LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I # f UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, t W W V TOBACCO WHAT IT IS, AND WH.A-T IT OOE^ BY DAN KING, M. D. FELLOW OF THE MASS. MED. SOCIETY, LATE COMMISSIONER ON TRIALS. MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN MED. ASSOCIATION, ETC ■< -C-C3. »-*- NEW YORK: B. S. & W. WOOD, PUBLISHERS. 1861. / X Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1861, By Dan King, In the Clerks office of the District Court of Rhode Island. PREFACE. Although many of the evils arising from the use of . tobacco have been known since its first introduction into civil life, yet they appear to have been generally disre- garded by the masses, and in spite of every effort to the contrary this useless and pernicious habit has continued to spread and increase until it is found in every inhabited country on the globe ; and as all the various measures hitherto employed to arrest its progress have proved in- effectual, the only hope left appears to be in the diffusion of information among all classes, and appeals to the good sense of an intelligent and reflecting public. Al- though the noxious qualities of this plant and its delete- rious effects upon the human system, are better under- stood at the present time than formerly, yet it must be presumed that there are many who are not fully aware of their number or magnitude ; and in view of the startling developments which are brought out in the following pages the author has thought proper . to introduce ample testimony, of the highest order, in support of every im- portant allegation. Notwithstanding the very common use of tobacco everywhere, the world is mil cf the most IV. reliable and positive testimony against it ; and the author has the satisfaction of knowing that if he has erred in the matter under consideration, he has erred with the wisest and best of men both at home and abroad. In preparing the following work the author has been greatly assisted by the perusal of an excellent little man- ual written by Professor Lizars of Edinburgh and recently republished in Philadelphia. The author of that work is now one of the most eminent surgeons of Europe ; it con- tains much valuable documentary "information of a high order, and should be carefully studied by every- young man in the United States. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 9 CHAPTER II. The abnormal effects of tobacco. — Its poisonous principles. — Their fatal effects upon animals. — Morbid symptoms and diseases that follow its use. — Extracts from Sir Benjamin Brodie 13 CHAPTER IIL Tobacco induces or hurries on Consumption and Haemop- tysis. — It poisons the blood. — Kills leeches, bugs, etc. — Intoxicates the nursing infant.— Causes nervous affec- tions, Amaurosis, Deafness, etc. — Weakens the recu- perative powers. — Use of long pipes. — Tobacco Dyspep- sia. — The use of tobacco no protection against conta- gious diseases. — Death from sleeping in a room with tobacco 31 in. CHAPTER IV. Effects 'of tobacco upon the mind. — Men of strong intellects have seldom made use of tobacco.— Anecdote of Napo- leon Bonaparte. — Tobacco debilitates and depraves the intellect. — Quotations from Dickens, Adam Clark, Wes- ley, Drs. Solly, Abernethy, Carlyon, and Johnson. — Amount consumed in Great Britain in a single year. — Extracts from Lizars 45 CHAPTER V. 'Smoking worse than Snuffing or Chewing. — Cigars worse than Pipes. — Snuffing nearly given up. — The earlier in life tobacco is used, the worse its effects.— Smoking a nuisance. — The cost of tobacco considered. — Danger from fires 53 CHAPTER VI. Does tobacco shorten life ? An extract, etc 63 CHAPTER VII. The use of tobacco impairs the memory. — Anecdote of Dr* Franklin , 70 €HAPTER VIII. Other effects of tobacco.— Case reported by Professor Chapman. — Opinion of Dr. Wright. — Experiments upon dogs. — Argument advanced by the Nashville Medical Journal, answered ....... 74 CHAPTER IX. Disorders that arise from sleeping with those who nse tobacco — Case reported by Dr. Huff of New York. — Statement of Dr. Prout 82 Vll. 'CHAPTER X. The eflects of tobacco upon the appetite considered.—* Smoking leads to drinking, and drinking to smoking. — An extract from Dr. Budgett of London 89 CHAPTER XI. Tobacco in the same category with intoxicating liquors. — Extracts from Professor Miller, and Dr. Marshal Hall. — .Nicotin employed for murder. 96 CHAPTER XII. The free use of tobocco produces Individualism 104 CHAPTER XIII. Mental operations checked or suspended by the use of tobacco. — Persons accustommecl to its use seldom aban- don it. — Communication from Benjamin Silliman, M. D. a L L. D 112 CHAPTER XIV. • Tobacco a source of revenue in France. — One evil made to support another.— Rum and tobacco as luxuries. — Do they add to the real enjoyments of life 1- — Early history of tobacco. — Prohibitions ineffectual. — The odious cha- racter of growing tobacco. — etc 118 CHAPTER XV. Tobacco inclines the mind to Infidelity 128 CHAPTER XVI. Drugging cigars for felonious purposes — They may be- come the medium of communicating a noisome disease. — Extracts from Drs. Johnson and Solly, etc 137 vm. CHAPTER XVII. Considerations connected with reform 143 CHAPTER XVIII. Miscellaneous Observations and Reflections 151 CHAPTER XIX. Concluding Remarks 101 TOBACCO; WHAT IT IS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. In intellectual philosophy, nothing is more difficult, than to convince men of truths against the testimony of their own senses. By observa- tions and reasoning, the ancient philosophers became convinced of the earth's rotundity, and its diurnal and annual revolutions, but the publi- cation of these discoveries, met with instantaneous and universal opposition ; besides, their supposed contradiction of scripture, the new doctrine was summarily refuted by the evidence of every man's senses — the earth was obviously a broad, horizontal expanse — day after day, and year year after year, all their lives long, all had seen the sun rise in the east, move slowly across the 10 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS heavens, and go down in the west ; and against such palpable /testimony, no arguments founded upon abstract principles, had any force ; the world looked upon the science of astronomy as the vagaries of mad men, and treated its authors as felons. At length the dawning of science slowly dissipated the darkness of ignorance and superstition, and by degrees men began to ques- tion the testimony of their senses, and reluctantly to acknowledge the wonderful truths announced by Gallileo and his followers. Yet, although the main principles of Grecian astronomy were sus- ceptable of easy demonstration, men were slow to set aside the prima facie evidence of their own senses, and embrace the sublime truths which it brought to light. And at the present time, the chemists, physicians, and scientific men who by their labors and observations have ascer- tained the poisonous nature of tobacco, and its deleterious effects upon mankind, are regarded much as the ancients regarded the first promul- gators of astronomy. Every one has seen AND WHAT IT DOES. 11 tobacco in constant use, all around him, his life long ; and he is not aware that any one has been poisoned, or in any manner injured by it, and therefore he believes it to be harmless. Acting upon his own brief and imperfect experience, and yielding to motives of interest or inclination, he looks with perfect contempt upon all the evidences and arguments that scientific investi- gations can present. The march of intelligence may correct the mistakes of the senses, but the universal cupidity of mankind, which ever seeks for gain, regardless of means, and the unlimited love of animal pleasure, can only be corrected by moral considerations, the power of example, and the force of public opinion. The more the sub- ject is examined, the greater its importance appears, and the constantly increasing cosump- tion of tobacco, certainly deserves attention ; we live in the midst of tobacco fields and tobacco manufactories, and, judmg from appearances, one might be led to conclude, that the chief errand of life was to smoke. Apparently regard- 12 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS less of all consequences, the habit is spread over the whole country, and communicated from pa- rents to children, generation after generation. A most virulent poison has come to be considered, not only innocent, but absolutely necessary to the common enjoyments of life, and whoever attempts to hold a parley with its devotees, if he does not find himself required to answer for his temerity before a legal tribunal, will be pretty suie to incur the most severe public censure. AND WHAT IT DOES. 13 CHAPTER II. The abnormal effects of tobacco. — Its poisonous principles. — Their fatal effects upon animals. — Morbid symptoms and diseases that follow its use. — Extracts from Sir Benjamin Brodie. Tobacco, as a luxury, is more extensively em- ployed than any other narcotic. People of all nations, of all religions, and in all conditions of society make use of it — yet it is a poison and an enemy to human life, and ever injurious to the physical and intellectual powers. We will first consider some *of its most obvious effects upon the bodily organs, and then proceed to point out its influence on the mind and moral conduct. It may be said in the beginning, that in whatever way tobacco is employed, all its effects are strictly abnormal, and that it never contributes in the least degree to the natural requirements of the 14 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS system. Whether the individual smokes or chews, the first effect of the tobacco is that of a siala- gogue. As soon as the article comes in contact with the mucus membrane of the mouth, and fauces an increased quantity of mucus, and sa- liva is poured out to protect the nervous extrem- eties from the virulence of the poison, which would otherwise soon destroy life. This. abnor- mal flow of saliva, charged with the essential oil of tobacco, must either be swallowed or spit out. If any ordinary smoker, or chewer, swallowed all his own saliva, he must inevitably die in a short time from the poison, unless it was thrown off by vomiting. Ail the impulses of his nature urge him to discharge the nauceous secretion as fast as it accumulates, and the repulsive habit of spitting, is the necessary consequence. In the course of twenty-four hours, an individual may discharge in that way, from a gill, to a quart, or more of saliva and mucous, impregnated with the poisonous qualities of tobacco. This is a tax upon the vital energies of the system > for which AND WHAT IT DOES. 15 it receives no equivalent. A proper quantity of healthy saliva is always necessary for a healthy digestion, and undep ordinary circumstances, all, or nearly all that is secreted, should go into the stomach for this purpose. The use of tobacco increases the quantity, but vitiates the quality of that fluid, so that besides carrying a poisonous element with it, into the stomach, it is thinned, its solvent power diminished, and an imperfect di- gestion and assimilation follow as the necessary consequence. The tongue and inside of the mouth, being continually exposed to this poison- ous irritant, become of a firy red color, and when an individual has used tobacco freely, for many years, the whoie prima vie exhibits a similar appearance, and in such cases fatal perforations of the stomach or intestines are not uncommon, as has been abundantly proved by anatomical examinations. The constant use of tobacco irritates the lining membrane of the mouth, and often impairs and vitiates the sense of taste ; the tongue becomes 16 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS clumsy, and as soon as the quid or cigar is thrown away, the mouth becomes dry, and the man is thirsty, consequently those who use much tobacco generally require large quantities of drink. Thus tantalized, the individual must keep some portion of the stimulating weed constantly in his mouth, or be continually slaking his burning thirst with some kind of liquid. Beer is likely to become a favorite beverage ; and when this becomes too vapid, ale and the stronger kinds of alcoholic drinks are often resorted to, and when at last the man becomes a complete sot, he will some- times give up his tobacco wholly, and devote himself entirely to the use of intoxicating drinks. Such has been the brief history of many an un- fortunate iqebriate. Tobacco usually produces a kind of ptyalism, and the discharge from the mouth corresponds in some degree, with the quantity of liquor taken into the stomach ; this relieves the kidneys, so that the mouth is made to perform the vicarious office of the urinary organs. When tobacco is seen protruding from the lips, AND WHAT IT DOES. 17 or swelling the cheeks of almost every man and boy, in the streets, one might be led to conclude that an article so universally employed, with such perfect nonchalance, must be not only innocent, but a very desirable luxury. But it is not so ; tobacco is one of the most pungent and subtle of all the vegetable poisons, and even in minute doses is capable of destroying life ; yet it is with this, as with most other narcotic poisons ; by long use, the system becomes able to tolerate it to such an extent, that the habitual smoker, or chewer, may use in a single day a quantity suffic- ient to kill several strong men, unaccustomed to its use. Usually poisonous vegetables are found to con- tain only one active deleterious element, but chemical analysis has shown that the tobacco- plant contains three extremely poisonous princi- ples. One of tiese is a colorless liquid alkaloid called Nicotina ; it has an extremely acrid, burning taste, and is one of* the most virulent of all poisons, resembling in its activity the strong- 18 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS est preparations of prussic acid. Another of the poisonous elements of this plant, is a volatile oil called Nicotianin, and the third is an unctuous sub- stance called the empyreumatic oil of tobacco. All of these are acrid poisons of the most deadly kind, and every leaf and fibre of that vegetable con- tains a portion of each one of these noxious principles, each being so very acrid and malig- nant, that it is scarcely possible to tell which is most so. The