Welcome to the book Tobacco: Its Physical, Mental, Moral and Social Influences (1878), by B. W. Chase. To go to the "Table of Contents" immediately, click here.
Tobacco pushers and their accessories conceal the breadth of tobacco effects, the enormity of the tobacco holocaust, and the long record of documentation.
The concealment process is called the "tobacco taboo." Other pertinent words are "censorship" and "disinformation."
Here is the text by B. W. Chase of an early exposé (1878) of tobacco dangers. It cites facts you rarely ever see, due to the "tobacco taboo."
The phrase "tobacco taboo" is the term for the pro-tobacco censorship policy—to not report most facts about tobacco.
As you will see, information about the tobacco danger was already being circulated in 1878, 86 years before the famous 1964 Surgeon General Report. Be prepared.

Tobacco: Its Physical, Mental,
Moral and Social Influences

by Rev. B. W. Chase, A.M.
(New York: Wm. B.
Mucklow Pub Co, 1878)

Table of Contents
Introduction  5
I. The Physical Effects of Tobacco  9
On the Digestive Organs
14
    The Teeth
15
    The Salivary Glands
16
    The Pharynyx
17
    The Æsophagus
18
    The Stomach
18
    The Intestines
19
    The Lacteals
19
    The Thoracic Duct
20
    The Liver and Its Associates
20
On the Circulatory Organs
21
    The Heart
21
    The Arteries
23
    The Veins
23
On the Respiratory Organs
24
    The Diaphragm and Ribs
24
    The Mouth and Nose
25
    The Trachea
25
    The Bronchia
26
    The Lungs
26
On the Secretory Organs
31
    The Capillaries
31
    Other Secretives
32
    Absorptives
32
On the Muscular System
35
On the Nervous System
35
    Neuralgia
37
    Tremors
37
    Epilepsy
37
    Apoplexy
38
    Palsy or Paralysis
38
    Delirium Tremens
40
On the Senses
43
    Hearing
43
    Seeing
44
    Smelling
45
    Taste
46
    Touch, or Feeling
47
On the Voice
47
II. The Mental Effects of Tobacco53
    Intoxicates The Mind
56
    Irritates The Mind
57
    Debilitates The Mind
59
    Weakens The Reasoning Powers
61
    A Cause of Insanity
61
III. The Moral Effects of Tobacco65
IV. The Social Effects of Tobacco79
    Uncleanliness
79
    Disagreeableness
81
    Diminishing of Physical Power
81
    Diminishing of Mental Force
82
    Financially
82
How To Get Rid of This Evil88
Conclusion90

INTRODUCTION.

It is due to the perversity of man's nature that many of the evil influences of this world are not recognized until they have well-nigh overcome us. There was a time when the use of alcoholic drinks was not considered by most as a sin. Not only the doctor and the lawyer, but the deacon and the minister, took them to the extent even of intoxication. In the march of reforms, however, the evil appears; and now no one is satisfied with a wine-bibbing minister. Tobacco sustains the same relation to morals and religion now that alcohol did sixty or seventy years ago. Any

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one who had the courage to write on the subject was exposed to ridicule. So this attempt to portray one of the greatest evils of the present day may subject the author to scorn and contempt, but it is made with the hope that its light may shine into some dark place to show the degradation and ruin caused by this recruiting officer to the alcoholic ranks.

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I.
The Physical Effects of Tobacco
.

It is a sin to do anything that will injure the physical system. God has given us our powers for useful purposes. If we injure or weaken them unnecessarily, we do a worse thing than he who squanders his patrimony and thereby becomes dependent upon the charity of others. To indicate that the use of Tobacco injures those powers of the physical nature, it is proposed to consider, in the first place, the general influence, and then to call

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the reader's attention to its more particular effects upon the system.

Those who have been accustomed to its use testify that it exhilarates, and when its influence is withdrawn there is a depression, such as results from abstaining from dram-drinking. These results are produced by the poisonous elements of the narcotic. One of these is called nicotianin, and another nicotine. They belong to the same class of poisons as strychnine, arsenic and prussic acid. If either of these could be mixed with other elements, so as not to be immediately fatal, no one would be so foolish as to advocate their continued use. There would be danger of their entering into the circulation and destroying, or at least diminishing, the vital energy.

There can be no less danger to one, who uses Tobacco in any form, of taking the poison nicotine into the system; and the effect would be as injurious. When separated from the

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other elements of Tobacco this poison is as deadly as either of those mentioned. Many experiments have been made with it, and all prove it to be a powerful poison. "Mr. [Benjamin C.] Brodie found that two drops of it applied to the tongue of a cat, with an interval of fifteen minutes, occasioned death." A person may accustom himself to the use of any poison, so as to take such quantities as would produce death in one not so accustomed. It is related of [Thomas] De Quincey [1785-1859] that he was so accustomed to the use of opium, that he would drink an ounce of laudanum without apparent injury.

A very small quantity of nicotine in Tobacco will cause sickness, and in some instances has caused death; but continued use makes it possible to take larger quantities, till, according to Dr. Coles: "Many a man is chewing or smoking enough every day to kill outright three or four of the stoutest men using it in the same way for the first time." "The fact

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that it is a powerful article of the Materia Medica, and so powerful that the best physicians use it only in extreme cases as a dernier ressort, and that then in many cases it proves fatal, abundantly shows that it never ought to be used as a luxury by men in health. No man in his sober senses would think that, because calomel has been successfully used as a medicine, therefore a person might be benefitted by taking it daily when in health. Indeed, ninety-nine hundredths of those who constantly use Tobacco would not risk the consequence of a daily use of opium, and yet the habitual use of Tobacco is instrumental of shortening many more lives, and when fairly introduced into the system, proves equally as virulent a poison. The oil of Tobacco approaches nearer than any other to that most deadly of all poisons, prussic acid.
"Most persons who have been in the habit of using Tobacco can recollect that sometimes,

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in taking the pipe or quid, they have suddenly felt its influence go over the whole system like an electric shock; in a moment they have felt it to the very ends of their fingers, as if the nerves, like the strings of a harp, were vibrating upon the surface. The sensation would not be altogether unpleasant were it not for the apprehension, which instantly arises, that nature has received a terrible stroke, and that some fearful result will be the consequence."

So manifest are its general effects on the system that we should naturally expect men would desist from its use. It is not because men do not see and experience its evil results, that this narcotic is not banished from the land, or, at least, put under a faithful apothecary's care. Habit is stronger than judgment. The pleasures of sense are more powerful than the decisions of reason. When we consider the nauseating character of the article, and the persistency of many to use it, notwithstanding

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the dictates of conscience, we are reminded of the proverb: "Stolen fruit is sweet," or of the remark of a French lady, who, holding a glass of water in her hand, exclaimed: "O, if it were only wicked to drink this, how nice it would be!"

Such a poison is baneful and injurious generally; but, to see more clearly its evil, we may consider its influence on different parts of the system.


On the Digestive Organs.

