The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-09-08
NdrcOm0nid Tob1ccum
Written for the Palladium and Sun
Telegram By ]. NJ. T.
(Writtea for the Palladium

(WritteA for the Palladium.)
Anyone who uses tobacco can cas-
lily and indeed should regularly test
oneself to definitely learn ii one is
acquiring that dread disease marco
mania tobaccum or tobaccomadness;
discard the weed entirely from II,
"a, SO, or As hours, if there is no un-
easiness. no desire for it, then one is
not habitue, If however a consuming
desire, craving, frantic mental and
physical petulance, a mania that moth
ing but tobacco will satisfy, then the
old Nico-devil has an absolute mort
gage on body soul and spirit
Tobacco Not a Luxury.
One of the many chronic, fixed
decisions of the confirmed tobacco
narcomaniac is that it is luxury"
Tobacco is a vegetable narcotic pois-
on; besides degenerative influence
on the muscles of the body describ-
ed in the last article, tobacco has a
peculiar influence on the neurones or
nerve cells of the brain. The vital
principle or life-force inherent in the
bioplasm or living-matter of the Or
ganic cells everywhere in the living
body. is very delicate and peculiarly
active in the brain cells; especially
is this so in the child, little less so
in the youth, and as one grows older
gradually lessons; the aged naturally
become quite forgetful and inapt men
tally, but when the mind reverts to
childhood and youth, memory becom-
es acute again. This fact shows us
why tobacco is SO injurious to the
youthful mind. Now this very active
bioplasm or living-matter OF the brain
cells, the essential functionatings ele-
ment of the brain and nervous sys-
tenn, is highly sensitive and alertly
resistiye to anything in the nourishing
blood brought to it by the circulation,
which is more or less inimical to
physiologic well-being and vital in
tegrity of the brain tissues; and the
instant a poisonous or inimical prin-
ciple invades it's vital sanctuary, flies
into resistive and eliminative battle
with the poisonous principle, whatev-
er it may be; this warfare constitutes
the so-called Luxurious stimulation of
the brain. This is the same kind of
luxurious joy-ride" that one obtains
by cruelty whipping the horse, or by
mania-speed of the automobile; if to-
bacco is a luxury in the physiologic
sense of the term, then the whole
science of physiology and the laws of
life must be recast and rewritten.
Definition Of Real Luxury.
A real or physiologic luxury should
be made of sterner stuff than tobac-
co or any other narcotic. 1t is not
at all difficult for the sane right
thinker to correctly Judge as to wheth-
err any article is luxury: First,
does it contain any food value? Sec
ond, is it habit-forming article?
Foods are divided into two general
classes, positive and negative foods.
A positive food is one largely con-
tanning proximate principles that can
be converted by the digestive, assim-
ilative, and metabolic processes of
the living body into actual tissues,
heat, and dynamic bodily energy.
Bread, meat, and general cereal foods
are largely proteid or tissue-making
foods; butter, milk, fats, are largely
carbohydrates or heat and energy
making foods. OF course all these
contain all the proximate principles
of the body to a greater or lesser de-
gree.
Negative foods, while they chiefly
assist directly in the digestion, as
similation, and metabolism of posi-
tive foods, must contain some real
food value, furnishing indispensable
elements to the body. Water, and
air, represent types of purely negative
foods. A true physiologic luxury is
one that must be devoid of any sub
stance or principle inimical to the
integrity and functional efficiency of
every tissue, organ, and system in
the living body.
OF course, any food or luxury can
be misused, overdone and i'll effects
result; but If these foods contain no
actually poisonous principles, the ef-
fects are only temporary, more or less,
if one be in healthy condition, the
vital resistance unhampered and I'M
handicapped by toxic poisons of to-
bacco, alcohol, and other habit form
ing drugs, or by gourmandizing with
complex mixtures and rich foods,
then the ever ebert vital force will
vigorously eliminate the food-over-