An Essay on the Influence of Tobacco upon Life and Health Part 3

"Yours of the 3d inst. has just been received; and in answer to your inquiry I have to say, that my health is better than when I last saw you in 1833; although, since that time I have been afflicted with all my former unpleasant symptoms, viz. loss of appet.i.te, debility, tremors, dizziness, palpitations of the heart, anxiety of mind, melancholy, &c. &c.

"You may ask what could be the cause of all these unpleasant sensations. I will tell you. It was returning to the gratification of a depraved appet.i.te in the use of tobacco; and I have no hesitancy in declaring it as my opinion, that could the causes of the many acts of suicide, committed in the United States, be investigated, it would be found, that many instances were owing to the effects of _tobacco_ upon the nervous system.

"It is now nearly two years since I have had any thing to do with this enemy of the human race, and my health has never been better.

I have a good appet.i.te for food. My dyspeptic affection troubles me so little, that I hardly think of it. I never weighed so much before by several pounds.

"One of the persons of whom I wrote before, is still in this vicinity, and uses no tobacco; he enjoys uninterrupted health.

The others do not now reside in this place.

"Yours, "E. G. MOORE."

It is presumed that, henceforward, Dr. Moore will retain so little doubt as to the effects of tobacco, as to avoid making further experiments with it upon his own const.i.tution.

Jonathan c.u.mmings, Esq., an intelligent farmer, now living in Plymouth, N. H., in a letter to Dr. Chadbourne, about three years ago, says that he was accustomed to manual labor from childhood, and enjoyed almost uninterrupted health, till he was twenty-five years old, about which time he commenced chewing and smoking tobacco; having for some time taken snuff for _weakness of his eyes_. His stomach soon became affected, he had faintings and tremblings, and was unable to perform the labor he had been accustomed to do. "I went on in this way," says he, "for thirty years; tobacco seemed to be my only comfort; I thought that I could not live without it.

"Two years ago, finding my strength still more rapidly declining, I determined to be a slave to my appet.i.tes no longer, and I discontinued the use of tobacco in every form. The trial was a severe one, but the immediate improvement in my general health richly paid me for all I suffered. My appet.i.te has returned, my food nourishes me, and after _thirty_ successive years of debility, I have become _strong_.

"My weight, during the time I used tobacco, varied from 130 to 140 pounds, but never exceeded 150; I now weigh over 180 and am a vigorous old man. I am in a great measure, free from those stomach and liver complaints, which followed me for thirty years. I do more work than I did fifteen years ago, and use none of what you Doctors call artificial stimulants; for I have more recently reformed as to tea, which I had drank, at least twice a day, for forty-five years. It is useless, therefore, for folks to tell me that it won't do to break off old habits; I _know_, for I have tried it."

In an estimate of the expenses, incurred by what he calls his _bad habits_, he puts his _tobacco_ only at _two dollars_ a year, (which he says, is much below its actual cost,) his _snuff_ at _one dollar_, and his tea at _four dollars_. At annual interest he computes that the amount would be $615; "not reckoning loss of time and, now and then, a Doctor's bill any thing." "A pretty little sum," says he, "for one in my circ.u.mstances, having always been pressed for money."

In a letter I received from him about a year ago, he remarks, that, among the symptoms of ill health, while he used tobacco, were "a hollow, faint feeling at the stomach, want of appet.i.te, and sometimes severe spasms at the stomach. All the time I used tobacco my complaint was supposed to be liver complaint, and I took medicine for it. I was troubled with my food lying in my stomach, for hours after eating; frequently I took rhubarb and salaeratus, to help digestion; when the weight pa.s.sed off, it left my stomach debilitated and full of pain, and I then took my pipe to relieve it." There were frequent seasons when he was obliged to quit labor, although this was his whole dependence for a living.

Some additional particulars I recently obtained, viz. in April, 1836, in a personal conversation with Mr. c.u.mmings. He remarked, that he continued to take a little snuff for about four months after discontinuing smoking and chewing. "While in the habit of smoking," said he, "there was a hollow place in my stomach large enough to hold my two fists, which nothing could fill; food would not do it; drink would not do it; nothing but tobacco smoke." After quitting the tobacco "the hollow place was gradually filled up;" the appet.i.te increased, food digested better, and all the unpleasant symptoms were removed in about a month after the entire disuse of the snuff.

He observed to me that he never in his life used tobacco to excess, but always "temperately"; although he admitted, the employing it in three forms might have been equivalent to a rather free use of it in one mode. The effects of tobacco on the senses of seeing and hearing, in his case were very striking. He used spectacles for several years, during his indulgence in tobacco, and he a.s.sured me that at the age of fifty-five years, he could not read a word in any common book, even in the strongest sunshine, without spectacles. He had also a ringing and deafness in both ears for ten years, and at times the right ear was entirely deaf. During the last year of his tobacco life this difficulty very perceptibly increased. "In about a month," said he, "after quitting tobacco in its last form, that is, snuff, my head cleared out, and I have never had a particle of the complaint since; not the least ringing, nor the least deafness." And it was not many months before he could dispense with his spectacles, and "from that time to the present," says he, "I have been able, without spectacles, to read very conveniently and to keep my minutes, having been a good deal engaged in surveying lands." He remarked, however, that when compelled to employ his eyes upon a book for some hours in succession, especially at evening, he found his spectacles convenient. He certainly hears quick, and his eye is altogether keener and stronger than usual with men of his age. He is now in his _sixty-third_ year. That the defective vision and hearing were owing, in a great degree, to the tobacco, must be inferred from the fact of his food and drinks having been nearly the same, before and since quitting that article, with the exception of tea, which, as he drank it twice a day for many years, may doubtless claim a share in the mischief done to the organs of the senses. Said he, "I never lived high, my food was always plain, and I eat now the same things I did formerly."

For organs so enfeebled as his, and for so long a time, to regain their powers to so great an extent, denotes a native energy of const.i.tution, far above the standard of mediocrity.

How can a temperance man use tobacco? With what consistency can he ask his neighbor to abstain from alcohol, on the ground of its being injurious to body and mind, while he indulges himself in the habitual gratification of an appet.i.te, unnatural and pernicious, and holding, in some respects, a strong alliance with that produced by an alcoholic beverage? How long shall the widow's mite, consecrated, under many personal privations, to the great object of doing good to mankind, be perverted to sustain a disgustful and hurtful habit, by the beneficiary of an Education Society?

How long are the sacred altars of G.o.d to be polluted with this unhallowed offering, and the garments of the priesthood to remain uncleansed from its defilements? How long shall transgressors be called upon to listen, with a spirit of conviction and repentance, to sermons on the great duties of Christian _self-denial_, prepared and p.r.o.nounced under the inspiration of this poison?