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Tobacco pushers and their accessories conceal the breadth of tobacco effects, the enormity of the tobacco holocaust, and the long record of documentation. The concealment process is called the "tobacco taboo." Other pertinent words are "censorship" and "disinformation." Here is the text by B. W. Chase of an early exposé (1878) of tobacco dangers. It cites facts you rarely ever see, due to the "tobacco taboo." The phrase "tobacco taboo" is the term for the pro-tobacco censorship policy—to not report most facts about tobacco. As you will see, information about the tobacco danger was already being circulated in 1878, 86 years before the famous 1964 Surgeon General Report. Be prepared. |
Tobacco: Its Physical, Mental,
Moral and Social Influences
by Rev. B. W. Chase, A.M.
(New York: Wm. B.
Mucklow Pub Co, 1878)
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.
Introduction 5 I. The Physical Effects of Tobacco 9 14 15 16 17 18 18 19 19 20 20 21 21 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 26 31 31 32 32 35 35 37 37 37 38 38 40 43 43 44 45 46 47 47 II. The Mental Effects of Tobacco 53 56 57 59 61 61 III. The Moral Effects of Tobacco 65 IV. The Social Effects of Tobacco 79 79 81 81 82 82 How To Get Rid of This Evil 88 Conclusion 90
"Most persons who have been in the habit of using Tobacco can recollect that sometimes,
in taking the pipe or quid, they have suddenly felt its influence go over the whole system like an electric shock; in a moment they have felt it to the very ends of their fingers, as if the nerves, like the strings of a harp, were vibrating upon the surface. The sensation would not be altogether unpleasant were it not for the apprehension, which instantly arises, that nature has received a terrible stroke, and that some fearful result will be the consequence."
"that in all his travels he never saw but one drunkard wlio did not use Tobacco.""It is a fact that drunkards generally used Tobacco before they used strong drink. It is also a fact that if a drunkard drops his cups but does not drop his Tobacco, he will probably apostatize." "The dialect of the toper in the dram shop is instructive:
'I smoke because it makes me love to dnnk so. I drink because it makes me love to smoke so. I drink to wet my whistle. I smoke to dry it.'"
This poison may be given off and taken up by another like any contagion. Dr. Coles says: "Mr. [Schuyler] Colfax [1823-1885; U.S. Vice-President, 1869-1873; Speaker of the House, 1863-1869], it will be remembered, narrowly escaped death, as he afterward believed, from this cause, at the time of his sudden prostration in the
"Its effects, sir," said the doctor, "its effects are evil, only evil, and that continually. It is a mystery tliat gentlemen of my profession care so little, do and know so little about a poison that is doing mischief at so terrible a rate. Sir," the doctor continued, "I was on a council of physicians the other day on the border of this town; the patient was a young Dissatisfied and impatient, I said to his attending physician: "Does the poor fellow use Tobacco?' 'Oh no,' he replied 'I guess not,' and with an air of nonchalance added 'What if he does? What can that have to do with his case?'
"'I did not ask you,' I replied; 'about the effects of Tobacco, but simply if the patient used it.' Gruffly he said: 'Go and see.' Stepping to his bedside, I said: 'My young friend, do you use Tobacco?' With a squealing voice more cat-like than human, he said: 'I use a little.'
"'How do you use it?' "I smoke a little.' 'Did you smoke this morning?' 'Yes, a little.' 'Did you smoke at noon?' 'Yes, a little.'
"Before I quit him I ascertained that "This," continued the doctor, "may seem strange, but the strangest of all is the fact, that his attending physician—regular and well-bred—did not know in the first place that his patient used Tobacco; and, secondly, that he did not know that a rank and deadly poison could have had anything to do with his case! We are accused of killing our patients with calomel! A thousand are killed by Tobacco where one is killed by calomel! "The mind of its victim is often in the condition of a steam engine moving at the rate of fifty or a hundred miles an hour; and then in the condition of the same engine with a collapsed boiler smashed up by the wayside. Or his mind is like the race-horse, all foaming upon the spring on the race ground; or like that noble animal half dead from exhaustion, prostrate in his stall."
"To- 'Tis this that makes us men,
May each true woman shun his sight,
-89- -90-
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from the former. Dr. [Amos] Twitchell says:"He had found almost every individual, who has died during sleep, had long been in the habit of the free use of Tobacco, and it was his full conviction that that was almost the only cause of such deaths."
