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- c