I. ON THE MOUTH. This cavity contains the organ of mastication. Whatever affects the muscles that open, or close, or move any part of it, more or less affects all its organs. Its muscles were not designed for constant action. If they are exercised more than they were designed to be they will be correspondingly

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weakened. The Tobacco-chewer will weaken other parts by drawing on the energy required by those parts, and by too constant use of the motor muscles will weaken these also. This may seem a small item, but, as the ripple on the surface of the lake reaches the farther shore, so every influence on one part of the system reaches to a greater or less extent to every other part.

II. ON THE TEETH. These were made for use, not abuse. Using them more than they were designed to be used, abuses them. No one supposes they were designed for constant use, yet the habitual Tobacco-chewer uses them most of the time while awake. They require to be kept clean, but can one who chews the weed keep them clean? There is a grit in Tobacco which injures the enamel, and whatever injures this exposes the vital part. It also debilitates the vessels of the gums, causing them to recede unnaturally, exposing the roots

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of the teeth. One dentist states this to be the usual result of Tobacco chewing. It causes gum-boils also. Tobacco is said to keep the teeth from aching. It may cause one ache to cease by removing the excitement to some other nerve, or deadening the nerve itself, but it at the same time exposes the other nerves to ache, which will require an extra dose of this odious medicine. The teeth need the vital fluids which Tobacco destroys. Smoking also injures the teeth by alternate drafts of cold and hot air.

III. THE SALIVARY GLANDS. The writer was once told by an aged man that he used Tobacco for a watery stomach, to spit off the water from the stomach. He did not recognize the fact that there was an undue excitement of the salivary glands, and that there was a constant levy on other parts of the system for the vital fluids to energize these glands. Now God never put more saliva in a man's mouth

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than nature required to soften the food, or, if he did, it would find an exit without this artificial means. There is an acrid quality to Tobacco which unduly excites these glands, and when they have expelled the fluid thus called forth, there is left a dryness which water will not satisfy, so we see the user of Tobacco inclined to the groggery. John Hawkins says,
"that in all his travels he never saw but one drunkard wlio did not use Tobacco."

"It is a fact that drunkards generally used Tobacco before they used strong drink. It is also a fact that if a drunkard drops his cups but does not drop his Tobacco, he will probably apostatize." "The dialect of the toper in the dram shop is instructive:

'I smoke because it makes me love to dnnk so. I drink because it makes me love to smoke so. I drink to wet my whistle. I smoke to dry it.'"

IV. THE PHARYNX. This organ is continuous with the lining membrane of the mouth,

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and that which affects one has an immediate influence on the other. There are passages from it to the nose, and therefore the snuff-taker reaches and unduly excites it.

V. THE ÆSOPHAGUS. This organ, by its contractile power, carries the food to the stomach and more or less of the influence of Tobacco is felt by it through sympathy with the membranes above.

VI. STOMACH. Tobacco is called by physicians one of the most powerful emetics. This, many persons who are not physicians, understand by experience. When first taken it causes excessive vomiting; and this results not from swallowing the thing itself, but from its effluvia. Are you sick enougli to take an emetic every day? But you say it does not thus affect you now. Would you think it advisable to accustom yourself to any other emetic in the same way—lobelia, for instance? Tobacco causes a gnawing sensation in the

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stomach, and ulceration of the stomach often results from it. The fluids of the system being disturbed by this poison, the gastric juice does not properly act upon the food, and the individual becomes dyspeptic.

VII. THE INTESTINES. The food, as it is separated into chyle and chyme, being saturated with this poison, conveys its poisonous influence to every part of the system. It may be observed how precarious is the appetite of the habitual user of the weed. And it may also be noticed how lank and lean he is, unless, by other means, he has attained an unnatural corpulency. This irregular appetite does not give regular action to the intestines, which results sometimes in one form of disease and sometimes in another.

VIII. THE LACTEALS. These organs take up those portions of the food which the system needs for its growth, and if their operations are interfered with, either directly

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or through sympathy with other parts, an unhealthy state of growth will result.

IX. THE THORACIC DUCT, which carries the elements of the blood to the heart, will also be disturbed in its work.

X. THE LIVER AND ITS ASSOCIATES. These organs, operating in two ways, are not only disturbed by not having their proper work to do in aiding digestion, but also refuse to do their work in separating impurities from the venous blood. No one can fail to notice the dingy, sallow appearance of the man who constantly uses this narcotic. In such persons the blood is not properly purified. If space would allow, a fuller discussion might be given to this part of the subject, but it is sufficient to state that such men as Dr. Warren, Dr. Muzzey and other distinguished physicians, give their testimony to the truth of the assertion, that the whole digestive process is disturbed by the habit of using Tobacco.

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On the Circulatory Organs.

The circulation of the blood is impeded by this worse than fatal narcotic. It is worse than fatal, because of its fascination. The nutrient portions of the food have been traced to the heart through the thoracic duct, where begins what is called the circulatory process.

I. THE HEART. This is the great propelling power of the blood and throws out the impure blood to be purified, and, receiving it back, throws it out again purified to the whole system, for its strength and growth. Now, if this organ does not have the proper materials to work upon, it will itself be injured and not do its work thoroughly. In some cases the Tobacco-user finds the pulsations of the heart slow, feeble and irregular, and in other cases rapid and violent. It is questionable if the latter is not a reaction

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from the former. Dr. [Amos] Twitchell says:
"He had found almost every individual, who has died during sleep, had long been in the habit of the free use of Tobacco, and it was his full conviction that that was almost the only cause of such deaths."
Reader, that quickened palpitation is a warning.

The impure material, received from the digestive organs in a healthy person, passes through the heart to the lungs, where it is purified by the air and returned to the other side of the heart, from which the propelling power of this engine of the human system throws it to every part of the body. Now, if this organ be out of repair, by working on improper materials, it will not expel all the impure blood to the lungs; or, at least, in the proper way, and when it receives it back purified, if this were possible, it would fail to throw this pure blood to the parts needing it. Its contractile power would not be strong

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enough. Here we may see a reaction on the digestive organs. No organ of the body is more seriously affected by this narcotic than the heart. There may be other things that cause heart disease, but this is the most common and the most potent. Not being able to perform its functions in throwing the blood to other parts, those parts are affected with various diseases. As Dr. Twitchell remarks:
"This sluggish circulation predisposes to almost every disease to which the human system is subject."

II. THE ARTERIES. These channels convey the pure blood from the heart. If the heart have not proper action, these channels will be correspondingly impeded. Here and there will lodge impurities which must result in evil.

III. THE VEINS. These channels return the blood again to the heart, loaded with natural impurities. We shall subsequently see that

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not only he who uses Tobacco, but tliose who are brought into contact with him, are liable to have its poison taken up by the veins and conveyed to the heart.

The system requires pure blood, and if it does not receive it, disease must follow, as inevitably as famine follows drought.


On the Respiratory Organs.

These require pure air. If the air we breathe contain impurities, they will be inhaled and carried into the system. Tobacco poisons the air.

