Works on phrenology, physiology, and kindred subjects / by O.S. Fowler.

  • Orson S. Fowler
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Works on phrenology, physiology, and kindred subjects / by O.S. Fowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    619/632 (page 31)
    appendix. Of the digestive organs more severe. All confirmed chewen are more or less subject to long standing diseases of the stomach and llver; neither Tobacco is closely allied to intoxicating liquors, and its votaries a:re neither more nor less than a species of drunkards; at least it produces the same effects as inebriety, and is attended by the same fearful results Can any man justify himself in the use of tins poisonous plant in opposi ti.iTE.7id «... I nave brought before J.u! Wi® at.ll Jej slave to his pipe, box, and quid] To what does this evidence amount] 1 hat tobacco is an active poison—that its use is productive of the most distressing and fatal diseases. As a medicine, little to be relied on and yer^sddom necessary That, when used, its effects are so very uncertain and dangerous, that no/e but medical men should superintend its use. Thus you ^ Per- ceive, it would be as reasonable to make our well-known and most deadly poisons articles of common use, as to persevere in the use of tobacco. It is true the injury on the constitution of man by the common mode of using it, is not perceived at once; and it is difficult to persuade the lover of tobacco of its bad tendency. But a series of complicated chronic disorders creep on him apace, his life becomes insupportable, and he sinks into a prem a- ture grave. But to tell his friends around his last resting-place, that tobacco had hastened the catastrophe, they would tell you of some hard iron constitu- tion who had smoked all his life, and lived to a very old age. The very in- dividual quoted, however, is often a walking mass of chronic disease, a maga- zine of filth, and a fac-simile of human wretchedness, a sallow, cadaverous countenance, with scarce a ray of hope imprinted upon it. It is our duty to do all we can to prevent man from rushing to his own destruction—the laws of God require it from every one of us. Then not only shun tobacco your- selves, but instil that doctrine into others; for rest assured, should the con stitution hold up even against this evil, the drinking system, to which it leads, is sure to put the last nail into the coffin. Governor Sullivan declares ‘that tobacco excites a demand for a strongly stimulating beverage : thus the tobacco consumer begins with smoking, but dies a sot!’ .. Dr. Rush states * that smoking and chewing render simple fluids insipid to the taste,' hence the anxiety to have tha strongest spirits; hence brandy which formerly was rarely used, is now the most common drink of cigar smokers.’ But we are told many smoke, chew, and snuff, without being sots. There may be many, but when compared to the number of consumers, they are but very few. I dare assert, if a person tells me that he has smoked, snuffed, or chewed long, that, if he is not a drinker, he soon will be, and I dare be bound by that assertion in ninety-five cases out of one hundred. I have already proved this disgusting custom a source of great mortality. I cannot conceive the public would be so mad in its use, only under the im- pression that it is not dangerous, and may be of use for some fancied or real disease they may labour under. So insidious are the effects of this plant, and so insensible have the community been to its dangers, that very few havo, regarded the use of tobacco as the cause of swelling the bills of mortality. But, however startling, it'is nevertheless true, that vast multitudes are car- ried to the grave every year by it alone ! Dr. Salmon says, ‘ more people have died of apoplexy, since the use of snuff in one year, than have died of that disease in a hundred years before.’ Almost every one I have known die of late of that dreadful disease, were inveterate snuffers. What, then, ought to be done! What can be done! What must be done] If this manufactured narcotic be ruinous to the health, constitu- tion, and intellect; if it occasions an amazing waste of property, a multitulde of deaths, something ought to be done, and it ought to be done immediate y. Half measures, that is, moderate use of tobacco and snuff', would be as useless in banishing the evil, as moderato drinking that of the drinking system. No ! nothing but an entire disuse of the dirty weed, can ever annihilate this wretched incubus that hangs on society to such an extent. These habits are useless.—To the consumer no benefit results; but much disease, sorrow, and pain. It is perfectly contradictory to the manners of a gentleman—renders every person pitiably ludicrous, and entails upon him bad habits. They are expensive habits.—A very common smoker will expend two or three pounds per annum. An average of three or four cigars a day, amounts to ten or twelve pounds per annum. And all this goes for smoko and spittie.