Edison Puts a Ban on Cigarettes
By Editor
MR. THOMAS A. EDISON, at his extensive works in West Orange, New Jersey, employs some 6,700 men. He has recently caused to be posted all through his establishment: "Cigarettes Not Tolerated. They Dull the Brain." This decision came about through a request from Mr. Henry Ford, Detroit automobile manufacturer, that a chemical analysis be made of some twenty different brands of the cigarette. The inventor made the analysis himself, and found that while some of these cigarettes were worse than others, they each contained a variety of qualities of tobacco, and he found poison in all the papers in which they were rolled. Mr. Edison reported that "this poison attacks the folds of the brain and works havoc with a man's mental activity." Mr. Edison's report on the cigarette is very valuable, and we trust that it may have a wide circulation, and that thousands of young men may be thereby turned away from the evil of cigarette smoking, which is one of the worst forms in which tobacco can be used. But it is hoped that a still further request will be made of Mr. Edison, by some influential person, that will lead him to make the same critical examination of tobacco in any form. And if this can be brought about, he will find out that the smoking of the cigar or the chewing of tobacco, or using it in any way whatever, is very injurious to the system. While cigarette smoking is one of the worst forms of tobacco using, the other forms are alike harmful, even though in a lesser degree. Any stimulant or narcotic that is taken into the system in reality depresses and lowers our powers; for while there is the momentary stimulation, there is always the greater depression that follows the temporary exhilarating effects.