Reader, that quickened palpitation is a warning.
enough. Here we may see a reaction on the digestive organs. No organ of the body is more seriously affected by this narcotic than the heart. There may be other things that cause heart disease, but this is the most common and the most potent. Not being able to perform its functions in throwing the blood to other parts, those parts are affected with various diseases. As Dr. Twitchell remarks:"This sluggish circulation predisposes to almost every disease to which the human system is subject."
not only he who uses Tobacco, but tliose who are brought into contact with him, are liable to have its poison taken up by the veins and conveyed to the heart.
these bellows will not properly work, and there will not be sufficient oxygen inhaled from the air to purify the blood.
how inhaling ammonia excites its membrane. This membrane is in some people excited by inhaling smoke. Snuff is taken for the purpose of irritating it. Individuals who work where it is found, though they may not use it, are liable to contract pulmonary disease, through its influence on this organ.
parts of oxygen and about seventy.nine parts of nitrogen. Water will mix more readily with some other things than with oil, simply because it has a greater affinity for them On the same principle the oxygen of the air has a greater affinity for some elements of this dark colored blood than for nitrogen, and so leaves the latter and unites with the former. On the other hand, the carbonic acid has a greater affinity for the air than the blood, and so leaves the latter and unites with the air, the same as a toper would leave a church and go to a saloon, because he has a greater affinity for the latter. The oxygen taken up by the blood, changes its color and it is then returned to the heart. The remaining portions of air, vitiated with carbonic acid, are expelled from the lungs and may be seen in a cold morning in the form of vapor. Things that are taken into the stomach to affect the blood do not pass into the air So
nicotine, as any other poison, instead of going with the carbonic acid into the air, is returned to the heart, to be thrown out to vitiate the system.
various articles of food, or taken certain kinds of medicine. Does, therefore, the food or medicine have no influence on the system?
tory organs cannot be removed by this vitiating poison.
of the blood and apply them to the parts to which they are adapted. Their action must be seriously interrupted if the blood contain anything unnatural as must be the case with the user of Tobacco.
"It has been found that the hand immersed to the wrist in warm water will absorb from ninety to a hundred grains of fluid in the space of an hour."
A person immersed in Tobacco smoke would be likely to absorb its elements and convey them into
the body. It may be said that these vessels would carry away all the influences of Tobacco, but facts prove to the contrary. A man accustomed to its use is saturated with it. That Tobacco poison may be taken up by the absorbents of the skin is shown by the experiments of Fontana:"I made," says he "a small incision in a pigeon's leg and applied to it the oil of Tobacco. In two minutes it lost the use of its foot. I repeated the experiment on another pigeon and the event was exactly the same. I introduced into the pectoral muscles of a pigeon a small bit of wool covered with this oil. The pigeon in a few seconds fell insensible. Two others to whose muscles I applied the oil vomited several times."
Dr. Bigelow says:"I knew a woman who applied to the heads of three of her children afflicted with the 'scald head' an ointment composed of snuff and butter; but what was her surprise to find them immediately seized with
"Put a victim of this habit into a hot bath; let full and free perspiration arise; then drop a fly into that water and it dies at the instant of contact."
Cannibals will not eat flesh which contains the flavor of Tobacco. Even the turkey-buzzards of Mexico refused the flesh of soldiers addicted to this indulgence.
"These Tobacco essences are constantly being given off by insensible perspiration. This is so abundant as sometimes seriously to affect the health of a bed-companion. The poor wife has in some cases visibly suffered by sleeping with a living keg of Tobacco juice."
This poison is also inherited by offspring, as many facts might show. Cancers on the lips may result from it. They generally occur on the side where the Tobacco is held. These all result from absorption.
hangs. Whatever injures these makes life uncertain. These strings of life center in the brain, where one of the first effects of Tobacco is experienced. Its peculiar exhilarating influence is first found in the nervous system. No one will deny that Tobacco is a narcotic.
"When enough of it is taken at once to destroy life, its nicotine kills the electro-vital fluid circulating in the nerves. Various experiments on dumb animals exhibit its shocking power to agonize and kill." "Tobacco unnerves me at times and leaves me in a state of extreme lassitude, and nothing serves to raise me so well as whiskey or brandy."
Senate Chamber, and smoked no more. There are thousands of inveterate smokers who are daily inviting this peril. Will they accept admonition and desist in time?"
should it not be if it be such a destroyer of nervous energy?