I. THE DIAPHRAGM AND RIBS. These are the bellows of respiration. The diaphragm is depressed and the ribs are elevated, producing a vacuum in the chest, which the air rushes in to fill. If the digestive and circulatory processes are not properly performed,

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these bellows will not properly work, and there will not be sufficient oxygen inhaled from the air to purify the blood.

II. THE MOUTH AND NOSE. In these cavities the air receives every noxious vapor they may contain. If you have a quid of Tobacco in your mouth, the air catches its poisonous effluvia and conveys it to the lungs. If you smoke, these cavities take up a portion of the poisonous element. If you take snuff there is a like result. There is also an exciting element in Tobacco which inflames the lining membranes. Sore mouth and cancerous humors result from these inflammations.

III. THE TRACHEA. This is the passage for the air towards the lungs, and is very liable to be excited by foreign substances. Nothing agrees with it so well as pure air. When you swallow anything "the wrong way" you well know how it excites this organ and causes violent coughing. It is also known

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how inhaling ammonia excites its membrane. This membrane is in some people excited by inhaling smoke. Snuff is taken for the purpose of irritating it. Individuals who work where it is found, though they may not use it, are liable to contract pulmonary disease, through its influence on this organ.

IV. THE BRONCHIA. These are the branches of the trachea, communicating with the lungs, and partake of its inflammation, causing the afflictive disease, bronchitis. Most of the coughing peculiar to Tobacco-users arises from this influence at first. Through the influence of Tobacco the lubricating fluid is exhausted, and there is a dry cough. This is sometimes called a "gin cough," and there is some philosophy in the name. This dryness requires something more than pure, cold water to overcome it.

V. THE LUNGS. These contain little cells, which are workshops for purifying the blood.

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This purification depends upon two circumstances. In the first place, the blood must not contain anything upon which the air cannot work. If no doctor had ever proved that the material given from the heart to the lungs, which had been received from the stomach, contained any of the poison of Tobacco, analogy would indicate it to any one conversant with the common affairs of life. We know that other things received into the stomach have an effect upon the blood. It may be purified or vitiated. If you were to analyze the blood of a Tobacco-user before it goes to the lungs, you would find nicotine in it. Analogy, to say nothing of facts, indicating this, the question may arise: "Will not the air purify it of this poison?"

The following is the process of purification in a healthy person: The blood owes its normal impurity to the presence of carbonic acid. The atmosphere is composed of twenty-one

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parts of oxygen and about seventy.nine parts of nitrogen. Water will mix more readily with some other things than with oil, simply because it has a greater affinity for them On the same principle the oxygen of the air has a greater affinity for some elements of this dark colored blood than for nitrogen, and so leaves the latter and unites with the former. On the other hand, the carbonic acid has a greater affinity for the air than the blood, and so leaves the latter and unites with the air, the same as a toper would leave a church and go to a saloon, because he has a greater affinity for the latter. The oxygen taken up by the blood, changes its color and it is then returned to the heart. The remaining portions of air, vitiated with carbonic acid, are expelled from the lungs and may be seen in a cold morning in the form of vapor. Things that are taken into the stomach to affect the blood do not pass into the air So

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nicotine, as any other poison, instead of going with the carbonic acid into the air, is returned to the heart, to be thrown out to vitiate the system.

The other circumstance essential to a proper purification is, that the air inhaled be pure. There are many things that corrupt the air. Some of them cannot be avoided. Contagious diseases are taken in this way. The air of the Tobacco-room is vitiated, and its poison is taken into the lungs of those found there, and its deadly influence enters into the circulation. It is true you may smell the breath of the Tobacco-user, which may seem to indicate that he breathes off this poison, but if what he breathes himself, and he is the nearest to it, affect him half as sensibly as it does him who stands by, it would convince many a martyr to public convenience that enough is imbibed to seriously injure him. You may also smell the breath of those who have eaten

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various articles of food, or taken certain kinds of medicine. Does, therefore, the food or medicine have no influence on the system?

Not only in the circulation is the influence felt, but the lungs themselves become diseased by particles of the narcotic lodging in the cells, producing irritation and disease. This must be especially the case with the snuff-taker.

Perhaps you may have further observed that the Tobacco-chewer, and especially the smoker, has a short breath. It is sometimes amusing to see persons afflicted with asthma or phthisic resort to the pipe as though that were their only safety. Wheeze and smoke, wheeze and smoke, like an engine out of repair! Long and full respirations of heaven's pure air would do much more good. They say smoking relieves them. No doubt of it, yet each succeeding dose only creates a demand for more. Diseases of the respira-

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tory organs cannot be removed by this vitiating poison.

Better sing than smoke, for that is a normal action for which the lungs were made, but God never designed them for breathing poisonous gases.


On the Secretory Organs.

The term secretion may be understood as embracing absorption. There are various little vessels in every part of the body whose work is to deposit the elements of the system in their proper places. The organs before mentioned are the machines of the mill; these are the packers, and errand boys, and distributors.

I. THE CAPILLARIES. These are put down by some as circulatory organs because they form the communication between the arteries and veins. They secrete the nutrient portions

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of the blood and apply them to the parts to which they are adapted. Their action must be seriously interrupted if the blood contain anything unnatural as must be the case with the user of Tobacco.

II. OTHER SECRETIVES. There are also exhalants, and follicles, and glands, each having its specific function. They are all influenced unfavorably by any foreign element in the fluids from which they secrete.

III. ABSORPTIVES. Fluids and solids not needed by the system are removed by means of the lymphatic vessels, but if these become diseased by poisons they cease to be active. Lymphatics on the surface take up external substances also.
"It has been found that the hand immersed to the wrist in warm water will absorb from ninety to a hundred grains of fluid in the space of an hour."
A person immersed in Tobacco smoke would be likely to absorb its elements and convey them into

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the body. It may be said that these vessels would carry away all the influences of Tobacco, but facts prove to the contrary. A man accustomed to its use is saturated with it. That Tobacco poison may be taken up by the absorbents of the skin is shown by the experiments of Fontana:
"I made," says he "a small incision in a pigeon's leg and applied to it the oil of Tobacco. In two minutes it lost the use of its foot. I repeated the experiment on another pigeon and the event was exactly the same. I introduced into the pectoral muscles of a pigeon a small bit of wool covered with this oil. The pigeon in a few seconds fell insensible. Two others to whose muscles I applied the oil vomited several times."
Dr. Bigelow says:
"I knew a woman who applied to the heads of three of her children afflicted with the 'scald head' an ointment composed of snuff and butter; but what was her surprise to find them immediately seized with

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vertigo, violent vomiting, fainting and convulsions."

This poison may be given off and taken up by another like any contagion. Dr. Coles says:

"Put a victim of this habit into a hot bath; let full and free perspiration arise; then drop a fly into that water and it dies at the instant of contact."
Cannibals will not eat flesh which contains the flavor of Tobacco. Even the turkey-buzzards of Mexico refused the flesh of soldiers addicted to this indulgence.
"These Tobacco essences are constantly being given off by insensible perspiration. This is so abundant as sometimes seriously to affect the health of a bed-companion. The poor wife has in some cases visibly suffered by sleeping with a living keg of Tobacco juice."
This poison is also inherited by offspring, as many facts might show. Cancers on the lips may result from it. They generally occur on the side where the Tobacco is held. These all result from absorption.

