An Idol of Christian Lands.
By J. E. Vose
TOBACCO, to the amount of $250,000,000, is used in the United States annually. This is about seven dollars for each person, or thirty for each man. And what does it mean? One drop of nicotine—extract of tobacco—placed on the tongue of a dog, will kill him in a minute; the hundredth part of a grain pricked under the skin of a man’s arm, will produce nausea and fainting. That which blackens old tobacco pipes is empyreumatic oil, a grain of which would kill a man in a few seconds. The half dozen cigars which most smokers use a day, contain six or seven grains—enough, if concentrated and absorbed, to kill three men; and a pound of tobacco, according to its quality, contains from one quarter to one and a quarter ounces. Is it strange then that smokers and chewers have a thousand ailments? that German physicians attribute one-half of the deaths among the young men of that country to tobacco? that the French Polytechnic Institute had to prohibit its use on account of its effects on the mind? that men grow dyspeptic, hypochondriac, insane, delirious, from its use? One of the direct effects of tobacco is to weaken the heart. Note the multitude of “sudden deaths,” and see how many are smokers and chewers. In a small country town seven of these “mysterious providences” occurred within the circuit of a mile, all directly traceable to tobacco; and any physician, on a few moments’ reflection, can match this fact by his own observation. And then, such powerful acids produce irritation and thirst—thirst which water does not quench. Hence a resort to cider and beer. The more this thirst is fed, the more insatiate it becomes, and more fiery drink is needed. Out of seven hundred convicts examined at the New York State prison, six hundred were confined for crimes committed under the influence of liquor, and five hundred said they had been led to drink by the use of tobacco.—J. E. Vose.