smoker imbibes more of the oil, and less of the alkaloid, whilst the chewer takes more of the latter and less of the former ; either of them in their concentrated state, is quite as virulent and deadly in its effects as prussic acid. A single drop of either of the oils, put upon the tongue of a cat, kills her in two minutes ; if a fowl be pricked with a needle that has been dipped in the oil of tobacco, it flutters for an instant and then dies. A single grain of the alkaloid is suf- ficient to kill instantly the strongest mastiff. Such is the deadly nature of an article used without stint or measure, by all classes and con- AND WHAT IT DOES. 19 ditions, the young and the old, rich and poor, bond and free. But in order more distinctly to understand its toxical properties, we must no- tice its effects when taken in moderate doses. Like many other poisons, one of the first symp- toms that follow its use, is a sensation of heat in the throat, often extending to the stomach, fol- lowed by a distressing nausea and giddiness, and if the dose is considerable, and the person wholly unaccustomed to its use, vomiting, purging and diuresis follow, attended with a death-like sinking at the pit of the stomach, and to these succeed languor and relaxation of the muscles, faintness, trembling, imperfect vision, anxiety, small weak pulse, laborious respiration, or cold clammy sweat and sometimes convulsions. These symptoms are more or less severe, according to the quantity of tobacco taken, and the circumstances and the condition of the patent ; they may be of short duration, or end in torpor and death. Similar effects often follow the external use cf tobacco, and in numerous instances, death has 20 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS been produced by its topical application ; and when we look upon this array of distressing symp- toms, and at the same time consider that the taste of the article is always extremely nauseous to all who are unaccustomed to its use, we are led to wonder how the article comes to be so exten- sively employed. It is with this as with most other pernicious practices • the first beginnings are generally small, and often casual. The habit is acquired by degrees, until at length the system is brought into a condition to tolerate the noxious material, and when no more than the accustomed quantity is taken, none of the deleterious effects are experienced. It does not however by that means become innocent, or cease to injure the animal economy, but it comes to work in disguise, and whilst the mischief is secretly going on in some internal organ, the man is beguiled by a voluptious sensation excited in the brain. It is so with many other poisons ; by long use the system ceases to admonish the individual of iheir per- nicious tendencies. AND WHAT IT DOES. 21 In lower Austria, and some parts of India many of the inhabitants are in the daily habit of tak : ng arsenic, by smoking or otherwise, and. by long use an individual becomes able to consume an incredible amount daily, with apparent impunity, but the enemy is A\\\ at work secretly, and its fatal effects are sure to be developed at last. But no rational considerations, or legal restrictions have ever been able to suppress this pernicious practice in those countries. No one can be in the daily habit of smoking, or chewing tobacco for any considerable length of time, without suffering from its effects. For reasons already given, dyspepsia in some form or other, is a pretty common attendant on those who use much tobacco. In technical lan- guage, it may be said, tobacco thins the saliva and the secretions of the Live? and Pancreas, and acts as a sedative upon the Pneumo gastric nerves. The vitiated state of the fluids produces an imperfect digestion and assimilation, and functional or organic derangements are liable to 22 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS follow as the consequence. It must be observed that tobacco does not operate upon all alike. Owing to difference of temperament, age and condition, the symptoms that follow its use are by no means uniform, therefore what may be true in one case may not be so in others, and there will necessarily be found many exceptions to any general rule that may be laid down. With many persons the use of tobacco impairs the appetite, and it is often observed that those who use it freely eat less than others. This is not because tobacco supplies the system with any important component principle, but simply be- cause it acts as a sedative, deadens the sensibili- ty of the nerves, and checks the elimination «bf effete matter from the system. Percy, an emi- nent French surgeon, says, that tobacco is as regularly served out to the French soldier as pro- visions, and remarks — " It has doubtless been calculated that tobacco hurts the appetite ; and to save daily from four to six ounces of bread, per man, they furnish him with three farthings' AND WHAT IT DOES. 23 worth of tobacco." It is undoubtedly true that the soldier who passes the whole night in the trenches of a beleaguered city, with only a dis- tant and uncertain prospect of breakfast in the morning — or the care-worn sailor contending with the elements in a storm — or the exhausted laborer after a day of unusual anxiety and fa- tigue, may derive a temporary solace from a cigar ; but the relief is only temporary and se- ductive ; such as a glass of hot sling, or even a pill of opium would impart — no permanent ele- ment is supplied to the system — no organ or tis- sue is repaired, or restored — not a particle is ad- ded to compensate for the losses which the body has sustained ; its cravings are only staunched during the operation of the beguiling sedative, to return with augmented severity as soon as that has passed away. Sir Benjamin Brodie of London, says : " A certain quantity of the oil of tobacco must be always circulating in the blood of an habitual smoker ; and when a single drop of this oil will 24 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS kill a cat in the course of a few minutes, we cannot suppose that its effects upon the human system can be merely negative." It is not neces- sary to analyze the blood to show that it contains the oil of tobacco, as it is abundantly proved by the strong empyreumatic odor of the smoker's breath. Dr. Brodie has long been known as one of the most eminent English surgeons, and in a* recent communication to the London Times, he says : u From the best observations which I have been able to make on the subject, I am led to be- lieve that there are very few who use tobacco and do not suffer harm from it to a greater or less extent. The earliest symptoms are manifested in the derangement of the nervous system. A large proportion of habitual smokers are rendered lazy and listless, indisposed to bodily and incapa- ble of much mental exertion. Others suffer from depression of the spirits, amounting to hypochon- driasis, which smoking relieves for a time, though it aggravates the evil afterwards. Occasionally there is a general nervous excitability, which AND WHAT IT DOES. 25 though very much less in degree partakes of the nature of Delirium Tremens of drunkards." Again, the same author says . " It would be easy for me to refer to other symptoms indicating the deficient power of the nervous system to which smokers are liable ; but it is unnecessary for me to do so ; and, indeed, there are some which I would rather leave them to imagine for themselves than undertake a description of them myself in writing." " But the ill effects of tobacco are not con- fined to the nervous system. In many instances there is a loss of the healthy appetite for food, the imperfect state of the digestion being soon rendered manifest by the loss of flesh and the sallow countenance. It is difficult to say what other diseases may not follow the imperfect as- similation of food continued during a long period of time. So many causes are in operation in the human body which may tend to a greater or * less degree, to th e production of organic changes in it, that it is only in some instances we can 2& TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS venture to pronounce as to the precise manner in which a disease that proves mortal has originated. From cases, however, that have fallen under my own observation, and from a consideration of all the circumstances, I cannot entertain a doubt that if we could obtain accurate statistics on the sub- ject, we should find that the value of life in invet- erate smokers is considerably below the average. Nor is this opinion in any degree contradicted by the fact that there are individuals who, in spite of the inhalation of tobacco smoke, live to be old, and without any material derangement of the health ; analogous exceptions to the general rule being met with in the cases of those who have indulged too freely in the use of spirituous and fermented liquors. In the early part of the pres- ent century, tobacco smoking was wholly con- fined to what are commonly called the lower grades of society. It was only every now and then that any one who wished to be considered as a gentlemen, was addicted to it. But since the war on the Spanish Peninsula, and the con- AND WHAT IT DOES. 27 sequent substitution of the cigar for the tobacco- pipe, the case has been entirely altered. The greatest smokers at the present time are to be found, not among those who live by their bodily labor, but among those who are more advantage- ously situated, who have better opportunities of education, and of when we have a right to ex- pect that they should constitute the most intelli- gent and thoughtful members of the community. Nor is the practice confined to grown-up men. Boys, even at the best schools, get the habit of smoking, because they think it manly and fash- ionable to do so ; not unfrequently because they have the example set them by their tutors, and partly because their is no friendly voice to warn them as to the special ill consequences to which it may give rise where the process of growth is not yet completed, and the organs are not yet fully developed." u The foregoing observations relate to the hab- it of smoking as it exists among us at the pres- ent time. But a still graver question remains to 28 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS be considered. What will be the result if this habit be continued by future generations ? It is but too true that the sins of the fathers are visit- ed upon their children and their children's chil- dren. We may here take warning from the fate of the Red Indians of America. An intelligent American physician gives the following explana- tion of the gradual extinction of this remarkable people : — One generation of them became addict- ed to the use of the fire-water. They have a degenerate and comparatively imbecile progen- cy, who indulge in the same vicious habit with their parents. Their progeny is still more degen- erate, and after a very few generations the race ceases altogether. We may also take warning from the history of another nation, who some few centuries ago, while following the banners of Sol) man the Magnificent, were the terror of Christendom, but who, since then, having be- come more addicted to tobacco-smoking than any of the European nations, are now the lazy and lethargic Turks, held in contempt by all civilized AND WHAT IT DOES. 29 communities. In thus placing together the con- sequences of intemperance in the use of alcohol and that in the use of tobacco, I should be sorry to be misunderstood as regarding these two kinds of intemperance to be in an equal degree per- nicious and degrading. The inveterate tobacco- smoker may be stupid and lazy, and the habit to which he is addicted may gradually tend to shorten his life and deteriorate his offspring, but the dram-drinker is quarrelsome, mischevous and often criminal. It is under the influence of gin that the burglar and murderer become fitted for the task they have undertaken. The best thing that can be said of dram-drinking is, that it in- duces disease, which carries the poor wretch pre- maturely to the grave, and .rids the world of the nuisance. But, unfortunately, in this, as in many other cases, what is wanting in quality is made up in quantity. There are checks on one of these evil habits which there are not on the other. The dram-drinker, or, to use a more general term, the drunkard, is held to be a noxious animal, 30 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS He is an outcast from all decent society, while there is no such exclusion for the most assiduous smoker.' ' AND WHAT IT DOES. 31 CHAPTER III. Tobacco induces or hurries on Consumption and Haemop- tysis — It poisons the blood — Kills leeches, bugs, etc. — Intoxicates the nursing infant — Causes nervous affec- tions, Amaurosis, Deafness, etc — Weakens the recu- perative powers. — Use of long pipes. — Tobacco Dyspep- sia. — The use of tobacco no protection against conta- gious diseases. — Death from sleeping in a room with tobacco. A recent American writer, of much experi- ence, says : " To those predisposed to consump- tion, the ptylism which tobacco produces, hurries on the disease.' ' And this is undoubtedly true in many instances. Latent tubercles may some- times remain undeveloped for a long time, per- haps during the whole natural life of the individ- ual, unless they are roused into action by some 32 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS morbid agent ; the acrid and poisonous proper- ties of tobacco-smoke, tend to irritate and inflame the extremely delicate texture of this important organ, and the result is confirmed and incurable Phthisis. If the throat of almost anv constant smoker be examined, it will be found red, and the lining membrane more or less thickened and swoleri, the veins are turged, and frequent patches of mu- cous are visible ; in time the inflammation ex- tends to the larynx, and along the trachea to the bronchia; the voice becomes more or less changed and often an uneasy sensation is felt beneath the pectoral muscles, sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other ; a slight cough super- venes — the seeds of disease have been quickened into life, and all the train of morbid symptoms incident to consumption, are likely to^ follow. When we see a lean hectic smoking and spitting continually, we say, that man is going to his long home by steam. Hcemoptysis is often either induced or aggra- AND WHAT IT DOES. 33 vated by smoking. The hot steam of burning to- bacco, when taken into the lungs produces conges- tion, and to relieve this, blood is discharged into the pulmonary follicles to be brought up by coughing, and a bloody expectoration follows. This is one way in which consumption is brought on. The heart of an old smoker is generally a rickety concern ; its action is irregular and im- perfect ; it moves, and then stops to rest, shakes and throbs, and goes on again like some over- loaded, worn-out donkey. The nervous system becomes deranged, the muscles loose their tone, and a kind of chronic delirium tremens follows ; the man must smoke in the evening before he re- tires or he cannot sleep during the night ; and when he wakes in the morning the first thing he looks for is his filthy tobacco ; without it he is ir- ritable, irresolute and vapid ; he looks to his pipe or cigar for his strength, his courage, his wisdom and his happiness. Poor man ! tobacco is the spirit, the life and soul of his crazy carcass — without it he is most wretched. 