Tobacco: Its Use and Abuse by Rev. John B. Wight Of the South Georgia Conference (Columbia, South Carolina: L. L. Pickett Pub Co, 1889) "USE no tobacco unless prescribed by a physician.[!!] It is an uncleanly and unwholesome self-indulgence."—John Wesley. "But O! what witchcraft of a stronger kind, Or cause too deep for human search to find, Makes earth-born weeds imperial man enslave— Not little souls, but e'en the wise and brave." —Arbuckle's Poem on Snuff. I do not place my individual self in opposition to tobacco; but science, in the form of physiology and hygiene, is opposed to it; and science is the expression of God's will in the government of his work in the universe."—Willard Parker. "Having for many years made a specialty of the study of the laws of health and disease, I consider this one of the greatest evils of the present day. Language cannot describe the terrible effects which tobacco produces upon both body and mind. It perverts the taste, impairs mental capacity, corrupts the moral sense, and stimulates the animal nature."—Nathan Allen. -3- PREFACE THE author has no apologies to offer for this book. It is the result of careful investigation extending over more than three years, and is written because light is needed on this question. Many persons consider tobacco a harmless luxury, and as such they do not scruple to use it. Is it so? The question arose, and the investigation was begun in order to answer it. The field was entered with an unprejudiced mind, for as a boy I used to look forward to the time when I should smoke as men do. As the investigation has proceeded the subject has grown; and what was once considered a harmless self-indulgence has developed into a question of great magnitude. In discussing the question no statement has been admitted which is not sustained by competent authorities. All has not been said that might be, and many authorities that could be cited have been left out because it has been thought useless to multiply them. If I have sometimes spoken strongly, it is because I have felt strongly, and because the facts justify it. This "use and abuse" of tobacco is a subject that is too little considered. Had I failed to speak what I believed to be the truth, conscience would reproach me; for I have not written for the pleasure there is in it, but because duty to my -5- neighbor and to God demanded it. But it will be seen that the strongest statements are made by those who have studied the question, and have a right to speak. It is not the object of this work to present the use of tobacco as the greatest vice that we are addicted to as a people, nor its votaries as sinners above all other men. But that tobacco-using, as commonly practiced, is a vice, and that light is needed on this question, the author has endeavored to show. The tobacco-habit numbers among its votaries some of our best and most conscientious men, who, if they were convinced of its harmfulness, would discard the weed forever. The author hazards nothing in saying that when the effects of tobacco—physically, mentally, morally, and hereditarily—are better known there will be less of it used by thinking men—men who have a work to do, and desire the best condition of body and mind in which to do it. I know that some good men will be horrified that their idol should be so spoken of; and some bad men will cry that "now you want to take away our tobacco too." I know hat the work may be pronounced one-sided, extreme, fanatical, and the like, but knowledge of this has not caused me to swerve one iota from the course dictated by reason and conscience. I am aware that the work has many imperfections. Therefore all just, well-meant criticisms, though they may be severe, will be gladly welcomed; but such as come from -6- a spirit of fault-finding, or are made after but a partial and prejudiced examination of the book, will fall on deaf ears. The different chapters of the work are interdependent, and no right conception of it or of the merits of the question of which it treats can be had unless considered as a whole. "Partem aliquam recte intelligere nemo potest, antequam totum, iterum atque iterum, periegerit." No one can rightly understand any part until he has read the whole again and again. The facts and testimonials here given have been gathered from many sources, and a number of persons have rendered kindly assistance. These have my heart-felt thanks. But I must especially acknowledge my indebtedness to "The Tobacco Problem" [Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1882], a most excellent work by Meta Lander; to "Facts about Tobacco" [New York: Barnes Pub, 1879], by Edward P. Thwing; "The Use and Abuse of Tobacco" [Edinburgh: 1859], by John Lizars; "Smoking and Drinking" [Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868], by James Parton; and "Tobacco: Its Effects on the Human System" [New York: Fowler and Wells, 1836], by William A. Alcott, with "Notes and Additions" by Nelson Sizer. With these statements I send it forth, and with the hope that it may not be without its mission of good to some one. J. B. W. Cairo, Ga., July 4, 1888. -7- Table of Contents Frontispiece 3 Preface 5 Chapter I. The Uses of Tobacco 9 What Is Tobacco Good For? [Mythology] 10 As An Aid to Digestion 12 Quieting the Nerves 15 Preserving the Teeth 18 As a Mental Stimulus 21 Preventing Waste of Tissue 22 Chapter II. Cost of Tobacco 26 Fires Set by Smokers 29 Injury to Land 30 Time Wasted and Medical Bills Incurred 31 Pipes, Etc. 32 Asylums and Alms-Houses 32 The Result 33 Chapter III. Physical Health as Affected by Tobacco 36 Composition of Tobacco, And Its Effects Upon Animal Life 36 A Reasonable Inference 41 Medical Testimony 43 Diseases Which May Be Caused by Tobacco 47 Effects on the Eyes 51 Dyspepsia 55 Heart Disease 55 Impairs Muscular Force and Physical Endurance 57 Cancer 60 Loss of Manly Courage 63 Tobacco Causes Non-Procreation 64 Effects on the Nerves 68 Insanity 72 Tobacco Not An Antidote to Disease And Retards Recovery From It 77 Its Use Tends to Drunkenness 80 Tobacco Victims 84 Adulterations and the Processes of Manufacture Increase the Evil 85 National Degeneracy 88 Old Tobacco-Users 92 If Injurious, Then Why Used? 94 Who Are Most Injured by Tobacco 98 Its Effects Often Appear Late 100 Chapter IV. Effects of Tobacco on the Mind 103 Its Effects in the School-Room 108 Trying Both Sides 111 Famous Users of Tobacco 114 Chapter V. Heredity 117 Chapter VI. Tobacco and the Young 129 Chapter VII. Ladies and Tobacco 143 Chapter VIII. The Morality of the Habit 153 Tobacco Blunts the Moral Perceptions 154 Weighed 170 Chapter IX. The Social View of the Question 172 Tobacco Slavery 172 Chapter X. Chewing vs. Smoking 190 Chapter XI. Can the Tobacco-habit Be Mastered? 197 Chapter XII. An Evil to Be Remedied 216 Index 227 -8- I The Uses of Tobacco. TOBACCO has its uses [Ed. Note: as insecticide], or else God would not have given it a place in the vegetable world. He did not create things by accident; and so when any thing was brought forth it was because it has its appropriate place to fill among the other works of creation. To deny this would be to charge God with a lack of wisdom. But an extreme must be guarded against here. Because tobacco has its place, it will not do to draw the inference that it is therefore to be used freely and unadvisedly. This often done. It would be as wise to reason that as God has created arsenic therefore arsenic can do no harm. Opium, strychnine, prussic acid, and the like have their uses; but they may also be abused. Another fact is evident. The place which to- -9- bacco fills is not a very important one. It was unknown until Columbus found it among the natives of America, If it had been very important to the health and well-being of mankind, God would not have permitted the world to do without it for more than five thousand years, hut long before A.D. 1492 a Columbus would have been raised up, and the prows of the "Maria," the "Pinta," and the "Nina" would have pointed to the New World to discover this important plant. WHAT IS TOBACCO GOOD FOR? When first introduced into England and on the Continent, it was considered good for almost every thing. Edmund Gardiner, in his "Trial of Tobacco," 1610, asks: "What is a more noble medicine, or more readie at hand than tobacco?" Physicians prescribed it; and notwithstanding the opposition of King James I. and a few others, its use as a medicine and as a luxury quickly spread to all classes of people. It was new, and novelty always has its attractions. But the weed has grown old and familiar; its uses are now better understood, and many of the old illusions in regard to it have been dispelled. -10- Its range is being narrowed. But, medicinally, tobacco is not without its virtues. [Ed. Note: a rare error, to have in 1889 cited tobacco as of any use at all!] As many as seventeen properties are ascribed to it. It is errhine, sternutatory, sialogogue, emetic, cathartic, expecto- rant, cholagogue, diaphoretic, diuretic, antispasmodic, nervine, stimulant, narcotic, anæsthetic, anaphrodisiac, parturifacient, and antiparasitic.* Dr. John Lizars [Ed. Note: but see his anti-tobacco book] says that dropsical swellings sometimes disappear under operations of this drug. It has been used with advantage as an injection in some cases of strangulated hernia; but where thus used its effects have so often been fatal that the best physicians now discourage its use for this purpose, especially as there are other remedies which are as efficacious, and much less dangerous. The cases in which tobacco can be used with advantage as a medicine, in preference to other medicines, are very few. [Ed. Note: none]. Dr. Grimsbaw says: "It is believed by all judicious practitioners too dangerous to be employed as a medicine. These benefits, as a remedy, do not counterbalance the risks of using it." Some of the dangers incident to its use will be given farther on in this work. Tobacco may ____________ *[Thwing's] "Facts About Tobacco," p. 19. -11- also be used as a disinfectant, and as a destroyer of insects. Meta Lander says: "It is useful in destroying sheep-ticks and any creature that molests man. The vapor of tohacco-juice has been tested in France with great success as an insect-destroyer in hot houses, effectually disposing of thrips, scales, and slugs. It also scares away moths, carpet-bugs, and other vermin, and thus preserves furs and woolens."* There are prevalent a number of erroneous ideas in regard to the beneficial effects of tobacco, one or more of which is the excuse for probably the greater number of those who use it. Some of these are given. As An Aid To Digestion On this point the testimony of physicians is abundant and clear. A few authorities are given: Dr. Alcott says: "I have never known a dozen tobacco-users—my acquaintance has extended to ____________ *Here is a consideration given for the benefit of those "whom it may concern." So completely does tobacco permeate and taint the whole body of the excessive user of it that it is said that wolves, cannibals, and buzzards will leave in disgust the dead body of such a person. (See "The Tobacco Problem," p. 25.) -12- thousands—whose digestive organs were not in the end more or less Impaired by it. Dr. Mussey says: "It is a mistake to suppose that smoking aids digestion. The very uneasiness which it is desirable to remove is occasioned either by tobacco itself or by some other means. If tobacco facilitates digestion, how comes it that after laying aside the habitual use of it most individuals experience an increase of appetite and of digestive energy, and an accumulation of flesh [gain weight]?" Dr. Rush says: "It produces dyspepsia." Dr. Hosack says: "The recent great increase of dyspepsia among us is attributable in part to the use of tobacco." The Journal of Health says: "Most, if not all, of those who are accustomed to the use of tobacco labor under dyspeptic symptoms." Dr. Harris, of the New York Dispensary, says: "The functions of digestion and nutrition are impaired; and though in some cases tobacco may for a time appear to relieve irritability of the stomach, it eventually cripples and almost destroys the digestive powers." Ed. Note: See also the book by Dr. Elisha Harris (1824-1884), Tobacco: The Effects of its Use as a Luxury on the Physical and the Moral Nature of Man: A Prize Essay (New York: Wm. Harned, 1853) To such testimony as this a person replies: I -13- do not know its effects on others, but I know it helps my digestion, because after a meal I feel much better if I take a chew of tobacco, or smoke a cigar or pipe." He is conscientious in this reply. He does not know that the weakness of which he complains is generally caused by the agent he takes to relieve it; for while tobacco, for the time, excites the digestive organs to increased activity, this is followed by their sinking below the normal. In this respect its effects are something like opium and alcoholic stimulants. And so it finally comes to the point where the digestive organs are so weakened that a stimulant is felt to be necessary in order that the stomach may perform the work which, in a healthy state, it would do without artificial assistance. In the "Confessions of an Old Smoker" we read: "It is a delusion under which smokers labor that their peculiar and beloved habit aids digestion. They say that 'if their bowels are obstinately sluggish an extra pipe or two will generally give them relief.' This I know from experience to be true; but I also know from experience that it is not the whole truth; for the following additional facts must -14- be remembered: The very sluggishness of the bowels of which smokers are so apt to complain is produced by smoking, just as the habitual use of purgatives will be sure to cause indigestion. Again: the relief secured by an 'extra pipe or two' is only temporary, while the entire and permanent result is an aggravation of the derangement complained of, just as cathartics of extra strength only feed the malady which for a few days they alleviate. "Of course the stomach and bowels require a little time in order to recover their proper sensibility which tobacco has been for years destroying. But let nature have time and fair play, and she will come right again unless the mischief has become so serious as to assume an organic form, and then the sufferer will be better without tobacco. "That smoking cannot aid digestion is self-evident. Its ultimate effect is to destroy the healthy sensibility of the coats of the stomach and bowels. And that such a process as this must be eventually ruinous to health who can doubt?"* Quieting the Nerves. There is no doubt that under certain conditions ____________ *"Facts About Tobacco," pp. 26, 27. -15- tobacco has a soothing effect on the nervous system. Users of the weed know this very well, and they know too that they often feel the need of this nervine. Are its ultimate effects on the nerves good or bad? This is a question that should interest every one who either uses or expects to use it. Dr. [Samuel] Solly [1805-1871], surgeon of the St. Thomas Hospital, London, says, "I know of no single vice that does so much harm as smoking. It soothes the excited nervous system at the time, to render it more feeble and more irritable ultimately." Professor Kirke, in "Nerves and Narcotics," says: "You see a man weary, and yet restless. By means of the narcotic this nervous irritation is subdued. The supply of vital force from the organic centers to the motor nerves is so much lessened that the irritating movement in them ceases. This gives a sense of relief to the person affected. He is not aware that the benefit is purchased at a serious cost. He has not only lessened the supply of vital force for the time being, but has done a very considerable amount of injury to his vital system. He has in fact poisoned the springs of life within him. As soon as these nerves rally from -16- the lowering effects of the narcotic the irritation returns, and the narcotic is called for anew. Fresh injury is inflicted for the sake of the ease desired. This goes on till the vital centers, if at all delicate, totally fail to give supply to the motor nerves, and paralysis begins. Yet the man goes on indulging in the so-called luxury of the narcotic." Dr. Wright says: "I believe it to be the great antagonist of the nervous system, especially in its relations to the organs of sense, of reproduction, and of digestion." Dr. R. V. Pierce says: "The horse, under action of whip and spur, may exhibit great spirit and rapid movements; but urge him beyond his strength with these agents, and you inflict a lasting injury. Withhold the stimuli, and the drooping head and moping pace indicate the sad reaction that has taken place. This illustrates the evils of habitually exciting the nerves by the use of tobacco, opium, narcotic or other drugs. Under their action the tone of the system is greatly mpaired, and it responds more feebly to the influence of curative agents."* (For a further discussion of the effects ____________ *"The People's Medical Adviser" [Buffalo NY: World's Dispensary Printing Office and Bindery, 1889], p. 385. -17- of tobacco on the nervous system, see Chapters III. and IV.) Preserving the Teeth. Dr. Barrett, of Buffalo, says on this point: "Tobacco is undoubtedly antiseptic in the mouth but I am inclined to think the remedy worse than the disease. I am given to smoking myself, but it keeps the mouth in an unhealthy condition." Says Dr. Barnes, of New York: "Chewing tobacco removes particles of food, and smoking often adds a coating over softened portions, thereby rendering them less liable to caries. But we have plenty of remedies more cleanly and wholesome." He adds further: "To my mind the disadvantages greatly overwhelm the advantages." Dr. Lillebrown, of Boston, says: "Tobacco chewing, by causing a free flow of saliva, washes the teeth; but no benefit can ever secondarily compensate for the uncleanness of the habit." Dr. Chandler, of the Dental Department of Harvard University, says: "I am no believer in the preservative qualities of tobacco upon the teeth. On the contrary, in so far as the use of it injures -18- the health, and thereby vitiates the oral secretions, it must be directly injurious. There is no doubt, however, that smoking in excess, and perhaps also chewing, blunts the sensitiveness of the teeth, both directly and indirectly, by its stupefying properties so that they can be worked upon with less pain; but I consider this no compensation for the nastiness consequent upon indulgence in the vile habit." Dr. William A. Alcott, an eminent authority, says: "The soundness of the teeth will always bear an exact proportion to the soundness and firmness of the gums, and of the lining membrane of the mouth, and the whole alimentary canal. But that tobacco makes the gums loose and spongy, and injures the lining membrane of the alimentary canal, especially that part of it called the stomach, is as well attested as any fact in physiology. "The application of tobacco, therefore, to the inside of the mouth and to the gums—if the foregoing principle is correct—instead of preserving the teeth, cannot otherwise than hasten their decay. And so, in point of fact, we find it. The teeth of those who use tobacco are in a less perfect state than those of other people—I mean those whose habits are no worse than -19- theirs in other respects; for there are many more things which injure teeth as well as tobacco, and it would be unfair to compare the tobacco-chewer, whose habits may be correct in other respects, with those individuals who, though they use no tobacco, are yet addicted to gluttony or drunkenness, or have had their teeth spoiled by poisonous medicines. "The teeth of some tobacco-chewers, it is true, do not ache; for the tobacco, at least for a time, stupefies the nerves. Nor are there wanting cases here and there of old tobacco chewers whose teeth, so far as they are not worn out, are free from decay. But such cases are as rare as those of long-lived or healthy intemperance; and they prove just nothing in favor of tobacco. They simply show that the individuals who thus held out had strong [first-generation-type] constitutions, with no hereditary tendency to diseases of the alimentary canal or the teeth, and that if in spite of the tobacco their teeth were comparatively perfect, they would have been still more so had they wholly abstained from it. "But there is one thing to be observed in the case of those who chew tobacco, even when the teeth do not really decay: they wear out very fast. Dr. -20- Mussey has verified the truth of this position, not only by observing the mouths of 'some scores of individuals in our own communities,' but like-wise those of 'several individuals belonging to the Seneca and St. Francois tribes of Indians, who, like most of the other North American tribes, are much addicted to the use of this narcotic.' I have myself observed the same thing even in the case of those tobacco-chewers who boasted of their sound teeth and of freedom from toothache. I have seen them so worn down as actually to project but a little way beyond the gums. In the part of the mouth in which the cud is kept this wearing out or wasting away is more obvious than in other parts."