Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-06-08
CIGARETTE POISON

Physicians are generally agreed that
cigarette smoking is the worst form in
| which tobacco can be used, since the
paper is often poisonous, the tobacco
artifcially favored, and the smoke is
inhaled into the lungs. The Philadel-
phia Times publishes the opinions of
several leading medical men to- the
above effect DR.. Pepper Provost of
the University of Pennsylvania, declares
that cigarettes bring on Indigestion and
impaired vision; DR.. Risley an occulist,
says that he has had two patients within
q week who have been made blind by
smoking, and other doctors are equally
emphatic. AS he is known in this vicin-
lty, we quote in full the utterances of
Dr. Roberts Bartholow:
1t is high time that something were
done to put a stop to this frightful evil,
which it stunting the growth and running
the health OF thousands of boys. 1t is
horrible to see these boys-littIe fellows,
many of them not more than or 10
years old, not street boys, but well
dressed, carefully nurtured gather
ed IN knots in some corner, where they
think they will not be observed, learning
to smoke Parents see their sons getting
thin, and yellow and irritable, the family
doctor is called in, and without getting
at the root of the evil pres ribes tonics
which do no perceptible good.
"The prodigiDus increase of cigarette
smoking among boys in the last few
years continued Dr.. sBartholow, get
ting up from his chair and walking up
and walking up and down his
handsome paror in the energy Of his
indignation, lis All evil which will tend
in the deterioration of the race if it is
not checked. but it is not hard to
account for. Boys are very initiative,
They follow the fashion with prompt
ness and zeal. Cigarettes are the rage at
Harvard 1t is the correct thing to
smoke these poisonous little rolls of to-
bacco and paper. Whatever is fashion
able in great school like Harvard is
sure in very short time to be fashionable
among young MEN and boys all over the
country. Another great cause of the
mischief is that boys are very fond of
! initiating their elders. Smoking in pub
lie places ought to be discouraged.
There ought to be sentiment created
against it and the press is the power to
create such a sentiment. Every man
when he smokes in public ought to
think that he is encouraging some boy to
smoke. The boy will smoke cigarette
imagining that he will get less tobacco in
that way, and ignorant of the fact that
cigarette smoking is the most pernicious
form in which tobacco is used. tobacco in
any form is great injury to a growing
boy, and the fashion of inhaling the
smoke and then forcing it out through
the nose, is deadly in its effects. II
causes catarrah in the air passages, throat
and nose and makes the smoker disgust
ing as we'll as puny and stunted. You
will find that these cigarette smoking
youths have impaired digestiol.s, small
and poor muscles, irritable tempers, and
lack of capacity for sustained effort Of
any kind, and | believe you will find that
they do not succeed in life. The men
who succeed are the men of strong
physique. A cigarette smoking boy will
not make a strong man. These are
some of the evils which the individual
brings upon himself. But the mischief
does not stop with the individual, but is
transmitted to his offspring. Nervous
peculiarities are just as readily transmit
ted as physical peculiarities- The ac
quired irritability, imperfect develop
ment, ,and loss of nervous force of the
father is inherited by the child, who in
turn further impairs his health by the
same process SO that in the course OF
three or four generations there must be
great deterioration in the race. The
sale of cigarettes to boys should be pro
hibited by law