"Doctor," we said to a splendid specimen of the profession, "tell us something about the baneful effects of Tobacco."
man prostrate by paralysis; he was deprived of the use of his lower limbs from the abdomen to his toes; we overhauled him; we withdrew and talked about antecedents and probable causes for a long time, and came to no satisfactory conclusions.
he had actually consumed sixteen cigars a day and the poor fellow's soul was so obfusticated by smoke that he considered that prodigious amount but little."
THE WORTHY PATRIARCH IN DELIRIUM TREMENS.
maniac, the following passed between them:"Do you use strong drinks?" "No," said the maniac. "Do you belong to the Sons of Temperance?" "Yes," was the reply. "I supposed you did," said the doctor; " you use Tobacco. This is a Tobacco fit—this is delirium tremens. You may die in the next one. Drop Tobacco, or Tobacco will drop you."
The former Worthy Patriarch dropped Tobacco, and has not had delirium tremens since.—Fitchturg Tract Depository.
On the Senses.
called "a cold in the head," there is an oppression connected with the ear, or "a ringing in the ear." In such a cold there is an excitement of the mucous membrane, and the influence is extended to the membrane of the ear, and pain, or closeness, is experienced.
tender, so much so that "the apple of the eye" is taken as a figure to represent the object of most earnest solicitude. Any one knows how smoke will cause the eye to smart. The Tobacco-smoker may say he hardens the eye to smoke. So one may get used to a smoke-house, but would it be considered healthy to live in such a place? Tobacco smoke not only irritates, but infuses poison to the injury of the nerve and muscles of the eye. When ammonia is taken into the nose it causes the tears to flow; so snuff causes the eyes to water.
that the brain and nerve of smell be healthy, and that the membrane that lines the nose be thin and moist. Snuff, when introduced into the nose, not only diminishes the sensibility of the nervous filaments, but thickens the lining membrane. This thickening of the membrane obstructs the passage of air through the nostrils, and thus obliges 'snuff-takers' to open their mouths when they breathe."
Snuff, and many other articles used for catarrh, produce more disease than they remove. The excitement and poison of Tobacco must injure this sense.
coming deadened by this poison, the nerves act with less energy, and, consequently, the Tobacco devotee requires more stimulating and highly flavored food—and drink.
at the base of the nasal passages. The habit of using Tobacco is formed at the most critical period, that is, when the voice "is changing," and the vocal cords are therefore more liable to injury.
of the weed because, when these are shown, it is much easier to show its other effects. If other poisons were as insidious, as deceptive, as fascinating, and as fashionable, it might be desirable to show their effects.
II.
The Mental Effects of Tobacco.
simply an instinct connected with their physical organism, while man has a mind which distinguishes him from the brute creation. It is not proposed to discuss this question. It may require some higher characteristic than simply mental organism to constitute the difference between man and beast. Suffice it to say that man has a mental organism with which are connected noble faculties.
vitality and vigor of the nerves, becomes correspondingly weakened in its action. Upon its action depends, in some way, the activity of the mind. If it has become unduly stimulated by Tobacco, or other poisons, the mind will be unduly excited, and the muscles of the face will reveal this excitement. If the brain has become deadened—which is the final result of Tobacco—the mind will be correspondingly deadened, and there will be a lifeless expression in the face corresponding to it.
sick for a long time. The results of nervous derangement of the mind cannot be easily calculated, but, gonsidering their intimate relations, they must be great. I have thus indicated in a general manner, the results of Tobacco on the mind; but I wish to be more specific on this point, for it is desirable we should know and avoid every injury to the mind.
continual Tobacco-user does not consider himself intoxicated, but he is in a state akin to it constantly. Glance at a bar-room after dinner, and those sons of smoke, those dreamy, boozy devotees will give some idea of mind essentially intoxicated. Many a boy, on first beginning to use the weed, has experienced its intoxicating influences, even to the very tips of his fingers. Its exhilarations are undue and unnatural, uncalled for and injurious.
the mind is that which makes it open to conviction of physical and moral truths; but the excited Tobacco-chewer, instead of arguments, will sputter words and Tobacco-juice at the same time; and he who argues with such an one should be cautious not to get his garments nor his good name soiled. This irritation is never so manifest as when the individual is deprived of his pipe, quid or snuff.