34 tobacco^what rr IS Among other mental affections, insanity is some- times induced by the use of tobacco. In a paper drawn up by the celebrated female philanthro- pist, Miss Dix, she says : " In the Massachusetts State Hospital, in 1843, there were eight cases of insanity, produced by the abuse of tobacco. " Since that time the number of insane in that State has greatly increased ; instead of one small State Hospital, there are now three large ones, constantly crowded with unfortunate inmates, and if the proportion that obtained at that time still exists, at the present time, the whole number in that State who have been made insane by tobacco may not be loss than fifty. The noxious principles of tobacco enter into the circulation, so that the blood of every one who uses it freely, either by smoking or chewing, becomes constantly saturated with its poisonous elements. Dr. Pidduck, physician to St. Giles's -dispensary, says : u That during sixteen years practice in that institution, he ascertained the ex- traordinary fact, that leeches were killed instantly AND WHAT IT DOES. 35 by the blood of the smokers, so suddenly that they dropped off dead as soon as they began to draw the blood." He also, says : " That fleas and bugs, whose bites on children were as thick as measles, rarely or never attacked the smoking parent." It is said also, that the Arabs and Bedouins, who are constant smokers, are never troubled with such insects, although they con- stantly swarm in the Arab tents. When the mother of a nursing child smokes, her infant is often stupefied by the poison which it receives from the maternal breast. By such means, the blood becomes poisoned, and an un- happy, and perhaps a durable impression is made upon the whole system, at a tender $ge. If the smoker have any sore upon his lips or tongue, the poison of tobacco is likely to convert it into a cancer, or some other obstinate affec- tion. When the system has become charged with the elementary principles of tobacco, its re- cuperative power is diminished, and wounds made upon such individuals do not heal as readily 36 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS as on others ; the whole nervous system becomes deranged, and tremblings, Angina Pectoris, pal- pitation of the heart, fainting-fits, paralysis, and almost every other nervous affection is liable to follow. Sedentary persons, mechanics, and oth- ers, who spend much of their time within doors, are liable to suffer more in this way than others; shut up in confined apartments, they are often obliged to breathe the polluted element over and over again. " Partial or total blindness is often occasioned by the use of tobacco. Inveterate smokers almost always suffer from impaired vision ; sometimes only one eye, and sometimes both suffer. The free and long continued use of tobacco is pretty sure to impair or derange the optic nerves, and produce defective vision of some sort. Of these facts medical statistics furnish abundant proof, and a little attention to the subject might con- vince almost any one of the truth of the prop- osition. The following is a case in point, re- ported by Dr. John Renton of London. AND WHAT If DOES. 37 " J, W. 5 a coach builder, upwards of fifty years of age, had smoked for thirty years, gen- erally two ounces of tobacco a week, when he became so blind as to be unable to work, or even walk through a crowded street. He applied to an eye dispensary, where the medical man, who is considered a good oculist, told him that he la- bored under amaurosis, and prescribed accord- ingly. After following his treatment for some time, and finding himself no better, he visited a neighboring city, and consulted another oculist, who instantly detected tobacco to be the cause of his blindness, as if the obnoxious stench of the weed had led him at once to this conclusion. J. W. instantly " threw away tobacco for ever," visited a relative in the Highlands, where in a short time his vision gradually returned, became clear, and enabled him to return to his business quite cured. It is now six years since he recov- ered, and he now can read a small printed book without glasses. He says his health is much im- proved since he gave up the pernicious weed." 38 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS Numerous cases of confirmed and incurable amaurosis have arisen from the same cause, as the records of ophthalmic infirmaries show ; and the sense of hearing is often seriously impaired by the same means. The auditory nerves by be- ing long subject to the deading influence of to- bacco, loose their tone and become paralized and a partial deafness must follow. With many, smoking appears to be an auto- matic performance, having little or no connection with thought or reason ; it seems a kind of quasi- mechanical process, and consists in filling the lungs with a hot mixture of gaseous carbon, car- bonic acid, and the pungent oils and alkaloid of tobacco, diluted with a portion of common air. Every inspiration- of tobacco smoke is charged with all these deadly agents, and a portion of each is retained and enters the circulation to poi- son the blood, derange the animal economy, and impair and deprave the intellect. Can any one imagine that the extremely delicate membrane which lines the air-tubes, with its sensative ner- AND WHAT IT DOES. 39 vous fillaments, can long endure such roasting and fumigation without injury. One would sup- pose that such treatment would be sufficient to convert the softest tissue into rigid sole leather — the human chest is transformed into a smoke- house, and if the lungs are not converted into bacon, it is because the living principle resists the action of the petrifying elements. The injury to the lungs from hot fumes of to- bacco, being so obvious, human ingenuity was long ago put upon the rack to devise means to avoid the mischief without relinquishing the habit; this led to the use of the very long pipe, in order to allow the smoke to cool before reaching the lungs ; but the benefit derived from this expedi- ent was found to be trifling, and as the use of such pipes was impracticable in common life, the plan was never extensively adopted, and men choose to ignore the danger rather than relin- quish the pernicious practice. Some smoke to cure themselves of asthma, and sometimes a temporary benefit has been obtained 40 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS from the narcotism thereby induced, but hundreds have become asthmatic from the habitual use of tobacco, for one that has been permanently cured by that means. When we look around amongst our acquaint- ances, we often see many professional men and others of sedentary habits, who complain of dys- pepsia, and a great number of almost indiscriba- ble bodily ills, which mar their happiness and abridge their usefulness. They often repine at their hard fortune, and seem to blame the stars for their perverse constitutions ; they wonder why they cannot eat and drink, and exercise as they see others do ; they cannot imagine what can be the cause of all their discomfort. Their physician tells them that it is dyspepsia^ and pre- scribes a great variety of ant-acids, tonics, laxa- tives and carminatives, and as a last resort, a jour- ney to some watering place — to the sea-shore, or to some spring, or mountain in the interior. But the benefit derived from these measures is often imperfect, and of short duration, and more im- AND WHAT IT DOES. 41 aginary than real. After all this maneuvering the prime cause of all the mischief has been overlooked ; it is the tobacco-worm that is gnaw- ing their vitals, creeping over their brains, and along the spinal cord ; and if such invalids could be persuaded instantly to rid themselves forever of this source of so many troubles, they would, in a majority of cases, be cured with- out medicines, or journeys. Dr. Chipman of London, speaking of cases of this kind, says : M Such cases have generally been called dyspep- sia, and have been drugged and dieted, or sent off on foreign travel, carrying in their waistcoat pockets the Pandora's box of all their woes." Many have supposed that the use of tobacco was a protection against contagious diseases, but this is a most egregious mistake. The statis- tics of Cholera, Typhoid Fever, Epidemic Dys- entary, and Small Pox, prove that those who use tobacco freely, like those who use spirituous li- quors are more liable than others to be attacked by such diseases, and less likely to recover. Dr. 42 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS J. H. Fenn of London says : u Tobacco has the effect of relaxing the mucous membranes, and diminishing the vital force, and is very apt to pro- duce, or predispose, to diarrhoea, and intestinal lesions." Lizars of the Royal Infirmary of Ed- inburgh assures us that he has uniformly found that persons addicted to the use of tobacco were more liable to attacks of Cholera, and other dan- gerous epidemics than those who were free from the habit, and when attacked were less liable to recover. The same author observes : " I have invariably found that patients addicted to tobacco- smoking were in spirit cowardly, and deficient in manly fortitude to undergo any surgical opera- tion." It is well ascertained that those who use much tobacco possess less physical and intellect- ual vigor than others who do not use it, and it is said that prize-fighters, boat-racers and pugilists, never use it whilst they are training nor on the day of contest. All who are engaged either in cultivating, cur- ing or manufacturing tobacco, are more or bss AND WHAT IT DOES. 43 annoyed and injured by it. To all new beginners the business is extremely disagreable, and dis- tressing. The subtle poison which the plant con- stantly emits irritates the eyes, offends the olfac- tories, stifles the breath, nauseates the stomach, and bewilders the brain ; these affections are so many monitors which declare in language as plain as mute nature can speak, that this is one of those forbidden things which should be avoided^ Like the Porcupine, it will injure no one who keeps at a proper distance. It is in vain to say that because tobacco, alcohol, hemlock, deadly night- shade, and numerous other noxious things exist, they must be intended to answer some good pur- pose ; the designs of our Creator in all such things are inscrutable and past finding out ; fevers, small pox, dysentery, scarlet fever, and every other disease which preys upon the human frame has undoubtedly been ordered for some great, and wise purpose ; but we are admonished to avoid them whenever we can. Those who by long use become acclimated, and able to work upon 44 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS tobacco with apparent impunity, are nevertheless pretty sure to suffer from its deleterious effects. The complexion becomes of a dirty yellow, the cheeks fall in, the limbs become attenuated and shriveled, the whole frame emaciated, and the whole system, fluids and solids, becomes saturated with the poisonous elements ; which like a cor- roding canker are continually eating away the threads of life, until at length the vital principle can endure no longer, and the individual dies pre- maturely. Not long ago, the little daughter of a tobacco merchant died suddenly in frightful con- vulsions in consequence of having slept in a cham- ber in which a large quantity of tobacco was stored. AND WHAT IT DOES, 45 CHAPTER IT. Effects of tobacco upon the mind. — Men of strong intellects have seldom made use of tobacco. — Anecdote of Napo- leon Bonapart. — Tobacco debilitates and depraves the intellect. — Quotations from Dickens, Adam Clark, Wes- ley, Drs. Solly, Abernethy, Carlyon, and Johnson. — Amount consumed in Great Britain in a single year. — Extracts from Lizars. But after all that may be said of the prejudicial effcts of tobacco upon the animal system, its in- fluence upon the intellectual and moral faculties is still more deplorable. These effects must of course vary with the quantity consumed, the man- ner of using it, the age, condition and circum- stances of the individual, but it is seldom innocent under any circumstances, and is often attended &y the most lamentable consequences. The sys- 46 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS tern may sometimes withstand, or ward off for a time at least, the morbid impressions made upon the animal economy, but the stimulus of tobacco never fails to affect the brain and nervous system, ■ and it is solely on this account that it is used. Tobacco is a stupefying narcotic ; the in- dividual takes it because it creates a plea- surable sensation ; be puffs away at his pipe or cigar as. though he was drawing from the very fountain of bliss — -the brain becomes more or less clouded and the intellectual powers pass into .a dormant state. This condition is unfavorable to mental exertion — the mind is in a state of dreamy repose so long as the stimulus lasts, and when that is discontinued it sinks into a state of relapse, and in process of time its powers become permanently enfeebled and depraved. History, experiance, and common observation, confirm the truth of this remark. Great thinkers have seldom used much tobacco, and many have left their testimony, as well as their example against it. The sages and philosophers in ancient times cer- AND WHAT