The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-18
TOBACCO AND OPIUM EVILS.
DR.. Talmage Points Out the Dangers
Incident TO the Use of Narcotics,
Aud Strongly Urges the Youth of the Land to
Abstain from the Habit-Appalling In
crease in Consumption of Opium.
spccisi to the Indianapolis Journal

T
Brooklyn Tabernacle to-day, DIR. Talmage read
from the First Book of Kings concerning an altar
upon which mems bones were sacrificed and re-
marked that there is more sacrifice of human
life now than ever before, although the altar may
not be admitted DR.. Talmages reading of the
Scripture lessons is peculiar to himself, and ex-
elites as much interest IL the audience as the
sermon preached. The reading is running
commentary, with practical lessons interjected.
The subject of the sermon was Does the
-Uss of Tobacco Cause Cancerous and Other
Troublesl7 The text was from Genesis j, IL:
'Let the earth bring forth grass and herb yield
eng seed DIR. Talmage said:
b. The frst-born of earth were the grass blade
and the herb. They preceded the brute crea-
tion and the human family-the grass for ami
NAL life, the herb for human service The cat
Sle took possession of its inheritance, the grass
BLADE; and man took possession Of his inherit
ance, the herb This herb we have for food in
case of hunger, for narcotic in case of insomnia,
for anodyne under paroxysm of pain, or for slim
nlus when the pulses flag under the weight of
Hisease. The caterer takes the herb and serves
at up in all delicacies. The physician takes the
Millions of the human race take it for ruinous
Medication Of body and mind. The herb, di-
Vinely created and for good purposes, in cases
without number prostituted for evil results.
There is lawful and unlawful use of the herba-
seous kingdom.
There sprang up in Yucatan, on this continent.
IN herb which has bewitched the world. 1t
crossed the Atlantic ocean in the fifteenth century
and captured Spain Then it captured Portugal,
and then the French ambassador took it to
Paris and it captured the French empire; then
Walter Raleigh introduced it into England The
botanists ascribe it to the genus nicotiana;
but you all know it as the inspiring, the ele-
waiting, the emparadising the radiating the
nerve SCATTERING the dyspepsia breeding, the
healthd destroying tobacco. I shall not be Of
fensiyely personal while speak this subject,
because you all use it, or nearly all Indeed, l
know from personal experience how it soothes
tand roseates the world, and kindles sociability,
rand know what are its baleful results.
know what it is to be its slave, and, thank God,
Il know what it is to be its conqueror. I have
no expectation that I will persuade the great
masses of you to change your habits upon this
subject, but I thought might help you in some
advice to your children.
You say: Didn't God make tobacco9' Oh,
yes; you say. "Isnt God goodl' Oh, yes You
Say: 'Isn't God goodl' Oh, yes. You say:
saThen God, when he created tobacco,
Snust have created it for some good purpose"
Dh. yes; it is good for great many things
Tobacco is. 1t is good to kill moths in the ward
robe. and tick in sheep and to strangulate all
kinds of vermin, and to fumigate pestiferous
places, and, like all other poisons, God created
1T for some particular use So he did
Aenbane, so nux vomica, so copperas,
DO belladonna, SO all those poisons which he d.
xectiy created or had man to extract. But the
game 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
lplethora which absolutely need this depletonT
Oh, yes skillful physicians have somtimes pre-
scribed it just as they sometimes prescribe
arsenic, and they prescribe it well. There can
be 40 doubt about its being poisonous: There
was q case reported in which little child lay
upon its mothers lap and drop from her lips
fell the child's lip and it went into commissions
aud into death. But" you say. don't people
Hve on to old age who indulge in this habits?
Yes; so have seen an inebriate seventy years
old. There are some persons who, in spite of all
the outrages to their physical system, live on to
cid 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 pipe he lasted so long be-
cause he was turned into smoked liver
HOW SHALL WE ADVISE THE YOUNG?
But. my friends. what advice had we better
give to our young peoplel say, in the first
place let us advise them to abstain from this
habit because all the medical fraternity of the
United States and Great Britain pronounce it
the cause of widespread and terrific unhealth
DR., Agnew, DR.. Hamilton DR.. Olcott, Dr.
Barns. Dr. Woodward, Dr. Rush, DR.. Hosack
DR.. Harvey, DR.. Mott--al the medical fraternity
homeopathic allopathic, hydropathic, eclectic
denounce the habit and warn the community
against it. One distinguished physician says
''This habit is the cause of 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 have been in the habit of in ,uir-
Ing of patients who came to me with cancer of
the tongue and lips whether they used
tobacco and, if So whether they chewed or
smoked and if they have sometimes answered
In the negative as to the first question, 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 testi-
mony is that it depresses the vitals of the sys-
tenn and brings on nervousness and dyspepsia
end takes of % per cent. of the physical vigor
Of the people of this country; aud, damaging this
generation, damages the next, the accumulated
purse going on to capture other centuries.