The Fatal Cigarette

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 12, 1907

The Fatal Cigarette

In one of his addresses to men at Beaumont, Dr. Len G. Broughton condemned the deadly cigarette: “What I shall say about the demoralizing and destructive effects of the cigarette habit is not the raving of a fanatic nor the vapid utterances of a crank. I was educated as a physician, and practised my profession for several years when I was a younger man. What I shall say on this subject I speak from personal knowledge of scientific truth, and I do not hesitate to say that the cigarette fiend every time he smokes a cigarette takes into his system absolute poison.”

Dr. Broughton declared that the paper of which the cigarette is made is impregnated with arsenic, and bleached in opium. The smoke is inhaled into the lungs, the poisonous gases are communicated through the blood to the brain and to the nerve-centers that control the moral sensibilities, stupefying and destroying. Soon the fine edge of moral distinction is blunted, the difference between right and wrong is blurred; and “any man who habitually smokes cigarettes for ten years, unless he is an exception to the general rule, will lie or steal or rob or commit adultery or commit murder”—or die! This is a strong indictment, and ought to arrest attention. Even those who think the language extreme will agree that every effort ought to be made to stop this deadly habit.—Baptist Standard.