Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-07-03
For the Times.
TObacco-Its Effects Upon Health.

| know that talking against the use
of tobacco is talking against the tide;
fer its use has become very general;
and so welded are its votaries to its
narcotic influence upon the nervous
system, that the mind becomes unwill-
ing to consider its effects upon the
general health. Tobacco is narcotic.
According to Webster the meaning of
narcotic is, "to render torpid" and this
is the primary effect of tobacco. Its
tendency is to lull the nervous system
into an unnatural state of quietude and
listlessness. Its more intense effects
are stupor, coma, commissions, death.
It's reaction is in the direction of deli
rum tremcns.
The system may become so accustom-
ed to resisting it's influence as, for a
time, perhaps for many years, to ward
off the fatal, and even the seeing harm
full effects. But Its work is being in
sidously done, and sooner or later is
apparent. All the while the entire
circulation, and thus the whole body,
is being saturated with the properties
of the tobacco. It's coloring matter af-
fects and harms the complexion; its
narcotic properties are impairing the
nervous sensibilities and thus creating
a desire for stimulants; the constant
drain Of saliva is overtaxing the salivary
Glands. and thus prematurely wearing
them out, as well as impairing diges-
ton The fact that a person with
naturally strong digestive powers may
endure the strain for long time is not
proof against these statements. Those
whose nervous systems are sensitive, or
whose digestive powers are naturally
weak, are soon consciously affected.
The nicotine in tobacco is ''eminently
poison" and it's accumulated influence
in the human body cannot do other
wise, however slowly than gradually
undermine the general health. If the
unseen causes of heart disease, paralysis,
many Of the female weaknesses, indi
gestion, many of the morbid processes
that follow indigestion and their count
less effects upon the various organs of
the body, and last, but not least, can
GERS and other malignant tumors, which
are rapidly on the increase, could be seen,
we should probably find tobacco, to
large extent, one Of the exciting causes,
and in very many of the cases, the pri
mary cause.
The eye is also harmfully and seri-
ously affected by the use of tobocco.
Color blindness, in many cases, is attri-
buted to its use. Paralysis of the optic
nerve, in some cases, at least, is attri-
buted by eminent ''eye-doctors" to the
use of tobacco. | met such case
here last summer, and he had been es-
pecially charged by the eminent doctor
he had last consulted to be governed by
the rules of diet suggested in the last
three numbers of this paper
From experience related by invalids
I am convinced that many cases Of sore
eyes are caused or made worse by the
habitual use of tobacco.
Many of the diseases of the respira
tory organs are, at least, aggravated by
tobacco.
One more suggestions: IF the hus-
band who uses tobacco freely, especially
the smoker, could see, in all its direful
ness, the effect of his habit upon the
wife Of delicate nervous sensibilities, |
think he would stand aghast, and, per-
haps, abandon the practice forever.
In the space allowed me [ can only
make suggestions. Who will head
them. A. p.