--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Oaks, L. Weston collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 31 number: 2 published: 1927-12 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "L. Weston Oaks, “Tobacco and Humanity,” *Improvement Era* 31, no. 2 (December 1927): 109–117." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3102unse 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: improvementera3102unse start_page: 109 end_page: 117 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1927-12) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3102unse publication_year: 1927 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 1927, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Tobacco and Humanity Tobacco and Humanity By L. Weston Oaks, M. D. II. Effect Upon the Nervous System. The writer was recently consulted by a man of thirty-five years, who came be- cause of loss- of hearing and severe attacks of dizziness. He also complained of con- stant head noises and extreme nervousness. His lack of nervous control showed itself in trembling of hands, fluttering of eye- lids, restlessness and unreasoning irritability of temper. Careful examination of this patient, from the standpoint of his loss of hearing and vertigo, elicited such bizarre responses in many instances, that no def- inite conclusion as to the site of the trouble and its cause could be arrived at. Some of the features of the situation suggested that there might be a drug factor in his case; and he was again questioned closely as to his habits of life. This time the fact was brought out that he smoked a great many cigarettes every day; and that he had already suspected this was responsi- ble for his illness. When asked why he did not stop them, he replied, with deepest anguish in his tone: "My God, I can't quit. I've tried and tried; but it's no use. I'd die without them." Here was a young man, endowed at the beginning with a strong body, a keen mind, a steady hand for his work, and a cheery, attractive personality. In the space of only a few years, the tobacco habit had changed him to one physically infirm, un- able (as he said) to render dependable calculations in his work, unsteady of hand, restless at night and unreasoningly irascible. Can one imagine a more systematic or sardonic wrecking of life, without insanity or physical destruction? The plight of this not uncommon case is related a9 a concrete illustration of two things that tobaccoism does to the human nervous system. First, its ungovernable power to create a desire for itself, and to thereby perpetuate a habit. Second, its in- evitable destruction of those vital nervous energies so necessary to the living of a normal, sane life. From a habit standpoint, the curious and in a sense appalling thing about the tobacco habit is the fact that no one has ever taken its use up, in the first place, because of a craving for it. In the words of Dr. A. Abrahams of London: "Unlike other drugs, the ingestion of which induces a drug habit, tobacco is not taken in the first instance to satisfy a natural or an unnatural craving. On the contrary, in all cases a deliberate attempt is made to acquire the habit, in nearly all cases the attempt is followed by the most unpleasant consequences; and in not a few cases tolerance is established only after a persistent effort which may last for months." It would almost seem as if Nature had set her heart against this poison being introduced into the body, and used every means of repulsing it. Then, when the perverse human forces it upon her, she is compelled to organize factors to resist its effects. These forces, once brought to- gether, constitute what we recognize as the tolerance of a man's system to the drug. Once established for a narcotic substance, this power to combat it must be used if the individual is to be comfortable. If the poison which created the tolerance is not supplied, to keep it subdued through ac- tivity, it then proceeds to act as a burning brand applied to the nervous system; and either the drug must be ob- tained or the toleration overcome before any comfort can be had. Actually, application of a narcotic poison to delicate sensitive nerve cell protoplasm sets up an irritability, which must be constantly benumbed by the poi- son that induced it. As time goes on and poisoning proceeds, this1 unnatural fret- fulness grows, until, if unappeased by its drug, it will possess and occupy the in- dividual's every thought. It becomes in reality an unforgetable pain of such sever- ity as to destroy mental balance and bring 110 IMPROMEVENT ERA on a sort of insanity that makes of an otherwise calm and agreeable person an irascible, ill-tempered one, ready to fly at the throat of his best friend. Anyone who has been for a few days the unwilling camp companion of a tobacco user minus his tobacco, will readily testify to the