Vanity, All Is Vanity: a Lecture on Tobacco and Its Effects

Part 1

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1 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |[Illustration] | | | | | | | | | | "VANITY," | | | | 'ALL IS VANITY.' | | | | | | A lecture on Tobacco and its effects | | | | | | DEDICATED TO THE PUBLIC BY | | ELDER J. J. CRANMER, Editor and proprietor of the | | (G)ospel (M)onitor, (H)annibal (M)issouri. | | | | | | WILL HEALTH REIGN IN A DISEASED BODY? | | WISDOM TREADS NO PATH WITH FOLLEY. | | | | The MIND is all there is! It feels, knows, moves, acts, | | thinks, and sees. | | | | The mind has supreme control of the body in sickness and in health. | | See the Rulings of Nature. | | | | Habit is harder to serve than a king, its taxes are greater, they not | | only come yearly, but daily and hourly, on body mind and pocket. You | | are bound in her chains and must answer her calls. | | | | ---*-------*=======*=======*-------*--- | | | | The RULINGS OF NATURE we'll send you. | | We'll give you the work of the brain. | | Cast the glory of heaven about you, | | And arise for your Works are inane, | | You are dead said the scoffs of the stranger; | | A laugh for the cynic and clown. | | Go look; from the King to the granger, | | See the slaves the Tobacco-leaf bound. | | * * * * * | | O'er the graves we have marched in the past time, | | Still praying for dews of reform | | While raining down showers of poison, | | On those we should keep from its harm. | | | | | | ---*-------*===( Read. )===*-------*--- | | | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

2 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |[Illustration] | | | | | | | | TOBACCO | | | | NICOTINA Nicotianin. | | POISONS! | | | | COURAGE! MAN, COURAGE!! | | | | | | "Strive; for the grasp of the destroyer is upon you, and if you be not | | wrenched away, it will palsy you and crush you. Strive for the foe has | | seized upon your vitals: he holds possession of your Fort and renders | | your will a thing to be controled instead of a controling power. It | | chains the intellect and bids defiance to your better judgment. Strive | | like one who knows he has grappled with Death and the victory must be | | won or self be lost!" | | | | TOBACCO should never be mentioned except as a poison, one of the most | | active and fatal of poisons; it is the only herb known to possess two | | active deadly poisons, NICOTINA and NICOTIANIN: It is really so fatal | | that doctors seldom administer it, and never internally. For an over | | dose of Opium, Arsenic, or Strychnine, when taken in time, there is a | | cure, but for an over dose of tobacco there is none; its effect on the | | system is Paleness, Nausea, Giddiness, Lessening of the heart's action,| | Vomiting, Purging, Cold-sweating, and utter Prostration, such as no | | other poison can induce, then death! Its evils are numerous we will | | notice a few as follows. | | | | 1. It impregnates the whole system with two of the most fatal poisons, | | NICOTINA, and NICOTIANIN. | | | | 2. With either of which the system is subjected to continuous repair, | | therefore Doctors seldom advise one to quit it. It is too much like | | taking bread and butter from their babe's mouths. | | | | 3. It enslaves a man so that it requires a powerful exertion to break | | its chains and fetters to regain their freedom. | | | | 4. It causes dyspepsia by spitting off the saliva that ought to go to | | digest the food, aid the digestive system, and to regulate and heal | | the bowels. | | | | 5. When you breathe the smoke it produces asthma and lays the | | foundation for a train of other fatal diseases. | | | | 6. In breathing the two poisons into the lungs, often produces | | paralysis of the lungs and consumption. | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

3 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | 7. It gradually weakens and destroys the whole nervous system and is | | the cause of a large majority of cases of Insanity, which can readily | | be found in all stages, among those who use tobacco. | | | | 8. It makes one appear to be ill-bred and extremely distasteful in | | society. | | | | 9. It is said by critics to entirely destroy a certain faculty of the | | mind. | | | | 10. It renders one's breath very repugnant to a companion. | | | | 11. It is continually drawing on the pocket for the small change that | | might be laid up. | | | | 12. When taken as snuff it wonderfully impairs and often paralyzing | | and destroys the Olfactory nerves and deprives one of the sense of | | smell. | | | | 13. It creates a craving for Alcoholic drinks, it prostrates the | | system to such an extent that nature calls for aid by stimulants, | | hence the craving for drinks, peppers, mustards, &c., &c. | | | | 14. It creates an inordinate desire for excitement such as Noose and | | Novel reading, and a loathing of Science and Philosophy. | | | | 15. The smoke has a wonderful tendency to weaken and impair the | | eye-sight. | | | | 16. Its use is an evil example to the young who look to us for advice | | and protection from evil. | | | | 17. It decomposes and devitalizes the electrovita fluid in the human | | system. | | | | 18. The system of the tobacco users is always in a morbid condition, | | as proof when you are sick you can't use it; for be it known that two | | morbid conditions can not exist in the system at the same time; one | | will drive out the other. | | | | 19. The poison is transmitted to the unborn infant, many times | | impairing its vital organs and causing a pre-mature death: and I once | | heard a Physician of much learning and practic, Dr. NILES. Say that | | there never was nor ever could be a HEALTHY CHILD born of parents who | | were habitual tobacco users. And I apprehend that every doctor of note | | in the land will witness the same thing. | | | | TOBACCO EATERS! Is the most appropriate name for the users of Tobacco; | | as much so as the vile disgusting loathsome green worm that swallows | | the poison leaf into its stomach. For the poison of the quid and the | | smoke is taken up by the blood vessels and absorbents of the mouth, | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

4 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | and carried into the circulation, even in a more virulent form than if | | introduced by the stomach. | | | | Every doctor will tell you that he is more afraid to give tobacco, | | even as an enema, than any other poison in the Materia Medica: he | | never gives it by the stomach. Sometimes, in violent spasmodic colic, | | or strangulation of the bowels, or spasmodic croup, tobacco is used | | externally as a poultice, and if you are not very careful, it will | | kill your patient even in this form. Many a colt and calf has been | | killed by rubbing them with tobacco juice to kill the lice. Tobacco is | | death to all kinds of parasitical vermin; it will kill the most | | venomous reptiles very quick. Many children have been killed by the | | application of tobacco for lice titter sores &c. Dr. Mussey tells of | | a woman that rubbed a little tobacco juice on a ring worm, not larger | | than a 25 cts. on her little girl's face; and if a physician had not | | been quickly summoned the child would have died. He tells of a father | | who killed his son by putting tobacco spit on a sore on his head. You | | would do well to read what various medical men have written on the | | subject. Every other poison vegetable is content with one poison; but | | tobacco has two of the most deadly poisons in the vegetable kingdom. | | This is no scare-crow put up to frighten you Tobacco Eaters; if you | | don't believe me just examine a vegetable chemistry, and to convince | | your self more thoroughly, just drop one drop of nicotina or | | nicotianin on the tongue of a Cat or a Dog, that you don't wish to | | kill by the tedious method or shooting or drowning, and see what the | | effect will be. See if Strychnine will do its work so quick. | | | | Doctors: men whose profession is to play with poisons as with so many | | deadly vipers, stand back and behold its poisoned fangs with horrow, | | not daring to lay hold on it and use it as a medicine for his sick | | wife or child. No he shuns it with a deathly horrow! Though himself | | may be a SLAVE to the slower action of its devitalizing powers on mind | | and body. | | | | An over dose of tobacco is incureable because of its peculiar effect | | upon the system. The effect is known by a deathly paleness and | | sickness, then the air suddenly becomes too warm and oppressive, the | | patient desires a cool situation, a drink of cold water and a fresh | | breeze, the strangest of all is at the same time the patient is so | | stimulated the action of the heart decreases, and to give a stimulant | | to increase it, it increases its virulence in proportion to the | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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