TOBACCO AND THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
By Editor
DR. R. L. WHITE, in the following paragraphs from an article in the Southern Medical Journal, gives a most striking summing up of the far-reaching and deleterious effects of the use of tobacco: “To sum up the opinion of the different authorities, we come to the following conclusions: Tobacco is the cause of a great many headaches, diagnosed as migraine. It is also the cause of a great many cases of brachial and scapular neuralgia, diagnosed as rheumatism. It is also the indirect cause of many of the occupation neuroses. It is the cause of a great deal of so-called indigestion. It causes an inflammation of the Eustachian tubes, and impairs the sense of hearing. It causes amaurosis and amblyopia. It causes stomatitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis, and bronchitis, the secondary effects being cancer of the mouth, and a cough which predisposes the individual to tuberculosis. It causes insomnia, which leads to the use of stronger narcotics. “The tobacco user, if not a neurasthenic to begin with, always acquires neurasthenia, and increases it the more, the longer he uses the drug. The habit of using tobacco is a condition of neurasthenic bad feeling, which is relieved by taking more of the drug. The few centuries it has been used, it has caused an increasing hereditary drug diathesis. It is causing persons to be born in increasing numbers with drug neurasthenia. They are born tired, easily fatigued and discomforted. Having inherited this feeling of discomfort, they crave something to relieve it. Having inherited the tobacco diathesis, and the odor of it being almost omnipresent, they naturally begin to use it. “Tobacco is so extensively used for two reasons: Because it is used openly and publicly by all classes, ministers of the gospel not excepted. If it were used like alcohol, around the corner, and then something eaten to destroy the odor, it would not cause so many children to begin the use of it. Second: Being used in nearly all homes, the odor is nearly always present, and children form the tobacco habit from inhaling it before they ever use any themselves. Having inherited the tobacco habit from inhaling it, it is almost as hard, if not as hard, for them to abstain from its use, as it is for the habitual user. Naturally, when the odor from others using it no longer satisfies them, they begin the use of it themselves.” We are glad to be able to say that during the entire history of our denomination, we have never licensed or ordained an individual to preach or to teach the gospel who used tobacco in any form whatever. If one of our ministers were found using tobacco, that thing alone would lead our church to withdraw his credentials. And not only this, we go a step further, and do not admit to church fellowship any one who uses tobacco; so that our membership, as well as our ministry, are free from the disgusting and unwholesome practice. We have thousands of men among us who have given up tobacco, often late in life, on receiving the gospel, and learning of the great, soul-inspiring truth that Jesus is coming soon. It is unthinkable that an individual should come into the personal presence of Christ defiled by the use of tobacco. Medical science, as set forth in these paragraphs by Dr. White, makes it clear that tobacco racks and destroys the physical frame; and knowing these things, why should Christians stoop to indulge such pernicious appetites?