Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-06-12
NARCOTICS.
Tho Opium Habit, Hasheesh, the
Pipe and the Chew.
, sermon by Rev. DIR. Talmage on the
neleterious and Deplorablc Effects
of the Indulgence in Tobacco
and Kindred Vices.

ana hlnureU wees 81
The subject of a recent sermon by Rev.
" Do Witt Talmagc was: "Does the use
IT tobacco cause cancerous and other
troubles::" The text was from Genesis L.,
n. LET the earth bring forth grass and
berb.yielding seed" DIR. Talmage said:
The first born of earth were the grass
blade and the herb. They preceded the
brute creation and the human family-the
Grass for animal life, the herb for human
service. The cattle took possession of its
inheritance, the grass blade, and man took
nossession of his Inheritance, the herb.
This herb we have for food in case of nun
,rer. for narcotic in case of insomnia, for
onodyne under paroxysm of pain, or for
stimulus when the pulses flag under the
weight of disease. The caterer takes the
herb and serves it up in all delicacies. The
physician takes the herb and compounds
it for physical rec%uperation. Millions of
the human race take it for %ruinous delecta-
ton of body and mind. The herb, divinely
created aud for good purposes, in cases
without number is prostituted for evil re-
suits. There is a lawful and Unlawful use
Of the herbaceous kingdom.
II A POISON.
You say: Didn't God make tobacco?"
Oh, yes. You say: ''Isn't God good?"
Oh, yes. You say: "Then God, when He
created tobacco, must nave created it for
some good purpose" Oh, yes; it is good
for a great many things-tobacco is. 1t is
good to kill moths IN the wardrobe and
tick in sheep, and to ~strangulate all kinds
Of vermin, and to fumigate pestiferous
places, and. like all other p%oisons, God
created it for some particular use. So He
did henbane, so nux vomica, SO copperas,
SO belladonna, SO AL those poisons which
He directly created or had man extract.
But the same God who made the poisons
also created US with common sense to
know how to use them and how not to use
them. "Oh," say some of my friends.
don't people use it without seeming harm
to themselves, and are there not cases of
plethora which absolutely need this deple-
tom" Oh, yes. Skillful and prudent ply
sicians have sometimes prescribed it, just
as they sometimes prescribe arsenic, and
they prescribe it well. There can be no
doubt about its being poisonous. There
was a case reported in which a little child
lay upon its mothers lap and a drop from
her pipe fell on the child's lip, and it went
into convulsions and into death. ssBut,n
you say, "don't people live on to old age
who indulge in this habit?" Yes; so I
have seen an inebriate seventy years old.
There are some persons who in spite of all
the outrages to their physical system live
Oh to old age. In the case of the man of
the jug he lasted so long because he was
picked. In the case OF the man of the
1ina bo 1ocfaI ca 1opr laoo,,co Ia, x,,,,
turned into smoked liver.
But, my friends, what advice had we
better give to our young people? I say in
the first place, let us advise them to alb
stain from this habit, because all the msdi-
cal fraternity of the United States and
Great Britain pronounce it the cause of
widespread and terrific unhealth. DR..
Agnew, DR.. Hamilton, DR.. Olcott, DIR.
Barnes, DR.. Woodward, DR.. Rush, DIR.
Hosack, DR.. Harvey, DR.. Mott-all the
medical fraternity, allopathic, homeo-
pathic, h~ydropathic, eclectic-denounce
the habit, and warn the community
against it. One distinguished physician
says: "This habit is the cause {. seventy
different styles of disease. This habit is
the cause of nearly all the cases of cancer
of the mouth" What is the testimony of
the late DR.. John G. Warren, of Boston,
than whom there is no higher authority:
He says: "For more Than thirty years 1
have been in the habit of inquiring of pa
tients who came to me with cancer of the
tongue and lips whether they used to-
bacco; if so, whether they chewed or
smoked, and if they have sometimes
answered in the negative as to the first
question l can truly say that to the best of
my knowledge and belief such cases are
exceptions to the general rule. When, as
Is usually the case, one side of the tongue
Is affected with liberated cancer, it arises
from the habitual retention of the tobacco
IN contact with this part" Their united
testimony is that it depresses the vitals of
tac system and brings on nervousness and
dyspepsia and takes off twenty-five per
cent. OF the physical vigor of the people Of
thls country, and damaging this genera
'lon damages the next, the accumulated
curse going, onto capture other centuries.
1t Injuries the mind. Another eminent
physician, for a long time Superintendent
VI the insane asylum at Northampton,
Mass, says: "Fully half of the patients
VINO have come to our asylum for treat
hent are the victims of tobacco" It is a
paa thing, my brother, to damage the
hody; it is a worse thing to damage the
n''nd, and any man of common sense
Knows that tile nervous system immedi-
atf4y acts upon the brain. More than that.
Nearly all r%eformers will tell you that it
tends to drunkenness. 1t creates unnat-
ural thirst. There are those who use this
narcotic who do not drink, but nearly all
VINO drink use the narcotic, SO that shows
There is an immediate affinity between the
Two drugs. 1t was long ago demonstrated
mat" man can not permanently reform
from strong drink unless he gives up to-
Dacco. In nearly ell the cases where men
having been reformed have fallen back
mas been shown they lave first touched
9oacco and then surrendered to intox-
lcants.
one reason why there are so many vic
uh's of this habit is because there are so
many ministers of religion who smoke and
,new. They smoke until they get the
bronchitis, and the dear people have to
pay their expenses to Europe. They smoke
unell the nervous system breaks down.