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On the Muscular System.

The muscles derive their vigor from the blood. Their strength depends upon judicious exercise. Unless they be recuperated by the addition of proper materials, they become infirm and weak. The same result may be found on the voluntary and involuntary muscles, and even upon the bones, joints, sinews and cartilages. There is no nutritive principle in Tobacco to supply strength to any of these. A man might better eat saw-dust to make him strong. The muscles of the Tobacco-user are generally flaccid and infirm. They may gain in volume but they lose in firmness and strength.
On the Nervous System.

The nerves are the strings on which life

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hangs. Whatever injures these makes life uncertain. These strings of life center in the brain, where one of the first effects of Tobacco is experienced. Its peculiar exhilarating influence is first found in the nervous system. No one will deny that Tobacco is a narcotic.

"When enough of it is taken at once to destroy life, its nicotine kills the electro-vital fluid circulating in the nerves. Various experiments on dumb animals exhibit its shocking power to agonize and kill."

The nerves of the heart, stomach and lungs are sensibly affected by it. The nerves becoming paralyzed, will not perform their work. Said one of our ex-presidents:

"Tobacco unnerves me at times and leaves me in a state of extreme lassitude, and nothing serves to raise me so well as whiskey or brandy."

"Mr. [Schuyler] Colfax [1823-1885; U.S. Vice-President, 1869-1873; Speaker of the House, 1863-1869], it will be remembered, narrowly escaped death, as he afterward believed, from this cause, at the time of his sudden prostration in the

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Senate Chamber, and smoked no more. There are thousands of inveterate smokers who are daily inviting this peril. Will they accept admonition and desist in time?"

There are several diseases of the nerves resulting directly from the use of this dangerous drug.

I. NEURALGIA. This disease, as others, is experienced by some who do not use Tobacco, but that it is produced by this narcotic is attested by credible physicians. "Dr. E. Johnson of England mentions an inveterate case of neuralgia in the heel caused by chewing Tobacco. Dr. Wood, of Philadelphia, enumerates Tobacco also as among the causes of this distressing disease."

II. TREMORS. Smokers are especially liable to this affection.

III. EPILEPSY. This is a disease of the brain. Dr. Mussey states this disease to be sometimes the result of Tobacco, and why

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should it not be if it be such a destroyer of nervous energy?

IY. APOPLEXY. This disease suddenly takes away all power of sensation or motion. Dr. Cheyne says: "I am convinced that apoplexy is one of the evils in the train of the disgusting habit of snuffing."

V. PALSY OR PARALYSIS. Mr. Trask says: "We have known three cases of palsy caused directly by the use of Tobacco." He also relates the following:
"Doctor," we said to a splendid specimen of the profession, "tell us something about the baneful effects of Tobacco."

"Its effects, sir," said the doctor, "its effects are evil, only evil, and that continually. It is a mystery tliat gentlemen of my profession care so little, do and know so little about a poison that is doing mischief at so terrible a rate. Sir," the doctor continued, "I was on a council of physicians the other day on the border of this town; the patient was a young

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man prostrate by paralysis; he was deprived of the use of his lower limbs from the abdomen to his toes; we overhauled him; we withdrew and talked about antecedents and probable causes for a long time, and came to no satisfactory conclusions.

Dissatisfied and impatient, I said to his attending physician: "Does the poor fellow use Tobacco?' 'Oh no,' he replied 'I guess not,' and with an air of nonchalance added 'What if he does? What can that have to do with his case?'

"'I did not ask you,' I replied; 'about the effects of Tobacco, but simply if the patient used it.' Gruffly he said: 'Go and see.' Stepping to his bedside, I said: 'My young friend, do you use Tobacco?' With a squealing voice more cat-like than human, he said: 'I use a little.'

"'How do you use it?' "I smoke a little.' 'Did you smoke this morning?' 'Yes, a little.' 'Did you smoke at noon?' 'Yes, a little.'

"Before I quit him I ascertained that

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he had actually consumed sixteen cigars a day and the poor fellow's soul was so obfusticated by smoke that he considered that prodigious amount but little."

"This," continued the doctor, "may seem strange, but the strangest of all is the fact, that his attending physician—regular and well-bred—did not know in the first place that his patient used Tobacco; and, secondly, that he did not know that a rank and deadly poison could have had anything to do with his case! We are accused of killing our patients with calomel! A thousand are killed by Tobacco where one is killed by calomel!

VI. DELIRIUM TREMENS. Not unfrequently this terrible disease results from Tobacco. This is attested by physicians also. As most drunkards use this article it is possible that some cases of this disease may have been caused primarily by it rather than by alcohol.

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THE WORTHY PATRIARCH IN DELIRIUM TREMENS.

A mechanic in one of our manufacturing cities, who had risen to distinction in a Temperance Lodge, was subject to delirium tremens by the use of Tobacco. The developments, one and all, of this dreadful disease, were manifest in his case. His night slumbers were often much disturbed. Sometimes his entire family would be summoned to his bedside, at dead of night, to witness his agonies, and, as they often supposed, to see him die! He had horrible writhings—strange visions—and objects of a hideous nature, well-nigh of every form and hue, harrowed up his soul, and wrought upon his imagination.

On the recurrence of one of these painful paroxysms, his wife sent for a doctor—a doctor of a keen eye, who liappily was not himself a victim to this stupefying, deranging narcotic.

As the doctor fixed his eye on the eye of the

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maniac, the following passed between them:
"Do you use strong drinks?" "No," said the maniac. "Do you belong to the Sons of Temperance?" "Yes," was the reply. "I supposed you did," said the doctor; " you use Tobacco. This is a Tobacco fit—this is delirium tremens. You may die in the next one. Drop Tobacco, or Tobacco will drop you."
The former Worthy Patriarch dropped Tobacco, and has not had delirium tremens since.—Fitchturg Tract Depository.


The nerves are tender strings, and extending as they do to all parts of the body, and operated so readily as the strings of a viol, it becomes essential to the beauty of the tune that they be properly strung. Sometimes Tobacco loosens them and makes the tone too flat; sometimes it tightens them and makes the tone too sharp. Be careful of the nervous system.

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On the Senses.

The senses are dependent for their acuteness on the nervous power and the activity of the brain. If the brain be deadened by the use of this narcotic, it will not so vividly apprehend the objects that come within range of the senses. If the nerves, which are the telegraphic wires to convey impressions from the sensuous organs to the brain, are narcotized, they will not act as readily. The impressions will be slight, or inaccurate, because the vibrations are improper.

The effects are direct as well as indirect. The organs will themselves become diseased, either for want of proper materials to supply the waste of the parts, or, still more directly, by the immediate action of the pipe, quid or snuff.