* Suffice it to say that in this land, where water and soap and toothbrushes are abundant, there is no good excuse for using tobacco-saliva as a mouth-wash. As a Mental Stimulus. The effect of tobacco on the mind is a very important consideration. Is it good or bad? This phase of the subject has been deemed worthy a ____________ *Tobacco: Its Effects on the Human System," pp. 9-12. -21- separate chapter, and the reader will find it discussed in Chapter IV. Preventing Waste of Tissue. In talking once with a prominent minister, I learned a new (to me) reason for the use of tobacco; and that is that "tobacco checking the waste of tissue in the body, less food is required to be eaten to repair this waste, and therefore it is a friend to the poor man, in that the cost of living is thus diminished." This reason was a surprise in that I had been taught that whatever interferes with the normal action of nature, in a healthy state, is injurious. But the point was worthy of investigation, and here is what some good authorities have to say on the subject. Dr. [Benjamin W.] Richardson, in his "Diseases of Modern Life [New York: D. Appleton & Co, 1876]," says: "If smoking sustains the system longer without food, it does it by reducing the activity of all the organs, and therewith the organic power." Dr. John Ellis says: "I suppose, without any reasonable doubt, that tobacco, like opium and some other substances, does actually retard the waste, and thereby the nourishment of the tissues; but this is -22- really one of the chief objections against its use, for it is exactly what we do not want to do, since the health and strength depend on or are intimately associated with the regularity and rapidity of this metamorphosis of the tissues." Dr. Willard Parker says that free waste and repairs are essential hygienic conditions of health. He further says: "Where the processes of waste and repairs are maintained in balance the system is in its normal state, or in health. Disturb the balance, and disease commences. Every system is worked by force, and this is the one cause of waste. Diminish waste, and you diminish force. The work of all poisons is to diminish force. Now, if tobacco diminishes waste, it is because it diminishes force, and so far marches toward death. Let us have no more of such sophistry." The following opinion of Dr. Cate seems to make this point clear: "If the change is no more rapid than in health, it is a physiological, not a diseased process; it is one of a chain of interlinked and interdepending processes which cannot be interfered with without upsetting the beautifully-contrived balance and leading to mischievous results. Every -23- physiologist knows that the use and wear exactly correspond; that you cannot diminish one without diminishing the other. All narcotics diminish the energy of all the functions of every organ. They lessen the vigor and amount of work done, and exactly to this extent diminish the waste. Going beyond certain narrow limits, the result is far worse. "They act so powerfully on every organ and function that the derangement amounts to disease, the power of doing healthy work is lost, and not only the waste, but repair is decidedly diminished. "The difficulty after youth is not that waste is unduly active, but that repair is too little so. It follows that instead of diminishing through narcotics the energy of brain and body, and hence the amount of work done, the increase of the reparative energy is the needed power in advancing years. "Every physiologist accepts the law that with every thought, with every emotion, with every throb of the heart, with every movement of a muscle, with every step in the process of digestion, there is waste of tissue in exact and inevitable correlation to the amount of work done; and this waste can only be diminished by diminishing action or production. It is like the -24- consumption of fuel and the production of heat. It is easy to diminish the draft of the furnace or engine, and so the consumption of fuel, but the production of heat is diminished in the same propertion. This is precisely what is done to the functions of the body by narcotics, including tobacco. They lower the vigor and energy of every organ, and so its production and in the same degree the waste. I believe this is the correct statement of the action of tobacco in the much-talked-of relation to waste: that from the scientific stand-point these conclusions are inevitable; and that from the medical the experience of ninety-nine of a hundred of the profession clearly affirms their truth." If this argument of "preventing waste of tissue" is admitted as a reason for the use of tobacco, then it must also hold good in regard to opium and alcoholic liquors, which have the same property. -25- II. Cost of Tobacco. THE history of tobacco is an interesting one. Columbus first found it among the Indians when he discovered America in 1492; and since then its use has extended to every important part of the world. Those who are interested in its history are referred to "Tobacco: Its History and Associations" [London: Chapman and Hall, 1859], a unique volume by F. W. Fairholt [1814-1866]; The Tobacco Problem" [Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1882], by Meta Lander [1813-1901]; and to such cyclopedias as Appleton's, Chambers', and the Britannica. Although tobacco has reached such an extensive use, it has not done so without opposition. More than two hundred and seventy years ago [British King] James I. wrote his "Counterblast to Tobacco," while popes have issued their bulls and sultans their edicts against it. In this opposition the fight has not always been made on the highest ground. Many who may read this know that when they have heard tobacco inveighed against the op- -26- position has often been based upon the ground that it is a filthy and costly habit. These reasons have been sufficient to deter some; but others, believing that these are the only objections, have been unwilling to surrender a luxury from which they derive so much comfort. "Water is plentiful, and money is for nothing if not to be enjoyed," they reason; and there are many who will not dispute the validity of the conclusion. The use of tobacco is an uncleanly habit, and it is costly, and of course these points are not to be forgotten; but it is the purpose of this work to show that there are other and weightier reasons against its use. It will not, however, be an unfitting introduction to these other reasons to show something of the cost of tobacco. Edward P. Thwing, in his "Facts About Tobacco," gives the annual consumption of tobacco for the world as being four billion four hundred and eighty million pounds. Those who are "good at figures" can calculate what the money thus expended would do in building railroads, founding missions, alleviating suffering, and educating the masses. But we are especially interested in its -27- cost to us of the United States. From the "Report of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue" we learn that for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, the amount of manufactured tobacco and snuff returned for taxation (not including what was exported) was 206,499,521 pounds, an increase over the previous fiscal year of 14,907,281 pounds. For the same year there were manufactured and reported for taxation in the United States (not including those exported) 3,788,305,443 cigars and 1,584,505,200 cigarettes, an increase in both together over the previous fical year of 550,950,805. Suppose we estimate the average cost of tobacco and snuff to the consumer at sixty-five cents per pound, cigars at five cents each, and cigarettes at five cents per package of ten—all low estimates—we have the following result as the direct cost for last year: Tobacco and snuff $134,224,688.65 Cigars   189,415,272.15 Cigarettes       7,922,526.00 Total $331,562,486.80 These figures, be it remembered, simply represent the tobacco manufactured and used in the -28- United States, and do not include what was imported and used here. For the same fiscal year there were 518,922 licensed dealers in manufactured tobacco in the United States.* But there are other items of cost that must not be forgotten. I. Fires Set by Smokers. Joseph Bird, in his work "Protection against Fire," gives his careful observation for forty years in reference to fires. He says: "Millions of dollars worth of property have been destroyed from this smoking evil. The great fire which commenced on Battery Wharf, Boston, July 27, 1855, was no doubt set by a workman who was smoking among the loose and drying cotton. The loss was $500,000. "The great fire at London in 1861, which destroyed eleven milllons, was said to have originated from spontaneous combustion in hemp; but the chances are ten to one that the cause was a workman' pipe. "Some time since a gentleman in Jamaica Plain was passing his barn, and saw smoke coming out of the door. On following it back into the ____________ * This does not include 1,650 peddlers of tobacco, licensed for the same year. -29- harness-room he saw fire in a coat; and, on taking it up to throw it out of the barn, a pipe dropped from it, showing the cause of the fire." An insurance agent says: "One-third or more of all the fires in my circuit have originated from matches or pipes. Fires in England and fires in America are being kindled with alarming frequency by smokers casting about their fire-brands, or half-burned matches." Meta Lander says: "It was from a match thrown down by a smoking plumber that the Harpers' printing establishment took fire, consuming five blocks, at a loss of about a million dollars, and throwing nearly two thousand people out of work." II. Injury to Land. Tobacco is said to make heavier demands upon the fertility of land than almost any other crop grown. General John H. Cooke, of Virginia, says: "Tobacco exhausts the land beyond all other crops. As proof of this, every homestead from the Atlantic border to the head of tidewater is a mournful monument. It has been the besom [Ed. Note: broom] of destruc- -30- tion which has swept over this once fertile region." Says a traveler: "The old tobacco-lands of Maryland and Virginia are an eye-sore—odious 'barrens,' looking as though blasted by some genius of evil." Meta Lander also says: "There are those who claim that the land can be kept in good condition by the free use of fertilizers. But the experience of many years furnishes evidence that this crop ultimately exhausts the soil, and that in consequence its culture is deprecated by the better class of agriculturists." III. Time Wasted and Medical Bills Incurred. These are not insignificant factors. Every one who smokes wastes more or less time, which would otherwise be devoted to labor, reading, or some useful employment. The medical bills that are made necessary simply on account of the use of tobacco would surprise us if the facts could be known.* And then physicians who have closely ____________ * See next chapter for reasons for this opinion. -31- studied its effects on the system say that excessive users of tobacco shorten their lives, on an average, at least five years by its use. IV. Pipes, Etc. This cost is generally small in each individual case, but quite large in the aggregate. "In the London Exhibition there were four amber mouth-pieces valued at 250 guineas each. A plain, small, serviceable meerschaum pipe now costs seven dollars in New York, and the prices rise from that sum to a thousand dollars; but where is the young man who does not possess one?" * The poor laborer with his clay pipe costing a cent, and the rich man with beautifully-colored meerschaum, alike contribute to swell the total here. And beside pipes there are many smoking conveniences and accessories which should not be overlooked. V. Asylums and Alms-Houses. Meta Lander says on this point: "In order to make a fair estimate of what this drug costs the country, we ought to visit our almshouses and houses of correction, our reform schools, insane, ____________ * James Parton [Smoking and Drinking (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868), p 36]. -32- asylums, jails, and penitentiaries, to which poverty, disease, and crime resulting from the tobacco-fiend, with intemperance following in its wake, bring hundreds and thousands. For the support of all these we are taxed, and that doubly since we are also assessed to supply many of them with the very poison that brought them there." The Result. The American Board Almanac gives a pictorial representation of some of the chief expenditures of the people of the United States during one year. Here are the figures without the picture: Liquor $900,000,000 Tobacco   600,000,000 Bread   505,000,000 Meat   303,000,000 Woolen goods   237,000,000 Cotton goods   210,000,000 Education     85,000,000 Missions       5,500,000 The figures for tobacco appear large; but if to the $331,562,486.80 given on the basis of the "Internal Revenue Report," as the direct cost of tobacco, we add the tobacco and cigars manufact- -33- ured but not "reported" for taxation, and the considerable quantity grown and used by the producer,* and also the large quantity of tobacco and cigars imported into the United States, then add to this the various incidental expenses connected with the production and consumption of tobacco which are given in this chapter, it would be hard to prove that six hundred million dollars does not fairly state the annual cost of tobacco to the American people. We complain that we are poor; but who can look at the first two items in the above table—tobacco and liquor—without wondering that we are not poorer? Stewards find it hard to collect money sufficient for the support of the ministry; a collection is taken for some benevolent purpose, and how meager is the amount received! Our Mission Boards have a hard struggle to meet the demands upon them. How often it is dollars for self-gratification, and cents for the spread of the gospel! Either the old adage "Actions speak louder than words" is untrue, or people love the ____________ *Many farmers, especially in the South, grow their own tobacco for home consumption. [Ed. Note: See coumarin background data]. -34- gratification of a useless appetite more than they love their God. "How often will a man go through life without owning a house, when the money that he spends on this narcotic, if put on interest, would be ample for the purchase of one! How many families are cramped for the necessaries of life because the husband and father will not give up his cigar! And how many a man reduced to beggary holds on to his pipe!"* Though the cost of tobacco is not its greatest evil, is there not need for reform even on this line? ____________ *The Tobacco Problem [p 42]. -35- III Physical Health as Affected by Tobacco. THE effects of tobacco on the faculties of body and mind is a question of interest, directly or indirectly, to all. On its effects—physical, mental, and moral—mainly hinges the question as to whether its use is to be approved or condemned. The unthinking, and even the thoughtful, user of tobacco is not always a competent judge of its effects upon himself. Therefore, in discussing the branch of the subject that relates to physical health and vigor, I shall adduce the testimony of many competent scientific men—physicians and others—who have observed and studied its effects. We acknowledge their authority on other medical and scientific questions; and, however much we would like to do so, we cannot refuse to hear them on this. COMPOSITION OF TOBACCO, AND ITS EFFECTS UPON ANIMAL LIFE. There are several elements which enter into the -36- composition of tobacco, but the two most important in this connection are: 1. A colorless liquid alkaloid, having an acrid, burning taste, called Nicotiana (commonly known as nicotine). This is one of the most intense of all poisons, approaching in its activity the strongest preparation of prussic acid. 2. A viscid oil called Nicotianin, which is also an intense poison, differing essentially from the former, and supposed to act on different vital organs. "Thus we have in tobacco two poisons—rather a remarkable effect in organic chemistry, where we generally find only one very active principle at the base of any particular production in the vegetable kingdom. It is indeed asserted by Lander that there is none of this deadly oil in the fresh leaves of tobacco; and Mr. Pereira remarks that the substance must be developed under the drying of the leaves under the influence of air and water. The discovery, if true, may free the weed from the charge of possessing a double poison; but the consequence is all the same to the consumer, who never sees the leaf in its green state.* ____________ *Dr. Lizars in "Alcohol and Tobacco," pp. 17, 18. -37- Many experiments have been made to see what effect these poisons have on animal life. The results of some of those made by Mr. [Reuben D.] Mussey [1780-1866] are here given; his subjects were dogs, squirrels, cats. and mice: "Two drops of the oil of tobacco placed on the tongue were sufficient to destroy life in cats which had been brought up, as it were, in the midst of tobacco-smoke, in three or four minutes. Two drops on the tongue of a red squirrel destroyed its life in one minute. A small puncture made in the tip of the nose with a surgeon's needle bedewed with the oil of tobacco caused death in six minutes. The tea of twenty or thirty grains of tobacco introduced into the human body for the purpose of relieving spasm has been known repeatedly to destroy life."* Ed. Note: See Reuben D. Mussey, "Tobacco", 1 The Boston Observer and Religious Intelligencer (#25) 200 (Boston, 1835) Dr. Mussey further states that Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin [1706-1790] has ascertained that the oily substance which floats on the surface of water after a stream of tobacco-smoke has been passed through it is capable of destroying life in a few minutes when applied to the tongue of a cat. ____________ * "Tobacco: Its Effects on the Human System," pp. 30-32. -38- Dr. [William A.] Alcott [1798-1859] gives a case which came under his observation: "A strong and in general a robust person was occasionally affected by strangulated hernia. Tobacco, in one instance, being introduced by cleans of a bladder, quickly restored the strangulated intestine, but the prostration was excessive, and fears were for some time entertained that he could not survive it. He slowly recovered, however, and lived several years, though he was never as vigorous afterward as before." [Matthieu J. B.] Orfila [1787-1853], in his "General System of Toxicology [(Philadelphia: M. Carey & Son, 1817), Vol. II, page 211]," has the following results of experiments, which also show the poisonous properties of tobacco: "Sir Benjamin [C.] Brodie [Surgeon to British Kings George IV, William IV, and Queen Victoria] injected from one to four ounces of a strong infusion of tobacco into the rectum of several dogs and one cat. These animals became insensible, motionless, and all died in less than ten minutes; the pulsations of the heart were no more sensible a minute before death; only one of them vomited. Their bodies were opened immediately after death. The hearts were very much distended, and no longer contracted." Other Books by Dr. Orfila Traité des Poisons, Tirés des Règnes Minéral Végétal et Animal; ou Toxicologie Générale, Considérée Sous les Rapports de la Physiologie, de la Pathologie et de la Médecine Légale (Paris: Crochard, 1814 and 1815) Directions for the Treatment of Persons Who Have Taken Poison, and Those in a State of Apparent Death Together with the Means of Detecting Poisons and Adulterations in Wine, also the Means of Distinguishing Real from Apparent Death: with an Appendix, on Suspended Animation and the Means of Prevention (Baltimore: Nathaniel G. Maxwell, 1819) Traité de Médecine Légale (Paris: Béchet, 1831 and 1836) Meta Lander says: "Under an inverted jar set an open bottle containing a small quantity of this -39- oil (of tobacco). Place a mouse or a rat under the jar, taking care that the fresh air is not excluded. Death presently follows simply from the animal's breathing the poisoned atmosphere. And this same tobacco-laden atmosphere is that which we find everywhere, and from which there is no escape. "Put a tobacco-victim into a hot bath, and let him remain there till a free perspiration takes place; then drop a fly into the water, and instant death will ensue. "Hold white paper over tobacco-smoke, and when the [one] cigar is consumed scrape the condensed smoke from the paper, and put a very small amount of it on the tongue of a cat; in a few minutes it will die of paralysis. "A French-man living near Paris having cleaned his pipe with his knife, but neglecting to wipe it, happened to cut one of his fingers subsequently. The wound was so slight that he thought nothing of it. A few hours later, however, the finger grew painful and swelled, the inflammation rapidly spreading through the arm. Doctors were summoned, but the case remained a mystery till, in answer to inquiries, the enigma was explained. All remedies proved ineffectual, and the man's condition grew so -40- alarming that he was taken to the hospital, where the arm was amputated as the only chance of saving his life." W. A. Axon says in the Popular Science Montlily that "the nicotine in one cigar, if extracted and administered in a pure state, would suffice to kill two men." [Ed. Note: See also William Edward Armytage Axon (1846-1913), The Tobacco Question: Physiologically, Chemically, Botanically, and Statistically Considered (Dublin Univ. Mag; Manchester, England: J. Heywood, Sep 1871)]. A Reasonable Inference. In the light of these facts it is not surprising that delicate persons, and especially children, are sometimes injured by being confined in rooms filled with tobacco-smoke, or by sleeping with a person who smokes. Dr. [Russell T.] Trall [1812-1877] is very pronounced in this view. He says: "Many an infant has been killed outright in its cradle by the tobacco smoke with which a thoughtless father filled an unventilated room. [Ed. Note: See also Dr. Trall's Tobacco: Its History, Nature, and Effects. With Facts and Figures for Tobacco-Users (New York, Fowler and Wells, 1855) Reasoning from analogy, does it not seem that what is a deadly poison to lower animals would be such to man? Does it not appear that the use of an article which contains such a deadly poison as nicotine would often bring on disease, and sometimes premature death? Some one may ask: "If this inference is correct, why is it that he who -41- smokes a cigar or takes a chew of tobacco does not immediately die?" Ed. Note: Some do, e.g., re abortions and SIDS. The reasons [for adults' deaths being generally delayed] are not hard to give: 1. While, in using tobacco, some of the poison is taken up and absorbed by the system, the greater part of it passes off in the smoke, or is thrown off in the saliva, ordinarily not enough being retained to do much immediate harm. But that some of the poison remains and has its effect no one who remembers the sickening nausea of his first smoke or chew of tobacco will soon forget. Ed. Note, First Use Examples: Dr. Jackson (1826) Dr. Thorn (1845) Dr. Titus Coan (1850) Dio Lewis (1882) Neal Dow (1882) Dr. Schroff (1882) Blatin (1882) 2. Another reason is the marvelous power that the human system has of resisting poison when taken gradually. When constantly used, the system slowly adapts itself to the poison, and at length comes to endure that against which, on its first introduction, there was so decided a rebellion. Analogous cases are numerous. The arsenic-eater takes, without seeming inconvenience, an amount which would kill a man unaccustomed to its use. An old toper can drink a half-pint of whisky and then "walk a chalk-line," when the same amount would make a teetotaler stagger to the floor. An opium-eater can take an ounce of laudanum for a dose and not feel it, when a fourth part of it would -42- be fatal to the uninitiated. [Thomas] De Quincey [1785-1859], in his "Confessions," tells us that he finally reached the point where he could take eight thousand drops of laudanum per day. But because the system at length comes to tolerate, it must not therefore be inferred that the poison is not all the while doing its work in undermining the health. Arsenic and alcohol and opium, though tolerated for a time, finally bring disease and death in their wake. How is it with tobacco? Dr. Taylor, an eminent authority, in his work on "Poisons," says: "A poisonous substance like tobacco, whether in powder, juice, or vapor, cannot be brought into contact with an absorbing surface like mucous membrane without producing disorder of the system in many cases, which the [deceived] consumer is probably quite ready to attribute to any other cause than that which would render it necessary for him to deprive himself of what he considers not merely a luxury, but an article actually necessary to his existence." Medical Testimony. Medical testimony as to the injurious effects of tobacco is abundant. -43- Dr. [Ray V.] Pierce says: "The use of tobacco is a pernicious habit in whatever form it is introduced into the system. Nicotine, its active principle, which is an energetic poison, exerts its specific effect upon the nervous system, tending to stimulate it to an unnatural degree of activity, the final result of which is weakness, or even paralysis." "The medical effects of tobacco upon the system are very marked, whether it is taken internally or applied externally. In small quantities, taken by either of the methods in which it is commonly used—as smoking, chewing, or snuffing the pulverized dry leaf—it acts as a sedative narcotic. In larger quantities, or with those unaccustomed to it, it causes giddiness, faintness, nausea, vomiting, and purging, with great debility; as the nausea continues with severe retching, the skin becomes cold and clammy, the muscles relaxed, the pulse feeble, and fainting, and sometimes convulsions, occur, terminating in death."