IT DOES. 47 tainly never used it because its discovery is of more recent date, and during the last two or three hundred years very few if any who have, been eminent for their intellectual powers have used tobacco. Dr. Franklin, and many others, have left their strong testimony against it. It is said that Bonapart once attempted to use a very beautiful pipe presented to him by a Turk- ish embassador ; after one inhalation he cried : " Take away this abomination ! Oh, the swine ! — my stomach turns ! " He declared the habit was only fit to amuse sluggards. It would add greatly to the interest, honor, and usefulness of thousands of American young men if they would imitate the noble example of the first Napoleon, and throw away the pipe or cigar forever. An able writer upon the Crimean war gives it as his settled conviction that the principle reason why the Russians lost so many battles was that their soldiers were generally stupefied with tobaeco and raki. The London Globe says : " That dividing the 48 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS young men of the Polytecnic school in Paris into two groups — the smokers and non-smokers — the former always much excel the latter at every examination." Dickens says that many students attending the American Colleges destroy their physical, intellectual, and moral powers by the use of tobacco, and are thereby rendered unable to proceed with their studies. Two of the most eminent divines of the Metho- dist church, viz : the celebrated Wesley and Dr. Adam Clark, exerted themselves to keep their denominations free from the use of this stupefy- ing, and as they thought demoralizing agent. Dr. Solly, a very eminent lecturer at St. Thom- as's Hospital, addressing his class upon paralysis said: " I know of no single vice which does so much harm as smoking. It is a snare and delu- sion. It soothes the excited nervous system at the time, to render it more irritable, and more feeble ultimately. I can always distinguish a man who smokes much by his complexion." Again he says : " The more I think of the tobac- AND WHAT IT DOES. 49 co question, the more it haunts me. I feel that I cannot do justice to its importance, but am anx- ious to do something. Every day the subject is forced upon my mind. I scarcely meet a friend or patient who does not bear testimony to the mis- chief of smoking." And again he says : " Look at the pale face, imperfect development, and de- ficient muscular power of the inhabitants of un- healthy districts — they live on, but with only half the proper attributes of life. So it is with the habitual smoker — his system becomes saturated with the poison." During more than twenty years Dr. Solly held the office of medical examiner of four of the largest life insurance companies in Great Britain, every applicant was strictly examined as to his use of tobacco, and those who were found to use it freely were either refused, or subjected to a higher premium on that account. Dr. Abernethy, one of the most eminent physi- cians that Great Britain has ever produced, used to say : l< Snuff fuddles the nose ; but the fumes 50 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS of tobacco possess a power to stupefy all the senses, and all the faculties, by slow but enduring intoxication, into dull obliviousness." Dr. Carlyon, a correct observer of men and things writes as follows : " W'hat can be more deleterious than tobacco? Many an honest Deuts- cher have I seen smoking himself into the grave! Rauch — Rauch — immer Rauch ! the counte- nance pale and haggard ; the frame emaciated ; the propensity to smoke irrisistable ! " The same author says : " I recollect reading the address of a professor in some American uni- versity, to his pupils, on the bad effects of tobacco. This address, sensible and spirited, seemed to come from the professor's very heart. He de- precated, in the most forcible manner, the prac- tice of smoking, which had been recently taken up, and said : "That prior to the period when pipes were to be seen in the mouth of every stu- dent, the youth of the university were as different in their looks from the individuals with whom he was surrounded, as health from disease.," AND WHAT IT DOES. 51 The following is an extract from an article which appeard in the London Laneet June 31st, 1857, from the pen of Dr. Johnson. " The quantity of this poisonous weed entered for home consumption, in the eleven months end- ing November, 1856, was 29,776,082 lbs. The deleterious effects which this enormous amount of tobacco produced upon its victims, both phy- sically, mentally, and morally, admits of no pos- sible calculation/' It appears to be a point well established that trie free and long continued use of tobacco in any form weakens the intellect ; by degrees the mind looses its power to prolong an investigation, or solve a difficult problem ; its conceptions are con- fused and indistinct — like a bird which has shed its pinions, its exercises are limited to its own narrow precinct. Professor Lizars in his work entitled, u To- bacco, its use and abuse," says: *' By its so general consumption we must become changed in both corporal and mental faculties — we cannGt 52 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS fail to be enfeebled in body and mind, and be- come a deteriorated race." Again he says : " Young men who are in the habit of putting an enemy in their mouth to steal away their brains, do not become aware of these facts until it some- times becomes too late." AND WHAT IT DOES. 53 CHAPTER V. Smoking worse than Snuffing or Chewing. — Cigars worse than Pipes. — Snuffing nearly given up. — The earlier in life tobacco is used, the worse its effects. — Smoking a nuisance. — The cost of tobacco considered. — Danger from fires. In the ordinary manner of snuffing, chewing, and smoking, the latter method is undoubtedly the most pernicious. As we have said before, the smoker takes into his lungs hot gasseous car- bon, free carbonic acid — two poisonous oils — and an alkaloid, mixed up with a portion of atmos- pheric air. In smoking about a quarter of an ounce of tobacco, two grains of the poison are taken into the mouth. This would kill any one in a very short time if most of it was not imme- diately thrown out by expiration, so that the act 54 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS of smoking consists in inhaling poison, and throw- ing a part of it out again. There are several reasons why the cigar is w r orse than the pipe : the large, and loose caliber of the cigar allows the smoke to pass freely through it, whilst the pipe- stem with its stinted foramina will only allow a very small stream to pass through it ; so that the cigar smoker takes his etherial sedative much faster than one who uses an ordinary pipe. Besides, the tobacco burns much slower in a pipe, and if the stem is long, the place of com- bustion and heat is farther off; when a cigar is used the filthy tobacco comes in contact with the lips, teeth, and gums, and sometimes occasions cancer of the lips or tongue ; the records of American and European Hospitals show that great numbers have died by such means. A to- bacco cancer is the most incurable of all affections of the mouth. The chewer does not get the empyreumatic oil which is evolved by the combustion of a cigar, but he gets the alkaloid, and a pungent volatile AND WHAT IT DOES. 55 oil. A portion of these must necessarily be ab- sorbed by the membrane that lines the mouth and fauces, and more or less of the same poisonous materials will unavoidably get into the stomach, and produce a train of mischievous consequences which have been before alluded to. SnufF-taking, once so common with both sexes, is now nearly abandoned, so that it is unnecessary to say much about it here. As usually practiced this method of using tobacco is undoubtedly the least injurious of the three,, but it is by no means free from serious objections, besides being a most filthy and disgusting habit ; but the good sense of the gentler sex has pronounced an irreversable decree against'it, and it will soon be known only in history. If the tobacco smoker, like the rum drinker swallowed all the poison himself without troubling others with it, his associates would have less rea- son to complain — hut this- is not the case ; those who accompany him are compelled to partake with him, a halo of etherial tobacco surrounds 56 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS him — rooms in public houses, and even the streets and lanes of cities and villages are often more or less filled with the noxious effluvia — the common air becomes charged with it, and if this atrocious offence was not an universal practice — if only some itinerant smoker occasionally com- mitted this outrage upon public health and com- mon decency, he would be speedily, and severely punished, and regarded by the community as a felo de se. It is obvious that some constitutions tolerate tobacco better than others, and it is also certain that it does not injure the full-fed man, who smokes only after taking a hearty meal, as much as it does those who eat but little, and often smoke upon an empty stomach. To commence the day with tobacco before breakfast is certainly a very bad beginning. But in general, the earlier in life the habit is commenced, the more pernicious are its consequences. In youth the whole material frame is tender and plastic ; alive to every agen- cy, and yielding to the softest touch. Tobacco AND WHAT IT DOES. 57 checks nutrition, and prevents the full develop- ment of the organs, and by stimulating some por- tion of the system at the expense of some other part, deformity is produced. He who commences the free use of tobacco very early in life prepares the way to become a dwarf. Has any one ever seen a person of such habits who was not diminu- tive in size and a dunce in intellect? One might suppose, that the filthiness of the habit would make it everywhere sufficiently odi- ous to banish it forever from civilized life, but it is not so : the power of the appetite bids defiance to all restraints, and triumphs over all civil, re- ligious and social proprieties. The bed, every article of apparel, his gloves and handkerchief, and even the love letters of a confirmed smoker are scented with tobacco. The man who chews much tobacco within doors has a constant demand for a spittoon, which is always a most disgusting and sickening object. When he goes abroad the first thing he looks for when he enters your sitting-room is the spittoon, 58 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS this is a sine qua non with him, and if he does not find it he must have recourse to the door fre- quently, or raise a window to discharge his filthy- tobacco juice, which if he should swallow would poison, even him. Having a toad, or quid, no matter which, in his mouth, his articulation often becomes drawling and indistinct. And when one is doomed to live in the same house, eat at the same table, sleep in the same room, and perhaps in the same bed, with one who daily eats, or smokes the nauceous weed, and be compelled to inhale the poison second-handed, the abominatidh is complete ; and the female who has the cour- age and the patience to endure all this for a life- time, better deserves a pension than many a sol- dier. "When the tenant of some narrow cottage smokes, as is often the case, by his own fireside, the whole apartment becomes filled and saturated with the noxious aura, and every member of that family is compelled to partake of the etherial poi- son. Tobacco smoke is always extremely ofFen- AND WHAT IT DOES. 59 sive to all who are unaccustomed to it, but by de- grees the family become acclimated — they are no longer annoyed by the choke-damp that sur- rounds them, but breathe it over, and over again, without complaining, and at length some are found to love the giddy sensation which it pro- duces; so that the inveterate smoker not only fuddles his own brain, but intoxicates the whole family at the same time — the little boy soon learns to imitate the example set before him, he looks upon the cigar as the smaller child does upon a roll of candy, as the source of unalloyed pleasure, and becomes impatient to put it to his lips. The more he smokes the more he wants to smoke, until the desire for the inebriating stim- ulus becomes almost irresistable ; and to appease this artificial craving some inebriating beverage is often resorted to, and habits of intemperance follow as legitimate consequences. Such is the early history of many an irreclaimable inebriate. The cost of tobacco, though the least of all the evils that follow in this murky train, is not an- 60 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS unimportant item. Suppose a lad to commence smoking at the age of fifteen, and to use on an average three cigars per day, at the cost of two cents each, in this way he would expend in one year nearly twenty two dollars; in twenty five years the aggregate of his annual expenditures for tobacco, with the interest, would amount to 'more than one thousand dollars. This is not an extravagant calculation : many a young man ex- pends in this way much more than we have sup- posed. But if only one cigar a day is used, the whole expense in twenty five years with interest would not be less than three or four hundred dol- lars. Now if we should look about us we might find many a man, poor, old, and stupid, without house or home of his own, who has all his life used to- bacco, and actually expended in that way a jum sufficient to have provided him and his family a good home in his old age. It is obvious that all the money expended for tobacco is so much lost, and as almost every one expends more or less in his way a large portion of the people are made AND WHAT IT DOES. 61 poorer by it. The whole sum expended annually in that way by some individuals is almost in- creditable. We are assured that there are now about town, young men, not yet thirty years of age, who have already expended the full amount of one thousand dollars in tobacco. One indi- vidual of undoubted veracity, who purchased his cigars at wholesale, informed us that in a single year, he had " used up," two thousand of the best cigars. The cost of these at the saloon price would not be less than one hundred dollars. If all the small change that is daily spent for cigars was deposited in Saving Banks, they would soon become the richest