I. HEARING. Almost every one knows that when we are troubled with what is familiarly

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called "a cold in the head," there is an oppression connected with the ear, or "a ringing in the ear." In such a cold there is an excitement of the mucous membrane, and the influence is extended to the membrane of the ear, and pain, or closeness, is experienced.

Now smoking, and snuffing, and probably chewing to some extent, excite this same mucous membrane. Have you seen a smoker blow smoke from his nose? The cavities of the head are all more or less connected, and what excites the membrane of one will excite to some extent, the membrane of all. Thus we have good reason for believing that the use of Tobacco may impair the organ of hearing. Most persons might have paralysis and die before deafness would arise from this influence, but, if the auditory nerve be naturally feeble in its action, deafness would undoubtedly be hastened by the use of this narcotic.

II. SEEING. The organ of vision is very

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tender, so much so that "the apple of the eye" is taken as a figure to represent the object of most earnest solicitude. Any one knows how smoke will cause the eye to smart. The Tobacco-smoker may say he hardens the eye to smoke. So one may get used to a smoke-house, but would it be considered healthy to live in such a place? Tobacco smoke not only irritates, but infuses poison to the injury of the nerve and muscles of the eye. When ammonia is taken into the nose it causes the tears to flow; so snuff causes the eyes to water.

There are canals called lachrymal ducts, extending from the eyes to the cavities of the nose, with which the snuff comes in contact. Sooner or later the unnatural irritation thus caused will injure the nerve of vision.

III. SMELLING. The olfactory nerves are numerous and begin on the lining membrane of the nose.

"Acuteness of smell requires

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that the brain and nerve of smell be healthy, and that the membrane that lines the nose be thin and moist. Snuff, when introduced into the nose, not only diminishes the sensibility of the nervous filaments, but thickens the lining membrane. This thickening of the membrane obstructs the passage of air through the nostrils, and thus obliges 'snuff-takers' to open their mouths when they breathe."
Snuff, and many other articles used for catarrh, produce more disease than they remove. The excitement and poison of Tobacco must injure this sense.

IV. TASTE. The tongue is the main organ of taste, though the cheeks may aid. On the surface of the tongue are little papillæ, which are the origin of the "gustatory nerves." Those who vitiate these have less relish for ordinary food. Till one becomes accustomed to it, the taste of Tobacco is not agreeable. Then things, which have a less powerful flavor, taste insipid. Be-

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coming deadened by this poison, the nerves act with less energy, and, consequently, the Tobacco devotee requires more stimulating and highly flavored food—and drink.

V. TOUCH, OR FEELING. This is a general sense, embracing every nerve of the system, and, as Tobacco impaires the nerves, it affects this general sense. It does the very tips of the fingers no good.


On the Voice

The vocal organs are as delicate as any part of the system, and, therefore, as liable to injury. Though the mouth with its appendages aids in intonation, yet the larynx is the main organ of speech. On account of its position, it is peculiarly liable to injury from the use of Tobacco. It is situated where the two channels of snuff and Tobacco unite, viz.:

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at the base of the nasal passages. The habit of using Tobacco is formed at the most critical period, that is, when the voice "is changing," and the vocal cords are therefore more liable to injury.

Dr. Allen, of Maine, says: "That Tobacco is injurious to the voice, any one can testify who has heard the harsh, thick, husky, mumbling voice of the inveterate Tobacco chewer."

Dr. H. Green, of New York, says: "Of the great number of cases of throat-ail that had come under his observation, a large proportion had taken place in individuals who used Tobacco." He had reference to what is called "clergyman's sore-throat."

An instrument like the human voice, capable of producing many thousand tones, may be easily impaired, and should be carefully guarded. Tobacco must have an injurious effect upon the voice.

I have dwelt thus long on the physical effects

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of the weed because, when these are shown, it is much easier to show its other effects. If other poisons were as insidious, as deceptive, as fascinating, and as fashionable, it might be desirable to show their effects.

It may be said that the case has been too strongly stated. Not when we consider that men need to have their eyes open to the evils of the narcotic. "A college of physicians has said that not less than twenty thousand in our land annually die by the use of this poison." Dr. Shaw names some eighty diseases which may be attributed to Tobacco. Your life and your health are endangered by the use of this weed. It becomes us to be cautious how we trifle with nature, for the purpose of gratifying an unnatural appetite for which we are indebted, not to nature, but to ourselves.

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II.
The Mental Effects of Tobacco
.

The mind is intimately connected with the body, and so close is this intimacy, that whatever disturbs one, to a greater or less extent disturbs the other. Even continued pain in any part of the body may bring the mind to premature weakness. There are many grave questions concerning the nature of the mind. Mental philosophy cannot be understood, as physical philosophy can, by visual examination. No microscopic power can decide its character. We know it only by its developments. The common view is that beasts have

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simply an instinct connected with their physical organism, while man has a mind which distinguishes him from the brute creation. It is not proposed to discuss this question. It may require some higher characteristic than simply mental organism to constitute the difference between man and beast. Suffice it to say that man has a mental organism with which are connected noble faculties.

There can be but little question that the mind is connected with the brain. The manner of this connection is not fully determined. The conformations of the brain may indicate certain qualities of mind, yet the exceptions are so many that the prudence of forming any general rule is extremely doubtful. When the nerves centering in the brain become injured, or in any measure paralyzed, by the use of narcotics, they convey lighter [impaired] impressions to the brain, and the latter, depending in some measure for its activity upon the

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vitality and vigor of the nerves, becomes correspondingly weakened in its action. Upon its action depends, in some way, the activity of the mind. If it has become unduly stimulated by Tobacco, or other poisons, the mind will be unduly excited, and the muscles of the face will reveal this excitement. If the brain has become deadened—which is the final result of Tobacco—the mind will be correspondingly deadened, and there will be a lifeless expression in the face corresponding to it.

You may have seen the Tobacco-user, after a period of self-denial, take his pipe or quid. How the face lights up with a gleam of satisfaction! On the other hand, you may have seen on the face of the constant user of the weed certain rigid, expressionless features, that indicate an inactive mind. The mind, however, of such a person, is not uniform in its action. If anything oppose it, it becomes irritable, like the mind of one who has been

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sick for a long time. The results of nervous derangement of the mind cannot be easily calculated, but, gonsidering their intimate relations, they must be great. I have thus indicated in a general manner, the results of Tobacco on the mind; but I wish to be more specific on this point, for it is desirable we should know and avoid every injury to the mind.

IT INTOXICATES THE MIND. Intoxication is generally considered to be connected with the senses. It is manifest in the senses, but it is a mistake to suppose that it goes no further. It is connected with the brain, and so with the mind. The mind, being disarranged by it, is not capable of receiving proper impressions. Thus an intoxicated man, when he falls, thinks the ground rises up to meet him. Tobacco has, to some extent, this intoxicating power, though not immediately, nor to so great an extent as alcohol. Its action is more constant. The continual toper never gets drunk; so the

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continual Tobacco-user does not consider himself intoxicated, but he is in a state akin to it constantly. Glance at a bar-room after dinner, and those sons of smoke, those dreamy, boozy devotees will give some idea of mind essentially intoxicated. Many a boy, on first beginning to use the weed, has experienced its intoxicating influences, even to the very tips of his fingers. Its exhilarations are undue and unnatural, uncalled for and injurious.