in- tense discomfort inflicted upon all who must come into contact with such a being. Then to witness the trembling eagerness with which he lights his first smoke again, and see the utter calm settle over his en- raged nerves gives mute evidence of his slavery to this curious mania. Except in degree of effect and in man- ner of acquisition, nicotine and morphine habitisms are identical in their natures. The opium user reaches more rapidly a lower state of degradation and degenera- tion than tobacco could ever lead the average man to; but there is a certainty of parallelism between the two which can- not be denied. In the matter of drug action upon human beings, though, there is such great difference in degree of power over separate individuals that any dogmatic universal statement upon the subject is but evidence of lack of knowl- edge. With some, inveterate use of tobacco leads to greater nervous and mental disintegration than even opium could in- duce in others whose innate vitality has not been dissipated by smoking generations of forbears. Particularly is it bad for grow- ing boys. A New York City magistrate, who has been quoted by various writers, says emphatically: '-Ninety-nine out of a hundred boys be- tween the ages of ten and seventeen years, who come before me charged with crime, have their fingers disfigured by yellow cigarette stains." So keenly do students of the matter sense this danger to the young that one finds in the literature almost numberless unreserved declarations against it. Dr. T. H. Barnes, in his paper already quoted from, says concerning the use of tobacco by boys: "Habits which have a depressing influence should be shunned by the growing lad. Bad habits make their lasting impression at this age and it often takes years to get rid of the effects of wrongdoings during the period when Nature makes her greatest demand upon the physical side. If a boy would realize that he has no right to smoke or use tobacco before he is twenty, especially cigarettes, the problem would be easily solved. Unfortunately the example of elders is generally followed and boys think they will become men faster if they rise to that estate through the medium of smoke wreathes." Tobacco's injury to the growing boy is wrought upon his nervous system. As in all other things he does of his own in- clination, he is bound to be immoderate in his smoking; and the result is soon apparent in a loss of ambition to do things, a lessening of desire to attend school, an increasing disregard for telling the truth and a decided loss of ability in mental tasks. Blurring of his sense of moral responsibility is rapid; and, from a lad entirely trustworthy in all things, he may become utterly undependable, egotistic, often discourteous and increasingly selfish. When a fond father considers the pos- sibility of such a change in his own bright- eyed boy, he dimly senses the grave responsibility that rests upon us as elders to these growing sons whose lives during their tender years determine whether they shall be living dynamos or lagging derelicts. It is an unassailable fact that no boy would ever subject himself to the illness and dis- comfort incident to acquiring tobacco tolerance, were it not for the examples we set him. There is a dramatic appeal in watching one, superior in years and ap- parent wisdom, calmly performing the smoker's ritual, which a boy's natural curiosity cannot resist desiring to try. The very suffering occasioned by his first at- tempts is a challenge to his manly courage. Continued effort gains the reward of tol- eration by his outraged nervous system: but it also brings that insidious growth of desire for the poison which may wreck his bright prospects and make of him a very ordinary animal. We are prone to speak of the China- man and his opium habit with scorn and contempt; but he is our superior in that he smokes his "pill" in private where he cannot be seen and aped by his son and heir. According to Drs. E. H. Cleveland and D. T. Crowthers, in the Medical TOBACCO AND HUMANITY 1 1 Times of New York, boys who smoke are frequently subject to spasmodic twitchings of the face, and occasionally to paralysis or decided weakening of some of the muscles of the face, lips and eyes. These boys are usually pale; and blood tests show that they suffer more or less from anemia.1 Dr. Bruce Fink, in School and Society, tells us that research studies in some of the colleges have furnished evidence that smoking a cigar or two will measurably reduce the accuracy of a smoker's move- ments. They have noted a loss in sure- ness in pitching a baseball, in lunging at a target and in rifle shooting. Dr. M. V. O'Shea, in his work reported in his book Tobacco and Mental Efficiency, showed rather conclusively that the ordinary smoker loses from four to forty per cent in muscle steadiness. This determination was made by taking the steadiness of muscles — and nerves, indirectly — then having the individual smoke a given amount, after which the measurements were repeated. Dr. P. K. Holmes, in The American Journal of Public Health, states that muscular accuracy is reduced, because of unsteadiness of the body muscles, and that this has been demon- strated in rifle target practice in the army. So many examples of tobacco's effect upon physical endurance are to be observed in our daily lives, that it seems scarcely necessary to mention this phase of the question. It is a well known fact in physiology that fatigue of the muscles, as we experience it, is in reality tiring of the nerves which supply stimulation to them. Using a muscle-nerve preparation in the laboratory, it can readily be shown that the muscle retains considerable power of response to direct electric stimulation after the nerve is too tired to longer carry stimulus to it. Thus Dr. Frederick J. Pack's interesting observation, detailed in his book, Tobacco and Human Efficiency, regarding the smoker's lack of stamina in long hikes really denotes a decided lower- ing of vital energy on the part of the nervous system. Athletic coaches the world over recognize the necessity of separating their men from cigarettes, during training and competition, if they are to succeed; and they are also becoming cognizant that to secure men whose nervous systems have never been subjected to this handicap is even more desirable. Upon Mental Effort. Any consideration of nicotine and the brain is, of course, inseparably tied up with the result upon human mental activity. No phase of the whole question has been so voluminously discussed and so heatedly argued as this. People who use the drug are nearly all positive it is a great help to them; and those who do not are all sure it is "bad for brain work." One curious thing, to the impartial observer, is the fact that so many thinking men have used it, then quit — often because of poor health — emphatically decry its use. Charles Lamb is a good example. After discovering what he thought was the wonderful soothing power of the drug, he wrote: "The Old World was sure forlorn. Wanting thee." After some years of smoking, he was forced to give it up, because of its effect upon his health; and inscribed the follow- ing: "Farewell to tobacco the Stinking'st of the stinking kind. Filth of the mouth and fogs of the mind. Africa that brags of her foison. Breeds no such prodigious poison, Henbane, nightshade, Hemlock, aconite — nay All four cannot excel tobacco in a pernicious way." It is said that a Persian Ambassador once presented Napoleon with a pipe of oriental design. Wishing to try its use- fulness, the Emperor filled it with tobacco and "lighted up." As soon as the smoke came into contact with his larynx, he dis- gustedly handed the pipe to a servant with: "Take it away — my stomach turns. It is only fit for the sluggard and the sloven." Commander Peary, Arctic explorer, was once asked if smokers were desirable as members of his polar expeditions. His 'Anemia means poor blood, either in red blood cells, hemoglobin or in both. 112 IMPROMEVENT ERA reply is characteristic of him: "I'd as soon think, of taking a man who had to have a pie." Oliver Wendell Holmes — a physician as well as a writer — says in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table: "I do not advise you, young man, to con- secrate the flower of your life to painting the bowl of a pipe, for, let me assure you, the stain of a reverie-breeding narcotic may strike deeper than you think. I have seen the green leaf of early promise grow brown before its time under such nicotian regimen, and thought the umbered meerschaum was dearly bought at the cost of a brain enfeebled and a will en- slaved." Elbert Hubbard, whose influence upon thinking Americans still spreads like waves set up from a pebble cast into the shel- tered pool, frequently advised employers to shun the cigarette smoker. Most of us know to what a marked extent some few industrial giants, such as Edison and Ford are aligned with this view. Count Leo Tolstoi unfailingly con- demned tobacco, because he believed it had a degenerating effect upon the human mind. In Dr. M. V. O'Shea's book, already alluded to, occurs a quotation from Hudson Maxim, noted inventor, who says: "The wreath of cigarette smoke which curls about the head of the growing lad holds his brain in an iron grip which prevents it from growing and his mind from developing just as surely as the iron shoe does the foot of the Chinese girl. * * * If all boys could be made to know that with every breath of cigarette smoke they inhale inbecility and ex- hale manhood, that they are tapping their arteries as surely and letting their life's blood out as truly as though their veins and arteries were severed, and the cigarette is a maker of invalids, criminals and fools — not men — it ought to deter them some. The