they also recognize that many of their patients
find, in a pipe or a cigar or a cigarette, a pleasure
and solace and a relief from nervous tension that
should not, too readily, be denied them.
They have noted, for example, that when they
take their heart patients abruptly off their tobacco
ration, mild depressions often ensue.
They find that among their neurotic and nervous
patients, the denial of cigarettes often produces
outbreaks of other, and far less desirable, nervous
habits. Such people, unable to channel their
energies into puffing, become face-pickers, foot-
tappers, ice-box raiders.
Even the appetite-depressing effect of cigarettes,
which seems to be scientifically well established,
is now being recognized as not by any means al
ways an evil. The smoker who starves himself
into malnutrition is an extremely rare, if not a
totally nonexistent, phenomenon. But the man
who smokes to stifle a tendency toward overeat
ing is familiar to most doctors.
MEDICAL CONSENSUS SUMMARIZED
Perhaps the best and most judicious summary
of the most generally accepted medical viewpoint
is to be found in an editorial published a few
years ago in the Journal of the American Medical
Association. "Actual surveys indicate,” it stated,
"that the majority of physicians themselves smoke
cigarettes. From a psychological point of view,
more can be said in behalf of smoking as a form
of escape from tension than against it. There
does not seem to be a preponderance of evidence
that would indicate the abolition of the use of
tobacco as a substance contrary to the public
health.”
To that authoritative statement it might be well
to add the advice given me by a Washington
physician after a long evening of discussing the
pros and cons of smoking. Together with two
cancer researchers and a statistician, we had all
puffed away for hours while we analyzed the
medical evidence for and against the cigarette.
When we finally quit, at three in the morning, a
deep blue haze filled the room.
"Summing it all up. Doctor,” I asked, "would
you advise me—an average, sedentary, moderately
healthy character—to keep on smoking or to
quit?”
Cigarette in hand and glancing at the over
loaded ash trays, he laughed.
Then he leaned over and whispered, "I’m going
to tell you exactly what I tell most of my patients.
Don’t smoke—unless you like it.”
Ask yourself every night these three questions:
1. Have I accomplished anything today?
2. Have I done my best toward my fellow em
ployees?
3. Have I had fun?
FAMOUS PROBLEMS
THE COUNTERFEIT COIN
By Richard L. Frey
Among the contestants on a radio quiz show
one evening was a T-man, an agent for the United
States Treasury.
When the T-man’s turn came, the master of
ceremonies said, "I have a problem that should be
right up your alley. It is part of your job to de
tect counterfeiters and counterfeit money. Here
are nine coins. Eight of them are genuine silver
dollars; the ninth is a counterfeit, which is lighter
in weight than the honest coins. Now, here is
an apothecary’s scale. I’m not giving you any
weights to put in the pans because the problem
is to detect the counterfeit by balancing the coins
against each other.
"Of course, you can do it by weighing one coin
at a time, and if you are lucky maybe you’ll dis
cover the counterfeit on your first trial. How
ever, only the first weighing is free. For each
additional try, you must return one of the coins
to me.”
The T-man was clever enough to figure out a
method that would surely detect the spurious coin
within two weighings. He returned the counter
feit to the quiz master as payment for the second
weighing, and thus kept the eight honest dolars.
How did he do it?
ANSWER: The T-man divided the nine
coins into groups of three, calling them A, B, and
C; He first weighed A against B. If they balanced,
the counterfeit would be in C; if they did not, the
counterfeit must be in the lighter group. Then,
from the marked group, he could weigh any coin
against any other. If they balanced, the counter
feit would be the third coin; if they didn’t, it
would be in the pan that went up.
HOW TO GET ON
"Tell me how to get on in life,” said the kettle.
"Take pains,” said the window.
"Never be led,” said the pencil.
"Do a driving business,” said the hammer.
"Aspire to great things,” said the grater.
"Make light of everything,” said the fire.
"Make much of small things,” said the micro
scope.
"Never do anything offhand,” said the glove.
"Reflect,” said the mirror.
"Do the work you are suited for,” said the
chimney.
"Be sharp,” said the knife.
"Find a good thing and stick to it,” said the
glue.
"Try to make a good impression,” said the
sealing wax.
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