"A merchant in a certain city, deprived of his Tobacco for a single day, became infuriated to madness and inflicted kicks on his wife and children without mercy."
bacco drives to excessive action, hence exhaustion and debility are the legitimate consequences, and, wherever you go, you may see these over-driven animals half dead on beds and sofas—half dead in hotels and saloons."
memory. "The minds of smokers are sometimes completely oblivious." It weakens decision, or the will power. "It completely enslaves the mind." Said a young minister, aiming to break his chains: "I need Tobacco to give me resolution to give up Tobacco." It impairs the power of self-possession. Ambition, to a certain extent, is desirable and commendable, but this habit tends to crush a lofty ambition, and the mind, once aspiring, becomes satisfied with penury, beggary and degradation. The man is willing to sacrifice all high and noble purposes, to bow down to this god of appetite and bring his oblation to its altars.
insanity. In one of the reports of the Hospital for the Insane at Worcester, Mass., when speaking of Tobacco as one of the causes of insanity, Dr. Woodward quotes the opinions of a large number of the most eminent physicians who pronounce the same opinion.
"An instance is also given by one writer on this subject of a young man who became a raving maniac through the use of snuff."
This is not an isolated case. Rev. Mr. Trask relates the case of James Dixey who was a maniac through the influence of Tobacco.
"Those who indulge in its use, indeed, sometimes pretend that Tobacco does not injure the brain; but this must be in the sense of the anecdote told of an old lady who asked her physician if snuff ever injured folks' brains? " Oh no, madam," said he, "for folks who have any brains don't take it."
Thus Tobacco injures the mind. There is no good use for it except to kill vermin.
The Moral Effects of Tobacco.
forth a greater distinction—that man has an immortal part.
A soul within us lives,
A soul that never dies,
Which to our nature gives
All holy, heavenly ties.
Distinguished from the beasts;
'Tis this that moves us when
We hope for heavenly feasts.
physical organism. The soul, in its normal condition, in its primitive state, in its primeval purity, could never degrade mind or body; but, since it has fallen from this condition, it seems "to seek out many inventions" by the use of which it may degrade the instruments with which the Master has endowed it. Giving itself up to its own servants, it has by them been degraded to servitude. As though the overseer of a company of men were controlled by their will rather than by his own.
men he places an overseer. If any of these overseers should abuse the men and so injure them by his cruelty, or by feeding them an improper food, as that they could not perform the duties assigned them, would he be accomplishing the design of the owner? The answer must be negative
to the workmen. God has a work to be done, and it is of such a nature that the overseers cannot do it themselves, so the soul is to operate through mind and body. It is by means of these that man influences man. The soul throws the light from the eye and the radiance through the speaking countenance.
the soul will be proportionally diminished in power. If the physical powers be diminished by that which is injurious, there will be less activity of the moral nature. Facts prove that Tobacco diminishes the morality of men."Drunkards consider Tobacco-users on a par
with themselves. 'We all have our failings,' don't we?' said a staggering inebriate to a Methodist preacher, as he was buying and using some of 'Mrs. Miller's Fine Cut.' Tobacco is almost invariably sold at dram-shops."
Investigations in prisons, and houses of correction, and State reform schools, show that a vast majority of their inmates used Tobacco before they committed crime.
Examples of Other
Smoking-Crime-Link References: The
Real 'Profile': White Male Smokers
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"In traveling through the principal cities and town in the States, this truth has stared me in the face: Just in proportion as physical sins abound, moral obliquities follow; just in proportion as ungodliness of oral appetite prevails, obscenity, vulgarity and profanity abound; the more Tobacco and liquor the more gambling, licentiousness and crime."
"We have enjoyed a precious revival of religion, which embraced a large group of young men; some run well, others have apostatized and
dishonored Christ, but every backslider, without exception, is a victim of Tobacco in some form."
Says a college officer:
"When anxious for salvation, my cigars stood in my way and delayed my submission to God; my cigars were the last idol I surrendered."
