily for several weeks
fairly considerable amounts of tobacco. The atmosphere was
this point steeped in various tobacco smoke products,
that this odor attached itself most persistently to
my beard and my clothes. Usual but moderate smoker, I
I was used to this atmosphere which did not bother me
not. After a few days, however, I noticed
circulation and nervous system disorders,
laughed by intermittences of the pulse, and dizziness
would come back in the morning when I got up. They continued
all the time experiences and even persisted
several days after their cessation. They were due
to the influence of tobacco, because having had the opportunity to resume
these experiences, they reappeared immediately. I also have them-
observed on Dr. Noël, as I said above. Gepen-
- 88 -
In the past, our colleague had not had an opportunity to breathe, the
tobacco smoke products that much more rarely
than me. These phenomena seem to me to be principally
ascribed, as I pointed out, to acid
Prussic and aromatic principles contained in the tobacco.
As for the phenomena of paralysis that were reported to the
following the abuse of tobacco, I did not have occasion to cons-
tater, but they seem perfectly admissible to me,
being known the action exerted on the spinal cord by the
toxic products from tobacco smoke. We saw in
effect that they quickly determine phenomena of para-
lysia in animals subject to their action.
Disorders of the digestive organs and respiratory tract. -
Various disorders of the digestive tract have been reported by
several authors, but I have not had occasion to find them
ter. The large amount of ammonia that smoke con-
perhaps could explain them. As for the troubles
respiratory tract characterized mainly by irritation
special throat, I had the opportunity to observe them
on several smokers, and even on experienced smokers. I
believe them exclusively due to the action of ammonia, because
they breed in experienced smokers who come
to smoke tobacco including manufacturing accidents or al-
increased the richness in ammonia.
Decreased memory. - The fact of the decrease in
memory under the influence of prolonged smoking is
one of the most certain since
my attention has been drawn to this point, that is to say since
ten years. I have so often had occasion to.
to observe that it is not possible for me to doubt it.
If the fact of the decrease in the memory of words under
the innocence of tobacco is, as I believe, incontestable,
it must be able to be verified in people who live in
an atmosphere imbued with the active ingredients of tobacco. In
-59 -
interviewing a large number of workers in the manufac-
ture of Strasbourg, at the time when this city was under the
French domination, we learned from their mouths that
those who work in fermentation rooms, including
the atmosphere contains a high proportion of nicotine and
ammonia vapors, momentarily lost,
almost completely, during hot weather, the
remember the names of the streets, and couldn't find the
names of their acquaintances.
Disorders of various functions. - I will mention again
among the effects observed by several authors and which
seem certain, but that I have not observed, the depres-
genital functions. It is mostly attributed, I
believe, as I said before, in the influence of acid
prussic. I will also report a cachectic state by-
peculiar that can be observed among factory workers,
but I would point out that in the latter case, it is the
tobacco and not the tobacco smoke that acts; however, this is obviously
lie to the action of the latter that smokers are
exposed. So I don't have to deal with the action of the
first.
The above summary may seem a bit short maybe
to the enemies of tobacco. It is certain, however, that it
closes everything we know about
the action of tobacco smoke on humans. I will finish it
with a remark that I think is essential because it can
explain the difference in action that tobacco smoke produces
in subjects subject to its action. Each of us has
more or less resistant organs, leaving more or less
weak. Given a toxic substance capable of acting
on several of them, it will act first on the least
resistant, or better said, it will act equally on all,
but it will only be the least resistant who will suffer
first. In individuals whose vision is delicate, it is
on the visual apparatus which its action will first bear; in
others it will be on the circulatory system or the system
nervous, etc.
As for the meanings of this expression: Tobacco abuse, that
I used above, it obviously has only one value
absolutely relative. Respond with numbers to this
question: What is tobacco abuse? is impossible
for this simple reason that the resistance of the various indi-
vidus is very unequal. Two or three cigarettes will be one
abuse for some smokers, and an amount, four or
five times greater will represent insi-
rewarding for others. What seems to me, however,
the point is that smokers, even the most experienced,
feels in the long run, when they exceed a certain figure
daily tobacco consumption, by experiencing
various organic disorders which they often seek
vainly the cause. The body gets used easily without
doubt to bear many things, but that those
which he seems to get used to the most, such as alcohol, by
example, eventually produce irremediable
orders. Whatever one may say to defend tobacco, it
do not forget that its smoke contains toxic agents
formidable, and in particular the most violent of all
known poisons, prussic acid, nicotine, and the new
alkaloid which we have demonstrated the existence.
