Does smoking (or smelling like smoke) keep mosquitoes away? I'm wondering if some second-order effect, like malaria prevention, led doctors back then to think that smoking was healthy.
And of course, there's http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001541/ (2010):
"Cigarette smoking has been shown to increase serum hemoglobin, increase total lung capacity and stimulate weight loss, factors that all contribute to enhanced performance in endurance sports."
:-)
[1] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mosquitoes-find-yo...
But I was bitten countless times when I was a smoker, so it's not a very effective remedy.
I don't think the nicotine in a drag is high enough to do much. From what I remember, much higher concentrations were or are used in ant killer.