* Dr. Maxon, of Syracuse, says: "Whether operating through the nervous system or by entering the circulation tobacco directly diminishes vitality. ____________ * "American Cyclopedia," art "Tobacco." -44- And there can be no doubt that the physical prostration it produces may account for the fact that nearly every drunkard first used tobacco." Dr. Marshall Hall: "The smoker cannot escape the poison of tobacco. It gets into his blood, travels the whole round of his system, interferes with the heart's action and the general circulation, and affects every organ and fiber of the frame." Professor Miller, of Edinburgh: "As medical men we know that smoking injures the who|e organism, and puts a man's stomach and whole frame out of order. The effects of narcotics—menal and bodily—I can fairly testify, are nothing but evil; and I stand in a position of giving an experienced as well as an impartial observation." Dr. Woodard, after discussing the disease-producing tendency of tobacco and giving a list of ailments due to its use, concludes thus: "Who can doubt that tobacco, in each of the various ways in which it has been customarily used, has destroyed more valuable lives and broken down the health of more useful members of society, up to the present time, than have been sufferers from the complaint in question) [bronchitis], or than ever will be hereafter?" -45- Dr. Willard Parker stands at the head of the medical profession in New York. He says: "I am sure that in health no one can use tobacco without detriment to body, mind, and soul. It is a poison which slowly but surely destroys life, and a man who uses it to any extent is as old at fifty as he would be at sixtv without it. "All who smoke or chew are more apt to die in epidemics and more prone to apoplexy and paralysis than other people. The duty of abstaining from the slow killing of one's self by tobacco is as clear as the duty of not cutting one's throat. [Ed. Note: See p 118 on why smokers' don't comprehend this. ] "I apprehend the day is not far distant when the life insurance companies will inquire into the influence of tobacco poison on longevity as they have done in regard to alcohol. They have ascertained that the average duration of life of such as become intemperate at twenty is thirty-five years and six months, while the man of sobriety has an average of sixty-four years and two months. "There have died in New York within a few years three excellent clergymen, all of whom would now be alive had they not used tobacco." In the "Report of the Surgeon-general of the United States Army for 1881," Dr. Albert L. Gihon, -46- senior medical officer of the Naval Academy at Annapolis, gives an account of his careful observations of the physical development of the young. He has considerable to say of the effects of tobacco as observed on the students of the academy. Here is a paragraph from the report: "An agent that has mischievously been represented to be innocuous only because of the remarkable tolerance exhibited by a few individuals, and is actually capable of such potent evil; which, through its sedative effects upon the circulation, creates a thirst for alcoholic stimulation; which, by its depressing and disturbing effect upon the nerve-centers, increases sexual propensities, and induces secret practices, while permanently imperiling virile power; which determines functional disease of the heart; which impairs vision, blunts the memory, and interferes with mental effort and application —ought, in my opinion as a sanitary officer, at whatever cost of vigilance, to be rigidly interdicted." [Ed. Note: See more by Dr. Gihon. ] DISEASES WHICH MAY BE CAUSED BY TOBACCO. What are some of the physical diseases attributed in part to tobacco? -47- Dr. O. M. Sanders, an eminent Boston physician, says: "I am fully convinced from clinical observation of forty years' practice, that tobacco produces blood-poison, and that its effect on the nervous system is appalling. Its pathological action is through the spinal cord and pneumogastric nerve, affecting the stomach and lungs, and relaxing and paralyzing the muscular system. Its toxical effect is to bring on nausea, vertigo, and an enfeebling action of the heart. The constant use of tobacco, either in smoking or chewing, predisposes one to epilepsy and to symptoms resembling cholera morbus. "It weakens the memory and sours the disposition. It acts upon the liver, making one hypochondriac, peevish, stupid, and morose, and producing oppressive apprehensiveness, restlessnesss, and melancholy. It not only vitiates the appetite for proper food, but impairs nutrition, and sooner or later engenders a desire for intoxicating stimulants. "It cannot be otherwise expected, for tobacco not only causes general apathy of nerve-force, but produces great weariness, languor, and general debility; hence, to meet such an extremity, the system naturally craves something more exciting than -48- air, water, and wholesome food. While not all tobacco-consumers are drunkards, there are very few drunkards who do not use tobacco in some form. "One argument is offered as an apology for the tobacco-habit, and that is that it prevents many types of disease. This is an error. Tobacco is not an antidote; on the other hand, when a man whose blood has been poisoned, and whose nerve-fluid has become abnormal from the use of tobacco, is attacked by any malignant disease his chances for recovery are lessened fifty per cent." Dr. Brown, of Providence, R. I., says: "The symptoms which are liable to arise from the habitual use of tobacco—whether chewed, snuffed, or smoked—may be any of the following: Dizziness, headache, faintness, pain at the pit of the stomach, weakness, tremulousness, hoarseness of the voice, disturbed sleep, incubus or nightmare, irritability of temper, seasons of mental depression, epileptic fits, and sometimes mental derangement." Dr. Pierce, before quoted, says: "Tobacco itself, when its use becomes habitual and excessive, gives rise to the most unpleasant and dangerous pathological conditions. Oppressive torpor, weakness or -49- loss of intellect, softening of the brain, paralysis, nervous debility, dyspepsia, functional derangement of the heart, diseases of the liver and kidneys are not uncommon consequences of the excessive employment of this plant. A sense of faintness, nausea, giddiness, dryness of the throat, trembling, feelings of fear, disquietude, apprehensiveness, and general nervous prostration must frequently warn persons addicted to this habit that they are sapping the very foundation of health." Dr. [John] Lizars [1787-1860], after citing several cases of tobacco-disease, says: "I shall commence their enumeration by generally stating, that they are numerous and varied, consisting of giddiness, sickness, vomiting, dyspepsia, vitiated taste of the mouth, loose bowels, diseased liver, congestion of the brain, apoplexy, palsy, mania, loss of memory, amaurosis, deafness, nervousness, emasculation, and cowardice." Dr. [Benjamin W.] Richardson [1828-1896] says: "Smoking produces disturbances in the blood, causing undue fluidity and change m the red corpuscles; in the stomach giving rise to debility, nausea, and, in extreme cases, vomiting; in the mucous membrane of the mouth, causing enlargement and soreness of the tonsils, -50- smokers' sore-throat, etc.; in the heart, producing debility of that organ and irregular action; in the bronchial surface of the lungs, when that is already irritable, sustaining irritation and increasing cough; in the organs of sense, causing in an extreme degree dilatation of the pupil of the eye, confusion of vision, bright lines, luminous or cobweb specks, and long retention of images on the retina, with other and analogous symptoms affecting the ear—viz., inability to define sounds clearly, and the occurrence of a sharp ringing sound, like a whistle or a bell; in the brain, impairing the activity of that organ; in the volitional and in the sympathetic or organic nerves, leading to paralysis in them." The use of tobacco directly affects several important organs in the body, and produces disorders especially where there is a natural weakness in a particular organ, or a predisposition to the disease in question. Some of the more important of these are given. Effects on the Eyes Some of the authorities already quoted have incidentally referred to the injury to sight by the use -51- of tobacco. This has generally been in the form of amaurosis—"a loss or decay of the sight, without any visible defect in the eye, usually from loss of power in the optic nerve." It is but fair to the chewer to say that this disease is much more liable to occur from the use of the cigar than of the quid. A Boston medical journal says: "Tobacco-smokers must look to their eyes. Proofs are accumulating that blindness by atrophy of the optic nerve, induced by smoking, is of frequent occurence. A recent number of the Medical and Surgical Reporter gives several cases of defective vision caused from the use of tobacco. Dr. [John] Lizars [1787-1860] says that amaurosis is a very common result of smoking tobacco to excess. It occurs with or without congestion of the brain, and is commonly confined to one eye. It is usually, though not always, curable by throwing away tobacco forever. Chrisholm, in his report "On the Poisonous Effects of Tobacco on the Eye-sight" states that in the past few years he has treated thirty-five cases -52- of amaurosis, directly traceable to the use of tobacco by smoking in every case but one.* Dr. [Charles R.] Drysdale [1829-1907], in "Tobacco and the Diseases it Produces," says: "In one week I saw in the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital two cases of tobacco amaurosis in young men under thirty. The first had chewed continuously; and the other smoked one ounce of shag tobacco daily. Both were completely and irretrievably blind. Lichel, of Paris, found some cases of blindness easily cured by cessation from tobacco." Says Dr. T. F. Allen: "We find here the characteristic physiological action of the drug—namely, a persistent contraction of the blood vessels, producing anæmia of the nerve structure. This contraction is like a persistent cramp, and may pass off on ceasing to use the drug; but if it continue, malnutrition and slow degeneration of the nerves is sure to take place." Germany, a nation of smokers, is proverbially a spectacled nation. Dr. [William A] Alcott [1798-1859] ascribes this as due, at least in part, to their smoking habits. Dr. William Dickinson, in the Central Christian ____________ * "The Tobacco Problem," p. 73. -53- Advocate, says: "My observation of eye-diseases, extending through a period of more than twenty-five years, has convinced me that, besides the pernicious effects of tobacco in other respects (which we shall not now enumerate), greatly-impaired vision, not unfrequently blindness, has been occasioned by the use of this agent, denominated in the books a narcotic poison. "My experience in this regard is corroborated by that of those who have enjoyed the largest opportunities for investigating this subject. True the proportion of those thus affected is very small compared with the great army of tobacco-users. It is therefore undeniable that «ome have thus suffered, and since the human constitution, muscular and nervous, is essentially the same in all, it follows that like causes will produce like effects in the future; and that a proportion of those who persist in the use of tobacco will suffer in the manner indicated. Who, therefore, will assert that you may not be the next sufferer? "You may deny the statement made. In the presence of the sun you may close your eyes to its light, and deny that it shines. But this does not alter the fact; it shines nevertheless. So, though denying these, they are neverthe- -54- less true. One of the effects of a dominant habit is to induce disbelief, and to doubt that which does not harmonize with our predilections. We are apt to believe that which we wish to believe." Dyspepsia. The effects of the use of tobacco on the stomach and digestive organs is very marked. And yet many use tobacco as an aid to digestion. As this object has been discussed in another place, the reader is referred to Chapter I., pp. 12-15. Heart Disease Dr. R. W. Pease, of Syracuse, says: "There can be but one opinion among physicians, and that is that the use of so powerful a narcotic stimulant must be hurtful not only to the nervous system, but especially to the circulatory organs, chiefly the heart, causing first functional disturbance, and finally organic dlsease of that organ." Every few days the newspapers tell us of some person, in apparent good health, who suddenly falls down dead, or dies in a few hours. Professor Sizer, of New York, in speakmg of such cases, says the greater number of such are due to tobacco and -55- other stimulants which excite the nervous system, on which the heart and other vital organs depend. He says that in such cases there is a spasm, a stoppage of the heart, and the man falls and usually never speaks; and that he could name fifty persons, since the death of Dickens and Henry J. Raymond, of the New York Times, who have gone that way. Furthermore he says he knows not a few who have felt the premonitions of heart-trouble, and giving up such stimulants have been free from it for ten, twenty, or thirty years. Sir Benjamin Brodie [1783-1862] says: "It powerfully controls the action of the heart and arteries, producing invariably a weak, tremulous pulse, with all the apparent symptoms of approaching death." Dr. [Amos] Twitchell says: "The sedative effect of tobacco upon the brain is so great that it often requires an act of the will to stimulate the involuntary muscles to action, so that when sleep arrests this will-power these muscles cease to act, the breathing stops, and the person is found dead in his bed—'from heart-disease' say his friends, but in reality from tobacco-paralysis of the heart and muscles of inspiration." -56- Dr. Corson relates the case of a smoker who, having suffered greatly for seven years, was one day seized with intense pain in the chest, a gasping for breath, and a sensation as if a crowbar were pressing tightly against his breast and then twisted in a knot around the heart, which would cease beating and then leap wildly, the heart being found to miss every fourth beat. For twenty-seven years similar though milder attacks continued, sometimes two or three times a day. He grew thin and pale as a ghost. At length he gave up tobacco, and in a few weeks the paroxysms ceased, he grew stout and healthy, and for twenty years has enjoyed excellent health.* Impairs Muscular Force and Physical Endurance. A careful observation of the users and non-users of tobacco within the range of one's acquaintance will usually demonstrate the truth of this. Take the man who has been a long and excessive user of the weed, and, other things being equal, he will not ____________ *"The Tobacco Problem," p. 79. For a full account of this case see "Alcohol and Tobacco," pp. 28, 29. -57- exhibit that strength and endurance that the abstainer does. He tires more quickly, he is more overcome at the end of a day's work, and he does not so readily recover his lost energies as the other. Make a fair trial, in cases where tobacco has had time to get in its work, and it will be seen what tobacco does for its votaries. The pugilist and oarsman, or any one who is training for a contest in which strength and endurance are put to the utmost test, recognize the truth of this. Hanlan, the world-renowned oarsman, said when in England: "In my opinion, the best physical performances can only be secured through the absolute abstinence from alcohol and tobacco. This is my rule. In fact, I believe that the use of liquor and tobacco has a most injurious effect upon the system of an athlete, by irritating the vitals and consequently weakening the system." Dr. W. F. Carver, the famous marksman, says: "I have never tasted intoxicating drinks, nor do I use tobacco in any form." James Parton [1822-1891], who is well known in the literary world, says in his "Smoking and Drinking:" "One of the first things demanded of a young man -58- who is going into training for a boat-race is to stop smoking! And he himself, long before his body has reached its highest point of purity and development, will become conscious of the lowering and disturbing effect of smoking one inch of a mild cigar. Ho smoker who has ever trained severely for a race or a game or a fight needs to be told that smoking reduces the tone of the system and diminishes all the forces of the body. He knows it. He has been as conscious of it as a boy is conscious of the effects of his first cigar." Meta Lander, in "The Tobacco Problem," has this: "The following from the Boston Evening Journal bears on the assertion that tobacco lessens the power of endurance: 'According to Lieutenant Greeley's account of. the nineteen men who perished [in the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition] all but one were smokers, and that one was the last to die. The seven survivors were non-smoking men.' To make sure of the correctness of this report, a letter of inquiry was sent to Lieutenant Greeley. His reply substantially confirms it, except on a single point, which is that one of the seven rescued was an inveterate tobacco-chewer. -59- Candor requires this correction, whatever inference the devotees of the weed may be inclined to draw from it. The lieutenant closes his 1«ter by saying: 'That no undue weight may be given to the facts, I add that the seven rescued were all temperate in eating and drinking." Cancer. On May 17, 1885, Dr. [T. De Witt] Talmage [1832-1902] preached in Brooklyn a sermon on "Cancers from Tobacco." In it he quotes from the late Dr. John C. Warren, of Boston, one of the most eminent surgeons of his day. Dr. Warren, as quoted, says: "For more than thirty years I have been in the habit of inquiring of patients who came to me with cancers of the tongue or lips whether they used tobacco; and if so, whether by chewing or smoking. If they have sometimes answered in the negative as to the first question, I can truly say that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, such cases are exceptions to the general rule. When, as is usually the case, one side of the tongue is affected with ulcerated cancer, it arises from the habitual retention of the tobacco in contact with this part." Ed. Note: See Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, Talmage on Rum: Consisting of Sermons and Addresses (New York: The National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1886) -60- Dr. Warren further says on this subject: "The irritation from a cigar or tobacco-pipe frequently precedes cancer of the lips. The lower lip is more contelonly affected by cancer than the upper, in consequence of the irritation produced on this part by acrid substances from the mouth. Among such substances, what is more likely to cause a morbid irritation, termintng in disease, than the frequent application of tobacco-juice? Aged persons are very liable to cancer, especially about the face; and when an irritating substance is applied habitually, the skin becomes disorordered and takes on a cancerous action. "This irritation may be produced, as already stated, by the use of tobacco in the interior of the mouth, by the habitual application of a cigar to the lips, and even a pipe applied to the same parts. Few days pass without an opportunity of witnessing a verification of these facts and at the moment of writing this, such a case presents itself for my opinion. The patient is a farmer; healthy, except that he has formerly used spirituous liquors; about fifty years old; an habitual smoker who two years since was afflicted with cancerous ulceration of the lower lip. The primary -61- disease was removed by an operation, and the wound healed; but soon after numerous lymphatic glands on both sides of the neck began to display the effect of cancerous poisons; and there are now developed a number of large, very hard bunches, which must continue to grow until they produce a fatal termination." In substance Dr. Warren adds that "want of cleanliness aggravates the case, and that those who are attentive to this matter are not in so imminent peril; moreover, that the reason why all chewers and smokers do not have cancers is because there is not a predisposition. Ed. Note: Actually, all smokers develop lung cancer cells. "But no one can surely affirm that he is safe, for a strumous diathesis may exist unknown to the individual, and a little irritation develop it into a cancer. "As with phthisis, so with cancer: a condition for an attack may continue for years and not result in the disease itself. Latent tubercles have remained long undeveloped, perhaps through life, where one has been always on guard against consumption. Many who now show no signs of cancer might develop it in a few years, or months even, if they should acquire the habit of smoking or chewing. When the crisis is -62- reached, the knife alone can be depended on, and even that not unfrequently fails."