_ wire _
CONCLUSIONS
• 1. - The principles of tobacco smoke which condenses
felt by the cooling in the mouth and lungs of
smokers, or in the devices intended to collect them,
include nicotine, ammonium carbonate
niac, various tarry substances, substances
dyes, prussic acid combined with bases, and
finally very-odorous and very-toxic aromatic principles.
In smoke, these various substances are mixed
a large proportion of water vapor and compounds
various gases, carbon monoxide and carbonic acid
especially.
2.— The liquid resulting from the condensation of substances
above is endowed with extremely toxic properties. he
just inject very small amounts into the system
circulatory system, or to make it breathe during
some time to see him succumb after presenting
various symptoms of paralysis.
3. - The properties of tobacco smoke we had
so far attributed only to nicotine, are also due.
also with prussic acid and various aromatic principles
ticks, especially a particular alkaloid, collidine. This is
a liquid body with a pleasant and very penetrating odor,
had reported the presence in the products of distillation
of various organic materials, but whose properties
physiological were completely unknown. It contributes by
much to give the smoke its smell. ' Her perfume
is so penetrating that one drop is enough
a very strong odor to a large quantity of water.
-62-
4. - Collidine is an alkaloid as toxic as ni-
cotine. The twentieth part of a drop quickly kills a
frog by first producing symptoms of paralysis.
You cannot breathe it for a few moments without experiencing
muscle weakness and dizziness.
5. - It is due to the presence of prussic acid and various
aromatic principles due to several phenomena,
such as dizziness, headache and nausea
produce certain tobacco, low in nicotine or which
are private, while others, rich in nicotine, do not
have no similar accident.
G. - The proportion of prussic acid and aromatic principles
content in tobacco smoke varies according to
tobacco used. Those which contain the strongest do-
its are the tobacco of Havana and the Levant. By the pro-
ceded described in our brief, we easily withdraw
the state of purity prussic acid and collidine from the smoke
tobacco, and you can dose it.
7. - The semi-liquid dark matter which condenses in
the inside of the pipes and cigar holders contains all
the substances previously listed, and in particular
high amounts of nicotine. It is extremely toxic.
only in small doses. 2 or 3 drops are enough to kill a
little animal.
8. - The combustion of tobacco destroys only a small part
nicotine that it contains, and it ends up in
much of it in the smoke. The proportion likely to be
absorbed by smokers, and that we determined
in our experiences, varies according to the conditions where these
the latter are placed. It hardly descends below
50 centigrams per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. The quan-
amount of ammonia absorbed at the same time is little
almost equal.
9. - Various modes of smoking, the one where the number of
-03 -
nicotine and various toxic principles absorbed was the
greater is to smoke while breathing in smoke. The one where
it was less, consists in smoking the narghile or the pipe with
long pipe outdoors without breathing its smoke.
10. - Nicotine instantly kills animals with
dose of two or three drops, but in doses infinitely
smaller still, it soon produces phenomena of
paralysis and death. A frog introduced into a
jar containing an aqueous solution of nicotine at 1/20000,
or about a drop of nicotine in a liter of water, including
succumbs within hours. It is the same if we
place under a funnel containing a single drop of nico-
tine in a cotton ball. The steam that emerges
boiling nicotine instantly smashes
animals without giving them time to move.
11. - Tobacco smoke contains about 8 liters of oxide
of carbon per 100 grams of burnt tobacco. Experiences
recorded in our work prove that this is not what
gas it owes its toxic properties, as has been
recently supported in Germany.