institutions in the country. There is another pecuniary consideration con- nected with the use of tobacco ; it is this : most smokers carry friction matches in their pockets, in consequence of which, either by accident or design, many fires have been set, and many buildings burned, and it is obvious that the lives and interests of individuals and communities are less safe on this account. Insurance companies 62 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS suffer more or less every year from this cause. It is said that some of the largest English Life Insurance companies will not insure inveterate smokers on equal terms with others, and if the American offices should adopt the same policy it would undoubtedly be for their interest, and might operate as a warning upon all. AND WHAT IT DOES. 63 CHAPTER VI. Does tobacco shorten life ? An extract, etc. Some are ready to contend that tobacco can have no tendency to shorten life because there are many old persons who use it. This is the drunkards standing argument, and if it proved anything it would prove quite too much : if we are to conclude that tobacco is harmless because old men are found who use it, then by the same course of reasoning we must conclude that intoxi- cating liquors are harmless because drunkards sometimes live to old age ; and by the same rule it might be shown that nobody had been slain or wounded in battle because some old soldiers still survive. Out of fifty persons bitten by a mad dog 64 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS several may escape the hydrophobia, but such rare instances do not show that there is no danger from the bites of rabid animals. Peculiarity of tempera- ment or idiosyncrasy may enable some constitu- tions to withstand for many years the pernicious effects of a virulent poison, but such exceptions to a general rule do not prove that poisons are harm- less A moments' reflection will show that this kind of reasoning is wholly fallacious. Most of those who have used tobacco and lived to a great age, used it sparingly— they only smoked or chewed a little — in many cases the habit was not contracted until late in life, and then was often resorted to as a remedy for some bodily infirmity. It should also be remembered that there is a wide difference between the past and the present gen- erations — our fathers and grandfathers were men of giant frames and iron constitutions, and possessed a wonderful power of endurance — they fed upon plain food, and lived much in the open air — they were inured to hardships, and labored incessantly. Physically and mentally AND WHAT IT DOES. 65 they were heroes ; they lived, labored, and fought, despite all the evils and disadvantages with which they had to contend ; they were made of firmer stuff than most of the present generation, and yet, we have no reason to suppose that tobacco had no pernicious effect upon them — the proof of its poisonous effects are coeval with its history — it was ever a "most virulent poison, and although its operations as such may not have been always noticed, we are well assured that they must have transpired in some form or other. We have said that one of the effects of tobacco is to produce paralysis, and trembling of the limbs ; can any one show us an old person who has used tobacco freely for a long time and yet, is free from such affections ? Many a young man who smokes ex- cessively is unable to hold his hand still, when the stimulus of the tobacco is off, and as the grog- drinker resorts to his dram to steady his shaking hand, so the inveterate smoker has recourse to his pipe or cigar to steady his. As has been said before, the most serious mis- 66 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS chief produced by tobacco arises from its em- ployment in youth and early manhood, although it cannot be said to be perfectly harmless at any age or under any circumstances. The cigar is rather a modern invention and adds greatly to the mischief produced by tobacco. It is so con- venient, so fashionable, so nice and so cheap, that every one who desires to enjoy the inebriating effects of tobacco can easily obtain it. In making a comparison between alcohol and tobacco, a single consideration shows that the latter has greatly the advantage. Drinking is considered disgraceful ; the tipler must be sly ; public opinion is against all common drinkers, and therefore many abstain from liquor for their credits sake ; but the case is very different with smoking : ci- gars are fashionable in all grades of society, in the highest and the lowest, all the difference be- ing in the cost of the article, and no one is ever disparaged because he smokes, even though he have a pipe or cigar in his mouth at all hours of the day except at meal time ; and until public AND WHAT IT DOES. 67 opinion can be brought to aid in correcting the evil, the friends of reform must labor under great disadvantage. The following is an extract from an article written by a physician of extensive practice in London, and published by the British Anti-To- bacco Society. "1. Smoking weakens the digestive and assim- ilating functions, impairs the due elaboration of the chyle and of the blood, and prevents a healthy nutrition of the several structures of the body. Hence result, especially in young persons, an ar- rest of the growth of the body ; low stature ; a pallid and sallow hue of the surface ; an in- sufficient and an unhealthy supply of blood ; weak bodily powers; and, in many instances, complete emasculation, or inability of procreation. In per- sons more advanced in life, these effects, although longer in making their appearance, supervene at last, and with a celerity in proportion to the ex- tent to which this vile habit is carried. "2, Smoking generates thirst and vital de- 68 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS pression ; and to remove these, the use of stimu- lating liquors is resorted to, and often carried to a most injurious extent. Thus two of the most de- basing habits and vices to which human nature can be degraded, are indulged in to the injury of the individual thus addicted, to the shortening of his life, and to the injury and ruin of his offspring, if, indeed, he still retain his procreative powers — a very doubtful result — and the more doubful when both vices are united in one person. . " 3. Smoking tobacco weakens the nervous powers ; favors a dreamy, imaginative, and im- becile state of existence ; produces indolence and incapability of manly or continued exertion ; and sinks its votary into a state of careless or maudlin inactivity and selfish enjoyment of his vice. He ultimately becomes partially, but generally para- lyzed in mind and body — he is subject to tremors and numerous nervous ailments, and has recourse to stimulents for their relief. These his vices cannot abate, however indulged in, and he ulti- mately dies a drivelling idiot, an imbecile para- AND WHAT IT DOES. 69 lytic, or a sufferer from internal organic disease, at an age many years short of the average dura- tion of life." Before the pernicious elements of tobacco were clearly made known by chemical examinations, many became addicted to its use without the least suspicion of its pernicious tendency ; and at the present time some old men of that description are found using it, though very sparingly, com- pared with the young men of the present day. Refering to such instances an able writer ob- serves: " For old men, smoking may be tole- rated ; but for young men and boys, it cannot be too severely reprobated.' ' 70 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS CHAPTER VII. The use of tobacco impairs the memory. — Anecdote of Dr. Franklin. The free use of tobacco tends to impair the memory. The more one uses, the more he is in- jured in this respect. The profound smoker passes his time in a kind of dreamy ecstacy ; the tide of events seems to sweep by him without leaving any durable impressions upon his mind ; consequently the habit is a most pernicious one for students and scientific men. Many old in- veterate smokers appear to remember little or nothing but what took place before they began to smoke. It is said that Sir John Pringle who was in Paris with Dr. Franklin, was a great snuff-taker, AND WHAT IT DOES. 71 and was at the same time troubled with trembling of the limbs and loss of memory ; observing his condition, Dr. Franklin advised him to abandon the use of snuff; accordingly he did so, and soon his trembling ceased, and his memory improved. The bewildering influence of tobacco upon the brain impairs the reasoning powers, leads the mind to pursue phantoms, and doubtless promotes spiritualism, and other mental vagaries. Like opium it induces feelings of placid enjoyment, and unruffled pleasure, it mellows the passions, and soothes the mind into a delightful tranquiity. The smoker, as he puffs forth the clouds of mot- tled wreaths experiences a kind of apocalypse, he becomes inattentive to whatever is taking place around him and revels in the regions of fancy. The dusky atmosphere in which he be- comes enveloped is filled with magic panoramas, and he nee most extensive and varied practice in my profession, I have come ta the decision, that smoking is a main cause of ruining our young men, pauperizing the working- men, and rendering comparatively useless the best efforts of ministers of religion." Some of the Sultans and Bashaws of the East- ern nations as has been before observed, make use of very long pipes with spiral tubes which are sometimes so contrived as to pass the smoke through cold water before it reaches the lungs. This curious pipe is called the Hookah. The fol- lowing is an extract from a poem published in Paris some years ago. AND WHAT IT DOES. Ill The Seignior of the East is truly blest, By slaves attended as he lies at rest ; Some at his side rich floods of Mocha pour, Till with their extasy his soul runs o'er ; Others obedient, waiting at his feet, The hookah bring to make his joy complete. Wond'rous invention, first by wealth bespoke, To cool for luxury the heated smoke, To make it slow through scented waters pass, And cool itself in twisting tubes of glass — Quit what's impure, and all that's acrid leave, So that the lord shall only bliss receive. He makes his hookah equal to his wife, Both his mere adjuncts of voluptuous life ; Pure from the bath, perfumed, and full of grace* Both meet his kisses and his warm embrace. 112 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS CHAPTERXIIL Mental operations checked or suspended by the use of tobacco. — Persons accustomed to its use seldom abandon it. — Communication from Benjamin Silliman, M. D. L. L. D. Several years ago an English Surgeon by the name of McDonald announced as the result of his observations, that, as long as an individual is earnestly engaged in inhaling tobacco smoke he is incapable, for the time being, of mental exer- cise. Dr. McDonald says : " I may mention a curious fact, not generally known, but which re- quires only to be tried to be proven, viz : that no smoker can think steadily or continuously on any subject while smoking. He cannot follow out a train of ideas — to do so he must lay aside his pipe." The truth of this proposition appears AND WHAT IT DOES. 113 to be confirmed both by observation and physio- logical investigations. Dr. Lacock, of London, in an article published in the London Times, says : " On the brain the action of tobacco is sedative. It appears to di- minish the rapidity of cerebral action, and check the flow of ideas." It has long been known that pressure upon the cerebrum either from external or internal agen- cies, produced instantaneous insensibility, which might be momentary, or permanent according to the nature or duration of the cause. Dr. John W. Draper, professor of Chemisrty and Physiology in the University Medical College, New York, says : " Pressure upon the brain, eith- er applied mechanically or through accidental effusion, produces at once functional inactivity, probably by interference with the due circulation of the blood ; and in like manner, any marked change in the chemical relations of that fluid ex- erts on the brain a corresponding effect." A lit- tle observation will be sufficient to convince any 114 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS one that Dr. McDonald's proposition is mainly- correct, and, that during the time occupied by an individual in filling his system with the noxious effluvia of tobacco his mental powers must be at a stand still. If we should notice an inveterate smoker we should see him ever and anon remov- ing the cigar from his mouth ; this seems to be a kind of instintive operation in order to relieve the brain from the overpowering effect of the lethean sedative, and give the individual time to think. This idea may be new to many but it certainly deserves serious consideration as it goes to show the debilitating and dementing effects of tobacco upon the brain. After commenting upon the mis- chiefs which follow the use of tobacco, Dr. Mc- Donald says: u In conclusion I may state, that the germs of premature decay which the abuse of tobacco is spreading through the country, will ultimately, in my opinion, prove more overwhelm- ing than even the serious abuse of intoxicating liquors." So far as the testimony of the ablest and best AND WHAT IT DOES. 115 of men both in Europe and America can go, all the evils that we have charged to the use of tobac- co are fully established, and no additional amount of testimony would strengthen the propositions ; the proof is abundant and incontrovertable that the improper use of tobacco tends to produce physical, intellectual, and moral impotency ; and that these effects are most obvious, and most de- plorable, when the habit is acquired and persisted in early in life. Some persons have become addicted to the habit of taking opium daily from having first used it in sickness to allay pain or procure sleep ; and many others have become drunkards from hav- ing used gin, wine, brandy, or bitters as a medi cine ; but the votaries of tobacco can offer no such extenuating plea. The young lad seizes a cigar and puts it to his mouth because, and only because, he sees others do so. In the beginning it is nothing but an idle habit without any neces- sity, or utility for its excuse ; but the habit gains strength by continuance, and by degrees attaches- 11-6 