The Harmful Effects of Tobacco
In the magazine section of one of the Sunday papers, a page was recently devoted to seeking to create the sentiment that the use of tobacco is not harmful. Quite a number of illustrations were given and much supposedly learned talk is had on the subject. Every little while, we have similar attempts of those who are making a business of manufacturing and selling intoxicating liquors. They try to make the public believe that these liquors are harmless, and occasionally they can bring to their aid some conscienceless “scientist” whom they will use in trying to prove their baseless and false assertions. The very best and most thoroly reliable practitioners in the medical world affirm without hesitating that the use of tobacco in any of its forms is altogether harmful, doing no good whatever to the individual. The only object that there could be in trying to controvert such a plain truth, is that the tobacco interests may not be made to suffer by the evidence that is brought forward by honest and competent men showing the harmful effect of tobacco upon the nervous system. Men and women whose nerves are racked and whose constitutions are otherwise broken down by the use of alcohol and tobacco, can not be in as good condition as those who are living wholesome lives, free from all these and similar bad habits.