--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Brown, Will H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 25 number: 8 published: 1922-06 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Will H. Brown, "Tobacco and a Sick World," *Improvement Era* 25, no. 8 (June 1922): 693–694.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2508unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2508unse start_page: 693 end_page: 694 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1922-06) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2508unse publication_year: 1922 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1922, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Tobacco and a Sick World Tobacco and a Sick World By Will H. Brown Sensible men and women should not be satisfied with sur- face facts, in the study of a problem. When we are told that tuberculosis, lung and bronchial trouble, paralysis, apoplexy, heart disease, hardening of the arteries, catarrh, etc., are on the increase, in this, the supposedly most advanced age in medical science, in the history of the world, we should emphatically ask why? It is due to something. It doesn't just happen that these ailments jump on to a person here and there. When we unflinchingly face facts, we find that the wide- spread and rapidly increaeing use of tobacco among practi cally all races and classes, is responsible for much of the sick ness now prevailing throughout the world. In addition to ill ness, many men, apparently well, often have no reserve force At the last annual convention of the American Physical Edu cation Association, one of the national officers said: "Thirty million American wage earners lose an average of nine days a year because of illness, entailing a loss of $675,000,000 in wages, with a cost of $180,000,000 for medical aid." Every disease due to or aggravated by tobacco is prevent- able— simply by leaving the weed alone. Professor William H. Greer, Director of Physical Education in Harvard University, makes this statement: "The loss from earnings cut off by pre- ventable disease and premature death amounts to $1,500,000,- 000 annually." [Practically every physician of note who has studied the sub- ject declares tuberculosis may be brought on or intensified by smoking, especially by inhaling, as is done by nearly every user of cigarettes in all countries. Henry P. Davison, New York banker, and head of the American Red Cross, says: "The great white plague is now spreading over the world with light- ning rapidity." Why an increase in heart disease? Why so many sudden deaths of men apparently well? Dr. Matthew Woods, of Phil- adelphia, declares: "We positively know that tobacco causes heart disease, and that it diminishes the possibility of recov- ery from any disease." Professor William McKeeverr, of the University of Kansas faculty, after making hundreds of tests 694 IMPROVEMENT ERA # with the Sphygmograph — an instrument adjusted at the radial artery and recording the comparative strength, regularity and nervousness of heart beats — says: "The habitual cigarette smoker's heart is very weak and feeble, except for the few min- utes he is indulging the habit, when the pulsations are unduly excited." Why so many persons stricken with paralysis? Prof. M. E. Mclndoo, of the Bureau of Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture, making many tests with nicotine as a poison for killing insects, has proved conclusively that it kills by paralyzing. From this Robert Sparks Walker, in a magazine article, reasons: "Will not future investigation re- veal the fact that the use of tobacco is directly responsible for much of the paralysis that attacks the human family?" Why so many tens of thousands of men afllicted with arteri- osclerosis? Dr. Chas. L. Hamilton, of Ontario, answers this question: "In men of 35, who are tobacco users, we find as much hardening of the arteries as is normally found in men of 70." In other words, habitual tobacco users, at thirty-five, are as old as they should be at seventy. And catarrh? Dr. John B. Huber says: "Tobacco induces catarrh of the nose and throat — and no catarrh, from whatever cause, is curable in a smoker." Yes, our old world is very sick — and we have seen that much of the illness is preventable, by following this simple remedy: Cut out tobacco, the weed that poisons, undermines, destroys. Oakland, Cat. Just Try The world's greatest poems have ne'er been written ; The greatest songs are still unsung. The world's greatest sons are not all risen; The greatest deeds are yet undone: Then try. The world's greatest speeches are still unmade; The greatest races yet un-run. The greatest corner stones have ne'er been laid; The greatest victories not yet won: Then try. The world's greatest thoughts are still unspoken; The greatest books are not all read. The vast silences lie still unbroken; The sun shines still upon thy head: Just try. Kimberly, Idaho Leslie L. Sudweeks