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS itself to the victim ; the longer the practice is con- tinued the more difficult it is to break away from it. The individual looses his proper self control and gives himself up to a mischievous habit be- cause he has not sufficient resolution, and manly independence, to cast it off. Almost every nox- ious substance seems to possess the power of fastning itself upon its victim ; it is so with the deluded wretches among some of the eastern na- tions who eat arsenic, or swallow the juice of Gannibus Indica, and it is so everywhere with those who drink alcohol, take opium or any other stupefying narcotic. This shows the danger of tampering with any such noxious agents ; and also the great importance of guarding the young against them. How few old drinkers or old smokers ever reform 1 After the sbacklos are riveted upon the victim admonitions and entreaties are generally useless, and it is doubtless much easier to prevent twenty from adopting any such pernicious habit than it is to reclaim one invete- rate smoker or drinker* AND WHAT IT DOESv 117 The following is an extract from a letter to the author from the Hon. Benjamin Silliman, M. D; L. L. D., Emeritus, Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy in Yale College. " I am willing that you should quote me as de- cidedly hostile to the use of tobacco. I believe it is highly injurious to health, although its dele- terious effects may not be fully apparent until the habit has become so firmly established that it becomes very difficult to break away from it. It rarely happens that a person who uses tobacco habitually, enjoys good health ; and maladies are produced by it which are usually ascribed to other causes. In a social view the habit is filthy and disgusting — In amoral view the cigar is often the pioneer to vicious society and intemperance. If I see a young man smoking, especially in the streets, I am alarmed and think him in danger." Professor Silliman is too well known throughout the entire literary world to need any eulogium from us ; his extensive attainments, long experience, and high moral standing entitle his remarks- to paramount importance. 118 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS CHAPTER XIV. Tobacco a source of revenue in France. — One evil made t© support another, — Eum and tobacco as luxuries. — Do they add to the real enjoyments of life ? — Early history of tobacco. Prohibitions ineffectual. — The odious cha- racter of growing tobacco. — etc. In France the tobacco trade is regulated by the government and is made the source of na- tional revenue, therefore it is carefully watched and encouraged. The Emperor and Empress both smoke by way of encouragement ; it is dealt out to every soldier as a part of his daily rations, the highest civil and military functionaries, the clergy and the laity, professors and students, artisans, mechanics, and common laborers, all follow the example and contribute their proportion to swell the national revenue. Every cigar, and every AND WHAT IT DOES. 119 ounce of tobacco consumed pays tribute to the government. Under this system the consumption of tobacco in France is continually increasing, and at the present time it is said to yield an an- nual income to the government of more than 300,000,000 of francs, which is supposed to be about one fifteenth of the whole national revenue. This tax falls heavily upon the poorer classes, and contributes largely to depress and pauperize them ; yet it would be deemed almost high trea- son to speak against it anywhere within the juris- diction of that empire. By such means one great evil is made to support another, and the curse of tobacco is made to support the curse of war. The aged, decrepid, and the maimed, with helpless women and children, such as can render their country no other service, manifest their loyalty by smoking, that they may help France to trans- port the flower of her youth to fields of slaughter in foreign kingdoms. Happily for us the people of the United States are not subject to any such morbid influence. Our 120 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS young men fear no arbitrary conscription that may take them from their homes and their friends to die by foreign bayonets, nor are they required to give their earnings for the support of royalty. Under God every one is the arbiter of his own for- tune ; he is free to regulate his conduct, and ex- ercise his powers in such manner as is most con- ducive to his own honor and happiness, and his success and prosperity in life are made to depend much upon the evils which he avoids. The very common idea that spirituous liquors are indispensable as medicinal agents has done much to baffle the cause of temperance, but no such reason can be urged for tobacco, as none but the most reprehensible quacks ever employ it now in medical practice : it is sometimes made use of by drovers and herdsmen to kill lice on cattle, but that is no good reason why men should eat it. It is no comfort in sickness, for even those who take it freely in health always positively re- fuse it when they are sick. Many appear to suppose that rum and tobacco AND WHAT IT DOES. 121 add greatly to the enjoyment of life : then why should the male sex claim all the benefit of those blissful agents ; why should not woman be allowed her equal share in these necessary creature com- forts ? The answer is that every intelligent pure- minded female scorns the proffered aid of such artificial stimulants, and looks for happiness in more rational enjoyments. The truth is, neither rum nor tobacco employed as luxurious stimu- lants adds in the least degree to the sum total of human happiness, but a multitude of evils are liable to follow their use. Some may ask: may not a person smoke a little occasionally without injury ? The answer is, tobacco whenever, and however taken, is al- ways a poison ; and he that has the least to do with it is certainly the best off. The gallant General Markham' who was not long ago with the English army in India, never used tobacco himself nor allowed his personal staff to do so, and after extensive observations both in civil and Military life he made the follow- H 122 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS ing statement as the result of his experience. " I may be mistaken, but I believe that all our greatest men — I mean intellectually — states- men, lawyers, warriors, physicians, and surgeons, have either not been smokers, or if smokers, that they have died prematurely." All that is known of the early history of tobac- co is, that when this continent was first discovered this vegetable was found to be in use among the aborigines. History says : " They employed it as incense in their sacrificial fires, believing that the odor of it was greatful to their gods. The priests of some tribes swallowed the smoke of the plant to excite in them a spirit of divination, and this they did to a degree which threw them into a stupor of many hours continuance. When recovered from this fit of intoxication, they asserted that they had held a conference with the devil, and had learned from him the course of human events. Their phy- sicians also got inebriated with the smoke, and pretended that while under the influence of this intoxication they were admitted to the council of AND WHAT IT DOES. 123 the gods, who revealed to them the event of di- seases." * From the aspect and sensible properties of tobacco one might be led to infer that the Most High had forbidden its use by the force of natu- ral laws. The green plant is always extremely obnoxious and offensive to all the senses; When first seen, with the most odious of all vermin crawling upon its leaves, we are reminded of those noxious vegetables which fabulists tell us are found on the borders of the Dead Sea. But in its man- ufactured state much of its repulsive character is lost, although it still retains all its deadly principles. So far as we know, its first introduction among any people has ever been opposed by both civil and ecclesiastical authorities. James the First, of England besides writing a book against it, for- bid its use by severe penalties. Urban the Eighth, issued a papal decree against it. Russia, Turkey, Sweeden and many other monarchies endeavored to banish it forever from their dominions by sum- * Bigelow's Nature in Disease. 124 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS mary prohibitions. The early Puritans strenu- ously opposed it, and the Old Colony of Massachu- setts repeatedly passed laws against it. The early records of Harvard University show that the faculty of that institution intended to exclude it by ordaining that, "No scholar shall take tobacco, unless permitted by the president, with the con- sent of their parents and guardians, and on good reason first given by a physician, and then in a sober and piivate manner. But in spite of the mandates of sovereigns and the bulls of popes — in opposition to all civil and ecclesiastical authority, the cultivation and em- ployment of this noxious plant have increased with surprising rapidity, until its pernicious effects are felt in all parts of the world. The sensual propensities of men have bid defiance to all laws, and despised all restraints until the article of tobac- co has become an important item in the agricul- tural, commercial and manufacturing interests of the world. Its acme is not probably yet reached, and its destructive effects upon* the human race AND WHAT IT DOES. 125 admit of no computation. As we have said be- fore when the plant has arrived to a state of ma- turity the tobacco field is a most unwholesome and disagreeable sight. All other cultivated grounds are more or less pleasant and desirable : fields of growing grain, pastures, meadows, orchards and gardens, fruit and shade trees, all seem lovely, and calculated to awaken sentiments of admira- tion and gratitude in the beholder ; but the sight of a tobacco field is the very reverse of this. As we approach it an instinctive sense of desolation creaps over us, and we feel as though treading upon forbidden ground. In its aspect the tobacco plant is the most odious and repulsive of all vege- tables. No beast or bird, wild or tame, will ever taste it — no living creature except a horrid kind of vermin that is found no where else is ever seen upon it — to all who are not familiar with the sight its pale green foiiage, with its unctuous surface, is nauseous and sickening in the extreme ; and if the spectator does not immediately turn away in disgust, he may be made giddy by the maddening 126 exhalations which hover over these lurid fields, and imagine himself standing upon the margin of some modern Asphaltides, surrounded with hissing serpents, their forky tongues vibrating from be- neath every slimy leaf. Although tobacco flourishes best in a sultry atmosphere yet this curse of the vegetable king- dom seems almost to bid defiance to climate, and is cultivated and thrives in the cold regions of New England. This very year 1860, in a limited district on the borders of the Connectticut River, it is said that there are about two thousand acres of cultivated tobacco ; and estimating the average product per acre to be fifteen hundred pounds the whole crop in that district will amount to fif- teen hundred tons, and this is a mere trifle com- pared with the annual product of the state of Vir- ginia : besides it is raised in many other places both north and south in the United States, and is also cultivated in amost every other warm coun- try on the globe. That which is raised in cold regions is more pungent and acrid, than that AND WHAT IT DOES. 127 which grows in the West Indies and other hot countries, it is not considered so delicious, and consequently does not bring so high a price. Notwithstanding tobacco is so h'ghly offensive to all the senses — notwithstanding its known poisonous qualities, and its acknowledged per- nicious effects upon mankind, there are always men enough ready to cultivate it, and work it through all its stages and conditions until it is ready for the consumer ; and yet in all the vast amount produced there is not a single particle of food or medicine — nothing that is capable of sustaining life, or supplying any of the natural wants of the system ; but every leaf, and stalk and petal, is charged with a threefold poison — it is the American Upas — the bane of the world. In some of our northern states the cultivation of tobacco is rapidly increasing. Rich meadows which lately smiled with waving corn, rye, wheat and onions, now produce nothing but the noisesome tobacco : fields which once supplied thousands with wholesome food, are now loaded with poison for millions. 