* Dr. Lizars says: "It would appear that the cigar or pipe first produces a small blister of the mucous membrane of the mouth, which, being daily irritated by the pungent weed, progressively ulcerates and becomes cancerous. I am decidedly of the opinion that a cigar or pipe impregnated with this cancerous fluid is a ready medium to communicate the disease to another person who uses the same cigar or pipe."† The Medical Times and Gazette of October 6, 1860, mentions one hundred and twenty-seven cancers that were cut from the lips, nearly all being the lips of smokers.‡ Loss of Manly Courage Dr. Lizars [says]: "I have invariably found that patients addicted to smoking become cowardly, and ____________ * See "Facts about Tobacco," pp. 35, 36. † For a minute account of several cases of cancer of the mouth and tongue caused by the use of tobacco, see "The Use and Abuse of Tobacco," by John Lizars. ‡ "Facts about Tobacco," p. 37. -63- are deficient in manly fortitude to undergo any surgical operation, however trifling." Dr. T. F. Allen: "Many smokers who are naturally bold and resolute lose their fortitude because they are unable to bear pain, are nervous m the society of others, and even afraid to be left alone at night." Ed. Note: See modern data on smoker mental disorders. Tyrrell: "The tobacco habit is one of those pleasant vices which the just gods make instruments to scourge us, destroying the very principle of manhood." The probable reason of this deficiency in manly courage is the weakening effect that tobacco has on the nerves—a subject discussed farther on. Tobacco Causes Non-Procreation. The following is from a communication in the Lancet [Issue #1746, p 178, 14 February 1857], by Walter Tyrrell, M.R.C.S.: "More especially would I direct attention to the depressing influence of tobacco upon the sexual powers. I feel confident that one of the most common, as well as one of the worst, of its effects is that of weakening, and in extreme cases of destroying, the generative functions. "I can illustrate this by a -64- case that came under my notice recently, and one which I believe to be by no means rare. My attention had just been directed to the subject, . . . when a gentleman called to consult me, as he found himself impotent. He was a young man in apparently good health, and his generative organs showed no signs of disease or decay. He stated that it was only during the last few months that he had found his desire for connection gradually decreasing, and that when he did attempt it his efforts were altogether futile, or only consummated after a long interval. On inquiring into the supposed cause, amongst other matters I found that he had latterly become a great smoker, sometimes smoking a dozen cigars a day. "Without particularly directing his attention to that point, I ordered him to confine himself to one cigar a day, at the same time ordering him a placebo. At the end of a fortnight he called again, saying he was very much improved; he had greater desires, and more power of satisfying them. I now told him that he might resume his smoking, but to continue the medicine, to which he attributed all his benefit, telling him that he need not call again unless he found himself worse. -65- In a few days he returned with exactly the same symptoms as at first. I was now convinced of the cause, and ordered him to entirely, though gradually, leave off the [smoking] habit. He was at first unwilling to submit; and it was not until I had repeated my former experiment—with, if possible, more positive results—that he consented. He has, I am glad to eay, perfectly carried out his good resolutions, and with a perfectly successful result. "This case, I think, satisfactorily proves that, in some persons at least, tobacco is not the harmless luxury that many would make it; and I am sure this case has many parallels." Dr. Lizars [says]: "Emasculation, as an effect of tobacco, may well astonish the gay Lothario. . . . I have been consulted by fathers of from thirty to forty years of age who, having married in early life, have had two or three children soon after marriage onward to thirty years old, but have been surprised that they had eventually lost all inclination for sexual indulgence. On interrogating them I have invariably found that they were all excessive smokers; and, on convincing them that tobacco was the cause of their temporary impotence, they have instantly "thrown away tobacco forever," -66- and in a few months afterward have returned to me saying that they had become fathers again. I have found unmarried men similarly affected with the want of the sexual vis et animus." In a communication to the Lancet [Issue #1746, pp 175-176, 14 February 1857], on the tobacco question, Dr. [Samuel] Solly [1805-1871], then surgeon of St. Thomas Hospital, says: "In the same way tobacco is a stimulus to the generative system; but the stimulating effect is much earlier followed by its depressing action; consequently it has long been known, when used immoderately, to extinguish the sexual appetite and annihilate the reproductive faculty. It is a prolific source of spermatorrhœa. "During one week lately I was consulted by three young men suffering from seminal weakness, in all of whom I could trace this drain to the relaxing, enervating effect of smoking. Happy would it be for them if the abandonment of the vice would at once restore them to health! But no; the evil remains, though the cause is removed. I do not mean that it remains permanently, because all such cases are ultimately, though sometimes slowly, curable. These three cases are merely a few out of many that I have seen of late years." -67- It would be well to note the fact referred to in the first part of the above quotation: that, while tobacco at first stimulates the generative functions, renders them unduly active, and therefore tends to licentious, it at length tends to depress them below the normal.* [Ed. Note: See, for example, Dr. Herbert H. Tidswell's similar 1912 reference, and the Surgeon General Report 1994 for similiar 'licentiousness' concept.] Thus there is a double danger on this line. EFFECTS ON THE NERVES. These are very marked. One wants "to quiet the nerves" and he takes a smoke or a chew of tobacco; the brain is sluggish, and the same agent is resorted to. Unnder certain conditions tobacco does act as a sedative; and consequently when one has been under severe mental or nervous strain a cigar is a real comforter. It quiets the overworked organs; its effects are analogous to the action of morphia upon the body that is racked with pain. Ed. Note: Not really 'analogous' in view of tobacco's brain-cell killing, referring to comforting/quieting by killing!! The same is true at any cemetary! The occupants there too are at peace! permanently 'soothed, comforted,' released from whatever their turmoil. Here is an instance of Rev. Wight understating the tobacco danger. It also helps to soothe and drive away anxious care. This is no doubt the reason why so many men, and especially those of studious and contemplative habits of mind, are so wedded to tobacco. But, considered from this point of view ____________ *See also testimony of Dr. Gihon, p. 46. -68- alone, more is lost than gained by its use. The person whose body is so deranged as to require the action of morphia to quiet the pain cannot do the work of a healthy man. The person whose brain and nerves are so upset as to require a sedative to restore them to their normal condition is not prepared to do the most and best work. Tobacco is a sedative, but its use brings about the very conditions that demand the use of such an agent. [James] Parton [1822-1891] says: "We waste our vital force; we make larger demands upon ourselves than the nature of the human constitution warrants; and then we crave the momentary, delusive, pernicious aid which tobacco and alcohol afford." Dr. [Elisha] Harris [1824-1884], physician to the New York City Dispensary, says: "The properties and effects of tobacco are of a curiously-mixed character. Its power or property of stimulation is strangely interwoven with its more important and predominating one of sedation, or depression. This complex and double action is peculiarly adapted to the work of fascinating and misleading those who submit themselves to its influence. It titillates the nerves and -69- exhilarates the feelings, while it obtunds and stupefies the sensibility, and partially suspends the process of life. The appetite which it creates is a never-ending gnawing that will not be denied; and under the most specious guise of absolute physical necessity it hides its insatiate and cruel demands. Its sedative influence acts as a damper to the bustling excitability which the nervous system acquires from deficient or excessive action; while at the same time it affords fresh and fascinating excitement that for a long time makes one forgetful of weariness, and promises to relieve the tedium of life. "There is no other substance known that can induce such complex and various effects; but the ultimate results are invariably the same. Its disastrous influences upon the functions of the nervous system and the action of the heart are felt throughout every tissue of the body; the blood moves slugishly, and as it stagnates in delicate organs foundation is laid for every form of disease, while at the same time the poison of the drug is diffused throughout every tissue of the living frame, benumbing and impairing all the powers of life; so that the system is at once more liable to disease -70- and less able to endure its consequences and resist its power." Dr. Logee says: "Being a narcotic stimulant, it breaks down the nervous system, raising the user above his natural level, only by inevitable reaction to depress him below it." The New York Anti-tobacco Society attributes the alarming increase of consumption, dyspepsia, palsy, apoplexy, epilepsy, and the whole train of nervous diseases, in part, to the use of tobacco. Dr. Solly says: "It [smoking] soothes the excited nervous system at the time, to render it more irritable and more feeble ultimately. It is like opium in that respect; and if you want to know all the wretchedness which this drug can produce you should read the 'Confessions of an Opium-eater.' I can always distinguish by his complexion a man who smokes much; and the appearance which the fauces present is an unerring guide to the habits of such a man. I believe that cases of general paralysis are more frequent in England than they used to be, and I suspect that smoking tobacco is one of the causes of that increase." A writer well says: "Tobacco carries but a thin -71- edge of enjoyment ahead, and a blunt edge of dull stupidity and crackling sorrow and nervous derangement behind." It is a generally-received opinion that delirium tremens is caused only by the use of alcoholic stimulants, but there are many well-authenticated cases where it could be assigned to no other cause than the use of tobacco. And this is not unreasonable, for delirium tremors is an affection of the nerves, and we see that tobacco has a very decided influence on them.* INSANITY. Very closely connected with the effects of tobacco on the nerves are its effects in inducing insanity. The brain and nerves are very closely connected, and whatever injures the latter must be of harm to the former. The effects of tobacco on the mind will be discussed in the next chapter, but, as insanity is of the nature of a physical ailment, place is made for it here. Physicians who have ____________ *For a further discussion of tobacco, as affecting the nerves, see [Lander's] "The Tobacco Problem, p. 83; [Lizars'] "The Use and Abuse of Tobacco, p. 35; and [Thwing's] "Facts about Tobacco," p. 28. [Ed. Note: Pages numbers don't match, per Wight citing earlier editions than now online.] -72- been close observers of insanity and its causes speak plainly here. A member of the Paris Academy of Medicine says: "Statistics show that in exact proportion with the increased consumption of tobacco is the increase of diseases in the nervous centers—insanity, general paralysis, paraplegia and certain cancerous affections." Ed. Note: See data on medical researchers' expertise analyzying statistics. Good Health, a medical magazine, for December, 1869, contains the following: "Insanity is frightfully increasing in Europe—just in proportion to the increase in the use of tobacco. It appears that from 1830 to 1862 the revenues from the imposts on tobacco in France rose from £1,250,000 to £8,333,333 — certainly a tremendous figure to have disappeared from the pockets of the people into smoke. But hand in hand with this increase in the consumption of tobacco there appears to have been during the same period an augmentation in the number of lunatics in France from 8,000 to 44,000, or rather 60,000, if we take into account other lunatics besides those in public asylums." Of course other facts, such as the increase of population and the use of alcoholic stimulants, are -73- to be considered in this comparison—all the increase of lunacy must not be attributed to tobacco. But I have never yet found an authority who denies that tobacco is a potent factor in filling our asylums. The superintendent of the Pennsylvania Insane Hospital says: "The earlier boys [Ed. Note: any youths] begin to use tobacco the more strongly marked are its effects upon nerve and brain." Dr. Kirkland, of the same hospital, says: "Six cases of insanity were clearly attributable to the use of tobacco." Dr. Harlow, of the Maine Insane Asylum, says: "The pernicious effect of tobacco on the brain and nervous system is obvious to all who are called to treat the insane." Says the superintendent of the New York Insane Asylum: "Tobacco has done more than spirituous liquors to precipitate mind into the vortex of insanity." Dr. Bancroft, for many years at the head of the Insane Asylum at Concord, N. H., says: "I have known several cases of insanity most unquestionably due to the use of tobacco, without other com- -74- plicating causes, and which have been cured by the suspension of the habit; while the number in which it was prominent among the causes is much larger." Dr. Woodard, of the insane asylum, Worcester, Mass., says: "That tobacco produces insanity I am fully confident. Its influence upon the brain and nervous system is hardly less than that of alcohol, and if excessively used is equally injurious." The following interesting case is taken from [Thwing's] "Facts about Tobacco:" "A party of clergymen were discussing this subject when the case of Rev. Mr. Blank, a graduate of Andover of high standing and for a time wonderfully successful, was mentioned. 'He was made a raving maniac twenty years ago by the use of tobacco,' remarked one of the party. "Another gave his account of the man, whom he recalled vividly to mind, with his pale face, stained lips, repulsive breath, and quivering hand. The abject slave of tobacco, he chewed negro-head tobacco, a match for any man who has not the iron-like nerves of an African goat or horse. He preached about three years with unexampled popularity and success. His health then failed, and no one knew the cause. A few months -75- rolled away, and he broke utterly down, and still no one knew the cause. In a few months he became a maniac, relinquished his pulpit, and was as wild as the wild man who was 'found cutting himself with stones among the tombs,' and no one knew the cause. He was then taken to an asylum for the insane, and was there twenty years. He there breathed a fetid atmosphere, paced the floor of confined halls, stared upon the outside world through iron grates, cursed himself, cursed his wife and children, and in his wild ravings 'dealt damnation round the land' thus day and night champing tobacco as a fretted horse champs his bit. "He once was pacing his room as he had aforetime, year by year, and a change came over him. He stopped abruptly, and, in a sort of soliloquy, exclaimed: 'Why am I here? What brought me here? What binds me here?' His soul bursting with indignation, he cried aloud: 'Tobacco! Tobacco!' "He walked back and forth; then, bursting into tears, he cast the last foul plug through his iron grates, and, looking upward to God, he said, 'O God, help! help! I will use no more.'" Now we believe in no miraculous cure in this -76- case. Mr. Blank dropped his tobacco, and the sad and dark eclipse fled from his beautiful mind, and it came out from the horrible tempests and storms of insanity clear as the sun and fair as the moon. He soon regained his health and vigor, again preached the gospel of the blessed God in the Presbyterian Connection, and after ten years of arduous service he died revered and beloved, and passed, as we believe, into the better world. TOBACCO NOT AN ANTIDOTE TO DISEASE, AND RETARDS RECOVERY FROM IT. It is sometimes urged in favor of the use of tobacco that it is an antidote to disease. The same argument has been advanced for alcoholic stimulants; but experience has proved that the contrary is true in regard to them. In epidemics intemperate men (other things being equal) have been more subject to attack from disease, and have more quickly succumbed to it. And it would be strange if this were not so. Whisky weakening the vital organs, they cannot so easily resist the influences that tend to produce disease; and so the death-rate of the intemperate is proportionally greater, and the -77- average duration of life less than in persons of temperate habits. As tobacco also weakens the vital organs, can we expect the result to be different with it? "Like causes produce like effects." But what say those who ought to know? Dr. Lizars says: "During the prevalence of cholera I have had repeated opportunities of observing that individuals addicted to the use of tobacco, especially those who snuff it, are more disposed to attacks of that disease, and generally in its most malignant and fatal form." Dr. O. M. Stone, an eminent physician of Boston, says: "One argument offered as an apology for the tobacco habit is that it prevents many types of disease. This is an error. Tobacco is not an antidote; on the other hand, when a man whose blood has been poisoned, and whose nerve-fluid has become abnormal from the use of tobacco, is attacked by any malignant disease his chances for recovery are lessened fifty per cent." The following, from an address by Dr. Willard Parker, delivered before the students of Union Theological Seminary, is worthy of note: "It is now many years since my attention was called to the -78- insidious but positively destructive effects of tobacco on the human system. I have seen a great deal of its influence upon those who use it and work in it. Cigar and snuff manufacturers have come under my care in hospitals and in private practice; and such persons cannot recover soon and in a healthy manner from cases of injury or fever. They are mere apt to die in epidemics, and more prone to apoplexy and paralysis. The same is true, also, of those who smoke or chew much." Dr. Fenn, after giving a case of typhoid fever in which, owing to the peculiar circumstances, the fatal result could almost certainly be attributed to the excessive use of tobacco, adds this statement: "I could quote other cases almost parallel where the immoderate use of tobacco destroyed all chances of recovery in otherwise favorable or merely doubtful cases of typhoid." Dr. [Elisha] Harris [1824-1884] says: "At the New York City Dispensary more cases of constitutional, chronic, and functional diseases are treated than at any other institution in America, more than fifty thousand patients being annually prescribed for. Of the male adult patients affected by such diseases who have -79- come under my care at the dispensary I have found that nearly nine-tenths of the whole number were habitual tobacco-mongers. In no small proportion of these it has been perfectly evident that tobacco had an important influence upon the cause and continuance of these maladies. It is scarcely possible to heal a syphilitic sore or to unite a fractured bone in a devoted smoker; his constitution seems to be in the same vitiated state as one affected by scurvy.