p. 6 | KATE LINDSAY, M. D by Kate Lindsay

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 18, 1900

KATE LINDSAY, M. D

By Kate Lindsay

PLEDGE NO. 3: WHY IT IS NEEDED

KATE LINDSAY, M. D

We have seen that alcohol and tobacco are not foods; that neither contributes to the work of tissue construction; neither furnishes the body with either heating or working energy; both are poisons, and interfere seriously with the work of every organ of the body, and damage the mental and moral faculties, thus injuring and defiling the image of God.

Many thoughtful men and most women will agree that the anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol pledges are actual necessities. They do not use either drug themselves, and are ready to say that they see no excuse for their use by any one else. At the same time, these very persons are indulging in the use of tea and coffee, and very often in the use of some form of opium or other stupefying drug, to which they are as truly slaves as are rum or tobacco devotees.

Tea and coffee are almost universally used by both men and women in all civilized lands. Tea especially is the favorite stimulant of women. To appreciate what a hold this stimulant has on its victim, one needs but to notice the nervous actions and cranky temper of a habitual tea-toper when deprived of her accustomed stimulus, and then see her again, genial and pleasant, when, having drunk a cup of strong tea, her brain and nervous system are feeling the exciting effects of the poison.

Tea contains two harmful drugs—theine and tannin. The first-named is a powerful nerve stimulant, which for a time excites the brain and nervous system to undue activity, followed by a corresponding depression. It is often the cause of sleeplessness, and even insanity. In other cases it has been known to produce neuritis, an almost incurable nervous disease. The second is a powerful astringent, which, when taken in any great amount, hinders digestion, and destroys the digestive principles of the gastric juice. All forms of tea contain this drug, but green tea has more than twice as much as black tea. If tea is steeped a long time, or boiled down, the quantity of tannin it contains is increased. That is one reason why tea long steeped, looks dark colored.

Many women put the teapot on the fire in the morning, and keep adding a little fresh tea to it now and then, as they drink their favorite beverage. It is small wonder that they are cranky, sleepless, and nervous, and that they look old and wrinkled at forty, with skins the color of tanned leather. They are all the time taking into the body the same material used by the tanner to transform his hides into leather. Such persons have depraved appetites, often craving all sorts of unhealthful substances, such as raw rice, clay, slate pencils, and other indigestible substances.

Coffee contains a poison known as caffeine, similar in its effects to the theine of tea. It is a nerve poison, and is used to deaden pain, much the same as an opiate.

Many think that the worst enemy to the human race is alcohol, and next to it tobacco; but when we remember that it is only men who use these two drugs to any extent, while both men and women indulge in the use of tea and coffee; and when we also know that whatever injures women strikes more directly at the welfare of the race than does that which acts only against men, it is a difficult matter to say which is the greater evil,—the little brown jug or the teapots and coffeepots found in so many well-ordered homes of our land. The enemy whose coming is announced by the beating of drums and the sounding of trumpets is not so much a source of danger as he who invades the city in the guise of a friend. Learning all the secrets of its defense, and acquiring a knowledge of its weakest points, he strikes a fatal blow before the defending army is awakened to its danger.

From the brief facts stated above, it must be plain to earnest seekers after true temperance principles, that if there is need for pledges No. 1 and 2, there is just as much need for Pledge No. 3.

TEETOTAL PLEDGE

I do hereby solemnly affirm that, with the help of God, I will wholly abstain from the voluntary use, as a beverage, or in any equivalent manner, of alcohol, tea, coffee, and from the use of tobacco, opium, and all other narcotics and stimulants.