The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1888-01-14
CIGARETTE SMOKING.
[By DR.. Titus Munson Coan. /

sons is nature. The active prlnCl-
pies of opium, hashish, tea, coffee,
and tobacco are only the most widely
known. Among many others,
whether in excess or in moderation,
these stimulants and alcohol are used
by probably three-fourths of the
world, and it would be hard thing
to estimate their effects, for evil or
for good. Tobacco is more gener-
ally used, according to the best esti-
mates, than any other stimulant.
Does it surprise you to hear tea
and coffee classed with opium and
tobacco as among natures poisons?
The active principles, so called, of
all these substances are poisonous;
but it does not follow, as we all know,
that the use of the substances them
selves is necessarily injurious. Even
strychnia and aconite have their
medicinal uses. But the active or
essential principle of tobacco is one
Of the strongest of all the vegetable
poisons that | have mentioned, and
when we see so much injury result
ing from its use among young peo-
pie, we may well stop and ask
whether the evil is not one that can
be kept in check.
The particular evil that l have in
mind is that of cigarette smoking by
boys, and the persons to whom l
want to speak are the boys them
selves and their parents. mention
the parents, for l believe that great
many of them do what do myself
read the Young People with as much
interest as the younger people them
selves.
Now am not going to indulge in
any general TRADE against smoking,
though from my own early training
it might be expected that l should
do SO. My father was the strictest
sort OF disciplinarian in this mat
ter, especially in his church, and ne
was for many years the pastor of the
largest missionary church in the
world, There was especial reason
for his strictness. In the Hawaiian
Islands the natives took to smoking
with the greatest eagerness, as all
primitive people do when tobacco is
first introduced. They learned how
to grow their own tobacco after a
time, and they used stumpy wooden
pipes. A ring of these people, sit
ting in one of their thatched huts,
would pass the pipe around, each
one Of them not merely inhaling the
smoke, but breathing it deep down
into the lungs, so that after a few
pipeful of the heavy narcotic the
whole group would be plunged into
a tobacco drunkenness, from which
it took them a long time to recover.
My father made this sort of thing an
offence against church discipline,
with penalties of some kind for the
more obdurate tobacco drunkards,
and l dare say he was quite right.
Now what the ignorant islanders
did was precisely what many cigar
cite smokers do among us. The
inbreathing of the smoke throws the
poison directly upon the blood, and
nothing can be more injurious than
to tamper in this way with the deli
cate tissues that grow around the
fountains of life. | would a great
deal rather blow steady currents Of
| smoke into the works of the most
delicate watch than into my lungs;
these are more delicate piece Of
machinery: The paleness, the gid
diness, the injured sleep and diges-
ton, that come from this sort OF poi
soning are the surest proof of the
injury it works. Of course there are
people that can stand it, as there are
people that can eat arsenic or swal-
low glass for time and not seem to
be hurt. But that does not make it
the less injurious.
Some people, however, smoke
cigarettes without inhaling the
smoke. Very well; will ask them
If they know what cigarette is. 1t
is a roll Of tobacco, usually of poor
quality, the poorness of which is
partly hidden by paper wrapper.
l do not say that good tobacco is
not sometimes used in cigarettes;
but that is the exception. Of twenty
brands that boys buy cheap in the
cigar shops it is glowing optimism
to expect that more than one will be
even decently good-as goodness is
counted in tobacco. If one is going
to smoke at all, it is not boys, but
tough men, that can withstand the
effects of bad tobacco burned in
paper. The adult smoker who
makes his own cigarettes out of a
tobacco that he knows all about may
or may not injure himself, according
| to his constitution and to the amount
of his smoking. The boy who buys
cigarettes is sure to injure himself.
Now l will take the most favorable
case of all, and the rarest. Suppose
boy has lot of good cigarettes,
and smokes a few of them every
day. Is there any injury in that2
l can tell you, for have had such
boys for patients. Such smoking,
even in so-called moderation-as il
there were any such thing as moder-
atio1 in stimulants for the young!-
will do three things tor him: I, it
will run his pulse up to one hundred
or more per minute; ;, it will reduce
his weight below the healthy stand