IT IRRITATES THE MIND . Anything that puts the mind out of its natural state tends to irritate it, either directly or by reaction. It is more difficult to acclimate the mind to a foreign element than the body to a foreign climate. Put a bird in the water, or a fish in the air, and neither will live. Feed a man on hay, or a horse on meat, and neither will thrive. If you have never noticed it, it might be interesting to do so, that those who use Tobacco are either dumpish or irritable. The natural condition of

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the mind is that which makes it open to conviction of physical and moral truths; but the excited Tobacco-chewer, instead of arguments, will sputter words and Tobacco-juice at the same time; and he who argues with such an one should be cautious not to get his garments nor his good name soiled. This irritation is never so manifest as when the individual is deprived of his pipe, quid or snuff.
"A merchant in a certain city, deprived of his Tobacco for a single day, became infuriated to madness and inflicted kicks on his wife and children without mercy."

"The mind of its victim is often in the condition of a steam engine moving at the rate of fifty or a hundred miles an hour; and then in the condition of the same engine with a collapsed boiler smashed up by the wayside. Or his mind is like the race-horse, all foaming upon the spring on the race ground; or like that noble animal half dead from exhaustion, prostrate in his stall."

"To-

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bacco drives to excessive action, hence exhaustion and debility are the legitimate consequences, and, wherever you go, you may see these over-driven animals half dead on beds and sofas—half dead in hotels and saloons."
IT DEBILITATES THE MENTAL POWERS . As has been already suggested, a lassitude follows the intoxicating influence of Tobacco. This is reaction, but it is the reaction of the man subject to fits: they greatly weaken and debilitate him. The mental, like all other powers, are debilitated by over-exertion, and languor follows. Undue or unnatural exertion of the muscles weakens them; so of the nerves, so of the mind. The mind, by proper exercise, has the power of consecutive thought, but the Tobacco-user loses this power, and his thoughts jump from one thing to another—they cannot be gathered and concentrated. Such men are not generally found among the deep thinkers. For this same reason we find many a poor

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memory. "The minds of smokers are sometimes completely oblivious." It weakens decision, or the will power. "It completely enslaves the mind." Said a young minister, aiming to break his chains: "I need Tobacco to give me resolution to give up Tobacco." It impairs the power of self-possession. Ambition, to a certain extent, is desirable and commendable, but this habit tends to crush a lofty ambition, and the mind, once aspiring, becomes satisfied with penury, beggary and degradation. The man is willing to sacrifice all high and noble purposes, to bow down to this god of appetite and bring his oblation to its altars.

It further degrades by arousing the passions. It tends to inebriation and lust of every kind. Saloons for drinking and gambling are saturated—the walls with smoke, the floors with spittle. Such places have nothing connected with them that tends to improve the mind.

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"If ever a philosopher came from them he was not made but unmade there."

IT WEAKENS THE REASONING POWERS. It becomes every one to keep these powers unimpaired and to improve them so far as they are capable of improvement. The man who uses Tobacco dethrones his judgment and undermines those principles upon which reason rests. In order to its full play, this faculty demands concentrated and continuous thought. Its province is to draw conclusions from premises. If the premises be smoky, the conclusion will be so too. One has quaintly asked: "How much keener is your logic-chopper by being bathed in Tobacco-juice?"

IT IS A CAUSE OF INSANITY. Insanity is one of the worst calamities that afflict the human race. Anything that will make a man delirious, when taken in quantities to produce that result, will, though taken in smaller quantities, sooner or later so dethrone reason as to produce

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insanity. In one of the reports of the Hospital for the Insane at Worcester, Mass., when speaking of Tobacco as one of the causes of insanity, Dr. Woodward quotes the opinions of a large number of the most eminent physicians who pronounce the same opinion.
"An instance is also given by one writer on this subject of a young man who became a raving maniac through the use of snuff."
This is not an isolated case. Rev. Mr. Trask relates the case of James Dixey who was a maniac through the influence of Tobacco.
"Those who indulge in its use, indeed, sometimes pretend that Tobacco does not injure the brain; but this must be in the sense of the anecdote told of an old lady who asked her physician if snuff ever injured folks' brains? " Oh no, madam," said he, "for folks who have any brains don't take it."
Thus Tobacco injures the mind. There is no good use for it except to kill vermin.

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III.
The Moral Effects of Tobacco
.

Thus far I have considered Tobacco in its direct or material influences, but there is an immaterial or moral aspect of the question which claims our attention.

As physiologists and metaphysicians cannot describe the mind, much less are moralists able to describe the soul; yet every man's consciousness or spiritual intuitions convince him that he has a moral nature. While philosophers tell us that the reasoning powers, or mind, constitute the difference between man and beast, our own natures seem to speak

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forth a greater distinction—that man has an immortal part.

A soul within us lives,
A soul that never dies,
Which to our nature gives
All holy, heavenly ties.

'Tis this that makes us men,
Distinguished from the beasts;
'Tis this that moves us when
We hope for heavenly feasts.

The soul is the accountable part of man. This is that which shall stand before the Judge at the last day to give account of the deeds which it did while here in the body. The mind of man is intimately connected with the soul—perhaps more closely than with the body. The mind is the instrument of the soul.

Many grave questions arise concerning this thought which we cannot here discuss. Certain it is that all the manifestations we can make to each other of this part of our nature are made through the mind by means of

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physical organism. The soul, in its normal condition, in its primitive state, in its primeval purity, could never degrade mind or body; but, since it has fallen from this condition, it seems "to seek out many inventions" by the use of which it may degrade the instruments with which the Master has endowed it. Giving itself up to its own servants, it has by them been degraded to servitude. As though the overseer of a company of men were controlled by their will rather than by his own.

Now this soul-power which God has given us, and which is ourselves, cannot accomplish what its Author designed unless it properly use the instruments with which it has been furnished. If it use tliem for any other purpose than that for which they were designed, it becomes guilty.

This thought may be thus illustrated: A man owns several farms, on each. of which he employs a number of men. Over each set of

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men he places an overseer. If any of these overseers should abuse the men and so injure them by his cruelty, or by feeding them an improper food, as that they could not perform the duties assigned them, would he be accomplishing the design of the owner? The answer must be negative

Again, if he should despatch the men to do work not connected with the owner's interest,would the work of the farm be accomplished? Most likely it would not.

Again, would not such a course act unfavorably to the overseer himself? Would he be esteemed by the owner as a good overseer? No, is the only answer. The owner would be very likely to condemn and to discharge him.

No complete analogy can be made between temporal and spiritual things, yet the soul stands in about the same relation to God as the overseer to the owner, and in the same relation to the mind and body as the overseer

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to the workmen. God has a work to be done, and it is of such a nature that the overseers cannot do it themselves, so the soul is to operate through mind and body. It is by means of these that man influences man. The soul throws the light from the eye and the radiance through the speaking countenance.

