The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1909-11-11
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NERVOUSNESS AND INSANITY
Clear Case Against Tobacco as De-
stroyer Of Sanity In Juvenile
Brain by Specialist.

In paper read before the st. Louis
Medical society recently, DR.. L. Bre-
mer, late physician to the st. Vim
cents Institution for the Insane, at
st. Louis, said;
There is no narcotic, either in mod
ern or ancient times, which has been
and still Is, so universally in use, as
tobacco, and there is none about
whose action on the human body
there is so much difference of opin-
ion among the laity and the profes
sion
Whereas, by some, II is looked upon
as an unmitigated evil IL is claimed
by others, that its use is not without
advantage. Hence, It has been con-
demned and commended in turns. It's
friends have, so far, carried the day;
its triumphal march over nearly the
whole civilized and uncivilized globe
has been continuous.
Without entering into preliminaries
and details. / will state at the outset,
that | side with those who. looking at
the Injurious effects collectively, con-
slider 1t more harmful than alcohol
from the simple fact that it's use is
more general. it's effects more grad
ual and less obvious. and that, from
moral point of view, it is in better
standing.
The breath OF tobacco is held per-
missible and win be condoned by all
classes; that of alcohol is looked
upon as odious and exposes its bearer
I'm some quarters to social ostracism.
II is this connivance, on the part
of public opinion, at this kind of lux
us-consumption, as it is euphoniously
styled by modern psychologists, that
fosters its spread, especially amongst
those who can least afford to offer
any insult to their nervous systems.
And unfouuntely It is just this class
OF persons who delude themselves in
to the belief, that tobacco is indis-
pensable to them. With advancing
civilization Il is considered necessary
by many to use a sedative or a slim
ulant of some sort as a kind of a
safety-valve for the growing nervous
ness of our age.
Thus, by many smokers It Is
thought that after bodily or mental
exertion an equilibrium of all the
functions is re-established by the
pipe, cigar or plug. Its action, there,
is somewhat like that of coca in it's
pleasant effects.
This is the case in the healthy smo-
"A limo Lnnnc rnrtfh
tain limits. But II is quite different
with the vast and ever-increasing ar
my of Inconsistencies or psychopaths
of our days.
Our ancestors were evidently not so
deleteriously affected either by alco-
hol or tobacco, as modern man is,
with the strain of the requirements OF
a more complicated life weighing
upon him. and handicapped, as he
frequently is, in his nervous and
psychical makeup.
II is specially of the effect OF to-
bacco on this latter class that ] wish
to speak in the following remarks:
1t is just persons of this category
(who are often not at all aware of
their morbid condition), that become
such absolute and powerless slaves TO
the habit They fall victims to II
early in life as a rule. Whilst the
healthy human organism revolts
against the drug as intensely as that
of a dog or a cat. and has to gradu-
ally accustom itself to overcome the
unpleasant sensations accompanying
the first attempts at using 1t, the born
neurasthenic often takes to 1t as the
young duck does to water. Only In
this manner can the peculiar phenom-
enon of infant-smokers be explained,
II one does not prefer to look upon
such perversion of appetite as a spe-
cies OF precocious moral insanity in
herited from parents who are gener-
ally not only excessive tobaceo-users,
but evidently mentally defective.
Now, do not believe that, with APP
preaching maturer years. am one of
those who, eye through pessimistic
spectacles the rising generation, but
/ simply repeat the everyday observa-
ton, which | have never seen doubt
ed or contradicted, that there is an
alarming increase of juvenile smo-
kers; and. basing my assertion on the
experience, gathered in my private
practice and at the st. Vincent's In
stitution of this city. l will broadly
state that the boy who smokes at sew
en-, will drink whisky at fourteen, take
TO morphine at twenty or twenty-five
and wind up with cocaine and the rest
of the narcotics, at thirty and later
on