There were two young men both desirous of "growing up into Christ, their living head in all things." They both used Tobacco, and were both convinced that it was a hindrance to obtaining their object. One gave up the weed and gained his object; the other did not give up the weed and did not gain his object. Many have gone into their closets and made it a subject of prayer, and invariably have come out convinced that it was a duty to give up the habit. In view of its evil"the Sandwich Island Christians refuse church-membership to those who use rum or Tobacco habitually.
conversion he continued to use Tobacco, and was rather a hard smoker; but one of the circuit preachers having rallied him on the subject, he began to consider the question of to smoke or not to smoke. He was not long in arriving at the conclusion that the use of Tobacco was a bad habit. Then he went to a physician and asked what effect a discontinuance of the weed would be likely to produce in his case, and was advised not to leave off smoking, or, if he did, to do so gradually. The sequel must be told in his own words.
save ye. Ye quit the whiskey, but ye can't drap the Tobaccy.'
Thin the old fellow says, Finish yer pipe at any rate; an' with that I whips out me pipe an' throws it afther the 'baccy-box.'
The Social Effects of Tobacco.
out considering it a vitiation of society, he must have the credit, if credit it be, of being blind to the rules of decency, and unconscious of the keen senses that inhabit other men. To go into a store or depot, a railroad car or a church, and see the filth produced by this habit, is enough to make a well person sick.
others are to partake. Surely these are no slight evils to society.
Tobacco-lounger is an unproductive incubus.
"The time spent by a single individual in taking chews, and lighting and puffing pipes and cigars, would, if properly improved, in many
instances, be sufficient to acquire a thorough knowledge of several useful sciences. Multiply this by the whole number of Tobacco-users, and it will amount to centuries of precious time consumed not only in useless but
degrading practices."
The deranged Tobacco mind can be of little use, but a burden to others.
will be worth ten million dollars less. Flour is a useful article, while Tobacco is worse than useless. If millions of dollars be consumed in this article, this value might be invested in something useful, and so much added to the productive interests of society. Some may say that the money paid for it is still in the
country. So it might be in the case of the flour, yet no one will deny that tlie burning of the flour is a loss. Though the money remains, it must be paid for flour, because the price must be proportionally higher; but the
money spent in this useless article might otherwise be spent for useful articles, so benefitting somebody; whereas now it is a positive injury to society.
it not be an advantage to society to spend this money for education? Many people think themselves unable to dress decently enough to be found in the house of God on the Sabbath, and their constant excuse is poverty. These same people consume, at a moderate estimate, Tobacco enough in forty years to amount, at compound interest, to $2,500 each. If they had a will to be found in the house of prayer, they could find a way.
"The labor of producing Tobacco and preparing it for use, is amazing. Five and a-half millions of acres are cultivated in this soil-impoverishing crop throughout the world. In a great Tobacco factory in Seville, Spain, five thousand young girls are employed in a single room. In the city of Hamburg, ten thousand persons are engaged in the manufacture of cigars."
not embraced in the revenue report, so that, probably, the amount will reach $200,000,000.
"In New York city alone, there are 200,000 smokers, and nearly as many chewers of Tobacco, to say nothing of snuff-takers. It is estimated that its citizens spend daily over $10,000 for cigars, and less than $9,000 for bread. Many fashionable ladies smoke cigarettes, and a cigar dealer in Boston makes the astonishing announcement that he sells an average of 300 cigars daily for the use of the fair ones in New England."
"The rats once assembled in a large cellar to devise some method of safely getting the bait from a steel trap which lay near, having seen numbers of their friends and relatives snatched from them by its merciless jaws. After many long speeches and the proposal of many elaborate but fruitless plans, a happy wit, standing erect, said, 'It is my opinion
that, if with one paw, we can keep down the spring, we can safely take the food from the trap with the other.' All the rats present loudly squealed assent. Then they were startled by a faint voice, and a poor rat, with only three legs, limping into the ring, stood up to speak: 'My friends, I have tried the plan you propose, and you see the result. Now let me suggest a plan to escape the trap: Let it alone!"
That was a sensible rat. If you wish to escape the Tobacco-trap, let it alone.
"May never lady press his lips,
His proffered love returning,
Who makes a furnace of his mouth,
And keeps its chimney burning!
For fear his fumes might choke her;
Let none but those who smoke themselves,
Have kisses for a smoker."
See also our Prevent Divorce website.
by Dr. John Lizars (1859)
Tobacco and Its Effects: Report
to the Wisconsin Board of Health
by G. F. Witter, M.D. (1881)
The Use of Tobacco,
by Prof. John I. D. Hinds, Ph.D. (1882)
Tobacco: Its Use and Abuse,
by Rev. John B. Wight (1889)
The Case Against the Little White Slaver,
by Henry Ford (1914)
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