Now, if the soul abuse the physical powers by giving them for food that which is not adapted to their wants, they cannot perform the duties assigned to them. Or, if these workmen be used for other purposes than the work assigned them, such work will not be accomplished. Who will be to blame? The soul—the accountable man. There will also be a reflex influence on the soul itself. It will be degraded.

But there is another result which our illustration does not present. The soul is influenced directly by the state of the body and mind. If the mind be stultified by the use of narcotics,

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the soul will be proportionally diminished in power. If the physical powers be diminished by that which is injurious, there will be less activity of the moral nature. Facts prove that Tobacco diminishes the morality of men.
"Drunkards consider Tobacco-users on a par with themselves. 'We all have our failings,' don't we?' said a staggering inebriate to a Methodist preacher, as he was buying and using some of 'Mrs. Miller's Fine Cut.' Tobacco is almost invariably sold at dram-shops."
Investigations in prisons, and houses of correction, and State reform schools, show that a vast majority of their inmates used Tobacco before they committed crime.

Examples of Other
Smoking-Crime-Link References: The
Real 'Profile': White Male Smokers
1836 1854 1857 1862
1876 1882 1901 1904
1912 1915 1916 1924
1925 1948 1989 1991

It is also a fact that liquor saloons, and gambling saloons, and the dens of vice, of which there are unfortunately so many in the land, are places above all others where Tobacco is found. The use of this article is very intimately associated with intemperance, Sabbath-breaking and other vices.

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One writer says:
"In traveling through the principal cities and town in the States, this truth has stared me in the face: Just in proportion as physical sins abound, moral obliquities follow; just in proportion as ungodliness of oral appetite prevails, obscenity, vulgarity and profanity abound; the more Tobacco and liquor the more gambling, licentiousness and crime."

This habit also interferes seriously with religious life. With some it is a mighty idol standing between their souls and their Creator. Some who read these words have felt this habit to be a hindrance to religious life and enjoyment. Said a young convert: "I will drop Tobacco if it takes the flesh from my bones." He conquered and went on his way rejoicing. A lady in Connecticut says:
"We have enjoyed a precious revival of religion, which embraced a large group of young men; some run well, others have apostatized and

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dishonored Christ, but every backslider, without exception, is a victim of Tobacco in some form."
Says a college officer:
"When anxious for salvation, my cigars stood in my way and delayed my submission to God; my cigars were the last idol I surrendered."
There were two young men both desirous of "growing up into Christ, their living head in all things." They both used Tobacco, and were both convinced that it was a hindrance to obtaining their object. One gave up the weed and gained his object; the other did not give up the weed and did not gain his object. Many have gone into their closets and made it a subject of prayer, and invariably have come out convinced that it was a duty to give up the habit. In view of its evil
"the Sandwich Island Christians refuse church-membership to those who use rum or Tobacco habitually.

Billy Orr was an ignorant and quaint English preacher. "For two or three years after his

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conversion he continued to use Tobacco, and was rather a hard smoker; but one of the circuit preachers having rallied him on the subject, he began to consider the question of to smoke or not to smoke. He was not long in arriving at the conclusion that the use of Tobacco was a bad habit. Then he went to a physician and asked what effect a discontinuance of the weed would be likely to produce in his case, and was advised not to leave off smoking, or, if he did, to do so gradually. The sequel must be told in his own words.

"He came one afternoon to the house of a widow lady, with a more grave and thoughtful face than usual, and his first words were, 'Well, Sister W., I've done it.'

"' Done what, Mr. Orr?' was the response.

"'I've stopped aff the Tobaccy,' he said. 'I was ridin' along this mornin', smokin' me pipe, an' the ould divil he says to me, Ye're a slave, Billy Orr, an' all yer religion won't

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save ye. Ye quit the whiskey, but ye can't drap the Tobaccy.'

" 'Who says I can't? says I.'

"'It'll harm ye if ye quit, an' may be it 'ud kill ye, says he; an' jist that minit I saw that he was laughin' at me, bekase he thought that he had me, an' that I bid to do what he liked for fear if I didn't it 'ud be the death o' me. So I lifted me heart to the Lord, and then I says, Satan, I'll lave the Tobaccy, an' if the Almighty wants me to live He'll keep me from harm; if He don't it's all the same to you any way, but He'll take care o' me—I'm not afeard.'

Thin I thought with meself what the docther said, an' I determined to smoke out what was in my 'baccy-box, but in half a minit I thought again, an' says I, If I'm goin' to trust the Lord, I'll do it out an' out, an' no half way; so I pulled the 'baccy-box out o' me pocket an' heaved it over the fence into a field.

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Thin the old fellow says, Finish yer pipe at any rate; an' with that I whips out me pipe an' throws it afther the 'baccy-box.'

"'There now, ould boy, says I, in the name o' the Almighty, that's done with, an' I don't believe I'll ever be worse, or long afther the flesh-pots of Egypt ayther.'

"'He was right; his health did not suffer, neither did he have any hankering after the discarded indulgences."

To degrade yourself in body or mind is a sin. It is, therefore, easy to see the moral evil of this habit.

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IV.
The Social Effects of Tobacco
.

The immorality of this habit will be more clearly seen as we consider its social effects. Whatever poisons communities, or in any way injures our fellow men, is a sin.

We occupy certain relations to tliose around us, called social relations. Society is made up of these relations. Any vitiation of one part is an injury to every part, so that, in a sense, we are "our brother's keeper."

1ST. ITS UNCLEANLINESS . If any one can see the uncleanliness of this vile habit with-

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out considering it a vitiation of society, he must have the credit, if credit it be, of being blind to the rules of decency, and unconscious of the keen senses that inhabit other men. To go into a store or depot, a railroad car or a church, and see the filth produced by this habit, is enough to make a well person sick.

It is said there was a valley outside of Jerusalem into which dead animals and other filth of the city were carried. It was called Gehenna. Such is the supposed necessity of the railway train—the smoking-car. It is the Gehenna of the railway train. Here, as in some other places, are puddles of Tobacco juice, in which tlie garments of inoffensive men and women may be draggled, or by which some unfortunate one may be tlirown to the floor and injured; quids of Tobacco, nauseating and disgusting; or, it may be, the matron of a house defiling not only her own garments and brains, but the food of which

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others are to partake. Surely these are no slight evils to society.

2D. ITS DISAGREEABLENESS . This is also an injury to good society. The fumes of Tobacco-smoke, choking and strangling to some; the effluvia, nauseating 'to others; the poison, taken up into the systems of all, to a greater or less extent poisoning the very life-blood, are no benefit, but a great evil to society. Gov. Morris was asked by a smoking divine if gentlemen smoked in France. He replied, "Gentlemen, sir! gentlemen smoke nowhere." In a depot a young man, well dressed, smoking a cigar, thought the depot agent very ungentlemanly because the latter referred him to the sign on the wall, forbidding smoking. Which was the gentleman?

