p. 11 | Straight Talk on Tobacco

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1908

Straight Talk on Tobacco

WOMEN'S tirades against tobacco do not carry much weight with the average smoker; nor do the charges of its harmful effects made by those whose opinions are dismissed as prejudiced, unfounded, and extreme. But fair-minded men ought to be ready to consider statements of scientific fact presented by a trained and scholarly investigator. When one of the leading physicians and nerve specialists of the United States, for example, states that the effect of tobacco upon the heart and blood-vessels has been proved to be that of an active poison; that tobacco is responsible for arterial degeneration in those long habituated to its excessive use, and interferes with the proper function of both lungs and heart, finally paralyzing their central nerves; that it acts upon the nerve-centers, brain, and spinal cord; that it has a powerfully depressing effect upon the nerves of motion; and that its chronic effects are to induce a poison-congestion of the brain, spinal cord, and end nerves in heart, lungs, muscles, and skin,—it would seem that the rather positive disfavor with which some men and women view the use of tobacco is not so unfounded, after all. The chief excuse for using tobacco is that it is so, soothing! The process of degeneration, usually is.—The Sunday School Times.