ON THE USE OF TOBACCO

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Aug 7, 1855

ON THE USE OF TOBACCO.

[Concluded.]

I now hasten to notice,

III. ITS EFFECTS, PHYSICAL AND MORAL.

1. Its physical effects.—I have anticipated the most of what is necessary to be said under this head, in connection with the different modes of using it. But, in order to confirm and establish what has already been said, I will here present a few more medical and other testimonies against the habitual use of this poisonous plant, on account of its deleterious effects upon the health and constitution.

"In those not accustomed to it, tobacco excites nausea, vomiting, dizziness, indigestion, mental dejection, and, in short, the whole train of nervous complaints." "I have long witnessed, in a variety of cases," says Dr. Agnew, "the deleterious effects produced by the constant use of that strong narcotic, such as vertigo, indigestion, flatulence, &c., and which must necessarily be the irreparable concomitants of the application of such a narcotic stimulus to so large a portion of the nervous and secreting surface, either in substance or vapour."

"A person of my acquaintance," says Dr. Clarke, "who had been an immoderate snuff-taker for upward of forty years, was frequently afflicted with a sudden suppression of breathing, occasioned from a paralytic state of the muscles which served for respiration; these affections grew more and more alarming, and seriously threatened her life. The only relief she got in such cases was from a cup of cold water poured down her throat. This became so necessary to her, that she could never venture to attend a place of public worship without having a small vessel of water with her, and a friend at hand to administer it! At last she left off snuff; the muscles re-acquired their proper tone, and, in a short time after, she was entirely cured of her disorder, which was occasioned solely by her attachment to her snuff-box, and to which she had nearly fallen a martyr!"

2. Its moral effects.—And these are as much more pernicious than the other, as the mind exceeds the body in its value, and as eternity exceeds time in its duration. It tends to weaken and debilitate all the moral powers, and some of them it ultimately destroys. But more than this, it tends to other vicious moral habits.

"When public attention shall be fully awakened to this subject," says Dr. M'Allister, "innumerable instances will be found, where drunkenness has followed as the legitimate consequence of using tobacco."

"I am confident," says Dr. Agnew, "the pernicious effects of tobacco are second to none produced by the combination of all the luxuries and poisons by which custom and effeminacy have enslaved us, the potation of spirituous liquors excepted. But this last rarely stands by itself, as the use of the pipe, &c., almost invariably leads to the immoderate use of ardent spirits."

"Hence," says Dr. M'Allister, "smoking has, by producing dryness and thirst, in many instances been the sad precursor to the whiskey jug and brandy bottle, which together have plunged their unfortunate victims into the lowest depth of wretchedness and wo!" The fact that some use tobacco without becoming intemperate drinkers proves nothing against the general principle, that its natural tendency is to promote it, any more than the fact, that some men are temperate drinkers without becoming drunkards proves that this temperate drinking has not a natural tendency to promote drunkenness. For about as certain as every drunkard was once a temperate drinker, so certain is every drunkard strongly attached to tobacco.

"Smoking and chewing tobacco," says Dr. Rush, "by rendering water and other simple liquors insipid to the taste, dispose very much to the stronger stimulus of ardent spirits; hence the practice of smoking cigars throughout our country has been followed by the use of brandy and water as a common drink." And universal observation confirms the above testimony. Go to the bar room of yonder tavern, and there make your observations upon the numerous host of idlers who resort there to pass away their time, and you will find that the cigar and the glass of brandy and water (or if this be beyond their means, whiskey may be substituted) regularly succeed each other, as they mutually excite each other. Follow that band of young men who are passing hastily through your streets, (perhaps on the Sabbath day,) each of them with a cigar in his mouth, and you will find them winding their course to some tavern or porter house, that they may satiate their thirst, excited by their cigar, with a glass of brandy and water. And thus thousands of our youth are led on, and ultimately confirmed in intemperate habits.

Intimately connected with its demoralizing effects is its filthiness; for every filthy habit tends to corrupt and debase the mind. This plant is filthy in its nature, so much so that but barely one worm among the whole tribe of insects will feed upon it; and but one animal, except man, (and his taste is not natural but acquired,) has been found to eat this filthy plant. "Flies, mosquitoes and the moth, are chased from our clothes by the very smell of it." But, lest it should be supposed to have been created in vain, "modern travelers have at last discovered that it constitutes the food of a solitary and filthy wild beast, well known in the deserts of Africa by the name of the rock goat." It is not only filthy in its nature, but art has combined all its skill to render it more so.

"Simon Paulli, physician to the king of Denmark," says Dr. Clarke, "has written a treatise on the danger of using this herb, and observes, (which I quote for the sake of those who retain any sentiment of delicacy on this subject,) that the merchants frequently lay it in log houses, to the end that, becoming impregnated with the volatile salt of the excrements, it may be rendered brisker, stronger, and more fetid." "A dealer in this article once acknowledged to me," says Dr. Clarke, "that he sprinkled his rolls and leaf frequently with stale urine to keep them moist and to preserve their flavor! A friend of mine, whose curiosity led him to see tobacco spinning, observed that the boys who opened out the dry plants, had a vessel of urine by them, with which they moistened the leaves to prepare them for the spinner! Do the tobacco-chewers know this, and yet continue in this most abominable and disgraceful practice? Can any person think of the above with a quid in his mouth?"

