Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1884-04-10
Tobacco Versus Virility.


In these times of prohibition booms
large temperance meetings and consid
cradle excitement about the abuses o.
alcohol, it is refreshing to see that to-
bacco also comes in for a fair share OF
attention. A bill has been introduced
in the New York Assembly prohib.
iting the sale Of cigarettes
and tobacco to minors under
sixteen years of age. A law to that ef.
feet already exists in New Jersey. In
referring to this The Scientific AmCri-
cdn gives long paragraph stating the
evil results Of cigarette smoking, and
in this indictment it is charged that
the use of cigarettes increases the ac-
tiOn of the heart and causes it to be ir.
regular. 1t tends to produce indiges.
tion and catarrhal troubles, and to pre-
dispose the syStc u to attacks of pneu.
monia and bronchitis. It impars the
healthy appetite for food. INJURIES the
nervous system and paves the way for
strong drink.
In The Christian Union also we find
an anti-tobacCo protest in the form OF
a letter from Baltimore physician,
DR. William Hidden. He says: "To.
bacco cnSlavcS the vast majority of
those who use it, though they do not
know it until they try to break up the
habit. 1t bcnumbS the brain, depresSeS
the nervous system and makes many
persons banker for stimulantS. lis in
furious effects are in direct ratio to the
effort it causes to give up its use.
Others protest against the tobacco
habit because il is unclean, disagree
able, expensive and domoralizing. As
practicing physicians we have of late
been impressed strongly with the fact
that tobacco in one way or another in
lures those who least suspect it, and to
the man who values his manhood we
would say distinctly, choose between
the tobacco habit and impotcncy.
Within one week we have seen Il Young
man of twcnty-cight with fair general
health who has seen no reason to be-
licvc that the excessive use of tobacco
has been injurious to him. and yet he
is scNually dead, and a man of forty
two years Of age, with wealth prOvid-
ing him all the comforts of life, but
also with so much leisure that he is
constantly smoking, so that, although
Il married man for many wears he is
without issue and fast tending toward
impotcncy. These observations are
entirely consistent with the generally
received opinion that tobacco impairs
the reproductive powers. In these its
effects are similar to those of opium
and alcohol. 1t is well known among
physicians that victims of the opium
habit and of drunkenness are as Il rule
without sexual desire or capacity.
These ncryine drugs as well as tobacco
have depressing effect upon the ner.
yods system generally and especially
upon the sexual ncrvc-centcrs. 1t is
perhaps fortunate that it is so, for, of
course, this tendency helps very much
to lessen the number Of births of chill
dren cursed at birth by morbid appc-
titCs.
Some men 20 on using tobacco year
after year it may be in excess or it
may be in moderation without OBJ
serving anything they are willing to
acknowledge to be its i'll effect; but
sooner or later they will fail some
where and be convinced against their
will that they have been sclf-dcceivcd.
We were lately called to see an old
man of scyenty-iivc who, in some re-
>pccts, is hale and hearty, with firm
step to walk, timber joints, strong
mucSlcs and active brain. But his
sympathetic nervous system has bro
ken down from the excessive use of to-
bacco and he exhibits symptoms of
hysteria; has lost control of his emo
tions, wceps Ikea child and is actually
made wrctchcd by this one form of
nerve weakness, to which he has grad
ually brought himself by depending
upon tobacco as nerve Stimulant and
scdativc until its effects now are more
disastrous than agrccablc.-Dr. Foote's
Hcdih Monthly.