3D. DIMINISHING OF PHYSICAL POWER. The more power in a community, judiciously used, the more productive is that community, and the richer it will be. The lazy, weakened

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Tobacco-lounger is an unproductive incubus.

4TH.DIMINISHING OF MENTAL FORCE. The more thought the more vigor in society.
"The time spent by a single individual in taking chews, and lighting and puffing pipes and cigars, would, if properly improved, in many instances, be sufficient to acquire a thorough knowledge of several useful sciences. Multiply this by the whole number of Tobacco-users, and it will amount to centuries of precious time consumed not only in useless but degrading practices."
The deranged Tobacco mind can be of little use, but a burden to others.

5TH. FINANCIALLY. In this respect it is a great evil to the world. Whatever is spent in society for a useless, or a hurtful article, is so much loss. If a flour store of a million of barrels be consumed by fire, there is so much less flour in the country, and, consequently, if it be worth ten dollars a barrel, the country

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will be worth ten million dollars less. Flour is a useful article, while Tobacco is worse than useless. If millions of dollars be consumed in this article, this value might be invested in something useful, and so much added to the productive interests of society. Some may say that the money paid for it is still in the country. So it might be in the case of the flour, yet no one will deny that tlie burning of the flour is a loss. Though the money remains, it must be paid for flour, because the price must be proportionally higher; but the money spent in this useless article might otherwise be spent for useful articles, so benefitting somebody; whereas now it is a positive injury to society.

Look at some facts concerning the amounts expended on this noxious weed. For the single item of cigars, there is more expended in these United States than for the education of the children in all its common schools. Would

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it not be an advantage to society to spend this money for education? Many people think themselves unable to dress decently enough to be found in the house of God on the Sabbath, and their constant excuse is poverty. These same people consume, at a moderate estimate, Tobacco enough in forty years to amount, at compound interest, to $2,500 each. If they had a will to be found in the house of prayer, they could find a way.

Most men, who use Tobacco, could save enough by dispensing with it, to pay their taxes, of which they complain so much. Tobacco and its appendages costs Great Britain £10,000,000 a year. This would pay quite a heavy tax.

The total amount of Tobacco produced in the world is estimated as follows: Asia, 309,900,000 pounds; Europe, 281,844,500 pounds; America, 248,280,500 pounds; Africa, 24,300,000 pounds; and Australia, 714,000 pounds; making a total of nearly a billion pounds.

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The human family spend enough every year, for this useless article, to build two railroads around the earth, or sixteen railroads from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Such a drain upon the value of the products of the world cannot be otherwise than injurious in its social influence. With this value, how many poor might be fed and clothed; how many Bibles might be sent to the heathen; how many churches might be built; how many benevolent institutions sustained; how many schools supported?
"The labor of producing Tobacco and preparing it for use, is amazing. Five and a-half millions of acres are cultivated in this soil-impoverishing crop throughout the world. In a great Tobacco factory in Seville, Spain, five thousand young girls are employed in a single room. In the city of Hamburg, ten thousand persons are engaged in the manufacture of cigars."

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The following facts are taken from official statistics, received from Washington, and embrace the year ending June 30th, 1875:

The whole amount of revenue received on Tobacco was $37,303,461.88. This vast amount does not come out of the raiser, or the manufacturer, or the merchant, but ultimately out of the consumer. The estimated number of consumers in the country is 8,800,000. The estimated annual amount to each of these, is 15 pounds of Tobacco and 246 cigars. The number of pounds of Tobacco on which revenue was paid, was 128,615,190, and the number of cigars 1,967,959,662. The average expense of these, as now sold in the market, is 80 cts. per pound for Tobacco, and 4 cts. each for cigars. This gives us, reckoning the imports and exports about equal, the vast sum of $102,892,152.00 consumed in the country for the use of this filthy weed. Besides this, there is a large quantity consumed

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not embraced in the revenue report, so that, probably, the amount will reach $200,000,000.

Taking the average for each consumer, we find it to be about $23.00.

There are employed as manufacturers and salesmen over 450,000 men, who might be engaged in a more profitable industry.

There is an increase in the revenue, but this does not positively indicate an increase in the consumption, though, doubtless, the latter increases every vear.
"In New York city alone, there are 200,000 smokers, and nearly as many chewers of Tobacco, to say nothing of snuff-takers. It is estimated that its citizens spend daily over $10,000 for cigars, and less than $9,000 for bread. Many fashionable ladies smoke cigarettes, and a cigar dealer in Boston makes the astonishing announcement that he sells an average of 300 cigars daily for the use of the fair ones in New England."

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People complain of hard times. If this waste was stopped, the hard times would be greatly softened. The panic has not lessened the consumption of Tobacco. Some church members use seventy-five dollars' worth a year. A young man confessed to smoking ninety-one dollars' worth of cigars in a year.

If these are facts, of which there is no doubt in the minds of those who have investigated the subject, there is great sin to society by this foolish waste of land, time and money.


How are we to get rid of this evil? The following fable will illustrate:
"The rats once assembled in a large cellar to devise some method of safely getting the bait from a steel trap which lay near, having seen numbers of their friends and relatives snatched from them by its merciless jaws. After many long speeches and the proposal of many elaborate but fruitless plans, a happy wit, standing erect, said, 'It is my opinion

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that, if with one paw, we can keep down the spring, we can safely take the food from the trap with the other.' All the rats present loudly squealed assent. Then they were startled by a faint voice, and a poor rat, with only three legs, limping into the ring, stood up to speak: 'My friends, I have tried the plan you propose, and you see the result. Now let me suggest a plan to escape the trap: Let it alone!"
That was a sensible rat. If you wish to escape the Tobacco-trap, let it alone.

Another means of getting rid of the evil, may be used by the ladies as suggested by the following stanza:

"May never lady press his lips,
His proffered love returning,
Who makes a furnace of his mouth,
And keeps its chimney burning!

May each true woman shun his sight,
For fear his fumes might choke her;
Let none but those who smoke themselves,
Have kisses for a smoker."


See also our Prevent Divorce website.

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Such are the physical, mental, moral, and social effects of Tobacco. Self-interest, philanthropy, patriotism, religion, and conscience all declare in favor of reform concerning this custom of wasting God's heritage to destroy God's creatures. May the soothing influence of a conscious rectitude, hereafter be a greater consolation than the narcotic poison of a noxious weed! And may the "spirit of wisdom and a sound mind" pervade us, so that we may see how great is this gigantic evil; and the "God of all grace" assist every one to do what is in his power to rid our land and earth of its curse!



[The End]



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Other Books on Tobacco Effects
The Use and Abuse of Tobacco
by Dr. John Lizars (1859)
Tobacco and Its Effects: Report
to the Wisconsin Board of Health

by G. F. Witter, M.D. (1881)
The Use of Tobacco,
by Prof. John I. D. Hinds, Ph.D. (1882)
Tobacco: Its Use and Abuse,
by Rev. John B. Wight (1889)
The Case Against the Little White Slaver,
by Henry Ford (1914)
Click Here for Titles of Additional Books

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