12. - Among the most certain effects that smoke from
tobacco determines in the long run on humans, we can mention-
visual disturbances, palpitations, tendency
dizziness, and especially the decrease in; mempu; e7> -N
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. - Research of nicotine proportions
and ammonia that smokers can absorb. 1
§ 1. Conditions under which the absorption of
1 nicotine and various principles of tobacco smoke. . 1
^ 2. Apparatus used to find the proportion of nicotine
absorbed by smokers 8
| 3. Tobacco smoke products that condense in
devices representing the smoker's mouth and lungs. 12
§ 4. Determination of nicotine and ammonia which condense
in the respiratory organs of smokers 13
CHAPTER 11. - Research of the proportions of oxide of
carbon that smoke can contain and study of its
action 3 20
CHAPTER III. - Research and dosage of prus acid -
sic contained in tobacco smoke 31
CHAPTER IV. - Research of aromatic principles
that give tobacco smoke its scent. . 3o
CHAPTER V. - Experiments carried out on animals and
on man with various products of the conden-
tobacco smoke
§ 1. Experiences made with all the products of the conden-
smoke smoke ...... 41
§ 2. Experiments with nicotine on animals and
the man. . 43
§ 3. Experiments made with the prussic acid contained in the
tobacco smoke b0
§ 4. Experiments on animals and on humans with
aromatic principles contained in tobacco smoke. . . 132
§ b \ Experiments on animals and on humans with
carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke ... 55
S 6. Experiences and observations relating to innuençC.de-la
tobacco smoke on humans .
Conclusions,
Tobacco smoke: chemical and physiological research (2nd edition, ... Le Bon, Gustave (1841-1931). Author of the text
SAINT-QUENTIN. - JULES MOUREÀU PRINTER
Matthew
Jedi Master
I have just noticed that since I took up pipe smoking my teeth are even more stained than usual. I never have pearly whites anyway due to all the coffee and tea I drink but this is especially bad. Does anyone have any advice for this other than a trip to a dental hygienist for a cleaning? Is 'smokers toothpaste' any good? I would not want unnaturally white teeth as seems to be fashionable these days as those just creep me out but I would like to do something about this.
I use activated charcoal in powdered form (can get it on Amazon) with an electric toothbrush and the stains come off quite well. I usually put a tad of fluoride-free toothpaste on the brush, then put some of the black activated charcoal powder on top of that, brush, rinse, and voilà!
Matthew
Jedi Master
Thanks for the tip Jefferson. Is the toothpaste being fluoride-free important or is that because you are wishing to minimise the STS inspired deleterious effects on us of fluoride?
Just as a matter of interest...
Do smokers ever develop burning and watery eyes and could these symptoms be an indicator if smoking is good for you or not?
Do smokers ever develop burning and watery eyes and could these symptoms be an indicator if smoking is good for you or not?
You can find quite a bit on this Forum about the detrimental effects of fluoride but anything to reduce the toxic load on our bodies is a good thing.
Matthew
Jedi Master
Indeed. I'll see where I can source some and some black activated charcoal powder. I'll have a look on Amazon shortly. At least I can start with the toothpaste I already have once the latter arrives.
broken.english
Jedi Council Member
Alternatively you could try orange oil mixed with a non poisonous substance like baking soda. In my experience orange oil works quite well against nicotine stains.
Matthew
Jedi Master
Great, thanks for the tip :).
maguenette
Jedi Master
Hello,
I found these notices while reading the book:
In record 107, it says:
Considering that the last movement to try to impose a global pathocracy, Nazism, vigorously campaigned against cigarettes by claiming that it represents a danger to health, while generously spreading depleted uranium (a substance much more dangerous) in the environment, and refused to join any environmental conservation activity, one may wonder if there is not some connection here. If carbon monoxide, one of the main substances inhaled when you smoke, causes a condition or condition that protects against mental damage from pathocrats, then it's no wonder they want to eliminate it. It also suggests that the alleged data in support of anti-smoking campaigns may have been fabricated.
In record 108, it says:
That is to say second hand smoke. It would mean in fact that second hand smoke or passive smoking could have highly beneficial effects on children, especially immunizing them against psychopathic control.
Personally, I started smoking cigarillo. I had trouble having a bowel movement. Since I smoke, I have no more difficulty.
Note: I used google translate for the translation. I am French Canadian and I am not 100% bilingual.
Thank you.
Marc.