* "The use of tobacco not only produces or originates various diseases, but greatly aggravates the symptoms of those which have their origin in other causes. It also hastens the development of the diseases to which by inheritance we are constitutionally predisposed, but which otherwise might have slumbered. Few things, except perhaps ardent spirits, excite those diseases more rapidly than chewing and smoking tobacco; and this is a powerful argument against the formation or continuation of those habits." See also Dr. Kellogg's 1922 Analysis, and our AIDS information site. ITS USE TENDS TO DRUNKENNESS. Not that every excessive user of tobacco is a ____________ *"Alcohol and Tobacco," p 24. See also p. 26. -80- drinker of alcoholic stimulants, nor even that he has a desire for them. But this fact is true: Of two persons, both of whom are equally inclined to drink, and one begins the use of tobacco, he will be more likely to follow it by the use of alcoholic stimulants than will the other who does not use tobacco. In other words, if a man is predisposed to drink, his liability to yield to the appetite will be increased if he be a user of tobacco, especially if he smokes; for in this respect smoking seems to be more dangerous than chewing. [Ed. Note: Advisory, see modern data for more current explanation.] The reason for this is not difficult to understand. The disturbance of the liver and biliary system generally is indicated by the sallow, dusky color of the complexion, which Dr. Rush associates with this indulgence. Thirst too, he says, is another result, the worst thing about which is this: "It cannot be allayed by water, for no sedative, or even insipid liquor, will be relished after the mouth and throat have been exposed to the stimulus of the smoke or the use of tobacco." Here, then, comes the beginning of another temptation, noticed elsewhere—that of dram-drinking. Dr. Stevenson says that the salivary glands are -81- so exhausted that "brandy, whisky, or some other spirit is called for."* Dr. [R. D.] Mussey [1780-1866] says: "In the practice of smoking there is no small danger. It produces a huskiness of the mouth, which calls for some liquid. Water is too insipid, as the nerves of taste are in a half-palsied state from the influence of tobacco smoke; hence, in order to be tasted, an article of a pungent or stimulating character is resorted to, and consequently the kindred habits of smoking and drinking." Dr. Woodward says: "I have supposed that tobacco was the most ready and common stepping-stone to that use of spirituous liquors which leads to intemperance. Those who chew or smoke tobacco are rarely satisfied with water or other insipid or tasteless drinks; else, why should the bar-room and the grog-shop be the resort of the smoker?" Professor Moses Stuart [1780-1852], of Andover, who was at one time himself a user of the weed, says: "That it undermines the health of thousands; that it creates a nervous irritability, and thus operates on the temper and moral character of men; that it often cre- ____________ *"Facts about Tobacco," p. 26. -82- creates a thirst for spirituous liquors; that it allures to clubs and grog-shops and taverns; and finally, that it is a very serious and needless expense, are things that cannot be denied." Dr. Brown says: "The use of tobacco produces a dryness or huskiness of the voice, thus creating a thirst which in many cases is not satisfied with any thing short of alcoholic drinks." Dr. Stephenson says: "The use of tobacco is one great step toward intemperance. But it is a lamentable fact that very many who stand most prominent in the temperance reform are grossly intemperate in the use of tobacco. And there are those who see this inconsistency in some of our temperance advocates and are not inclined to overlook it. Many of the arguments which are used against whisky can with equal force be used against tobacco. And yet how often is the spectacle presented of a temperance advocate who is a constant user of the tobacco-stimulant!??" Dr. [William A.] Alcott, in speaking of the tendency of the use of tobacco to drunkenness and licentiousness, says: "In fact, the tendency to both is so obvious that this alone would seem sufficient to banish it -83- forever from all decent society, were there not another solitary charge to be brought against it." Ed. Note: See more of Dr. Alcott's 1836 book, pp 23-28, linking tobacco to alcoholism. When the whole truth is known in regard to the close relation existing between tobacco, whisky, drunkenness, and licentiousness, it will be found that tobacco has some severe indictments to answer to. TOBACCO VICTIMS. They are numerous. The brilliant Senator Matt Carpenter had this said of him by a friend: "Died of smoking twenty cigars a day." A few years ago Georgia lost one of her most brilliant men, whose reputation as an orator belonged to the whole nation, who fell the victim of a disease, one of the exciting if not the main cause of which physicians have ascribed to tobacco. Not long after this Mount McGregor, N. Y., witnessed the death of a man whose reputation as a soldier was world-wide. Dr. Shrady, in his closing summary of General [Ulysses] Grant's death, says: "It is quite probable that the irritation of smoking was the actual cause of the cancer; or at least it is fair to presume that he would not have had the disease if his habit had not been carried to excess." -84- Meta Lander: Lorenzo and Siro Delmonico, the famous New York caterers, were among the innumerable tobacco victims. Of the latter, Dr. Wood, who had attended him for a long time, testified: "I have known him to smoke a hundred cigars a day. He was completely saturated with nicotine, and the question of his death was only one of time. He used the very strongest cigars, made expressly for him in Havana, and he was perpetually smojing. The disease this produced was called emphysema (a morbid enlargement of the lung cells), and caused fits of coughing which sometimes nearly strangled him. He had been many years under medical treatment, frequently changing his physician, but never his practice, although often warned of its perils.' From a midnight revel Delmonico went to his house, and the next morning was found dead upon the floor." ADULTERATIONS AND THE PROCESSES OF MANUFACTURE INCREASE THE EVIL. There are at least two dozen foreign substances that enter more or less into the manufacture of tobacco. Many of these are comparatively harm- -85- less, but this cannot be said of them all. The following are some of the things thus used: Sawdust, peat, sea-weed, sugar, honey, orange-peel, lemon-peel, mace, cloves, spices of all kinds, vanilla, licorice, valerian, tonka-bean, opiates, Spanish wine, liquor of various kinds. Meta Lander says: "The statement of the representative of a large Southern tobacco house, given on the authority of the New York Tribune, will not be questioned. He asserts that 'the extent to which drugs are used in cigarettes is appalling,' and that 'Havana flavoring' is sold everywhere and by the thousand barrels. This is prepared from the tonka-bean, which contains a deadly poison. Cigarette-wrappers are in some cases made from the filthy scrapings of rag-pickers, arsenic being often used in the bleaching process, while combustion develops the oil of creosote." There are in New York and other large cities persons whose business it is to pick up from the streets and other places the castaway stumps of cigars, which are sold to manufacturers of cigarettes. But there is another important question for the consideration of the smoker. It is from a corre- -86- spondent of the New York Times: "A prominent physician told me lately that from the practice of cigar-makers wetting the wrapper with their saliva and biting the end of the cigar into shape, a spread of syphilitic disease was taking place; and that he knew of several cases. Somewhat alarmed, I managed to visit a number of factories. Two-thirds of the cigar-makers I found daub the whole end of the cigar with their saliva. Thinking that Cuban workmen might not do it, I visited places where they were employed, and found that not only did they use their saliva to make the wrappers stick, but that most of them before wrapping bit the end of the cigar into shape with their teeth. As the physician informed me that many of the cigar-makers have sore mouths from disease, it is a dangerous as well as a beastly habit." [Ed. Note: Report also cited by Meta Lander.] Meta Lander says: "That scrofulous and syphilitic diseases have thus been contracted there is no doubt. In San Francisco a large number of cases of leprosy have been traced by physicians of that city to the smoking of cigars and cigarettes manufactured by Chinese lepers. Let smokers read the accounts of the tenement-house manufacturer -87- of cigars and cigarettes in New York City, and of the filth and disease which there exist, and they will not be better prepared to enjoy their after-dinner smoke." Here is a curious incident in this connection. It is related by Fairholt in his "Tobacco: Its History and Associations" [London: Chapman and Hall, 1859], p. 7, a book that is favorable to the use of tobacco. "A few years ago a cigar-manufacturer resisted successfully an attempt at enforcing the legal penalty for the unlawful fabrication of cheap 'Havana cigars' from tobacco which had paid no duty, as he was enabled to show in his defense that he never made use of the tobacco-leaf at all. Such cigars as are retailed for a penny, and leave a large profit for the vender and maker, must necessarily be constructed of less expensive material than tobacco-leaves. They are sometimes steeped in an infusion of strong tobacco-water, to give them a little external flavor of a true kind." [Ed. Note: See examples of tobacco-company secrecy about ingredients.] NATIONAL DEGENERACY. Closely connected with this injury to the individual is the degradation of a whole people addicted to the use of tobacco. -88- No one would accuse James Parton of narrowness or prejudice on this question. In his "Smoking and Drinking" [Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1868], he says [at pp 48-49]: "Among the nations of the earth most universally addicted to smoking are the Turks, the Persians, the Chinese, the Spanish—all slaves of tradition, submissive to tyrants, unenterprising, averse to improvement, despisers of women. Next to these, perhaps, we must place the Germans, a noble race, renowned for two thousand years for the masculine vigor of the men and the motherly dignity of the women. Smoking is a blight upon this valuable breed of men; it steals away from their minds much of the alertness and decision that naturally belong to such minds as they have, and it impairs their bodily health. Go, on some festive day, to 'Jones's Woods,' where you may sometimes see five thousand Germans—men, women, and children—amusing themselves in their simple and rational way. Not one face in ten has the clear, bright look of health. Nearly all the faces have a certain tallowy aspect—yellowish in color, with a dull shine upon them. You perceive plainly that it is not well with these good people; they are not conforming to nature's requirements; -89- they are not the Germans of Tacitus—ruddy, tough, happy, and indomitable. To lay the whole blame of this decline upon smoking, which is only one of many bad habits of theirs, would be absurd. What I insist upon is this: Smoking, besides doing its part toward lowering the tone of bodily health, deadens our sense of other physical evils, and makes us submit to them more patiently. If our excellent German fellow-citizens were to throw away their pipes, they would speedily toss their cast-iron sausages after them, and become more fastidious in the choice of air for their own and their childrens' breathing, and reduce their daily allowance of lager beer. Their first step toward physical regeneration will be, must be, the suppression of the pipe." The opinion of Mr. [Fulgence] Fiévée is to the same purpose. He says: "We do not insist principally on the material disasters resulting from tobacco, knowing very well that any reasoning on this subject will not produce conviction. A danger of far greater interest to those concerned in the preservation of the individual is the enfeeblement of the human mind, the loss of the powers of intelligence -90- and of moral energy; in a word, of the vigor of the intellect, one of the elements of which is memory. We are much deceived if the statistics of actual mental vigor would not prove the low level of the intellect throughout Europe since the introduction of tobacco. The Spaniards have first experienced the penalty of its abuse, the example of which they have so industriously propagated, and the elements of which originated in their conquests and their ancient energy. The rich Havanese enjoy the monopoly of the poison which procures so much gold in return for so many victims; but the Spaniards have paid for it also by the loss of their political importance, of their rich appanage of art and literature, of their chivalry, which made them one of the first people of the world. "Admitting that other causes operated, tobacco has been one of the most influential. Spain is now a vast tobacco-shop, and its only consolation is that other nations are fast approaching its level. Tobacco, as the great flatterer of sensuality, is one of the most energetic promoters of individualism—that is, of a weakening of social ties. Its appearance coincides fatally with reform and the spirit of inquiry. Man -91- inaugurates the introduction of logic in matters inaccessible, at the same time that, as Montaigne says, he gives way to a habit destructive to the faculty of ratiocination—a contradiction which shows us that necessity of defect by which he is tormented." Sir Benjamin Brodie [1783-1862], in speaking on the same subject says: "We may also take warning from the history of another nation who some few centuries ago, while following the banners of Solyman the Magnificent [1520-1566], were the terror of Christendom, but who since then, having become more addicted to tobacco-smoking than any of the European nations, are now the lazy and lethargic Turks, held in contempt by all civilized communities." Ed. Note: Sir Benjamin Brodie was Surgeon to British Queen Victoria. A comparable modern position is U.S. Surgeon General. The 1640's Sultan Murad IV, to prevent tobacco-harm to Turkey, had banned tobacco. Subsequent Sultans had rescinded his wise policy. See data on the pattern of smoking-linked national collapses dating back centuries, starting from the Spanish conquistadores' conquest of Mexico. OLD TOBACCO-USERS. It is not hard to find an excuse for any habit, when one wishes to justify himself in a coveted indulgence. Here is one: "If tobacco is injurious to health, how is it that some who use it live to so great an age?" And then an instance is given of a person who lived a long time and was a constant user of the weed. Ed. Note: See generational impact data showing degeneration over time, by James Parton (1868), Rev. John Wight (1889), Dr. Charles Slocum (1909) Bruce Fink (1915). To attempt to justify the habit -92- by a few such instances is only a subterfuge; it is not argument. Before it could be given the weight of reason it would be necessary to show that such a one would not have lived longer and happier and to more purpose if he had not been a user of tobacco. There are many lives from which five or ten years might be taken, and still they would reach beyond man's allotted time. Who can say that an old tobacco-user would not have been an older non-tobacco-user? An eminent physician says in regard to this that, "owing to the wonderful power of toleration in the system, there are occasional instances of long life among tobacco-users, as among drinking men and opium-eaters; yet it is, with some exceptions, only a dragging, half-and-half life, the natural and moral forces being greatly diminished." George Trask thus disposes of the same plea, when the case of a smoker who had lived one hundred and four years was brought up. After making several inquiries in regard to the man he summed it up: "In a word, did he love anybody or hate anybody, dead or alive, in this world, or in any world?" "I think not." "Well, well, your -93- old man died fifty years ago, and your only mistake was that you didn't bury him?"* IF INJURIOUS, THEN WHY USED? Simply on account of the almost universal ignorance of its harmful effects. Ed. Note: Note causes of this ignorance pusher fraud advertising 'universal malice' pusher murder media censorship inadequate education There is not one person in ten who has an idea of the injury the use of tobacco may bring about. A son sees his father using it, and this is sufficient proof to him that the habit is both harmless and manly. The father tells him no better, because he probably knows no better; and so a habit is acquired which soon gains the mastery over him. Intelligent, well-informed men are often surprised when told that tobacco is one of the most subtle of poisons. Physicians, from whom light should have come, have for the most part been silent; and not only this, many add the weight of their example in favor of its use. James Parton [1868] gives an explanation of its use which is worthy of thought. He says: "But in our civilized, sedentary life, he who would have good health must fight for it. Many people have the insolence to become parents who have no right ____________ * "The Tobacco Problem," p. 243 [340]. -94- to aspire to that dignity, children are born who have no right to exist; and skill preserves many whom nature is eager to destroy. "Civilized man, too, has learned the trick of heading off some of the diseases that used to sweep over whole regions of the earth, and lay low the weakliest tenth of the population. Consequently, while the average duration of human life has been increased, the average tone of human health has been lowered. Fewer die, and fewer are quite well. "Very many of us breathe vitiated air, and keep nine-tenths of the body quiescent for twenty-two or twenty-three hours out of every twenty-four. "Immense members cherish gloomy, depressing opinions, and convert the day set apart for rest and recreation into one which aggravates some of the worst tendencies of the week, and counteracts none of them. "Half the population of the United States violate the laws of nature every time they take sustenance; and the children go, crammed with indigestion, to sit six hours in hot, ill-ventilated or unventilated schoolrooms. Except in a few large towns, the bread and meat are almost universally inferior or bad; and the only viands that are good are those which -95- ought not to be eaten at all. At most family tables, after a course of meat which has the curious property of being both soft and tough, a wild profusion of ingenious puddings, pies, cakes, and other abominable trash beguiles the young, disgusts the mature, and injures all. "From bodies thus imperfectly nourished we demand excessive exertions of all kinds. Hence the universal craving lor artificial aids to digestion, hence the universal use of stimulants — whisky, Worcestershire sauce, beer, wine, coffee, tea, tobacco. "This is the only reason I can discover in the nature of things here for the wide-spread, increasing propensity to smoke. As all the virtues are akin, and give loyal aid to one another, so are all the vices in alliance and play into one another's hands. "Many a smoker will discover, when at last he breaks the bonds of his servitude, that his pipe, trifling a matter as it may seem to him now, was really the power that kept down his whole nature and vulgarized his whole existence. In many instances the single act of self-control involved in giving up the habit would necessitate and include a complete regeneration, first physical, then mental." -96- Sometimes the use of tobacco is recommended by a physician for some ailment, and once begun its use is continued for the remainder of one's days. Granting, for the sake of the argument, that so powerful a drug as tobaoco should sometimes be smoked or chewed as a medicine, yet it should not be exempt from the rule of use that applies to other drugs. When a physician prescribes belladonna for an ailment, if it be the proper medicine it accomplishes the purpose for which it is used, and then its use is discontinued. But, if after sufficient trial, it does not effect a cure it is discontinued, because trial has shown that belladonna is not the remedy that is needed, and something is substituted for it. So it is with other drugs; so it ought to be with tobacco. But the truth is that when tobacco is thus prescribed, by the time the wisdom or unwisdom of the prescription is shown, it has often gained such a hold on its victim that he either cannot or will not give it up. The fact mentioned above, that physicians sometimes prescribe it [1889], deserves a word. Sometimes they do it wisely; I have known cases where it was done unwisely. It is not too much to say that -97- when [in 1889] physicians prescribe tobcco they do not always know what they are doing. It may be there are some like the doctor who, having prescribed smoking in a certain case, was afterward called on to give the medical properties and value of tobacco. His reply was: "I have not paid sufficient attention to the subject of smoking to make my opinion of the slightest value." And yet he prescribed it! Furthermore, a devotee of the weed is not always the best one to give an intelligent opinion as to whether or not tobacco should be used in a certain case. Physicians should be cautious before they recommend, and patients careful before they use as a medicine, so powerful and deceptive a drug as tobacco. WHO ARE MOST INJURED BY TOBACCO? While no one can use tobacco without more or less injury, yet it is true that some are injured more immediately, as well as more in the aggregate, than are others. The same is true of every other dissipation and abuse of the human constitution. Temperament, the amount of tobacco used, strength of constitution, and mode of life, are all factors which -98- enter into the determination of the question. But, as a rule, who are most injured by it? Dr. W. A. Alcott (1836) says: "If we speak with reference to the general employments of mankind, it is probably true that sedentary persons, especially literary men, are the greatest sufferers from the use of tobacco; and of this large class of persons those individuals are most largely injured who are predisposed to glandular swellings, polypus, cancer, scrofula, or consumption. . . . "Farmers [Ed. Note: warned by the 1836 Farmers' Almanac]suffer less from tobacco, most evidently, than men of any other occupation. There is nothing that works off disease, or rather