Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-12-17
bTobacco and 1t. Ers.ts.'


,ni AmsAg the evils, physical mental,
moral and social Wentioned by Dr. John
II. Driscom, as resulting from the use OF
tobacco, are the following: 9rl- b.
A single drop of the volatile oil of to-
bacco, injected into the body of a cat by
Sir Benjamin Brodie, caused its death in
five minutes. This is a positive demon
stration that tobacco, taken in that wav,
is not good for cats. He also states that
a single drop applied TO the tongue of a
cat caused convulsions, and in two min
utes (by Shire wsbury clock death. We
men who love cats should be warned by
this. Justice to the feline race requires
it to be said that violence was done to
the inclination of the cat in this, and
that he or she would not have taken to-
baceo voluntarily. No beast bat man
does that. A respectable grocer in Eng
land, aged 90, who had been drinking,
as a respectable grocer should not, put
into his mouth the greater part of half
an ounce of tobacco, and would not re-
move it. He died in three daysand "the
verdict was according to this evidence
A sprightly girl in Ohio bruised her
lip. Her mother wiped the oil from the
bowl OF her pipe and applied it to the
bruise, and the effect was conyulsions
and death. From this we see that a
smoker or chewer cannot kiss woman
without peril to her life. Taken in Its
diluted form, as by chewing andsnoking
its effect is exhaustive upon the nervous
system and upon the circulation of the
blood. The author says he can testify
to its most direct and manifest effect
When boy ten years, innocent as
boys are at that age, he was persuaded
by schoolmate to smoke a mild Cigar.
"A few puffs very much to his surprise,
sufficed to cause a total loss of the meal
taken short time previously, and kept
him in q state of nausea during all the
morning making him incompetent to
maintain his position in the school class %
Boys at school and particularly boys at
boarding school when the total loss of a
meal cannot easily be replaced should
take warning by this effect of q few puffs
of a mild cigar. sati asi ssi + aol5
M. Decaisne, in paper of the French
Academy of Sciences, says that in the
course of three years he met among 6S
inveterate smokers p instances of mark
ed intermissiOn of the pulse, occurring
in men from "a to II years of age.s In
nine of these cases the use of tobacco
was abandoned, and the normal action
of the circulation restored. This shows
what caused their loss of vitality. To-
baceo causes loss of sight by paralysis o.
the optic nerve, commencing with symp-
toms of functional brain disease, altera-
tions of the supply of blood to the optic
nerve and retina. Therefore these af.
fections are in large excess in males-to-
baeoo being a habit mostly confined to
the male animal. This is why so many
men lose their senses before their time.
Tobacco frequently causes cancer oi
the lip and stomach, diseases of the teeth
and jawbone. paralysis, Impairment ol
the sensibihties of the nerves, of the
senses of taste, smell, sight and hearing
impairment of the mental faculties. This
is why so many men never have much
sense. In the French Polytechnic School
an examination showed that the grade
of merit in scholarship was strikingly in
ratio to the use of tobacco by the students
In the highest series third or fourth
of the pupils were smokers, in the lowel
series three-fourths, in the lowest four
| fifths. Tobacco causes insanity. French
statistics show that insanity has inereas
| ed in ratio to the quantity of tobacco
consumed in the Kingdom. ,ez. -
1t is doubtful if any one can have the
use of their highest mental facultie:
while under the influence of tobacco
! either when the nerves are depressed By
the subsidence of the stimulant, or wheI
they are accelerated by its reinforcement
Tobacco destroys all refinement o.
manners ahd all sense of cleanliness.
| The man has no-more respect for othel
places than he has for his own mouth
hence he makes all things as foul as that
4 For a tobacco chewer to be neat anC
cleanly in his personal habits, is a con
| tradiction. He is not conscious that thert
| is anything indecent in splitting every
where, and hence ne places no restraint
on that disgusting delivery. He spits to
! fill up the intervals of conversation. He
! spits as if he were doing graceful anG
manly act. No place escapes his un-
cleanliness-the sidewalk, the Office, the
| hotel, the dining room, the parlof, the
| public hall, the theater, the church-ht
makes a sty wherever he goes. In the
office of hotel in. this city man is con
stantly occupied the year round with q
mop wiping up the saliva of tobacco
/ chewers; and vet there are more than 3
dozen great spittOons placed around.-
The chewer never takes 3 hint of this
| kind. His senses are numbed. .1s 3
l'01It is probable that tobacco is one of the
causes which come into action to mlti'
gate the pressure or population on the
means of subsistence-ap principle which
has been pointed out by the great phil.
I osopher Maltaus. There, being a limit
to the increase in the preductiveness o.
the land, and no limit to the increase Of
population, and as the latter isquadrup-
| ling while the other is only doubling
some, means must come into play to
| equalize these conditions. Tobacco, by
cutting men off prematurely, by making
them old before their time, by bringing
upon them all these diseases, and by
shutting them up in lunatic asylumsr
must be powerful means of restricting
and dispatching population. In that
sense it may be all right. And it has this
qualification, that it so taints the human
! system that the loss is not great when II
is Observation-Disclosures Gazette.
The Late Geverner Tod.
From the New York Sun. .ift-
Mr.. Seward takes pains to say that, al