p. 29 | TOBACCO BLINDNESS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1887

TOBACCO BLINDNESS.

THE anti-tobacco people ought to have their attention called to the fact that "tobacco blindness" is becoming quite a common affliction. At present there are several persons being treated for it at one London hospital. It first takes the form of "color blindness," the sufferers who have smoked themselves into this condition being quite unable to distinguish the color of a piece of red cloth held up before them. That is the popular medical test, though there is also a more scientific one. Eventually the victim of tobacco blindness sometimes loses his eyesight altogether. Although smoking is to a large extent the cause of the malady, and so gives it its name, heavy drinking is also partly responsible. Unless the smoking and drinking go together, the "tobacco blindness" is not serious. A proof of this is, that if a doctor has a case of it in hand, he always insists on abstinence, when, as a rule, the sufferer gradually regains his sight.—St. James Gazette.