the tendency to disease, like a free daily use in the open air of the muscles with which the human frame is furnished. These, in truth, may be regarded as the safety-valve of the system; and happy is he who makes them subserve this their legitimate purpose. "If we speak with inference to age, old persons suffer least, and children most from the use of tobacco; and of the young they suffer most who are constitutionally nervous. Yet these, as a general fact, in youth and in more advanced age, are the very persons who are most liable to become enslaved. . . . "Females suffer more than -99- males from the use of tobacco; though it is believed that in the use of the pipe fewer of them proceed to excess than of the other sex, and very resort to chewing. But in the use of the snuff-box, they are scarcely less at fault than the other sex; and their punishment is equally inevitable and equally severe." ITS EFFECTS OFTEN APPEAR LATE. A person has used tobacco for five, ten, or twenty years, and he can see no harm it has done him; therefore the inference: "Tobacco is harmless." There is a disinclination to look at tobacco as we look at other poisons. It is a well known fact that the devotee of beer or whisky may sometimes drink for years with little apparent effect or injury to himself. But at length, when the constitution has resisted the encroachments of the poison until it is no longer able to hold out, the crash is often sudden and appalling. De Quincey, in his "Confessions" tells us that the happiest year of his life was after he had been using opium for several years. The exhilarating effects of the drug were felt; its depressing consequences came afterward, when the -100- vital powers were no longer able to hold out under the strain, and the reaction was terrible. Alcohol and opium are "cumulative poisons," whose injurious effects are not quickly seen; but this fact does not make them any the less injurious. Tobacco belongs to the same class of poisons. One of the most eminent of Southern physicians, Thomas L. Maddin, says: "It rarely makes many tracks until it comes to these citadels* of life;" and another, from the North, equally eminent—Willard Parker—says: "The poison is slow, but in the second or third decade its virus becomes manifest." The words of the wise man in Ecclesiastes [8:11] are pertinent: "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Let not the young and middle-aged, because they have not yet felt the evil effects of the use of tobacco, congratulate themselves too soon on their escape. The poison is working, it will finally tell—and "the duty of abstaining from the slow killing of one's self by tobacco is as clear as the duty of not cutting one's throat." ____________ * He is speaking of the nerves. -101- In discussing physical health and vigor as affected by tobacco the author has been careful to draw his testimony from reliable sources. The indictment against the weed is a strong one; on few subjects would it be possible to bring a stronger array of evidence. And yet the subject has not been exhausted. Only salient points have been touched, and much that might be said on minor questions has been omitted. The worst effects as here given would follow only on the excessive use of tobacco, and not every one [Ed. Note: ½%] is an excessive user of it; but even moderation will bring a moderate degree of harm. The evidence is clear here—no user entirely escapes. The question of physical injury, in short, resolves itself to this: If one wishes to blunt the sensibilities, and render himself partly oblivious to the flight of time; to make himself more subject to disease; and in the end to bring on premature old age and death—then tobacco will help him to accomplish these. If a man wants to retain as long as possible his elasticity and strength; to live the purest, cleanest, and to the best effect; if he has a work to do, and wants to do it quickly and well—then the less tobacco he uses the better it will be for him. -102- IV. Effects of Tobacco on the Mind. IT is needless to affirm the close connection existing between the body and mind. It is well known that what detracts from the health and vigor of one tends to weaken the other. Pull down the body, and you at once knock the stays from under the mind. The mind is prepared to do its best work only when the body is in perfect health, and vice versa. In the last chapter we saw that the use of tobacco does injure the health, and renders the vital organs less able to perform their proper functions. Would it not be strange if this physical injury did not also extend to the mind? Furthermore, it is to be remembered that tobacco acts directly upon the nerves; and the user of the weed knows this, independently of the large number of physicians who have spoken. The nerves lead to the spinal cord and the brain, and no physiologist would venture to say that what unsteadies one does not injuriously -103- affect the other. No mind can do its best work—no mind can do steady, reliable, rapid, long-continued work—when the nerves, which may almost be said to feed the mind, are in a flutter. Again, carry this nerve-disturbance to its greatest extent, and, go far as performing its proper offices is concerned, the mind is as helpless as a rudderless vessel in mid-ocean. Attention never having been directed to the subject, we might be inclined to doubt that tobacco ever dethrones, or even greatly injures, reason; but if the reader wants confirmation of the fact that it is a nerve-disturber, let him turn to Chapter III., and see what those who have studied the subject say about it; and then if he doubts that tobacco ever goes so far as to cause mania, he has there the testimony of men whose evidence he cannot doubt. But no reader of this ever expects to be an occupant of a mad-house; much less does he think of being driven there by the quid or the pipe. Does tobacco injure the mind to such an extent that, as a reasonable man, I ought to abstain from its use? In this question we are all interested. Ed. Note: Due to tobacco's many harmful impacts on others: crime; SIDS; alcoholism; air pollution; costs drug abuse; job situations; divorces; etc. The Dublin University Magazine says: "The -104- mental power of many a boy is certainly weakened by tobacco-smoking. The brain under its influence can do less work, and the dreary feeling which is produced tends directly to idleness. For all reasons it is desirable that our rising generation should be abstainers from tobacco." The Scalpel, in speaking of the decay of the senses caused by the use of tobacco, says: "If there is a vice more prostrating to the body and mind, more crucifying to all the sympathies of the spiritual nature of man, we have yet to be convinced of it." Professor Hitchcock says: "Intoxicating drinks, opium, and tobacco exert a pernicious influence upon the intellect. They tend directly to debilitate the organs; and we cannot take a more effectual course to cloud the understanding, weaken the memory, unfix the attention, and confuse all the mental operations than by thus entailing on ourselves the whole hateful train of nervous maladies. These can bow down to the earth an intellect of giant strength, and make it grind in bondage like Samson shorn of his locks and deprived of bis vision. The use of tobacco may seem to soothe the -105- Surgeon McDonald says: "I may mention a curious fact not generally known, but which requires to be tried only to be proved—viz., that no smoker can think steadily or continuously on any subject while smoking. He cannot follow out a train of ideas; to do so he must lay aside his pipe." Dr. Alcott says: "No class of men, as a class, think more tardily than old tobacco-mongers, especially chewers. One may well be astonished at the slowness of their intellectual movements—as if some mighty load were upon them pressing them down." That great thinker and observer, Lord Bacon, probably knew what he was about when he said: "O smoke is a secret delight, serving to steal away men's brains." "Tobacco is also a brain poison. It injures the brain and weakens the nerves. When much used it causes loss of memory. It makes many who use it peevish and dissatisfied when for any reason they -106- are without it for a short time. Like the other narcotics, appetite for it grows stronger constantly, and the more the appetite is satisfied the worse is the tobacco-user's condition."* In an address before the graduating class of the law department of Wisconsin University Ex-senator Doolittle said: "I verily believe that the mental force, power of labor, and endurance of our profession is decreased at least twenty-five per cent. by the use of tobacco. Its poisonous and narcotic effects reduce the power of the vital organs and tend to paralyze them, while the useless consumption of time and money takes away twenty-five per cent. of the working-hours, if does not consume the same amount of the earnings." Dr. [William A.] Alcott says [on p 53]: "Nothing is more common than to hear old tobacco-chewers and snuff-takers complain of a bad or defective memory. Indeed, tell them beforehand that tobacco injures them, and they will not be apt to make the confession. But only take them when they are off their guard, and no acknowledgment is more common." __________ *"Health Lessons for Beginners," p. 76. -107- ITS EFFECTS IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM. Professor Bancroft, Principal of Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., says: "Tobacco is the bane of our schools and colleges, and increasingly so. Teachers who have given any attention to the subject agree that boys go down under its use in scholarship, in self-respect, in self-control. It takes off the fine edge of the mind, injures the manners, and dulls the moral senses. School disorders are always rank with the fumes of tobacco. We can select the boys who smoke heavily by a certain hesitation in answering questions, by a peculiar huskiness of voice, by a dullness of complexion, by a tremor of the hand." Ed. Note: Example: similar data cited by Prof. Bruce Fink in his 1915 book. Richard McSherry, President of the Baltimore Academy of Medicine, says: "The effect of tobacco on school-boys is so marked as not to be open for discussion." A prominent teacher of Syracuse says: "After long experience I have come to the conclusion that many boys from all departments of the public schools become incapable of prolonged mental effort and are lacking in refinement and in interest and attention to school duties in consequence of the -108- use of tobacco, and that many of the failures in promotion from year to year are due to the same cause." The following facts are taken from an excellent pamphlet on the tobacco question by J. B. T. Marsh [1839-1887]: "Every one knows how smoking prevails in the English universities. Yet it is said that nine-tenths of the first-class men at Oxford and Cambridge are non-smokers. "Perhaps you have seen some suggestive statistics bearing on the relations of tobacco to scholarship, which were taken at Yale College a year or two ago. It seems that each class at Yale is graded in four divisions according to scholarship, the best scholars being in the first division, while the fourth is made up of those who are barely able to 'hang on by their eyelids.' "The census of one class showed that only ten out of the forty in the first division were addicted to smoking. "In the second division eighteen out of thirty-seven used tobacco; in the third, twenty out of twenty-seven; in the fourth, twenty-two out of twenty-six. "It might be rash to say that this was a clear case of cause and effect, but I am sure it would be more rash to deny any such rela- -109- tion. "In the same line is another fact which is a matter of history. In 1862 [French] Emperor Louis Napoleon [1852-1870] had his attention called to the phenomenon that there were more than five times as many paralytics and lunatics in the hospitals of France as there were thirty years before [1832], and that the increase of Government revenue from the tobacco monopoly had risen meanwhile in almost the same proportion. He appointed a commission of scientific men to examine whether this was a case of cause and effect, or only a coincidence. [Details]. "They [the commission] devoted their special attention to the young men in the Government training-schools. Dividing the students into two classes, smokers and non smokers, they found the latter so much superior, both physically, mentally, and morally, that the emperor at once prohibited the use of tobacco by the students in these schools, breaking the pipes of thirty thousand young men in one memorable day in Paris alone. "When I hear any one 'sniffing' at the rule enforced in some of our Western colleges forbidding the use of tobacco by students, I always take pleasure m referring them to Louis Napoleon [1808-1873]. He was not supposed to be fussy or puritanical." -110- "The pupils of the Polytechnic School in Paris have recently furnished some curious statistics bearing on the tobacco controversy. Dividing the young gentlemen of that college into two groups—smokers and non-smokers—it is shown that the smokers have shown themselves in the various competitive examinations far inferior to the others. Not only in the examinations upon entering the school are the smokers in a lower rank, but in the various ordeals that they have to pass through in a year the average rank of the smokers had constantly fallen (and not inconsiderably), while the men who did not smoke enjoyed a cerebral atmosphere of the clearest kind."* Ed. Note: See James Brainard Taylor Marsh, Tobacco: Letters to a Young Man (Boston: 1881) and Epistle to Paul: "These are Some of the Reasons, Paul, Why I Do Not Believe in Tobacco" (Chicago: Advance Pub. Co., 1881) TRYING BOTH SIDES. Some have tried both sides, and are able to speak from experience. Of those who have spoken three are selected—not that they are exceptional cases, but because they are persons who are well known [in 1888]. James Parton, in "Smoking and Drinking [1868]," p. 51, gives his experience: "As I have now given a trial to both sides of the question, I beg respectfully ____________ * From the Globe, also the Dublin Medical Press. -111- to assure the brotherhood of smokers that it does not pay to smoke. It really does not. I can work better and longer than before. I have less head-ache. I have a better opinion of myself. I enjoy exercise more, and step out much more vigorously. My room is cleaner. The bad air of our theaters and other public places disgusts and infuriates me more, but exnausts me less. I think I am rather better-tempered, as well as more cheerful and satisfied. I endure the inevitable ills of life with more fortitude, and look forward more hopefully to the coming years. It did not pay to smoke, but most decidedly it pays to stop smoking." Rev. P. S. Henson, D.D. [1831-1914], reared on a tobacco-plantation, was for more than twenty years "the most abject and inveterate of slaves" to his cigar. After a severe struggle he overcame the habit. He says: "This week concludes the twelfth month not of an experiment (for I am not experimenting), but of an experience which to me has been a new life full of joy and blessing. Like the three young Hebrews, I am fairer and fatter in flesh [Daniel 1:15]; and, if my whole life-work is not being better done, and upon a higher plane, as I hope it is, I have a 'com- -112- fort in my conscience' which is to me of incalculable value."* Dr. T. De Witt Talmage [1832-1902], in his [17 May 1885] sermon on "Cancers from Tobacco" (heretofore referred to), says: "I might, in a word, give my experience. It took ten cigars to make a sermon. I got very nervous. One day I awakened to the outrage I was inflicting upon myself. I was about to change settlements; and a generous wholesale tobacconist in Philadelphia said that if I would only go to Philadelphia he would provide me with cigars all the rest of my life free of charge. I said to myself: "If I smoke more than I ought to in these war times, when cigars are so costly and my salary so small, what would I do if I had a gratuitous and illimitable supply?' "And then and there, twenty-four years ago [1861], I quit once and forever. It made a new man of me; and though I have since then done as much hard work as any one, I think I have had the best health that God ever blessed a man with. . . . I know from personal experience how it smooths ____________ * Dr. Henson's "What I Know about Tobacco" is instructive. (National Temperance Society and Publication House, New York.) -113- and roseates the world and kindles sociality, and I know what are its baneful results. I know what it is to be its slave, and I thank God that I know what it is to be its conqueror." FAMOUS USERS OF TOBACCO. It would be the utmost folly to deny that there have been useful and eminent men who have been consumers or tobacco; but it would be an absurd fallacy to draw the inference that tobacco does not injure the mind from the fact that there have been such men. And yet men do very often reason thus on this question, as well as on many kindred ones: "Mr. Blank was a hard drinker, but he was a master of men; therefore whisky is harmless. De Quincey ate opium, but he is one of the clearest writers in the English language; therefore opium helps to authorship!" Honest men despise such a subterfuge, and are willing to look at facts in the light of reason. True, it is possible to rise to eminence, and still be a user of whisky or tobacco or opium or the victim of almost any other bad habit. But it is not saying too much to affirm that the slave of any of these (other things being equal) -114- will not rise so easily or so rapidly, or maintain his eminence so long, as one who is free from all these habits. In the light of what has gone before, and guided by common sense, the conclusion is almost inevitable that any eminent user of tobacco would have been more eminent—would have been able to do more and better work—if he had been free from the habit. Denying this conclusion, the only alternative left is to declare that all who have testified to the harmfulness of tobacco do not know what they are talking about. Thinking men, who are unprejudiced, will not be able to do this. A quotation from Dr. [Orin] S. Fowler [pp 11-12] will close this chapter: "The actual loss of intellectual power which tobacco has hitherto occasioned, and is still causing in this Christian nation, is immense. How immense it is impossible to calculate. Many a man who might have been respectable and useful has sunk into obscurity, and buried his talents in the earth. "This is a consideration of the deepest interest to every philanthropist, patriot, and Christian in the land, and especially to all our youth. We live at a time and under circumstances which call for the exertion of all our intellectual strength, -115- cultivated, improved, and sanctified to the highest measure of possibility. Error, ignorance, and sin must be met and vanquished by light and love. The eyes of angels are upon us, the eye of God is upon us; and shall we fetter and paralyze and ruin our intellectual capabilities for the sake of enjoying the paltry pleasure of tasting the most loathsome and destructive weed in the whole vegetable kingdom? "Rather let us shake off this abominable practice as individuals and as a nation, in all our intellectual potency, and let us go forth from day to day untrammeled by the quid, the pipe, and the snuff-box, and before another generation shall be laid in the grave our efforte and our example may cause the light of human science and of civil and religious liberty and of Bible truth to blaze through all our valleys and over all our hills, from Greenland to Cape Horn, with a luster that shall illuminate the world." -116- V. Heredity. IT has been shown by competent witnesses that tobacco is hurtful to body and mind. This being the case, another question arises here: Does this harm stop with the person who uses the tobacco, or, following the law of heredity, may it extend to one's children also? That there is abundant room for such inquiry no one who has carefully observed the laws of nature can doubt. 1. Victims of alcohol and opium have not the strength to generate children who are physically and mentally equal to the offspring of temperate parents; and furthermore it is observed that such children often seem to have a natural craving for the stimulant of their fathers. No one expects the child of an idiot to have a bright mind. The child conceived when one or both parents are in poor health, physically or mentally, cannot be expected to be the equal of the child of more favorable surroundings. Consumption, scrofula, insanity, and a -117- dozen other diseases and idiosyncrasies of body and mind are transmitted. 