yellow finger stain is an emblem of deeper degradation and enslavement than the ball and chain." Certainly these are only a few words from men on one side; and many noted persons who are addicted to tobacco write just as emphatically of its desirability, so far as they are personally concerned. Per- haps part of this is due, as one author has expressed it, to the fact that the smoker's danger begins in his failure to get a true appreciation of his own clinical picture. More of this difference of opinion, how- ever, arises as a result of the vast variation in susceptibility of different individuals to the drug. It is a well known fact among medical men that no two living people will react in exactly the same degree to a given dose of any active drug. An amount which will produce profound alteration in one's physiological processes, may not show the slightest effect upon another, or it may evince any degree of response between the two extremes. So it is with tobacco. There are actual records of its being re- sponsible for attacks of insanity, which never occurred after stopping its use; and there are examples of longevity in spite of inveterate smoking. Tobacco has been called "a comfort to kings as well as a solace to beggars," which sounds nice, but is not of such great importance, since so decidedly few of us could or would be kings, and certainly none of us elect to be beggars. In other words, the important thing is to know what it does to the great mass of humanity; and we can never ascertain that by focusing upon either or both extremes. Scientific principles are usually gotten at by direct experiment. In its ordinary sense, this would mean studying the effect of tobacco upon the mental activity of one who had never used it. That kind of work, however, is not to be thought of in this particular connection; and such meas- urements or observations as have been carried out have necessarily been made upon individuals who were already ad- dicted to the tobacco habit. America's youth, though, represents the race vulnerable point attacked by those whose greed can only be satiated through seeing the tobacco drug habit rapidly spread to all humanity; and in consequence of this, cer- tain data accumulate in high schools and colleges the country over pertaining to the mental status of smokers and non-users. Dr. M. V. O'Shea and his co-workers conducted an inquiry among one thousand high schools of the Middle West, concern- ing the effect of tobacco upon high school work. Of the many reports received, they selected two hundred six as being unbiased and free from prejudice. Among this TOBACCO AND HUMANITY 113 group there were only three reporting as being without any tobacco users. The rest admitted tobaccoism in from two to ninety-five per cent, of their boys. Of the great number of high school boys repre- sented only 15.9% were above the median in school work, while 60.5% were below it. Many hundred of these boys actually contracted the habit while attending high school; and it was found that where this was the case, 68% of those doing so had shown a decline in their scholarship, with 61.9% losing in deportment. These figures are significant, because they cover such a large group; and justify some gen- eralization as to the effects of this drug upon mental effort in young adult and adolescent boys. The decline in scholar- ship among this group varied from ten per cent to utter failure. Dr. O'Shea requested the principals of these schools to furnish some brief reports upon the work and behavior of their boys, before and after beginning the use of tobacco. Because of what they represent in loss of potential manhood, these reports bear a pitiful significance; and Dr. O'Shea says of them: "One cannot go over the reports from these two hundred six schools without forming the conviction that tobacco is either directly or indirectly playing a tragic role in the high school. There is no evidence of bias or preju- dice in the returns from most of these schools; at any rate the principals and faculties were aware of the danger that pre-conceived notions might distort their views, so that they were on their guard. And if they erred at all it was probably in the way of leniency in esti- mating the intellectual status of smokers in their schools. Some at least of the principals who made returns are personally friendly to- ward tobacco, so far ?s its use by adults is con- cerned. * * * In personal interviews they informed the writer that they enjoyed a cigar and believed that a moderate use of to- bacco was not harmful to them mentally or physically. But they could not overlook the fact that the records of the smokers in their schools were conclusive in showing that the use of tobacco by their pupils is detrimental to intellectual effort, and in extreme cases it paralyzes mental activity." Among nine hundred fifty smokers and non-smokers in this