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Health and Temperance

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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 34.

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Health and Temperance.

Nature of Tobacco.

Q.—WHAT are the chief ways of using tobacco?
A.—Smoking, chewing, and snuffing.
Q.—What is the natural effect of tobacco upon the system?
A.—It is narcotic and emetic.
Q.—What is an emetic?
A.—Anything which causes a person to vomit after taking it.
Q.—What is a narcotic?
A.—Any drug which, taken in small doses, stupefies the nerves and causes sleepiness, and in larger quantities produces convulsions, stupor, and death.
Q.—What deadly poison does tobacco contain?
A.—Nicotine; a very small quantity will produce death.
Q.—What proof can you give that tobacco is poisonous?
A.—If given to a dog he will die in spasms.
Q.—Give another example of tobacco poisoning.
A.—A single drop of liquid taken from a pipe stem and placed on the tongue of a cat will kill it almost instantly.
Q.—How then can men form a habit of using tobacco if it be so deadly a poison?
A.—If taken in small doses at the beginning, the system grows to tolerate many kinds of poison.
Q.—What other poisons can be taken in large quantities if begun by degrees?
A.—Alcohol, arsenic, opium, and nearly all poisons.
Q.—Why does not tobacco kill people when they first begin to use it?
A.—Because it is an emetic, and the stomach will seldom retain enough to produce death at once.
Q.—Does the use of tobacco ever cause death?
A.—Yes, but usually it poisons the system slowly.
Q.—Does the system attempt to work it off?
A.—The system tries to throw off every poison as soon as swallowed, and is greatly weakened by the effort.
Q.—But does a little do any harm?
A.—Any poison must hurt more or less in proportion to the quantity taken.
Q.—How is the injury done?
A.—It poisons the stomach, affecting digestion, often producing dyspepsia, and rendering the whole system liable to disease.
Q.—Is there any evidence that tobacco goes all through the system?
A.—If a drop of perspiration from a habitual user of tobacco fall on a hot stove, you can smell the tobacco at once.
Q.—How is it that there are some who are not made sick by the use of tobacco, at first?
A.—Such people have, perhaps, inherited a taste for it, and are hardened to the poison to begin with.
Q.—If tobacco is so injurious, why do people use it?
A.—Because it is a narcotic poison, and seems to quiet, while it really injures them.—Silver Star Catechism.