384 Our Surroundings 



Ways in Which Tobacco Is Used. Tobacco is used in 

 chewing, in snuffing, and in smoking. In chewing, all the nicotine 

 is taken into the mouth, a fact which may render it the most 

 harmful way in which tobacco is used. If the saliva, laden with 

 nicotine, is swallowed -it cannot be other than harmful to the 

 stomach and to the process of food digestion. It is not usually 

 swallowed, however, for the user soon acquires the offensive habit 

 of continuous spitting. 



The custom of inhaling powdered tobacco through the nose is 

 called snuffing. Happily this habit, so fashionable a century ago, 

 is no longer indulged in to any extent. 



When smoked, tobacco is placed in a pipe or rolled into a cigar 

 or a cigarette. If the smoke is inhaled it may seriously in- 

 jure the delicate tissues of the nose, larynx, trachea, and lungs. 

 The smoking of cigarettes by the young is universally regarded 

 as exceedingly harmful, not only on account of the nicotine 

 poisoning, but also 'because the tobacco of which the cigarettes 

 are made is sometimes steeped in a solution of opium. All boys 

 should know that the cigarette habit produces mental inefficiency 

 and, if persisted in, may lead to great deterioration of health and 

 morals. 



Effects. Dean Briggs of Harvard said : "The peculiar evil 

 in cigarettes I leave for scientific men to explain ; I know merely 

 that among college students the excessive cigarette smokers are 

 recognized, even by other smokers, as representing the feeblest 

 form of intellectual and moral life." 



Dr. Andrew D. White, for twenty years President of Cornell 

 University, summed up the matter as follows: "I never knew a 

 student to smoke cigarettes who did not disappoint expectations, 

 or, to use a vernacular expression, 'kinder peter out/ I consider 

 a student in college who smokes, as actually handicapping himself 

 for his whole future career. I am not fanatical in regard to 

 smoking. It seems to me possible that men who have attained 

 their growth and are in full health and strength may not be 

 injured by moderate smoking at times. I will confess to you that 

 at one period of my life I was a smoker myself, though in a very 

 moderate degree. And should you feel a strong desire to smoke, 