school. Superintendent H. L. Smith of Bloomington, Indiana, studied this question and offered the fol- lowing interpretations: "1. Smokers are distinctly older than non- smokers, having failed in their work much more frequently. "2. Smokers are doing distinctly poorer work than non-smokers. "3. Smokers are disciplined much more fre- quently and for more serious offenses than non-smokers are." Superintendent Smith also found that habitual smokers failed in twenty-nine per cent of their school work. There seems no question that smoking is steadily increasing among youths of high school age, the country over. Some hor- rified consternation has been generated among parents, and even medical men, during the last two or three years, by the so-called "modern" ideas prevailing among high school boys and girls with regard to immoral practices of a more serious nature. It is not difficult to demonstrate that, in the young, smoking benumbs and destroys moral responsibility and scruples of conscience. No great stretch of imagi- nation is therefore necessary to discern a serious connection between the two facts, a9 applied to the present seeming moral tendencies of our modern youth. If ever the clarion call to take heed lest the race be destroyed rang forth to an intelligent people, it should be sounding in the ears of America today! Going into the college, we find there an extension of the high school situation, though many of the boys who take up cigarettes during high school days never reach college. A goodly number scarcely finish the former division; and scores of others naturally succumb to the mental de- pression resulting from their habitual narcosis. Writing in the Kentucky Medical Journal, Dr. E. S. Frey of Louisville, mentions some careful observations made by Dr. Seaver, director of the Physical Laboratory at Yale University and says: "Out of the highest scholarship men at Yale only five per cent use tobacco. Of all the men who do not get appointments, ninety per cent use tobacco." In Mac Levy's book The Tobacco Habit, are given some interesting statistics, of which the following are typical: 114 IMPROMEVENT ERA Dr. George Lewis says that in fifty years, no tobacco user in Harvard has graduated at the head of his class, though five out of six graduates were users. A Clark College professor says, out of two hundred one, ninety-three were users, one hundred eight were not. Of the non-smokers 68% won honors, while of the smokers only 18% won honors. Six colleges reported upon their various football teams. In the total group, four hun- dred thirteen non-smokers made the teams and only one hundred ninety-two smokers. Scho- lastically, non-users averaged 79.8% and the users 63.1%. Much discussion has been forthcoming as to whether tobacco stimulates the smoker's mental powers. Certainly there is no one who cares to appear ridiculous by maintaining that it aids the non- smoker to compose himself; but there are many addicts who are sure smoking helps them in their mental labors. Formerly there was no datum that seemed to refute this idea; and it was accepted, so far as the smoker was concerned. More recently, however, some interesting observations have thrown new light upon this phase, too. Dr. A. Abrahams, in the Saint Bartholomew Hospital Journal, London, as far back a9 1913 offered the following: It is popularly thought that nicotine acts as a direct brain stimulant, much in the same way as coffee or tea; but a simpler explana- tion is offered by Sir Lauder Brunton. that the effect is simply that of stimulating the branches of the trigeminal nerve,2 which in some way appears to increase the blood supply of the brain — an effect which can be pro- duced by eating sweets and in other ways." This statement is of considerable in- terest in that it discards the generally accepted notion that nicotine acts as a brain stimulant — which is hard to under- stand, when we know its total effect upon the nervous system is one of narcosis or depression. Neither is the explana- tion an idle one, as Sir Lauder Brunton is a British physician of some standing.3 The proposition is also one that may be demonstrated with little difficulty; and if we look about us we may find its truth verified among our own acquaintances. The writer has a close friend, a professional man, who keeps at hand a supply of candy, and uses it at intervals while engaged upon arduous or trying mental tasks. It seems to aid him in speeding up his efforts, just as the smoker thinks his cigar or cigarette does. Later work of an experimental nature has been carried out by Dr. M. V. O'Shea and his co-workers, upon this very ques- tion, and detailed in his book already mentioned. They devised an apparatus which made it possible, by means of an electric coil, to heat the bowl of a pipe so that the blindfolded smoker had all the sensation of smoking, except the actual consumption of tobacco. The