128 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS CHAPTER XV. Tobacco inclines the mind to Infidelity . There can be no doubt we think that the long continued use of great quantities of tobacco is likely to have an unhappy effect upon the moral faculties ; and many believe that it strongly in- clines the mind to religious infidelity. The fol- lowing are some of the considerations which lead to that belief. In general, wherever tobacco is most used, in- fidelity is most prevalent. This does not appear to be a mere casual coincidence, because there seems to be an obvious relation between the cause and this effect. When the brain and nerv- ous system are constantly, kept under the inebri- ating influence of tobacco, the individual becomes AND WHAT IT DOES. 129 constitutionally a sensualist. Tobacco feeds and nurses the animal, at the_ expense of the intel- lectual man, and the dreamy stupor which it in- duces inclines the mind to skepticism and infi- delity. Under its beguiling influence the heed- less votary seems by degrees to loose the image of his Maker, and descend in the scale of beings towards the brutes that perish — human life comes to be regarded as an insulation — a temporary existence to terminate like the explosion of a rocket. Under its lethean influence men seem inclined to forget their moral accountability, and surrender themselves, soul, body and mind to a depraving sensuality — the great end of life is for- gotten ; or if some intuitive sense of immortality is felt, it looks forward to nothing higher than a perpetuation of animal enjoyment ; a Mahomedan paradise appears to be his highest aspirations. It is not pretended that all who use tobacco are necedsarily infidels, nor that all who do not use it are necessarily christians, but a careful obser- vation of its effects upon the brain and nervous 130 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS system favors the belief that the use of tobacco when persisted in for any considerable length of time tends to depress, and smother the highest and noblest sentiments and aspirations of our na- ture, and drag the mind down to a grovelling ma- terialism ; and this idea is greatly strengthened by observations abroad. The annual consump- tion of tobacco in France almost exceeds belief: reliable statistics >show that in the year 1854 the city of Paris alone smoked, snufTed and chewed, no less than 3,000,000 lbs, or one thousand live hundred tons of tobacco, at a cost of 17,725,263 francs ; and ninety eight per cent of this immense quantity was consumed by smoking. Here as we might expect, a stubborn infidelity pervades all classes ; like a moral mildew its blighting effects extend over all that mighty empire ; everywhere the Sabbath is disregarded or only observed as a holiday ; instead of the sound of Sabbath bells her streets resound with the clarion of war; and neither business, nor revelling give place to re- ligious worship. Their statistics show that of the AND WHAT IT DOES. 131 whole number of children annually born in France, about one third are illegitimate ; matri- monial and family ties appear to be held lightly or wholly disregarded ; and beneath the clouds of tobacco smoke that fill every city and hamlet the darkest atheism lives and broods. Larnartine says: "I know — I sigh when I think of it — that hitherto the French people have been the least religious of all the nations of Europe. The great men of other countries live and die on the scene of history, looking up to Heaven ; but our great men appear to live and die, forgetting com- pletely the only idea for which it is worth living and dying. — History will have the air of an athe- ist when she recounts to posterity these annihi- lations rather than deaths of celebrated men in the greatest year of France: — The victims only have a God ; the tribunes and lictors have none. Look at Mirabeau on the bed of death — ' Crown me with flowers,' said he, c intoxicate me with perfumes, let me die to the sound of delirious music.' Not a word of God or his soul ; sen- 132 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS sual philosopher : He desired only supreme sen- sualism, a last volumptuousness in his agony. Hear Danton on the platform of the scaffold at the distance of a line from eternity, ' I have had a good time of it, let me go to sleep.' His faith annihilation, his last sigh vanity !" In Germany the use of tobacco has. -increased with almost unparalleled rapidity during the last twenty five years, and here its connection with infidelity is strikingly illustrated ; once Germany believed in God and a Divine Revelation, but now the corroding influence of tobacco seems to have eaten out all the once elevated moral sensi- bilities of the people, and left nothing but a cold materialism and the most grovelling propensities ; spellbound beneath this moral plague she pre- sents a sad example to the christian world. In Spain a nominal Christianity is still main- tained by force of law, but its spirit and vitality appear to have passed away, and nothing but the abrogation of an imperial edict seems wanting to plunge the whole nation into the darkest atheism. AND WHAT IT DOES, 133 The all pervading influence of tobacco like a moral incubus, stifles every living thought and principle, and paralyzes every progressive effort. Let the historian watch the progress of tobacco- smoking in any part of the world and he may see at the same time the equal march of infidel- ity. If we look at the United States we see smoking and an oblivious infidelity moving for- ward with the same measured strides ; look any- where, and the more we examine the subject the more we shall be satisfied that the use of tobacco promotes domestic, social, civil and religious in- fidelity. It is probable that many who are well satisfied of the injury done to the animal system by tobacco will be very slow to believe that it has any influ- ence whatever upon the mind and moral conduct. The idea, though not entirely new, may yet, be in advance of the age, and it will undoubtedly meet with severe criticism. Yet it is obvious that narco- tics do effect the mind and moral powers in various ways. Alcoholic liquors generally excite anger; 134 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS one partially intoxicated is strongly inclined to quarrel, his organ of combativeness is aroused, he is courageous and courts controversy, and a very large portion of all the murders are com- mitted under its maddening influence. But the di- rect effect of tobacco is quieting, the Calumet is a token of peace and enduring friendship. Strychnine excites one class of propensities, and Belladonna another. The votaries of opium and tobacco experience a sad depression of spirits when the happifying stimulus has passed of; and the morbid agent must be frequently repeated or the victim is unhappy. Deprived of his accus- tomed anodyne he " feels an aching void which nothing else can fill. 5 ' In these dark hours the man is out of love with life — all his recollections of the past, and all his visions of the future are filled with gloomy spectres — existence seems a burthen. When these paroxisms of extreme de- pression are repeated often, and continued long, they strongly incline the individual to self de- struction; accordingly we find that suicides are AND WHAT IT DOES. 135 most numerous where narcotics are most used. In the work of self destruction, tobacco comes in for a share. According to reliable statistics the average annual number of suicides committed in France is about three thousand, being sometimes above, and sometimes bslow that number. Suicide, unless the victim is absolutely insane, is practical atheism ; it is a solemn denial of all the truths of religion, and the awful result to which the loss of moral principle may lead. It is true that these are only extreme cases, yet they indicate the general tendency of such morbid influences. The power of persistant tobacco inebriation to deprave the moral faculties is now attracting the attention of medical, and moral philosophers. In some European dioceses the bishops will not ad- mit any to confirmation who are known to use tobacco ; and some of the Methodist conferences in the United States have recently refused to li- cense for the ministry any candidates who use tobacco. Leading members pf the Society of 136 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS Friends have long regarded tobacco as having a demoralizing tendency, and earnestly opposed its use. So it appears that the evil is seen, and the reformation attempted where it should be, at the fountain heads. AND WHAT IT DOES. 137 CHAPTER XVI. Drugging cigars for felonious purposes — They may be- come the medium of communicating a noisome disease. — Extracts from Drs. Johnson and Solly, etc. Several years ago American travellers found that in some foreign countries, crafty knaves sometimes drugged cigars with some stupefying poison in order to rob or murder their victim, whilst he remained in a state of profound insensi- bility. Among the articles employed for that purpose, Opium, Indian Hemp, Hemlock, and Deadly-Nightshade were found ; any of these might be rolled up with the tobaeco-leaf, and the appearance of the cigar so made would not be- tray the villany ; but whoever smoked one of them soon became giddy, and sunk in a short time into a profound coma, and became an easy I 138 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS prey to his diabolical captor. The Editor of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, whilst travelling abroad, says: "I suppose that it is Hemp, and not Opium, as generally supposed, with which cigars are drugged, and made the in- struments in the hands of designing men in Lon- don and other great cities on the continent for the perpetration of many dreadful crimes." As might have been expected, eastern pick- pockets and felons were not long allowed the ex- clusive benefit of this infernal discovery, but quick as thought American desperadoes seized upon it and put it in practice. Armed with these deadly weapons, demons in human shape prowl about, watching for victims. If an unsuspecting individual takes one of these poisoned cigars, perhaps before it is half used up he is stupefied, robbed, and left to recover or die as the case may be, and the perpetrators of the villany pass on un- molested. There is much reason to believe that instances of this kind are not uncommon in some of our large cities. The stranger who is known AND WHAT IT DOES. 139 to have money about him perils his life if he takes a cigar at a gambling saloon or other place of doubtful reputation. This is a most dangerous, and horrid species of viilany ; the assassin needs neither bludgeon, pistol, nor knife ; nothing but a few cigars of ordinary external appearance, but charged within with death. Thus disguised, the most guilty wretches may walk our streets with fearless impunity, perpetrate their villanies and go unpunished. Another frightful consequence sometimes fol- lows the use of cigars : in large tobacco manu- factories persons of loose morals and filthy habits are very liable to be employed, and cigars made by such hands do sometimes contain the virus of a foul disease, and by this means that horrible affection is said to be sometimes communicated to innocent and unsuspecting lips. Upon this subject, Dr. Johnson writing for the London Lan- cet, Jan. 1859, says: "It is certain that devoted smokers are liable to both constitutional and local disorders of very serious characters. Among the 140 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS former we notice, giddiness, sickness, vomiting, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, angina pectoris, diseases of the liver, pancreas, and heart, nervousness, amaurosis, paralysis, apoplexy, atrophy, deaf- ness, and mania. Amongst the latter, ulceration of the lips — not unfrequently of a syphilitic character from the morbid matter introduced into the healthy subject by smoking infected cigars, or by pipes which have been used by infected persons." That such things are liable to happen, is a well established principle in medical jurisprudence, and it is presumed that many such anomalous cases have occurred, which have been mistaken for cancerous, or scrophulous affections, and at- tended with ulcerations of the lips, cheeks, throat and tonsils, followed by other characteristic developments. On this subject, Dr. Solly of London, says: "I have been asked to produce facts in proof of the deleterious effects of tobacco, and facts in abun- dance shall be forthcoming when I have bad a AND WHAT IT DOES. 141 record kept of its effects in my hospital cases ; but the facts which I have now by me being pri- vate cases, contain details the relation of which would involve a breach of confidence which nothing would justify. " Those who will not re- gard such hints as these must be either reckless or dull of apprehension. The American savage gave the European tobacco, and in return the European gave the savage the most foul of all diseases, and never did hostile nations inflict more severe, or lasting injuries upon each-other : each carries with it a perpetual tendency to exterminate the race. Since we commenced this manual we have been informed that snuff-taking still exists in some lo- calities to a greater extent than we had supposed, and that besides the ordinary manner of using it, this filthy powder is sometimes taken into the mouth by females, and used as men do junk tobacco ; and that in some instances ladies of rank, thrust a large pinch of snuff into the mouth before going out in the afternoon, or evening, for 142 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS the purpose of creating a temporary excitement. We are told also, that some ladies rub their teeth and gums with snuff, either alone or mixed with some other powder, under the mistaken impres- sion that it preserves the teeth from decay, and, that it is often used in that way until those who so employ it learn to love it, and continue its use for the sake, of its exhilarating effect; it is said also that little girls, not more than eight, or ten years of age, have sometimes learnt to immitate their older sisters and purchase snuff to eat, as some boys do rum to drink. But we presume that these are only solitary instances, and that the great body of American ladies are free from the sin of tobacco ; we are sure that the passion for snuff- taking is fast passing away, it is hoped, never to be revived again. AND WHAT IT DOES. 143 CHAPTER XVII. Considerations connected with reform. The power of tobacco over its victim is a sub- ject for serious consideration. The habit is gen- erally commenced in a thoughtless manner, with- out any regard to future consequences. At first the article may be used only occasionally, and taken up and laid down at pleasure, with a per- fect unconcern — the individual has no idea of contrating any fixed habit ; but his desire for the article increases with its use, its power steals over him secretly, and when he thinks that he can break off, and makes the attempt, he finds to his surprise that it is next to an impossibility to do so — he has played with a viper until he is bitten, yet he is enchanted and cannot fly from it. At 144 TOBACCO, V.'IIAT IT IS first, a goddes seemed to lead him gently in the dance, and surround him with gaity and pleasure, but the arm that first embraced him so fondly refuses at length to let him go. Whilst the heed- less votary fed upon golden dreams unseen hands bound him with chain»and he has become a cap- tive, and his escape : 3 attended with difficulty and uncertainty. If he attempts to rid himself of this bosom enemy he is depressed in spirits and un- happy — unexpected troubles suddenly spring up around him — the demon Nicotin haunts him, and his hand as if moved by some invisible power, is continually searching his pockets for tobacco ; the man has lost his wonted self control, and after suffering in this way for a time he generally yields to the imperious demands of a morbid ap- petite. Universal experience proves that when the