THE EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON HEALTH.
By E. L. Hart
PROMISCUOUS smoking is an intolerable nuisance, and it is to be regretted, seeing that smokers are so oblivious to all but their own comfort, that stricter rules are not enforced to prohibit the practice in public places and mixed assemblies. It is, undoubtedly, most offensive to ladies and delicate persons, and is sometimes persisted in when true politeness would prompt its discontinuance. The selfish unconcern of smokers is most apparent on omnibuses and other public conveyances, where the ashes and smoke from pipes or cigars are blown into the faces of passengers, whether women, non-smokers, or children. When asked to desist, in the interest of others, an insolent reply is often made, to the effect that those who don't like it had better get inside, or take a cab. Cowper truly wrote:—
"Pernicious weed, whose scent the fair annoys,
Unfriendly to society's chief joys." Dr. B. W. Richardson, in "Diseases of Modern Life," says: "The effects of this agent [tobacco], often severe, even on those who have attained to manhood, are especially injurious to the young, who are still in the stage of adolescence. In these the habit of smoking causes impairment of growth, premature manhood, and physical prostration." With some the liking for tobacco is inherited, and thus not so much to be wondered at; fathers are the first offenders, and there is not the least doubt that excessive indulgence largely conduces to the lowered vitality and enfeebled health of little children. Indeed, to quote Dr. Richardson again:—
"If a community of the youths of both sexes, whose progenitors were finely formed and powerful, were to be trained to the early practice of smoking, and if marriage were to be confined to smokers, an apparently new and physically inferior race of men and women would be bred." No healthy man or boy, well bred or well brought up, has the slightest inclination to smoke, or to adopt the use of tobacco for its own sake. Influence and example are responsible for many acquiring the habit who otherwise would never dream of doing so; but, alas! perfect health is becoming an extinct quality. Mr. James Parton says:—
"In our civilized sedentary life he who would have good health must fight for it. Many people have the insolence to become parents who have no right to aspire to that dignity; children are born who have no right to exist, and skill preserves many whom nature is eager to destroy. Consequently, while the average duration of human life has been increased, the average tone of human health has been lowered. Fewer die and fewer are quite well." Dr. Richardson says:—
"Smoking produces disturbances in the blood, causing undue fluidity and change in the red corpuscles; in the stomach, giving rise to debility, nausea, and sickness; on the heart, causing debility of the organ and irregular action." Dr. W. A. Alcott considers that "tobacco injures the gums and the lining membrane of the mouth, stomach, and alimentary canal generally, and, in fact, of the lungs also, and thus not only prepares the way for various diseases, but spoils the beauty, injures the soundness, and hastens the decay of these organs. It was, no doubt, the intention of the Creator that the teeth should last as long as their owner."