2. The general law of heredity is that, unless there are helping or hindering circumstances, offspring will not rise far above or sink far below the level of their parents. Of course there may be occasional exceptions, but the close observer needs no argument to prove a rule that is written on the minds and bodies of every generation since Adam. Looked at in this light, the question is one of importance; for no person, however regardless he may be of self, should be willing to visit the result of his iniquities upon the innocent unborn of another generation. "Is the harm I am doing myself by the use of tobacco liable to be transmitted to my children? " Ed. Note: Great question, but smokers have a demonstrated record of centuries of being unable to do this suggested consideration, for multiple reasons: their addiction their brain damage their abulia pusher fraud meaning unawareness of the hazard smoking constituting a disease tobacco-news-censorship widespread pro-tobacco disinformation the inability to comprehend if told pusher effectiveness against them, etc. The appeal is again to those who have observed and studied the question. Dr. Hall: "The patient whose blood and secretions are saturated with tobacco, and whose brain and nervous system are narcotized by it, must transmit to his child elements of a distempered body and an erratic mind—a deranged condition of organic atoms, which elevates the animalism of future being, at the expense of the moral and intellectual nature." -118- The following is from [Thwing's] "Facts about Tobacco": "Persons inheriting good constitutions, of laborious life in the open air, will manifest for years comparatively little conscious injury from their vices, while children born to them grow up from birth sickly, weakly, nervous, with hereditary taints, and sometimes epileptics and imbeciles! "And these known results might be inferred from the well-known fact that tobacco chewed is quickly absorbed into the system from the mouth, deranges the action of the heart, is an energetic depressant of the nervous system; while habitual smoking carries the deadly nicotine through the lungs into the arterial blood, depraving the very springs of life. "Were it not that mothers are generally of purer life and purer blood than fathers, these deplorable results to the offspring would be far more extensively manifest than now." Says Dr. J. Pidduck in the Lancet [Issue #1746, pp 177-178, 14 February 1857]: "If the evil ended with the individual who by the indulgence of a pernicious custom injures his own health and impairs his faculties of mind and body, he might be left to his enjoyments—his 'Fool's Paradise'—unmolested. This, however, is not the case. In no -119- instance is the sin of the father more strikingly visited upon his children than the sin of tobacco-smoking. The enervation, the hypochondriasis, the hysteria, the insanity, the dwarfish deformities, the consumption, the suffering lives and early deaths of the children of inveterate smokers hear ample testimony to the feebleness and unsoundness of the constitution transmitted by this pernicious habit." "A leading physician in one of our largest cities, in speaking of those who have indulged in the use of tobacco for years with seeming impunity, adds: 'But I have never known an habitual tobacco-user whose children, born after he had long used it, did not have [Ed. Note: birth defects, e.g.,] deranged nervous systems and sometimes evidently weak minds. Shattered nervous systems for generations to come may be the result of this indulgence.* [Sir Benjamin] Brodie [1783-1862]: "This is a sin which affects the third and fourth generation." Dr. Richardson, in his "Diseases of Modern Life," gives it as his opinion that "if a community of youths of both sexes, whose progenitors were finely formed and powerful, were to be trained to ____________ *The Tobacco Problem," p. 89. -120- the early practice of smoking, and marriage were to be confined to these, a physically inferior race of men and women would be bred." The following, from [Lizar's] "Alcohol and Tobacco," [Ed. Note: and his 1859 elaboration] shows the extent to which the injury may go when the use of tobacco is begun in early life, and is carried to excess: "The tobacco-smoker, especially if he commences the habit early in life, and carries it to excess, loses his procreative powers. If he marry he deceives his wife, and disposes her to infidelity, and exposes himself to ignominy and scorn. "If, however, he should have offspring, they are generally either cut off in infancy or never reach the age of puberty. His wife is often incapable of having a living child, or she suffers repeated miscarriages, owing to the impotence of her husband. If he have children, they are generally stunted in growth or deformed in shape, are incapable of struggling through the diseases incidental to children, and die prematurely. "And thus the vices of the parent are visited upon the children, even before they reach the second or third generation. I have constantly observed that the children of habitual smokers are, with very few exceptions, im- -121- perfectly developed in form and size, very ill or plain looking and delicate in constitution. "A good man, unconscious of the wrong he was doing, smoked for many a year, often suffering intensely but without understanding the cause. A tract on the subject which fell into his hands brought him needed light and led him to give up tobacco. This prolonged his life, but the change came too late for his son, who, as a consequence of his father's habit, inherits an impaired constitution. A life-long sufferer on this account, he is untiring in his efforts to convince others of the great evil of the tobacco habit, declaring that he is 'before Richmond on this question until the King of battles gives him an honorable discharge.'"* The eminent New York physician, John Cowan, says: "Of all the harm done by the use of tobacco the greatest harm and the mightiest wrong is that of transmitting to the unborn the appetite for the filthy, disease-creating, misery-engendering drug." A writer in the "Tobacco Problem" says: "The men of the West are not only filling themselves with this horrid poison, but in numberless ways are ____________ *[Lander's] "The Tobacco Problem," pp. 90, 91. -122- transmitting the deadly influence to their offspring. How any man who knows that the condition of the parent influences for good or ill his offspring can become the father of children while his system is so dominated by this powerful narcotic that abstinence for twenty-four hours nearly sets him crazy I cannot conceive." Says the Journal of Science and Health: "There are Christian and temperance men who are trying to redeem the world from sin and drunkenness, yet who are begetting children so depraved in their physical organization that their desire for stimulants is almost impossible for them to resist." Meta Lander: "An authentic account is given of the child of an inveterate smoker—a mere infant, whose stomach rejected food, and who was pining away for lack of nourishment. To quiet it, the father held a cigar between its lips. The babe greedily sucked it, and by means of the stimulus was able to take food. But this tobacco, for which it inherited so unnatural a craving, proved a necessity. It could not get on without it. I hardly need add that under its influence the child grad- -123- ually became dwarfed and idiotic. 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' [Ezek 18:2; Jer. 31:29]. Are we doomed in the future to have a race of idiots?" Dr. Pidduck, before quoted in this connection, raises a pertinent question and answers it: "How is it, then, that the Eastern nations have not ere this become exterminated by a practice which is almost universal? The reply is that by early marriage, before the habit is fully formed, or its injurious effects decidedly developed, the evil to the offspring is prevented; but in this country, where smoking is commenced early and marringe is contracted late in life, the evil is entailed in full force upon the offspring. "Adulterations of all kinds are bad enough, but the adulteration by a narcotic—poisoning the life at its source (the breath) and in its course (the blood)—is worse than all. By these adulterations the health of the community is injured; by this a man injures his own health and that of his children. Ought not this consideration to restrain every wise and good man from contracting or continuing such a senseless and destructive habit of self-indulgence? [Ed. Note: For answer, see p 118, supra.] "For old men -124- smoking may be tolerated, but for young men and boys it cannot be too severely reprobated." Ed. Note: a concession soon realized as error, as smoking by anyone of any age sets a bad example. For some time I have noticed the operation of this law in several families with which I am acquainted. I cannot say that my conclusions in each particular case are correct, for there may have been peculiar and unknown causes working to bring about the effects observed; but I do know that in several cases where children have been mentally and physically Inferior to their parents, the most probable and apparent cause has been the excessive use of tobacco on the part of one or both of the parents. I might give several cases, but one is sufficient for present purposes, and the reader can draw his own conclusions: The family consists of father, mother, and nine children. The father has been (he is now getting old) a strong, healthy, active man, who could 'outjump and outrun almost any opponent, and could pick three hundred pounds of cotton per day.' He has a sound, though imaginative, mind. The quid or the pipe is his constant companion. His wife is a good average in health and strength, and also has a sound mind. Here the use of tobacco is mainly confined to snuff. Of -125- the five boys (the youngest has nearly reached his majority) not one has the strength and endurance of his father, while not more than one of the girls is the equal of her mother. It would be liberal to say that in body and mind three of the nine reach mediocrity. Four of them are almost physical and intellectual dwarfs. I went to school with some of these, and am witness to the fact that with two of them the mastery of the multiplication table was a mental height to which they could not reach. When only a few years old they seemed to have a natural desire for tobacco. When the family credit was good I have known them to buy on an average two dollars' worth of tobacco per week, for they all used it. As a whole the younger children are inferior to the older ones in development. Several of these nine children have married, and it is a significant fact that almost, if not quite, half the children born to these parents have been still-born or have died in infancy. As stated before, other causes may have operated to bring about this unnatural state of affairs; but, in the light of all the facts, to deny that the use of so powerful a drug as tobacco has not had its inju- -126- rious effects, when used in such quantities, would be the sheerest folly. The amount of harm that may be done to one's offspring by the use of tobacco is determined by circumstances. Other things being equal, the children of excessive users of tobacco are more injured than are those of moderate users; and where its use extends to both parents the evil is much aggravated. But the moderate user of tobacco cannot flatter himself that his children will escape the consequences of the sin of their father; for when God wrote that he would visit "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children," he made no exceptions. Ed. Note: See similar analyses by Dr. John Lizars (1859), Dr. Charles Slocum (1909), Dr. Herbert Tidswell (1912), Prof. Bruce Fink (1915), Higley and Frech (1916), and a related tobacco-caused birth-defects medical history overview. And see data on the pattern of linking smoking to national collapses dating from the Spanish conquistadores' conquest of Mexico [1519]. André Thevet tracked underlying sexual impact, and so reported in 1555. It may be thought that it is going too far to class the use of tobacco, in this connection, as a sin; but who can look at it soberly and in the light of reason and put it on a higher plane? If the harm ended with the individual user, it might be classed otherwise; but when the health and happiness of unborn children are involved no person has the right to indulge any habit that will bring the least injury upon them. True, many good fathers—and mothers too—have used tobacco, and have died and gone to heaven unconscious of the suffering they -127- have bequeathed to others. But when one's attention has been directed to this subject, to be guilty of it is an outright, unpardonable sin. Millions of children are to-day sufferers because their parents have been conscious or unconscious sinners. We need an enlightening and awakening along here; for, in the awful words of South, the children of the victims of this and some other bad habits are "not so much born into the world as damned into the world." We sometimes hear parents bemoaning their sad lot because "God, in his wise providence, has seen fit to take a dear one from earth to heaven;" and they comfort themselves with the assurance that he does all things well. There is comfort in such thoughts when afflictions come; the gospel of Christ furnishes a balm for bereaved and troubled hearts which nowhere else can be found. But the devotee of tobacco has no right to such comfort. When his children die young or, being spared, are doomed to drag out a puny, half-handed existence, let him not ascribe it to "God's will," but think of it as the legitimate result of his own self-indulgence. Here is sorrow where the sting is sharpened and comfort is taken away. -128- VI. Tobacco and the Young. THE effect of tobacco upon youth is more and more becoming a serious consideration, because its use is rapidly extending among boys. To their credit it may be said that they do not very quickly take to chewing, but the cigarette is their delight. The extent to which tobacco in this form is coming to be used by boys (and even children) in our towns and cities is alarming. Scenes of cigarette-smoking, such as are now common in our streets, alleys, and play-grounds, were rare when our fathers were boys. Now in many of our towns the majority of boys over twelve years of age smoke, and some begin at a much earlier age. They generally commence to smoke where father and mother cannot see, for even the youthful conscience does not always sanction a habit that is recommended by the [bad] example of older persons. But they soon grow bold and become proud of a habit which at first they would conceal. -129- (pp 130-141) After seeing and hearing what I had, I was not surprised to learn that the town whose boys would not purchase any cigarettes which did not have these obscene pictures with them "has hardly a moral young man in it." "This is the most unkindest cut of all." Will parents and teachers and the ministry quietly submit? -142- VII. Ladies and Tobacco. THIS question is an important one to ladies, for 1 what concerns their husbands and sons concerns them. It would be well if they were interested no further than this—if women were themselves free from the tobacco-habit. But this can not be said. During the fiscal year ending June 30,1887, there were manufactured in the United States (besides what was exported) 6,561,778 pounds of snuff. This is used somewhere. As a Southerner my indignation has been aroused when the "snuffing" habits of our women have been held up to public gaze and ridicule. I wanted to deny it; but, having seen so much of it sold in our stores and used in the homes of the South, indignation had to give way to shame—not that its use is confined to the women of the South, for it is not. It is, however, probably true that more snuff is consumed in the South and gome portions of the West, in propor- -143- (pp 144-151) believe themselves to be such, that they must choose between her and a cigarette, and that they cannot simultaneously enjoy smoking and her society? Has she taken occasion to intimate that, in her opinion, no gentlemen, truly so-called, smokes in the street? . . . The problem that Clarissa propounds can best be solved by her and her friends. Indeed, there are classes of offenders whose smoke can be staid only by stringent laws vigorously enforced. These may be described as 'persons in the form of man.' But that other large company 'who wear the garb of gentlemen' are amenable to the influences of Clarissa, and such smoke she and her sister sylphs can suppress." -152- VIII. The Morality of the Habit. FIFTY years ago, had a promiscuous [Ed. Note: random] company of intelligent men been asked if they thought it any harm to drink alcoholic liquors in moderation, as a beverage, the greater part of them would have answered unhesitatingly in the negative. Since then a change has been going on, and the majority of such a company would probably now declare the other way. What is the secret of this change, and of the rise of an increasingly-strong temperance sentiment in our country? The reason is that since then attention has been called to the subject, people have been made to see the terrible evils of the traffic in and the use of whisky, and they have been taught that what tends to sin is sinful. Were a company like the above to be asked now if they consider the use of tobacco as involving any moral question, the greater part of them would reply in the negative. But does the use of tobacco involve a question of morals? The subject is worthy of -153- consideration, however new it may be to us. To some who are unprejudiced on the subject, a decision will not be hard to reach. When they know the physical evils to which the use of tobacco subjects one; when they are told by good authorities that it interferes with the operations of the mind through its powerful action on the brain and nerves; when they are convinced that the harm does not stop with the user, but may extend to one's children and children's children—these questions being settled, all is settled. Were the evils of the habit only half so great as the best physicians tell us they are, even then a conscientious person would feel that in using tobacco he is committing a sin. The conclusion is inevitable. Men whose moral perceptions are clear do not excuse mental and moral suicide because it is slow, and at the same time condemn the man who shoots himself. Says some one: "The man who kills himself gradually is just as bad as one who does it suddenly." [Ed. Note: See data on pushers' role in smokers' deaths.] TOBACCO BLUNTS THE MORAL PERCEPTIONS. At a recent Methodist District Conference the question of arraigning before the Church members -154- who will not contribute to the support of its institutions came up for discussion. A good layman, in speaking to the question, said: "You cannot convict a man for carrying concealed weapons when every one of the jury has a pistol in his pocket." The same principle, modified, applies to the user of tobacco. It is very hard to convince him of its under dominion of the habit. It is remarkable what a hold tobacco takes on some persons. We marvel at the strength of the chains with which opium and whisky bind their victims; but in some cases it seems that the narcotic plant, tobacco, is almost as hard a master. "You are wasting away under it," pleaded one minister with another. "Alas! my brother, it is true, but I cannot help it," was the response. "Would you take that excuse from a sinner?" "I cannot answer you. I cannot leave it off; it is out of the question; I cannot! I feel what you say, but—"?* Furthermore, the mind seems disinclined to listen to any thing which would go to show that to- ____________ *The Tobacco Problem," p. 205 [p 291, in 6th ed.]. -155- (pp 156-169) ruples this amount on the gratification of an appetite which benefits neither himself nor any other human being? In the light of all the facts the question of cost is a very low one on which to base the moral harm of the habit; but even here it is not without its force. WEIGHED. The German artist Rethel has a painting representing the hand of death holding the scales in which the poor man's pipe and the king's crown are being weighed. Balanced against each other the pleasures derived from each are declared to be equal. It may be so; and in the momentary pleasure and satisfaction derived from his pipe the poor man may even sometimes have the advantage. If the present pleasure derived from the use of tobacco were the only consideration, then its use might be justified; and the same argument would justify opium and whisky and debauchery of every kind. Leave out physical, mental, and spiritual considerations on this and other questions, and where would we land? But the plea of pleasure will not do. Votaries of -170- sin of every kind make it. But because it brings "pleasure" sin is no less sin, and no less surely will it be punished. In considering tobacco the question of its use is not to be determined by the standard. Take its cost to body and mind and children and soul, and then see if the good derived from it will justify this expenditure. The laws of God, and not the dictates of perverted appetite, should be the final arbiter. -171- IX. The Social View of the Question. TOBACCO is not without its social bearings. One of these is TOBACCO SLAVERY. In our "land of the free" we are impatient of bonds. Does slavery still exist among us? The pulpit is constantly denouncing "slavery to sin;" sometimes we hear it remarked, "He is a slave to whisky;" more rarely it is said, "He is a slave to tobacco." The latter slavery is more common and more exacting than most votaries of the weed will believe. Evidences of this slavery are numerous and clear. A man arrested for stealing was questioned by the judge as to the motive for the crime. His answer was: "I have the misery to be a hopeless smoker. I smoke at waking; I smoke while eating; I cannot sleep without smoking till the pipe falls from my mouth. When I have no tobacco I -172- am frantic. I cannot work or sleep or eat. I go from place to place raging like a mad dog. The day I stole the lead I had been without tobacco twelve hours. I searched the day through for an acquaintance of whom I could beg a pipeful. I could not, and resorted to crime as a less evil than I was enduring. The need was stronger than I!" He was seventy-two years old, and hitherto had led an irreproachable life. Said a deacon on his death-bed, as reported by Rev. Albert Sims: "I thank God that, as my last sickness has now come, I shall get rid of my hankering for tobacco!" He mentions another, a professed follower of Christ, on the verge of eternity, whose ruling passion for tobacco was strong in death. With her last words she asked for snuff. "Snuff, snuff; give me snuff!" I can name a clergyman who was enslaved by his snuff. He sometimes reproved a neighbor who was a drunkard. At length the drunkard said to him: "If you will give up your snuff, I will give up my rum." The bargain was made. But within forty-eight hours the clergyman was in perfect anguish -173- (pp 174-189) and labor neither sought nor needed by women; enabling the smoker to be idle without growing weary of idleness; tending to take the ambition out of him, and to make himself happy when he should be miserable, and content when his divinest duty is discontent.' The troubles which men are benumbed by tobacco to bear contentedly are usually the very troubles that they need to resist and rise above. There is all possible difference between that Christian philosophy of life which summons us to master our ills and make things