habit is once firmly established scarcely one in a thousand ever wholly abandon it ; and it too often happens when tobacco is given up that some intoxicating drink is taken as a substitute. History shows the power of this habit in the AND WHAT IT DOES. 145 utter futility of all civil and ecclesiastical prohibi- tions, and it must now be evident that the world can never be thoroughly reformed by lecturing old smokers and old drinkers ; it is true some resolute high-minded men do sometimes break ofF by the force of their own wills, but the vast mul- titudes which now fill the world with filth and smoke will never be sensibly lessened by such sporadic reformations so long as they continue to draw into their ranks the young and undented. It is believed that most of our American citizens who have arrived to the age of forty or fifty years and have become addicted to the use of tobacco seriously regret that they ever contracted the burthensome habit: they say, they wish they could do without it, but they think they cannot. Dr. Johnson says of English smokers : " I have scarcely ever met with one habitual smoker who did not, in his candid moments, regret his com- mencement of the habit. " Now if such is the case should not all parents be careful to guard their own children from con- 146 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS trading the habit ? It is often begun early in life, under the parental roof, and here the pre- cautionary measures should commence. Let them begin in the nursery, and be cultivated by the domestic fireside. Let them form an indis- pensable part of home education, and be enforced both by precept and example. Let them be taught in common schools, and Sabbath schools ; and the rising generation be made thoroughly acquainted with the poisonous nature of tobacco, and the manifold evils which arise from, its use. Let men of intelligence and character in every rank of society raise their voices againtst it. Let an appeal be made to the common sense, the in- terests, patriotism, religious and moral sentiments of individuals and communities, and the appeal can not be made in vain. In the United States the province of moral reforms has generally been occupied by men, to the exclusion of the other sex, and this has undoubtedly been one reason why they have often made such meagre progress. The immense power that woman possesses over AND WHAT IT DOES. 147 the religious, moral, and social condition of man- kind in all enlightened and refined communities has seldom been duly appreciated ; and no where else in the wide world is that power greater tha n in the United States. Here her sanctifying in- fluence is everywhere felt. Here woman is the great conservator, and protector, of all that is pure in morals, and holy in religion — her pro- vince is the heart, and her sceptre virtue. That power once fully brought out against tobacco would be irresistable — the united action of American females would soon banish this -nui- sance from the face of society. The subject is clearly within their province, and deeply con- cerns them. Whenever tobacco is used in a family it is a source of annoyance to the female inmates' — smoking pollutes the whole air from cellar to garret, and from the nursery to the drawing room, and every one within doors is obliged to inhale more or less of the noxious effluvia. The subtle poison finds its way into every apartment, and carpets, curtains, furniture, 148 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS and clothing become impregnated with it — the murky clouds which the smoker belches out carry with them the effete and morbid matter from his own lungs, and more or less of this gaseous abomination is unavoidably taken in and breathed over again by those about him. If the man chews tobacco his housekeeper will have to perform the delightful task of cleansing spittoons, washing tobacco defilements from floors, carpets, furni- ture and clothing; and relieving his pockets and handkerchief of half used quids and mutilated cigars. Must not such tasks be extremely oner- ous to every delicate and sensitive female, and can any spirited woman submit to such odious indignities without complaining? If one thus situated should scold from morning till night, year in, and year out, we would not blame her. Some quiet men, to avoid anno} ing others, and being annoyed themselves, often retire from company so that free from all interruptions they may enjoy the full fruition of smoking. There, solitary and alone, the whole man seems in AND WHAT IT DOES. 149 statu quo : thus situated he quaffs the etherial ambrosia with all the delight of a self created deity — this is the fool's paradise. Let not the silver tones of pratling children, nor the cheerful greetings of a wife, sister, or friend, disturb him — let no thought of a higher, or purer state in- trude upon his blissful monotony ; but let him take his fill at this lethean fountain, and immo- late himself at the shrine of his chosen saint. Our hopes of reformation lie through the diffu- sion of knowledge and the force of reason ; in the cultivation of more refined sentiments, and more exalted aspirations, in the sober second thought of an enlightened and virtuous public; and in the irresistable force of female influence. The more the subject is examined the greater its importance will appear. Reflecting parents wilL be more careful to guard their children against the pernicious habit — every prudent mother will watch her son with more care and solicitude, and the thoughtful sister will stay the hand of her little brother when he extends it to grasp a cigar. 150 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS When the whole matter comes to be every- where clearly understood every consideration of interest, honor, and happiness will be found to stand in array against tobacco, and the poisonous weed will come to be regarded as only fit for sluggards and felons. Some of the divisions of the Sons of Tem- perance have recently discarded the use of tobac- co. This course is highly commendable and adds to the credit and importance of these grow- ing institutions. Go on, then, we say, in your praiseworthy mission, and teach the world by ex- ample as well as precept. Go on, to encourage the timid, and reclaim the wayward. Go on, to sustain the weak and raise up the fallen. Goon, and bring back the prodigal sons, reunite the broken links of the family circle, and restore the loved and lost to their friends and society. This is the spirit of genuine philanthrophy — do these things and all mankind will bless you. AND WHAT IT DOES. 151 CHAPTER XVIII. Miscellaneous Observations and Reflections. The advocates of tobacco like those who follow any other pernicious habit are continually offer- ing excuses for it. Some tell us a that the prin- ciple harm arising from the use of tobacco is be- cause it does not agree with some constitutions.' r Acrid poisons are not apt to agree very well or very long with any constitutions. It is true that alcohol, opium 7 and other deleterious substances manifest their pernicious effects much sooner iii some individuals than in others, but this circum- stance is no security to those who show no signs of immediate injury ; the weak and the sensative may fall first, but this should alarm rather than quiet the fears of others — the soldier who is not 152 cut down by the first fire will not on that account he out of danger so long as the firing continues ; and we knew of no constitutions tha4 are proof against deadly agents whether in the shape of lobacco, alcohol, arsenic or leaden balls. Again, some physicians tell us that they have seldom or never noticed any very serious evils arising from the use of this article; then we say their optics are very obtuse, and they are dull of apprehension, or their field of observation has been very limited. Lizars, of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, one of the most strenuous opposers of tobacco, say? : " The number of patients frequenting my surgery in the mornings is upwards of 2000 an- nually, and these afford me an extensive field of surgical observation in every department. It would appear that the cigar, or pipe, first pro- duces a small blister of the mucous membrane of the mouth, which, being daily irritated by the pungent weed, progressively ulcerates and be- comes cancerous." AND WHAT IT DOES. 153 It would require a large amount of negative evidence to contradict one such witness as this, What if there are scores of men who know no- thing of the evils which hosts of others have wit- nessed ? such negative testimony amounts to no- thing when so much positive evidence of the most reliable kind is found everywhere and meets us at every turn. Again one assures us that he has often seen, " a sleek negro with his mouth always full of tobacco, his jaws grinding as steadily as a mill, and the purple juice all the while overflowing his lips, yet such creatures were healthy and strong as oxen " — and we presume that after using this kind of fodder for many years in succession they were about as intelligent as oxen. Huge masses of indolent, adipose matter may not be so readily or severely affected by a poisonous irritant, and its sedative influence may be more congenial to such phlegmatic temperaments; but if any envy the poor African such swinish pleasure — if they have no higher aspirations than this, then let them 154 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS go, bask in the sunshine, and take plug and plug, whiff and whiff with him; but every prudent man will surely decline the loathsome banquet. Hitherto all the efforts of philosophers and mo- ralists to check the use of tobacco appear to have been wholly disregarded, and the hundred vol- umes which have been published against it have fallen like so many autumnal leaves to perish and be forgotten — facts and arguments have been looked upon as chaff to be blown away by the wind, and a morbid desire for tobacco-inebria- tion seems to have overcome all opposition until the few who do not use the pernicous weed are only so many solitary exceptions to an almost universal custom ; and yet in no instance has a single charge brought against tobacco been re- futed, but on the contrary the experience of every year and almost every day tends not only to con- firm them all, but also to bring to light new, and more astounding developments. The history of tobacco shows its blighting in- fluence upon nations as well as individuals. AND WHAT IT DOES. 155 Everywhere as the use of this article has in- creased, the average duration of human life has diminished and natural population has declined. Under its depressing influence? the scale of intel- lect has fallen, and all the proud traits of honor, benevolence, and self-sacrifising heroism have been lost. The causes which contribute to the decline of nations may not be so obvious or so distinctly seen as those that affect individuals, be- cause several deleterious elements may be in operation at the same time, and because the change being upon a large scale may appear so slow as not to be readily computed. We do not witness the downfall of a nation from moral causes in a day, nor perhaps in the lifetime of a single individual, but when the decline is mea- sured by decades or centuries the change is more distinctly seen and understood. Spain was the first of all the civilized world to adopt the use of tobacco, and when her present condition is com- pared with what it was before that event it will be seen that she has greatly declined. What has 156 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS Spain done during the last half century but smoke tobacco ? Who can show us her illustrious sages and heroes of the present day ? Where in all her dominions can be found such men as built the pillars of Hercules ? Where now is her world renowned Alhambra ? Where are her libraries of six hundred thousand volumes? Spain once had the proudest palaces and the strongest cas- tles, the bravest warriors and the boldest naviga- tOTs ; and when every other nation refused to aid Columbus in his search for this western continent she nobly espoused his cause, and furnished him with the means for pursuing his daring enterprise. Spain was once the home of chivalry, and the emporium of the arts and sciences ; she gave the world the first metallic currency that had credit among all nations. Spanish faith was incorrupta- ble, the Spaniard was ever true to his trust, and never forfeited his word. But now how changed 1 'Her proudest towers and castles have fallen, and her cities and palaces are hasting to decay; the mildew of tobacco is upon her — her "boasted AND WHAT IT DOES. 157 heraldry and pomp of power," with her once im- maculate integrity have passed away — her people have lost their physical and intellectual vigor, and are fast sinking into a state of ignorance, effemi- nacy and barbarism. In Spain tobacco is a government monoply and is one of its chief sources of revenue. The Spainard seldom chews tobacco but is always smoking or snuffing. Seville has the unenviable honor of having the largest tobacco manufactory in the whole world. According to Harper this stupendous edifice is six hundred and sixty two feet in length and five hundred and twenty four feet wide, covering an area of nearly eight acres ; the whole surrounded by an immense moat. Within, the structure is divided into numerous apartments, in which from five to eight thousand persons, chiefly females, are constantly employed manufacturing cigars and snuff*. When an Ameri- can gets a peep at the group of wretches that fill this plague spot of the world he is startled at the multitude of ghastly, cadavorous images by which 158 TOBACCO, WHAT IT IS he finds himself surrounded — it seems a charnel house, and its dingy inmates appear to know lit- tle more of the living world than the tenants of Egyptian catacombs. These females are called, in Seville, cigarreras. The girl of sixteen has the form of a skeleton and the face of a spectre ; to such forlorn beings virtue and chastity are un- meaning words. In this model erebus thousands spend their whole lives from youth to age ; happily for those who are doomed to this abomination their lives are generally short. This is Spain as she is now, and such is the vortex to which the cursed Hebanon leads nations as well as individ- uals. In a work recently published by Monsieur Fievee, he says: