CHAPTER LI 

 TOBACCO AND TABLE BEVERAGES 



Vocabulary 



Nicotine, a harmful ingredient of tobacco, an alkaloid narcotic. 



Acreolin, an irritating substance in tobacco smoke. 



Caffein, an alkaloid found in tea, coffee, and cocoa. 



Cocaine, an alkaloid from leaves of coca plant. No connection 



with cocoa. 

 Morphine, an alkaloid from the opium poppy juice. 



The damage done by alcohol and tobacco are often dealt with 

 in the same chapters and spoken of together, as if they had much 

 in common. This is unfortunate, for young people, seeing men 

 little harmed by use of tobacco, will assume that alcohol is no 

 worse, and come to very wrong conclusions. 



Tobacco does harm enough, wastes resources enough, but we 

 ought not to let alcohol assume any comparison of their relative 

 danger. This is not to excuse the use of tobacco, but to prevent 

 young persons from concluding that one is no more harmful than 

 the other, merely because they are often spoken of together. A 

 comparison of this chapter with the one on alcohol will make the 

 matter sufficiently plain. 



Tobacco. It is well known that protoplasm in a young plant 

 or animal is more easily injured than when it has attained full 

 growth. The seedling plant is more easily killed by frost or heat; 

 the chick is harmed by exposure that would not be felt by the hen ; 

 the human infant is injured by various things which would not 

 affect the adult at all. This is not alone because of the deference 

 in size of body, but the growing active protoplasm is much more 

 sensitive than when it reaches maturity, and therefore is much 

 more seriously affected by stimulants and narcotics. 



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