Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1869-03-12
The Use of Tobacco.

magazine proves, at least to the satisfac-
ton of lovers of the weed, that men may
indulge in the daily use of tobacco for
lifetime without any appreciable harm.
His statements are very candid his ad-
missions of poisonous elements in tobac-
co frank and important; and his method
of explaining how these poisons fail to
affect the system is plausible if not con-
elusive. He writes, as he says, to show
that there are real perils in the use Of
tobacco, which are overlooked by its ad-
vocates, because its opponents foolishly
overshoot the mark and exaggerate its
evils. Men in general" he says, "fnd-
ing the massive experience of daily life
to be at variance with the teachings of a
few writers, set aside those teachings as
stuff and nonsense" There is danger in
tobacco. 1t contains a nicotine, dead
ly poison. One cigar has enough of the
poison to kill two strong men, if this is
chemically separated and administered
pure. Does not this settle the question
against tobacco? Not at all, says the
writer. Animal food, he argues, con-
tains a deadly poison, the salts of pot
ash, which when extracted and admins
tered pure, paralyzes the heart and oc-
casions death. But this very poison, in
smaller doses, is great stimulant, and
increases the rapidity and force of the
hearts action. 1t becomes helpful in
stead Of harmful. So he claims it is
with tobacco in the great majority of
cases, if used in moderation. 1t acts as
a gentle stimulant to the system, and
leaves behind no pernicious results. The
nicotine is for the most part dissipated
into air by the heat of the cigar, and the
little that enters the system is carried off
by the excretory organs, before it can
mingle with the blood.
But while maintaining stoutly that q
moderate use of tobacco is harmless to
most men, and asserting that this is con-
frmed by the experience of the world,
he sounds an alarm of which DR.. Trask
and the anti7smokers should make effect
i've use. He declares that to some con-
stitutions tobacco is always poison, and
its effects are marked and fatal. He
adds, also, that, with rare exceptions, its
immoderate use is equally fatal; and
that the lines of excess vary with differ
ent persons so that what may be harm
less % one u deadly to another. His
reasoning on this point, illustrated by
analogy, is worthy of attention: The
reader is requested to consider the paral-
lelism between the effects of fesh-eating
and tobacco smoking, and the effects of
the poisonous elements in both. Not
only can he eat with benefit an amount
of flesh which contains poison enough to
destroy us if administered in concen-
trated form, as we can smoke with i'm
punity any amount of tobacco which
contains enough nicotine to poison
family,-but the effects of meat-essence
and of nicotine are singularly alike-the
small dose stimulating and the larger
dose paralyzing the heart Nor does the
resemblance end here. After the ad-
ministration of meat-essence in small
doses, the pulse rapidly rises, and in the
course of half an hour or more it again
sinks to its normal rate. Let any smok-
er time his pulse before, during, and an
hour after his cigar; he will observe a
similar rise and fall. When larger doses
o. meat-essence are given, the animal be-
comes depressed and stupefed precisely
the effect is observed after an overdose
of tobacco. Still larger doses in both
cases produce convulsions and DEATH"
He enforces the moral, therefore, that
some must abstain altogether, if they
would escape harm and all must guard
against excess. He gives some startling
examples to make the plea more effect
i've, where men afflicted with apparent
disease of the spine, with blindness, with
melancholy, and with arrangement, re-
covered perfect health by renouncing to-
bacco.-Prouidenc Journal.
T1rrS Ton f,fso A D.. r..