It is not only filthy by nature, and rendered more so by art, but it is equally so in its effects. "To the great scandal of religious people," says Dr. Clarke, "the abominable customs of snuff-taking and chewing have made their way into many congregations, and are likely to be productive of immense evil. Churches and chapels are most scandalously abused by the tobacco-chewers who frequent them; and kneeling before the Supreme Being, which is so becoming and necessary when sinners approach their Maker in prayer, is rendered in many seats impracticable, because of the large quantity of tobacco saliva which is ejected in all directions."

"A mutual advantage," says Dr. M'Allister, "has resulted from our intercourse with the Indian. We have taught him how to debase himself below the brute, and destroy the quiet of savage life, by the use of our whiskey; and he, in gratitude for our kindness, has taught us to destroy our constitutions, and interrupt the harmony of civilized society, by the habitual use of this deadly narcotic."

"Should all other arguments fail to produce a reformation in the conduct of tobacco-consumers," says Dr. Clarke, "there is one which is addressed to good breeding and benevolence, which, for the sake of politeness and humanity, should prevail. Consider how disagreeable your custom is to those who do not follow it. An atmosphere of tobacco effluvia surrounds you whithersoever you go; every article about you smells of it; your apartments, your clothes, and even your breath. Nor is there a smell in nature more disagreeable than that of stale tobacco arising in warm exhalations from the human body, rendered still more offensive by passing through the pores, and becoming strongly impregnated with that noxious matter which was before insensibly perspired." "Some of the most disagreeable things relative to the practice against which I have been writing, are still behind the curtain; and it is there alone where I wish every persevering smoker to seek for a certain vessel named the spitting dish, which to the abuse of all good breeding, is frequently introduced into public company. May they and their implements while engaged in this abominable work, be ever kept out of sight."

King James finishes his "counterblast to tobacco," as follows: "A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." Who has not sometimes seen females about their domestic concerns, with a pinch between their fingers, and a fine large drop

suspended from the nose, just ready to fall and mingle with the food of the family?

Another serious evil resulting from the use of tobacco is the expense, and this cannot surely be regarded as of minor consideration in this age of retrenchment. And it will be found, upon investigation, to be much more expensive than is generally supposed. It may at least be ranked among "the little foxes that destroy the vine," and among the little streams that exhaust and dry up the fountain of wealth. It is probable that not less than ten millions of dollars are expended annually by the inhabitants of the United States for the useless article of tobacco. The expense to individuals will probably vary from one to fifty dollars, according to the quantity and the mode of using it. The most expensive mode is smoking, especially if cigars are used, and no doubt many individuals expend not less than fifty dollars annually in this way. It is a habit that prevails extensively among the poor, and is one great cause of their poverty. There are many, who are subsisting upon the bounty of the public, who nevertheless must have their regular quantum of tobacco. This subject is worthy the attention of benevolent societies and philanthropic individuals. No poor person should be assisted until he will abandon this worse than useless habit. "A pious clergyman," says Dr. Clarke, "lately told me that he had a number of very poor families in his parish, immoderately attached to the use of tobacco. He plainly saw that a large proportion of their daily earnings was destroyed in this way. He warned them in private and preached in public against it, but few of them had resolution enough to lay it aside." "The expense of one very poor family in snuff and tobacco he calculated, and found it to amount to nearly one-third part of their yearly earnings." Suppose a family to spend twenty-five cents a week for this article, and in fifty years it would have yielded them, at compound interest, between three and four thousand dollars! a handsome estate for a man to accumulate for his posterity, all of which, however, would be wasted for this article. In estimating its tendency to poverty, we must not confine ourselves to the bare amount of money expended to procure it, but we must take into the account the cost of the necessary utensils for using it, and the time spent in consuming it, which will be found to exceed the article itself in expense. No habitual smoker spends less than one, and from that to six hours out of twenty-four, in fumigating his pipe or cigar; and how will he answer to his God for this wanton waste of time and money?

Having gone as far as the brevity of a tract will admit, (though the half has not been told,) in enumerating the evils resulting from the habitual use of tobacco, I now feel desirous of addressing myself to a few particular characters. And,

1. Physicians.—You, gentlemen, are placed as the guardians of the public health, and you are bound by the most solemn obligations to counsel the people against the use of any thing that has a deleterious influence upon their health and constitution; and that too, by example as well as by precept. There is no person in the community whose example, in any thing relating to the public health, exerts so great an influence as that of the physician. If the people see him habitually using tobacco, they will naturally infer that it cannot greatly harm themselves, whatever he may say to the contrary. I have known some physicians who have written admirably against the use of tobacco, who are nevertheless in the daily habit of using it themselves. But what influence can a man expect his principles to exert upon others, if they exert none upon himself? and the example of these very persons is often brought by the votaries of tobacco, to rebut all that can be said against the use of it. Now the real friends of reform have to request of all such gentlemen that they will either recant what they have written upon the subject, or else be consistent, and let their practice correspond with their avowed principles.