man giving the test smoked enough to furnish the tobacco smell; and subjects of the experi- ment were allowed to smoke during some periods and not during others. Drawing into the mouth of this heated air, plus the smell of some tobacco smoke in the room, aroused the same sensations as did actual smoking, since they were unable at any sitting to see the smoke they supposed they were producing. These men, all habitual users, were not aware that a con- trol smoke was being used upon them; and none was able to detect anything lack- ing at any period of the tests. Unani- mously, they declared their belief that they had actually smoked the same amount of tobacco at each sitting. For our purpose here, the most significant thing about it all lies in the fact that each of these smokers received his usual feeling of Mental buoyancy composure or stimulation, as the case may be, just as surely from puffing the heated air as from his tobacco smoke! In addition, all of Dr. O'Shea's subjects were college men, no doubt possessing the usual collegiate assurance and self-analysis. The fifth cranial nerve which is the great nerve of sensation of ears, eyes, nose and mouth, as well as to the skin of the face. It is so tied up, through many complex associations, with the rest of the nerves in the head, as well as with the brain, that the indirect effects of its stimulation are too far-reaching to be as yet completely understood. 3In England, the term "Doctor'1 is not used in the American sense, and is frequently not even employed in speaking or writing of prominent medical men. TOBACCO AND HUMANITY 115 In the face of these experimental data, even though secured from a small num- ber of individuals, one can scarcely be blamed for a strengthened doubt of to- bacco's vaunted "stimulating" effect upon mental effort. Effects Upon Women and Young Girls. In the words of a famous surgeon, "Woman is a saparate being from man; and you cannot judge her by her grosser mate." This1 is another way of saying that the physical, mental and spiritual organ- ization of woman is, in the main, far more delicate and sensitive than that of man. Especially is this true of her nervous system. And more particularly is it ap- parent in the functioning of the sympathetic division of her nervous system — that part which governs processes not presided over by the will or conscious- ness. God has endowed her with many attributes not understandable by man; and has given her a more finely attuned spirit, capable of sure and unwavering intuition. He has imparted to her soul that added divine spark which lends to every woman, no matter how plain of feature or form, the peculiar charm of femininity. For many centuries, in the highest civilization, she has been placed upon a throne and en- shrined queen over all that was worthy in man's heart. The good woman's look, thought and word have fired man to aspire great and worthy things. Weak or mis- directed ones have tobogganed individuals and even nations into sorrow and suffering. An instrument, such as a galvanometer for detecting weak electric movements, or a balance for weighing minute particles of matter, must necessarily be finely con- structed; and the very delicacy of its function precludes any ruggedness of structure. So is it with woman's nervous mechanism. Its very sensitiveness impels her to unreasoning excess in her activities and enthusiasms. If she be unfavorable to a practice, except as a mother, she has no understanding of the motive or weak- ness that could lead another into its power. But once started upon it herself, she recog- nizes no limitation in its pursuit. The woman who takes up smoking is doubly affected by it, first because of the sensitive- ness of her body to its influence, and second by her lack of moderation. Aside from an intensification of all the results produced by tobacco upon man, the girl or woman who uses it becomes the victim of certain other effects, which are more important to her than she knows. Dr. Kellogg, in his work Tobaccoism, states: "The increase of the cigarette habit among young women bodes ill for the future of the race. The report comes from Paris, where smoking has been indulged in by women longer and to a greater extent than in other civilized countries, that strong evidence has appeared that the effect of cigarette smoking is to unsex young women by producing premature degen- eration of the sex glands. One evidence of this is the development of the feminine mus- tache, which is becoming noticeably more fre- quent among young women smokers of Paris." It is a common observation that women who have used tobacco for long show a decided coarsening of feature, a roughen- ing of voice and marked increase of hair upon the face. As the years advance, such women lose some fineness of soul that entitled them to serene supremacy in their men's hearts. It can only be natural that any man with a spark of the Divine yet left in him should abhor the destined ef- fects of tobacco upon sweetheart, wife or sister. When a woman resigns herself to the tobacco habit she forswears her birth- right of feminine beauty of soul and of feature. When to be called beautiful is the major delight of every born woman, could anything strike more surely at the desire of her heart? Nor is this loss of beauty the most grave effect of tobacco upon the female organ- sm. Note what Dr. Lorand has to say: "The habit of smoking acts even more in- juriously upon the delicate organisms of young girls than it does on boys; and yet, un- fortunately, one may now observe this harmful habit gaining ground. * * * Smoking by young women and even by young girls must be considered from a far different stand- point than smoking by men, for not only is the female organism by virtue of its much more frail structure and its more delicate tissues much less able to resist the poisonous action of tobacco than that of man; and thus, like many a delicate flower, apt to fade and wither ism 116 IMPROMEVENT ERA more quickly in consequence, but the fecundity* of woman is greatly impaired by it, as tobacco exerts a very pernicious influence on the various ductless glands, including the thyroid and sex glands. In view of the large number of men lost in the late fearful war, the authorities cannot be expected to look on unmoved, while a generation of sterile women, rendered incapable of fulfiling their sublime function of motherhood, is being produced on account of the immoderate smoking of foolish young girls." Smoking not only destroys a woman's ability to attain motherhood, but it also robs her of the desire to fulfil this most sacred purpose of her existence. From Dr. Harvey Kellogg, again we read: "But in addition to contributing to infant mortality there is ground for the belief that the smoke habit among women must tend to lower the birth rate. The same disposition that would lead a woman to cultivate the to- bacco habit would naturally lead her to avoid the perils, responsibilities and inconveniences of motherhood. The birth rate of "smart set" mothers is the very lowest of all classes. Per- haps this fact is a gain to society rather than a loss, so far as this particular class is con- cerned; but if all mothers should become smokers, what would be the effect upon the future of the race?" Nor is this ominous feeling limited to those who actually write upon the subject. One of the most prominent physicians in the world in his line recently said, in speak- ing before a medical gathering: "It is a sad day for the race, when our future mothers take to the use of tobacco, for they thereby doom unborn generations to physical and mental degeneracy." The past decade has brought a revolution in ideas of woman's place in the economic phases of life. And it must be admitted that she has proved herself equal, or superior, to man, in many of the fields she has invaded. However, with her nat- ural ignoring of moderation, she would also extend this equality of sexes to par- taking of his vices, maintaining that it is no worse for a woman than for a man to do it. In politics and in industry wom- an's influence has been welcome; but, should she forsake her idealized pedestal and descend to man's level in those things that increase his ungodliness, she will for- feit more than she knows. Man realizes, in his heart, that his mate lives upon a higher plane than his own, and uncon- sciously worships her in it, which is as it should be. Allow her to come down from this, .and thel psychology will naturally be altered. He will soon regard her as an equal. From being the goddess of his heart she will become the partner of his weakness. Descended from her sublime station, she will be shorn of her power to inspire higher thoughts and desires; and will become his equal. Wom- ankind as a whole will never falter in the pathway Divine wisdom laid for it; but many individuals are failing to see it, in their blind desire to reign in a new and impossible role. The greatly intensified effects of to- baccoism upon the delicate organism of woman can bring naught but degeneracy and unhappiness. Forfeiting, by her own foolish presumption, man's admiration — which she so constantly seeks — she will bring upon herself misery and discontent, physical and mental. Effects Upon the Non-User. As has already been stated, this humble treatise is not a product of any inclination to preach; but rather of an earnest desire to set forth simply such truth as is avail- able upon a question most important in human health. Carelessness has been said to be the characteristic sin of Americans; and while a great many smokers are most courteous and considerate of others in their smoking, there are many who have no shadow of regard for hardships imposed upon those about them. That this 19 of some importance is unquestionable, when