better, and that fumacious philosophy which bids us seek for stupefaction under them." Such is tobacco in some of its social bearings. Even here the proffered good [Ed. Note: e.g., "soothing"] is a delusion, and its evils are many. Woman, the queen of the social world, needs to give a lesson to many of her subjects. Will she? -190- X. Chewing vs. Smoking.. NO doubt thequestion has already arisen in the mind of the reader as to which is the more harmful manner of using tobacco—chewing or smoking. It is needless to say that, as on almost every question, there is a difference of opinion. I have collected the opinions of several competent authorities, which give a fair idea of the views of those who have looked into the question. Dr. Lizars, in "Alcohol and Tobacco," says: "The chewer takes less of the oil, but more of the alkaloid;* the smoker, 1ess of the alkaloid but more of the oil. The comparison is simply a balance of evils, which is odious to either set of debauchees; and some get rid of the invidious comparison by taking the drug in both forms—a refuge from scientific doubt compensating for the greater amount of destruction to health and comfort. But if we are to believe Dr. Morris, the nicotianin is ____________ *See page 37. -191- (pp 192-195) another is more harmed by chewing. However, in the light of all the facts, there is little comfort for the user of the weed in either form. Both are alike harmful, and both need to have the cloaks of deception and fallacy torn from them. It is not a question of taking the lesser evil, but of eschewing all evil. -196- XI. Can the Tobacco-habit Be Mastered? CAN the habit be mastered? Yes. Can it be easily done? No. Many excellent men have thought themselves masters of the habit, believing that they could easily give up the use of tobacco at any time; but when they have come to lay it aside they have found that it has taken a stronger hold on them than they had suspected. Of those who boasted that they could "quit at any time" three-fourths have broken down in the attempt. After one has been using tobacco for some time the whole physical organism becomes permeated with it. At first rebelling against its introduction, which is shown in the sickening nausea and headache which tobacco causes, the system at length comes to tolerate, and even call for, its use. Ed. Note: See example initial effects data: Dr. Thorn's; Dr. Jackson's; Dio Lewis' experiment; and reports by Blatin and Neal Dow. The system has to undergo a change in order to accommodate this new and poisonous agent; but this being accomplished, its use becomes "second nature;" and so, when its use is discontinued, there must be another -197- (pp 198-215) XII An Evil to Be Remedied. THE author has endeavored in a fair and candid manner to set forth some of the evils of the use of tobacco. I say "some of the evils," for it has not been attempted to enter into all the particulars, but only the chief objections to its use have been given, while many minor details have been left out. It will be time enough for these when people begin to see the evils of a habit that has fastened itself upon us, and is sucking the life-blood of the people. Tobacco is an insidious foe, which, under the guise of being a harmless solace and comfort, has done much to detract from our welfare as individuals and as a people. Being the handmaid of alcohol, tobacco has been able to get in its work in many places where brandy, beer, and whisky are disrobed of their glittering dresses, and are known in their true light as the destroyers of the bodies and souls of men. Alcohol has been recognized as a foe, and is being, driven back; but the -216- fight cannot be completely successful so long as its chief ally is an honored guest in the temperance ranks The question arises: Has not this evil gone on long enough? Has it not caused enough physical suffering, and fed enough doctors, and shortened enough lives? Has it not drawn the sparkle from enough minds, and blunted the edge of too many intellects? Has not infancy suffered enough when, through the sins of the parents, it has brought babes into the world with shattered constitutions, and has sent them away to youthful graves? Time was when such charges would not have been believed. It has been so with other things. Whisky was once a common beverage, and the sideboards of clergy and laity alike were ornamented with the decanter and the wine-glass. These times of ignorance may have been "winked at," but it is so no longer. Physicians and scientific men have studied the properties and effects of tobacco, and they have given us the results of their investigations. The testimony to the harmfulness of the use of tobacco is so explicit, so positive, and comes from so many sources, that any one who is open to -217- conviction cannot but see that it is far from being the harmless sedative which he has fancied it to be. It may be remarked that we of the South are not up with some other sections in light on this question. Hardly a word of intelligent opposition to tobacco is ever heard among us, and when one does lift his voice against it he is in danger of being considered "a little off" [Ed. Note: allusion to the 'tobacco taboo' - censorship of anti-tobacco data]. A correspondent of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, in "Notes" of the session of a recent Annual Conference, wrote: "The tobacco-crank was on hand, but did not get in any public work." And these "cranks" may as well bear in mind that they will meet with other "note-takers" of the same kind, and many also who do not take notes. But it is comforting to know that they are not dangerous. Ed. Note: Actually, they aid and abet, are accessory to tobacco's natural and probable consequences, thus the tobacco pushers' intent to cause those consequences, in turn establishing criminality, re their pro-tobacco words. This backwardness among us is in striking contrast to what is seen in some other sections. More than once has Joseph Cook, in his Boston Monday lectures, been heartily cheered when he has raised his voice against the use of tobacco. A gentleman who is a Southerner by adoption, but whose mother lives in a Massachusetts town, once said to me that in visiting her he would not dare be seen on the -218- streets while smoking, for such an act would be considered almost disgraceful. This, of course, is an exceptional, though not a solitary, case. Some of our Methodist brethren are ahead of us. In the "Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church" (North), page 338 (edition of 1884), there is the following: "1. That the General Conference advises all our ministers and members to abstain from the use of tobacco as injurious to both soul and body. 2. The General Conference recommends to the Annual Conferences to require candidates for admission to be free from the habit, as hurtful to their acceptability and usefulness among our people."* Rev. Mr. Evans, presiding elder in the Central Illinois Conference, says: "I am glad to say that for about twenty years the Conference, at nearly every session, has adopted radical anti-tobacco resolutions, while the use of the weed has been uniformly denounced as expensive, filthy, injurious, and unchristian. The Conference refuses to admit any one addicted to the tobacco-habit unless a pledge of ____________ *For further directions on this subject see Discipline ol 1884, pp. 60, 65, 95. -219- abstinence be given; and it has also requested the bishop not to transfer to the Conference or appoint to the office of presiding elder any tobacco-user. The discussions of every year have served to make it more unanimous and radical in its action."* A few years ago the New York State Congregational Association unanimously adopted the following resolutions: "1. That the tobacco-habit is an enormous evil; and, on account of its waste of money, positive injuries to health, and pernicious example to the young [Ed Note: a significant concern then], Christians ought to abandon it. 2. That this Association earnestly recommend to all our Churches thorough measures for instructing the people as to the manifold mischiefs flowing from the use of narcotic drugs, as well as drinks; and that special efforts be made to guard children and youth from any and every use of tobacco." Ed. Note: Such clergy actions had effects: Cigarette manufacturing, give-away and/or sale bans were adopted in several states including states such as Iowa, Tennesse, and Michigan. Two years ago the Christian Advocate, of Nashville, had the following editorial paragraph: "The Cumberland Presbyterian General Assembly condemned the use of tobacco by a vote of 113 to 23; and the Reformed Presbyterian Synod has reaf- ____________ *Meta Lander. -220- firmed its action, forbidding any one to be licensed to preach who uses tobacco, and also condemning the raising, manufacturing, and selling of tobacco, and advises sessions to appoint no Sunday-school teacher who uses the weed." At an annual meeting of an English anti-tobacco society the chairman stated that they had "met in the name of science, humanity, and Christianity to enter their most solemn protest against the growing use of tobacco." The following resolution was offered: "That this meeting, impressed with a deep conviction of the physical, mental, and moral evils resulting from the use of tobacco, and regarding with a profound alarm and apprehension the rapidly-extending habit of smoking amongst the youth of our country, calls upon parents, Sunday-school teachers, members and ministers of Christian Churches, and all true patriots and philanthropists to discountenance the practice to the utmost by both precept and example." In speaking of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church now (May, 1888) in session in New York, Dr. Howard Henderson, in a letter to the St. Louis Christian Advocate, says: "The -221- growing feeling against the use of. tobacco is such that any aspirant to General Conference honors would find his prospects seriously embarrassed if he were addicted to the habit. A knowledge of this fact has wrought abstinence in a number of notable cases during the last year. No one of the bishops now use tobacco, and certainly no one could be elected to the Episcopacy if given to this out-lawed habit." So much for the stand that has been taken in other places. But while we of the South cannot say so much as to the sentiment among us against the use of tobacco, yet we are not entirely behind. Witness the testimony given in a previous chapter of five of the leading physicians of Nashville. The Savannah Morning News, one of the foremost dailies of Georgia, has several times recently called attention to this subject. In that paper, of May 6, 1888, there is an editorial article, "Legislating against the Cigarette," in which it says that it is about time something was being done to check this growing evil among us. In the same paper, May 21st, there is an editorial paragraph of the same import. All honor to this newspaper in entering -222- the list against the cigarette, this foe to our youth and manhood. That something [ought] to be done to check this growing evil becomes every day more and more apparent. Some hope to accomplish it by legislation. A bill has recently been introduced into the Senate of the United States prohibiting the selling, giving, or furnishing of cigarettes or tobacco to minors under sixteen years of age in the District of Columbia; and Massachusetts law forbids the sale of tobacco to persons under sixteen years of age. These and other laws are good so far as they go. They may help by calling attention to the subject, but they cannot alone be depended on to correct the evil. As well expect a prohibitory law to prohibit where it is not sustained by public opinion, as to say "shall not" to a boy who knows no reason for the refusal. Some boys are so constituted that the very prohibition of the sale of cigarettes or tobacco to them is the chief reason why they want to smoke or chew. "Men smoke, why should not I?" So the youth reasons, and so he will act. Obstacles only make stronger the determination to do so, -223- and he will have his tobacco. He may not buy his cigarettes openly, but in some way or other he gets them. The American boy is not a fool, and he is aot lacking in expedients. Such laws may decrease the use of tobacco by boys, but they will not stop it. Something more is needed. If along with the "shall not" you accompany the "why not," then good will be done; and of the two the latter will be much more efficacious in accomplishing the desired end. "Shall not," of itself, is no reason, and it often brings contempt on its author; but tell a boy that tobacco will do him no good, but will prevent him from reaching full development of both body and mind, will keep him from succeeding so well in life as he otherwise would, and will bring on premature old age and decay—convince him of these, and you surround him with barriers more effective than all the laws can furnish. If we must have "shall not," let us by all means have "why not" along with it. If this is done, parents and teachers will first have to acquaint themselves with the reasons against the use of tobacco. This should be done thoroughly. One great defect in all our teaching is the lack of knowledge on the part -224- of the teacher; and the student is not slow to recognize this; and so he comes to despise both the teacher and the thing taught. The subject of the use and abuse of tobacco cannot be mastered in a day, as can no other subject worth mastering. Let parents and teachers learn, both by reading and by observation, and then let the subject be strongly impressed upon the minds of the young. Appeal to their reason and manhood, and in five cases of every six the appeal will be successful. And especially is it necessary that parents should acquaint themselves with this subject, for, unless the lesson is learned at home, in the greater number of cases it will not be learned at all. As a rule too much is left to be learned in the schools that should be taught around the hearth-stone. Again: If this teaching is to be effectual, the teachers must "practice what they preach." Boys will not listen to a lecture on tobacco from one whose lips are stained with tobacco-juice or whose breath smells of the cigar or pipe. If personal consideration will not induce men to give up tobacco, then consideration for the welfare and happiness of those about them should do so. Ed. Note: Tragically, such adult 'giving up tobacco' is near impossible in view of the combination of addiction/craving withdrawal symptoms brain damage especially, abulia mental disorder, as exacerbated by pusher fraud, non-informed consent, youth targeting. disregard of smokers' rights, universal malice, intent to cause harm meaning natural and probable consequences, e.g., deaths at holocaust numbers on a world-wide basis hence prohibitory laws such as Iowa's (manufacturing/ give-away/sale ban) came to be recognized as necessary, to deal with this massive organized death-dealing combination. -225- When our religious teachers cleanse themselves, and pull the beam out of their own eyes, they can do much good on this line. They are constantly with the people, and ought to throw much light on this beclouded question. If some of the clergy think they will be compromising their dignity by opposing tobacco, let such remember that John Wesley and Adam Clarke did not think so when they raised their voices against it.* This question of the use of tobacco is worthy the consideration of the wisest and best among us. It is one that is big with consequences in determining the health and happiness of coming generations; and one that must be settled before the "Whisky Devil" is effectually bound. Tobacco to-day numbers its victims by the million. Will men continue to nurse the fetters which bind them? or, rising superior to a degrading appetite, will they declare that they have had enough of this tobacco-bondage? ____________ *See "The Tobacco Problem," p. 217, and "Alcohol and Tobacco," p. 63. -226- Index. Acton, 133. Adams, John Quincy, 204. Adulterations, 85. "Alcohol and Tobacco," 37, 57, 80, 121, 226. Alcott, Dr. W. A., 12, 19, 39, 53, 83, 99, 106, 107, 201. Alexander, Dr. S., 209. Allen, Dr. T. F., 53, 64. Allen, Nathan, 3. American Board Almanac, 33. "American Cyclopedia," 44. Antidote to disease, Not an, 77. Arbuckle, 3. Atchison, Dr. T. A., 139, 195. Axon, W. A., 41. Bacon, Lord, 106. Bancroft, Dr., 74. Bancroft, Prof., 108. Barnes, Dr., 18. Barrett, Dr., 18. Beale, Mrs. D. A., 150. Bird, Joseph, 29. Boston Evening Journal, 59. Briggs, Dr. C. S., 195. Brodie, Sir Benj., 39, 56, 92, 120. Brown, Dr., 49, 83. Bulwer, 150. Cancers from tobacco, 60. Carpenter, Senator Matt, 84. Carson, Dr., 57. Carver, Dr. W. F., 58. Cafe, Dr. H. J., 23. Central Christian Advocate, 63. Chandler, Dr., 18. "Chemistry of Common Life," 192. Chewing vs. smoking, 191. Chisholm, Dr., 52. Cigarettes, 136. Cigarette statistics, 130. -227- Clarke, Adam, 167. Coan, Dr, T. M., 134. "Confessions of an Old Smoker," 14. "Confessions of an Opium-eater," 43. Cook, Joseph, 218. Cooke, Gen. John H., 30. Corson, Dr., 57, 199. Cost and morality, 169. Cost of tobacco, 26. Cowan, Dr. John, 122, 167. Cox, Dr. S. H., 204. Dascomb, Prof., 205. De Quincey, Thomas, 43. Delirium trernens, 72. Delmonico, Lorenzo and Siro, 85. Dickinson, William, 53. Digestion aiding, 12. Dilemma, A, 157. "Diseases of Modern Life," 22. Doolittle, Ex-senator, 107. Dow, Neal, 186. Drunkenness, Tends to, 80. Drysdale, Dr., 53. Dublin Medical Press, 111. Dublin University Magazine, 104, 133. Dyspepsia, 55. Edwards, Dr. Justin, 167. Effects appear late, 100. Ellis, John, 22. Evil, An, to be remedied, 216. Experiments, Results of, 38. Effects on, 51. "Facts about Tobacco," 15, 27, 63, 72, 75, 119, 175, 176,179, 210. Fairholt, F. W., 88. Famous tobacco-users, 114. Fenn, Dr., 79. Fiévée, Joseph, 90. Fires set by smokers, 29. Flint, Rev. Timothy, 151. Fowler, Dr., 115. Furgusson, Dr., 131. Gardiner, Edmund, 10. Gihon, Dr. A. L., 46. Good Health, 73. -228- Graham, Dr., 156. Grant, Gen. U. S., 84. Greeley, Lieut., 59. Grimshaw, Dr., 11. Griscom, Dr. J. H., 185. Hall, Dr. Marshall, 45, 118 Hammend, Dr., 138. Hanlan, 58. Harlow, Dr., 74. Harper, Joseph, 207. Harris, Dr., 13, 69, 79. "Health-lessons for Beginners," 105, 132. Heart disease, 55. Henson, Dr. P. S., 112, 159, 161. Heredity, 117. Heredity, Laws of, 118. Higginbottom, Dr., 156. Hitchcock, Prof., 105. Hopkins, Mark, 164. Hosack, Dr., 13. Insanity, 72. Intemperance, Leads to, 80, 167. Ives, Prof., 177. James, King, 145. Johnson, Dr., 185. Johnston, Prof., 192. Journal of Health, 13, 123. Kirk, Prof., 16. Kirkland, Dr., 74. Ladies and Tobacco, 143. Lancet, The, 67, 119. Lander, Meta, 12, 30, 31, 32, 39, 59, 85, 86, 87, 123, 135, 168, 175, 204, 220. Laws, Restrictive, 223. Legislation on, 139. Leprosy, 87. Lewis, Dr. Dio, 138, 193. Lillebrown, Dr., 18. Lizars, Dr. John, 11, 37, 50, 52, 63, 66, 78, 134,191. Logee, Dr., 71. London Freeman, 181. London Globe, 111. London Times, 184. Maddin, Dr. T. L., 101, 194. Manhood sacrificed, 189. Manly courage, Loss of, 63. -229- Mann, Horace, 135. Marsh, J. B. T., 109. 157, 182, 187, 189. Mastering the habit, 197. Maxon, Dr., 44. McDonaId, Dr., 106, 144. McSherry, Prof. Richard, 108. Meade, Prof., 182. Medical and Surgical Reporter, 52. Medical properties, 11. Medical Times and Gazette, 63. Methodist Episcopal Church, Position of, 219, 221. Miller, Dr. H. V., 135. Miller, Prof., 45. Mind, Effects on the, 103. Ministers and tobacco, 161. Moigno, Abbé, 210. Morality of the habit, 153. Muscular force impaired, 57. Mussey, Dr., 13, 38, 82, 181. Nashville Christian Advocate, 220. National degeneracy, 88. Necessities, Making, 166. Nerves, Effects on, 15, 68. New York Anti-tobacco Society, 71. New York Insane Asylum, 74. New York Times, 87. New York Tribune, 86. Newton, Sir Isaac, 166. Nichol, Dr. W. L., 195. "Nicotiana," 37, 178. Non-procreation, 64. Old tobacco-users, 92. Orfile, M. J. B., 39. Parker, Dr. Willard, 3, 23, 46, 78, 101, 193. Parton, James, 58, 69, 89, 94, 111, 146. Pease, Dr. R. W., 55. Pennsylvania Insane Hospital, 74. "People's Medical Adviser," The, 17. Physician's prescribe it, 97. Pictures, Obscene, 141. Pidduck, Dr. J., 119, 124. Pierce, Dr. R. V., 17, 44, 49. -230- Pipes, 32. Pleasure, Plea of, 170. Poisons, 43. Popular Science Monthly, 41. "Protection against Fire," 29. Quitting, Benefits of, 209. Quitting, Best method of, 211. Religious Intelligencer, 177. Bethel's picture, 170. Richardson, Dr. B. W., 22, 50, 120, 132. Rule of use, 97. Rush, Dr., 13, 81, 133. Sanders, Dr. O. M., 48. Savannah Morning News, 138, 222. Sayne, Dr. L. A., 137. Scalpel, The, 10. School-room, Effects in, 108. Scrofula, 87. Shall not—will not, 223. Shrady, Dr., 84. Sims, Rev. Albert, 173. Sizer, Nelson, 55, 211. Slavery to tobacco, 172. "Smoking and Drinking," 58, 89, 146. Snuff, Amount used, 113. Snuffing, 143. Social view, 172. Sociality, Ministers to, 187. Solly, Dr., 16, 67, 71, 201. South, Position of the, 218, 222. Statistics, 28, 130, 143. Stephenson, Dr., 81, 83. Stone, Dr. O. M., 78. Stuart, Prof. Moses, 82. Talmage, T. De Witt, 60, 113. Taylor, Dr., 43. Teeth, Preserving the, 18. Thackeray, 150. Thwing, E. P., 27, 208 Tissue, Preventing waste of, 22. "Tobacco: Its Effects on the Human System, 21, 177, 178, 201. "Tobacco: Its History and Associations," 8. -231- "Tobacco and the Diseases It Produces," 53. Tobacco and the young, 129. Tobacco blunts moral perception, 154. "Tobacco Pest," The, 135. "Tobacco Problem," The, 35, 53, 57, 59, 72, 94, 120, 122, 155, 159, 186, 204, 226. Tobacco the rival of woman, 146. Tobacco victims, 84. Tobacco vs. decency, 180. Tobacco vs. temperance, 80, 167. Trall, Dr. B. T, 41, 213. Trask, George, 93, 212. Trying both sides, 111. Twitchell, Dr., 56. Tyler, Rev. Josiah, 157. Tryrrell, Dr. Walter, 64. "Use and Abuse of Tobacco," 63, 72. Uses of tobacco, 9. Warren, Dr. J. C., 60. Washburn, Rev. Job, 206. Waterhouse, Dr., 133. Weighed, 170. Wesley, John, 3. Wesleyan Christian Advocate, 218. "What I Know about Tobacco," 161. Who most injured, 98. Wood, Dr., 85. Woodard, Dr., 45, 75, 82. Wright, Dr., 17. Wright, Elizur, 186. Youth, Effects of tobacco on, 120. Youth's Companion, 137. [The End] -232-