2. Preachers of the gospel.—You too are placed as the guardians of the public morals: you are set as watchmen on the towers of Zion, to warn the people on the approach of evil. The use of tobacco has been shown to have a deleterious moral influence upon the community. How, then, can your skirts be free from their blood, if you not only do not warn them against this evil, but actually encourage them in it by your example? "Its powers are felt," says Dr. M'Allister, "and its fascinations acknowledged by all the intermediate grades of society, from the sot who wallows in the mire of your streets, to the clergyman who stands forth a pattern of moral excellence, and who ministers at the altar of his God." "What reception would the apostles have met with," says Dr. Rush, "had they carried into the cities and houses to which they were sent, snuff boxes, pipes, cigars, and bundles of cut, or rolls of hog or pigtail tobacco? Such a costly and offensive apparatus for gratifying their appetites would have furnished solid objections to their persons and doctrines, and would have been a just cause for the clamours and contempt which were excited against them." Says Dr. Clarke, "Are not many led into this practice of smoking by their pastors? I am sorry to have it to say that this idle, disgraceful custom prevails much at present among ministers of most denominations. Can such persons preach against needless self-indulgence, destruction of time, or waste of money? These men greatly injure their own usefulness; they smoke away their ministerial importance in the families where they occasionally visit; the very children and maid servants pass their jokes upon the piping parson; and should they unluckily succeed in bringing over the uninfected to their vile customs, the evil is doubled. I have known serious misunderstandings produced in certain families where the example of the idle person has influenced a husband or wife, against the consent of the other, to adopt the use of the pipe or the snuff box."

3. Professors of religion.—You too are interested in this subject. You are bound by your profession to deny yourselves of all superfluities, and especially of all habits which tend to corrupt the morals of the community, and such is the use of tobacco, therefore you are bound to give it up, and let the weight of your example go to suppress it. "I most cordially recommend its perusal (says Dr. Hamilton, speaking of Dr. Clarke's treatise) to all the consumers of that herb, more especially to the professors of religion; and above all to the preachers of the gospel." "The Methodists," says Dr. Rush, "forbade the use of tobacco in the infancy of their society. The prohibition discovered a high and just sense of the self-denial, decency, and universal civility, which were required by the gospel." But the Methodists are not the first who prohibited the use of it. Pope Urban VIII, made a bull to excommunicate all those who took tobacco in the churches. And the emperors of Russia, Turkey, and Persia, prohibited the use of it in their respective kingdoms, under the severest penalties.

4. And, finally, I would address myself to those who have not yet acquired the habit of using tobacco. To such I would say, Stand fast in the liberty wherewith you are now free. Why should you voluntarily submit yourselves to become slaves to a habit that will tyrannize over you and lead you captive at its will? Why should you needlessly acquire so disagreeable a habit, without the most distant prospect of advantage from it? Dr. Franklin, a few months before his death, declared to one of his friends that he had never used tobacco in any way in the course of his long life, and that he was disposed to believe there was not much advantage to be derived from it, for that he had never met with a man who used it, who advised him to follow his example.

Why should you voluntarily acquire a habit that will subject you to such extreme uneasiness and distress, if you should ever be placed in circumstances where you could not gratify it? A friend of mine once informed me that he never suffered so much in his life as from the privation of tobacco in a long voyage across the Atlantic. Col. Burr observes that the greatest complaints, dissatisfaction, and suffering, that he heard from the soldiers who accompanied Gen. Arnold in his march from Boston to Quebec, through the wilderness in the year 1775, were from the want of tobacco. This was the more remarkable as they were so destitute of provisions as to be obliged to kill and eat their dogs. The Persians are said to expatriate themselves that they may enjoy the use of tobacco in a foreign country when prohibited it in their own. All who have been in the habit of visiting prisons, &c., cannot but have observed that the first and only request of the prisoners has been, "Give me some tobacco." All the above goes to prove the strong influence this habit exerts upon the individual, and the great distress the privation of it occasions him.

Finally, why should you acquire a habit that will waste your property, injure your health, impair your morals, and perhaps be the cause of destroying soul and body for time and eternity? Many first acquire the habit out of complacency to others, who press them to partake with them. When you are thus invited, think of the conduct of Omiah, a native of Otaheite: when a noble lord presented him his golden snuff box, and invited him to take some, the innocent savage bluntly replied, "I thank you, my lord, my nose is not hungry." And on higher authority, I would say, "Handle not, touch not, taste not, the unclean thing."