Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 24.

Health and Temperance.

A MEDICAL JOURNAL ON TOBACCO.

A YOUNG Chicago woman is reported as having been made insane by smoking cigarettes. The New York Medical Journal, after describing the evil effect of nicotine on the system, gives these facts:—

“In an experimental observation of thirty-eight boys of all classes of society and of average health, who have been using tobacco for periods ranging from two months to two years, twenty-seven showed severe injury to the constitution and insufficient growth; thirty-two showed the existence of irregularity of the heart's action, disordered stomachs, cough, and a craving for alcohol; thirteen had intermittency of the pulse, and one had consumption. After they had abandoned the use of tobacco, within six months one-half were free from all their former symptoms, and the remainder had recovered by the end of the year.

“A great majority of men go far beyond what may be called the temperate use of tobacco, and evidences of injury are easily found. It is only necessary to have some record of what the general health was previous to the taking up of the habit, and to have observation cover a long enough time. The history of tobacco in the island of New Zealand furnishes a quite suggestive illustration for our purpose, and one on a large scale. When Europeans first visited New Zealand they found in the native Maoris the most finely developed and powerful men of any of the tribes inhabiting the islands of the Pacific. Since the introduction of tobacco, for which the Maoris developed a passionate liking, they have, from this cause alone, it is said, become decimated in numbers, and at the same time reduced in stature and in physical well-being so as to be an altogether inferior type of men.”

That men who themselves smoke should allow their growing boys to indulge in the habit is a marvel. That men who have sons and daughters should be willing themselves to smoke is a glaring proof of the weakness and selfishness of human nature, and goes far to prove the doctrine of total depravity.—Independent.