A. McAllister

“ Yet where is the physician, possessing sufficient moral courage to raise his voice against the system of modern cookery? Should it be thought, that, as medical men have given no more encouragement to that system than any other class in society, they are not bound to use any extraordinary exertions to produce a change; still a wide field is left open to benevolent action in reference to those things, the influence of which is injurious to mankind.
Gentlemen—there is a baneful habit, diffused, like the atmosphere, through all classes, and affecting all the ramifications of society. ”

“ Should we slumber over the mischiefs resulting from such indulgences, while the public look to us as pioneers who should trace out the pathway to health and happiness, and demand from us both precepts and examples of sobriety and virtue? Unfortunately, in all our attempts to abolish practices prejudicial to the best interests of man, we are compelled, in the outset, to encounter our own inveterate habits—habits which rise up in mutiny against reformation, and with clamorous note forbid us to proceed. ”

“ Guided by the simple dictates of nature, he gratifies his appetite with such food as comes most readily within his reach, and slakes his thirst at the first mountain brook. Sometimes, for days, he lies sleeping in his smoky wigwam without the means of appeasing hunger; then rises and follows his game with the fierceness of a tiger, until the object of his pursuit is overtaken; after which, with the voracity of a dog, he loads his stomach with food sufficient to satisfy the cravings of nature, for as many days as he had previously fasted, and again betakes himself to sleep and inactivity. ”

“ The Turks, who, for aught to the contrary that appears in their history, enjoy as good health as the people of the United States, and are said to attain a longevity as great, use opium for the purpose of intoxication, much in the same manner in which the latter employ alcohol and wine, these being forbidden to the former by their creed. Yet, after all, the man who could adduce these facts to prove the harmlessness of the substances under consideration, must be destitute of that physiological knowledge which is necessary to understand the natural operations of the human system. ”

“ My appetite has returned; my voice grows stronger, and I am in a measure freed from that mental dejection to which I once was subject. My general health is much improved, and I feel that I am gradually recovering; though it is not to be expected I shall ever regain what I have lost by this needless and vicious indulgence. I am satisfied that the common use of tobacco is injurious to most people, especially those of sedentary habits. On them it operates with ten-fold energy. I am acquainted with many in the ministry, who are travelling this road to the grave. ”

“ In whatever concerns the cause of virtue and morality, you have a deep and an abiding interest. When Intemperance spreads abroad his murky "wings with dreadful shade contiguous," and fills the land with tears of blood—you look over this frightful aceldama and mourn at the soul-chilling spectacle. When infidelity and licentiousness exhale their pestiferous breath, to poison the moral atmosphere and destroy the rising hope of our country, by undermining the virtue of our youth; the Christian's heart is pained, and every effort is put forth to stay the march of desolation. ”

“ Perhaps the man, who daily drinks ardent spirit, may, from the greater insensibility of his system, in some cases escape sickness as long as the most temperate, (though this is by no means a common fact) ; yet, let disease once commence, and then we learn, by painful experience, the disadvantage of having broken down the nervous system by needless and vicious excess.
Tobacco is acknowledged to be one of the most deadly of the vegetable narcotics: yet experience proves that the nerves, by habit, become so accustomed to its stimulus, that it in a great measure loses its power. ”

“ Notwithstanding the extent to which smoking prevails, there are some in almost every family, who are affected with giddiness in the head and sickness at stomach, whenever they inhale the fumes of the pipe or cigar, particularly at or near meal time. Yet all this suffering must be endured, and the fine feelings of the family disregarded. And for what? Merely to give a Christian, and perhaps a physician or a minister of the gospel, an opportunity to gratify a vicious appetite which does him no good, and which, philosophically considered, would disgrace any man who pretends to be a gentleman. ”

“ A few reasons have already been given, why smoking tends strongly to favor the introduction of ardent spirits. The dryness of mouth induced in some, is not the only case where a thirst for strong drink is produced. The great waste of saliva, occasioned both by smoking and chewing, has the same dangerous tendency. The fact that few of all the consumers of this plant are fond of those simple beverages so grateful to the unvitiated taste, and that most are inordinately attached to ale, wine, and brandy, is sufficient evidence of the dreadful truth, that it is the faithful pioneer to intemperance. ”

“ Long and obstinate is the conflict with nature, before the taste or smell of such disgusting things as alcohol, opium, and tobacco can be endured. But when she, worn out by repeated and continued assaults, abandons her post, and gives up the dominion to the artificial appetite, the order of things is reversed, and we at last find, to our sorrow, that this unnatural appetite is vastly more ungovernable than the one implanted by our Creator for things originally pleasant and agreeable. ”

“ I commenced the use of tobacco when young, like many others, without any definite object, but experienced no very injurious consequences from it until I entered the ministry. Then my system began to feel its dreadful effects. My voice, appetite, and strength soon failed; and I become affected with sickness at the stomach, indigestion, emaciation, and melancholy, with a prostration of the whole nervous system. For years my health has been so much impaired as to render me almost useless in the ministry, and all this I attribute to the pernicious habit of smoking and chewing tobacco. ”