one looks deeper than the surface; and the problem of tobaccoism assumes some con- sequence in its relation to the non-user as well as to the enslaved one. Dr. Richard Hogner, in American Medicine, records: * * * also a case where the sister (a clerk) was for years a wreck, suffering from first the father's smoking and after his death, the brother's, in the home. * * * The father smoked a pipe, and during this time she was not so much affected as after 'Ability to conceive and bear children. TOBACCO AND HUMANITY 17 his death when the brother began to smoke at home, cigarette after cigarette.' Be it enough said that for years she was sent from home to hospital, always improving after some weeks at the hospital, soon to be sick as ever when she returned home. * * * Really she was suffering from chronic tobacco poisoning. "Since then so many cases of tobacco poison- ing without personal use have come under my attention that it seems a duty to mention this wholesale tobacco poisoning of innocent vic- tims, mostly women and children. * * * How quickly children and wives 'pick up' when they, rid of the father's or somebody's else tobacco smoke, go to the country. It is attributed to the fresh coun- try air. May be! But add: 'free from to- bacco smoke.' " This question is not one to be passed lightly over. No one doubts for a minute the untoward effects of nicotine upon the young, in both animals and plants; and it is more than possible that many a sickly child, in the household of a father who unreservedly saturates his home with to- bacco smoke, is delicate because of this and nothing else. The extent to which some of these individuals will go, in their disre- gard for those about them is almost beyond Belief. Usually it seems to be a matter of unthinking ignorance, and not of deter- mination. The writer recently remarked a well-fed person traveling in a small, closed automobile, with a young infant and its pale, thin mother. All windows of the vehicle were tightly shut; and this individual, who undoubtedly regarded himself as quite "some man," was in- dustriously further thickening the already blue atmosphere from a fat cigar! Almost beyond belief; and yet he appeared utterly unconscious of any sin. He probably loves his family and believes he is as good to them as any man could be. Young infants of smoking mothers have been observed to show symptoms of to- bacco poisoning; and it is certain that they not only get it from the mother's milk — when she has any to feed them at the breast — but they also absorb it from the tobacco-tainted air of the homes to which they have been entrusted. Fathers who smoke should certainly never indulge in it within the walls of their own domicile, unless provided with a room for that pur- pose, and into which infants and small children of the household are not per- mitted to come. No real father is so low that he would knowingly deny the un- voiced plea of his offspring for robust health: but ignorance, the most dangerous of all human frailties, may betray him into doing so. Adults not given to the use of nicotine, frequently suffer of carbon-monoxide headache, as a result of association in close rooms with smoking comrades and co- workers. The modern convention, whether it be of bankers, stockmen or physicians, has come to be a veritable smoking orgy; and those who attend do so at the expense of their possible discomfort and temporary mental stupefaction. However, there are some reasons for hoping that smoking will be restricted to somewhat of its rightful place, so far as public gatherings are con- cerned. It is said that smoking is no' longer permitted in the United States Senate Chambers; and the largest medical school in America has banned the smoker's in- dulgence from its classrooms. The economic side of tobaccoism, too, is a phase worthy of our attention; but its magnitude and ramifications make it a fit subject for a whole paper, and tend to preclude its disucssion from this brief sum- mary of tobacco's effect upon health. Dr. Frederick J. Pack, in his book, Tobacco and Human Efficiency, offers some inter- esting facts upon this part of the question. Many details of nicotine's action upon the human body are still clothed in mystery, chiefly because of the difficulty besetting experimental study of them. However there is abundant evidence of its unhealthfulness and undesirability to con- demn it to the average person. Attempts to legislate against the habit have regularly brought forth wild cries, from the smokers, about interference with "personal liberty." Their ill-considered use of the term under such circumstances excites wonder as to how one may really pursue personal liberty in deliberately signing one's mind and body over into slavery. For tobaccoism is a slavery, paid for with the reddest blood and the most precious vigor of soul which a human being may fall heir to. Provo. Utah.