TOBACCO. 61 



and leads to bad habits wliicli ruin body and soul for time and 

 eternity. The fact that it is a powerful scdati\e accounts for 

 the boy who uses it bcconiiu'' iiuhjlent — lollinj? about or hanjr- 

 iug around street-corners wh(>n he should be at work, thus 

 getting into bad company. •• Evil habits like evil men go in 

 company." A great Aniorican statesman once remarked, " i 

 don't say that every sn»oker is a blackguard, but I will give 

 you a white blackbird for every blackguard you can show me 

 Avho isn't a suioker." 



Chewing is worse, if possible, thon smoking, for it introduces 

 into the veins a deadly i)oison. Every mouthful of Tobacco- 

 juice contains a certain (quantity of nicotine, which is a virulent 

 Itoison. If enough Tobacco could be eaten, death would at 

 once follow. Fortunately men do not chew Tobacco in suHi- 

 cient quantities to produce death at once, but it does in time if 

 used excessively. "Spit a mouthful of Tobacco-juice," says 

 Dr. Deane, ''into the mouth of some small animal, and it will 

 die." Tobacco-chewei's may think that they do not swallow the 

 juice, l)ut they do swallow some, and more than they think. 

 -Besides, the glands of the mouth absorb more or less of the 

 juices which touch them, very )HUch as a sjionge absorbs water. 

 Every drop passes into the blood unchanged, and poisons the 

 system, weakens other functions, tiius rendering the body liable 

 to disease, and increasing the likelihood of insanity and prenux- 

 ture death. 



Public opinion, under the progress of scientilic investigation, 

 is rising in intelligence in regard to this evil. ]n many schools 

 the chiUlr(;n are taught to abstain from narcotics. Military 

 and naval academies, also many colleges, prohibit the use of 

 Tobacco among their students. An article in one of the lead- 

 ing American reviews on Jiayard Taylor concludes thus: 

 "Mental labor is not hostile to health and life ; lait 1 am more 

 than ever convinced that a man who lives l)y his brain is of all 

 men bound to avoid stimulating his brain. In this climate to 

 stimulate the brain with alcohol and Tobacco is only a slow kind 