“ Those who live constantly in the region of tobacco, by the effect of habit cease to be stimulated and over excited by the diffusion of its lighter particles in the air they breathe. But those who employ it, occasionally, whether in smoking, chewing or snuffing, undergo an excitement, more or less considerable; which is infallibly followed by a proportionate debility, in which state, they would be subject to the attacks of a disease they might otherwise have escaped. ”

“ Suppose, for the sake of argument, that a man who daily uses tobacco, enjoys equal health with one who uses none, and is no more liable to disease; let him once be attacked by disease, and then it will be far more difficult to remove it, than to do so in one free from such habit. ”

“ Most persons in the constant habit of taking snuff, are led on insensibly, until they consume enormous quantities. But as they are accustomed both to its stimulant and narcotic effects, they are not aware of the pernicious consequences. In the midst of interesting conversation, they frequently transcend the bounds assigned them by habit, and the consequence is, sickness, faintness, and trembling, with some vertigo and confusion of head. ”

“ They load their huge pipes with the dried leaves of this plant, and when lighted, they breathe the dark cloud of smoke from their mouth and nostrils, and as it curls around their head, ascending towards heaven, they present it as an offering to appease the anger of the Great Spirit. ”

“ I ask, where is the man making any pretensions to refinement, who would not blush to offend the delicate sensibilities of the fair, by smoking his pipe or cigar in their presence? True politeness would seem to require, moreover, that even the feelings of gentlemen should be respected. But all sense of propriety seems to have fled before the indulgence of this foolish habit. ”

“ If then the habitual use of alcohol, by exhausting the nervous energy, predisposes the system to disease, and at the same time renders the disease, when it has commenced, so much more intractable; what shall be said of the common use of tobacco, which is allowed by all to be a still more deadly poison, and of course must exhaust the power of the nerves in a proportionate degree? ”

“ And so different is its operation from that of other narcotics, that it actually operates with more destructive efficacy, when used by way of injection, than when applied either to the skin, or when taken into the stomach.
From what has been said of its narcotic powers, you, Gentlemen, will readily infer its virtue as an article of medicine. If we wish, at any time, to prostrate the powers of life in the most sudden and awful manner, we have but to administer a dose of tobacco, and our object is accomplished. ”

“ The stale excuse, so often repeated by the lovers of tobacco, that they have been advised to use it by physicians, for the mitigation or removal of some bodily infirmity, may be urged with equal force and propriety by the tippler and the sot; for many, very many, have been advised by members of the Faculty, to drink the deadly draught, in some form or other, either to ease the pains of dyspepsia, to allay the horrors of tedium vitæ, or to drown the anguish of a guilty conscience. ”

“ Most persons in good health, and all in younger life, may break off at once, without the least danger. Two or three days will overcome all difficulty. Those whom slight changes in regimen affect very much, may break off more gradually; and so of persons advanced in life. A good way of accomplishing this, is to procure some of the most detestable tobacco which can be found, and when appetite will not forego the use of it without an evil greater than to use it, then take it in such a quantity as will be sure to nauseate and prostrate. This will put the next dose farther off ”

“ Those who never felt the appetite may laugh at such directions as these; but those who know its power, will at least think them worth some consideration.
I do not place the use of tobacco in the same scale with that of ardent spirits. It does not make men maniacs and demons. But that it does undermine the health of thousands; that it creates a nervous irritability, and thus operates on the temper and moral character of men; that it often creates a thirst for spirituous liquors ”

“ Tobacco, as a luxury, has been used for the two last centuries over all the civilized, and the greater portion of the [17] uncivilized world. The modes have been snuffing, smoking, and chewing. Its effects, when habitually used in each of these modes, will now be examined. As far as my observations extend, few, if any, of all the devotees to this stupefying substance, ever resort to its use without some supposed necessity; and often, alas too often, by the advice of physicians. ”

“ But as the application of the burnt oil of tobacco to the mouth and fauces, from its stimulant and narcotic qualities, benumbs the senses and renders the individual less conscious of his distress, he takes it for granted that he is materially relieved, and knows not, poor man, that it is all delusion. ”

“ Rush, "is it possible to contemplate the creature man in a more absurd and ridiculous light, than in his foolish and disgusting attachment to the poisonous weed, tobacco." Who then can witness groups of boys ten or twelve years old [36] in our streets, smoking cigars, without anticipating such a depreciation in our posterity with regard to health and character, as can scarcely be contemplated without pain and horror! ”

“ We have now gone through with an examination of the medicinal properties of tobacco, and have arrived at the following conclusion, viz. that few substances are capable of exerting effects so sudden and destructive, as this poisonous plant. Prick the skin of mouse with a needle, the point of which has been dipped in its essential oil, and immediately it swells and dies. Introduce a piece of common "twist," as large as a kidney bean, into the mouth of a robust man, unaccustomed to this weed, and soon he is affected with fainting, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and loss of vision. ”