Object Lessons on the Human Body Part 23

STORIES ABOUT THE RIGHT WAY TO TREAT ALE, BEER, Etc.

THE RIGHT SIDE.--"Boys, which is the right side of the public house? Can you tell me?"--"Yes, sir, the outside."

THE GOAT AND THE ALE.--Many years ago, when everybody drank freely, a Welsh minister named Rees Pritchard was at the ale-house drinking, when he took it into his head to offer some ale to a large tame goat. The animal drank till he fell down drunk, and the minister drank on till he was carried home drunk. The next day he was sick all day, but on the third day he went again to the ale-house, and began to drink. The goat was there, and he offered him more ale, but the animal would not touch it. The minister, seeing the animal wiser than himself, was ashamed, and gave up drinking, and became a worthy minister.

HOW THE MONKEY WAS CURED.--A monkey named Kees had been taught to drink brandy. At dinner every day he had his share like his more manly (?) neighbors, only that his was given to him in a plate. One day, as he was about to drink it, his master set it on fire, and he ran off frightened and chattering. No inducement could afterward make him drink brandy. We have many stories of animals who would never drink again after they had once experienced its effects.

THE KEEN MARKSMAN does not poison his nerves and brain with alcohol. Angus Cameron, a Highlander, at the age of twenty, took the Queen's prize for the best marksmanship, and when he was twenty-two (in 1869), he won in the same way a cup worth $1000. He made the best shot each time that ever had been made in the contest, and neither of them has been beaten by anyone else.

Angus is a slight, modest, una.s.suming young man, who had been a Band of Hope boy. When he was announced as the winner, and all the friends made an ado over him, and offered him a generous gla.s.s of champagne, he quietly refused their mistaken kindness, and kept his pledge.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, when a printer boy in London, would drink no beer, and his companions called him the water American, and wondered that he was stronger than they who drank beer. His companion at the press drank six pints of beer every day, and had it to pay for. He was not only saved the expense, but he was stronger than they, and better off in every way. If he had gone to drinking beer at that time, like the other printer boys, it is likely we should never have heard of him.

OATMEAL DRINK.--"In Boulton and Watts' factory we saw an immense workman at the hottest and heaviest work, wielding a ponderous hammer, and asked him what liquor he drank. He replied by pointing to an immense vessel filled with water and oatmeal, to which the men went and drank as much as they liked." This is made by adding one pound fine oatmeal to each gallon of water, and is much used in factories and at heavy work of all kinds in Government works, instead of the old rations of alcoholic liquors. Iron puddlers, gla.s.s blowers, and athletic trainers, all do their work now better without alcoholic liquors.

A CHANGE IN AFFAIRS.--A poor boy was once put as an apprentice to a mechanic; and, as he was the youngest, he was obliged to go for beer for the older apprentices, though he never drank it. In vain they teased and taunted him to induce him to drink; he never touched it. Now there is a great change. Every one of those older apprentices became a drunkard, while this temperance boy has become a master, and has more than a hundred men in his employ. So much for total abstinence.

BOOKS BETTER THAN BEER.--An intelligent young mechanic stood up in a temperance meeting and said: "I have a rich treat every night among my books. I saved my beer money and spent it in books. They cost me, with my book-case, nearly $100. They furnish enjoyment for my winter evenings, and have enabled me, by G.o.d's blessing, to gain much useful knowledge, such as pots and pipes could never have given me."

A LITTLE DRUMMER-BOY was a favorite among the officers, who one day offered him a gla.s.s of strong drink. He refused it, saying that he was a Cadet of Temperance. They accused him of being afraid; but that did not move him.

Then the major commanded him to drink, saying: "You know it is death to disobey orders." The little fellow stood up at his full height, and fixing his clear blue eyes on the face of the officer, he said: "When I entered the army I promised my mother on bended knees that, by the help of G.o.d, I would not taste a drop of rum, and I mean to keep my promise. I am sorry to disobey orders, sir, but I would rather suffer than disgrace my mother, and break my temperance pledge." He was excused from drinking.

TOBACCO.

INTRODUCTORY LESSON.

You have been learning about the poison alcohol, and what mischief is done by it; we will now study about another poison which thousands of persons are using every day. It is rolled in cigars and cigarettes, and hidden in snuff and pieces of tobacco, and does more harm to children and young people who use these things than to grown persons.

Perhaps you know how a person feels who takes tobacco or smokes a cigar for the first time; if not, we will tell you. He begins to be dizzy, to tremble, to become faint, and to vomit; his head aches, and he is so sick for hours, often for several days, that he scarcely knows what to do. Why is he so sick? Because tobacco poison has been taken into his lungs; also, some has mixed with the saliva and gone down into his stomach; and each part it has reached is striving to drive it out, and is saying, by the pain it causes, "You have given me poison; do not give me any more." If he had taken enough it would have killed him.

He recovers from this sickness and tries chewing or smoking again and again, until he becomes accustomed to the poison and can chew or smoke and it does not hurt him; so he thinks, but he is very much mistaken.

Tobacco is a poison, and hurts everybody who uses it every time they do so, although it does its evil work very slowly, unless taken in large quant.i.ties. To understand more about this we will try to learn how tobacco is obtained, what poison is in it, and in what way it harms people.

THE STORY ABOUT TOBACCO.

_HOW IT CAME TO BE USED._--Tobacco is the leaves of the tobacco plant, a native of America. It was used by the Indians of this country before Columbus came here in 1492. Some of the Spaniards who were with him on his second visit took some of it back with them to Portugal, and told the people they had discovered a wonderful medicine. From Spain tobacco seed was sent to France by Jean Nicot, in 1560. It is said that Sir Walter Raleigh carried it to England in 1586, when Elizabeth was queen.

In a few years many civilized people were snuffing, chewing, and smoking tobacco, like the wild Indians, although it cost them a great deal of money to do so. King James does not seem to have liked it very much, for he said, "It is a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs." He called the smoke "stinking fumes."

_THE TOBACCO PLANT._ This plant belongs to the same family as the deadly nightshade, henbane, belladonna, thorn-apple, Jerusalem cherry, potato, tomato, egg-plant, cayenne pepper, bitter-sweet, and petunia. Most of the plants of this Nightshade family have more or less poison in their leaves or fruit. Tobacco is supposed to have been named from the pipe used by the Indians in smoking its leaves.

The common tobacco plant grows from three to six feet high, and has large, almost lance-shaped, leaves growing down the stems; its flowers are funnel-shaped and of a purplish color. When fresh the leaves have very little odor or taste.

_HOW TOBACCO IS USED._--When the plants are ripe, they are cut off above the roots and placed where they will become dry, sometimes in a building made for this purpose, called "a tobacco house." After a short time they begin to smell strong and taste bitter. They are then stripped from the stems very carefully and sorted. The leaves nearest the root are considered the poorest, those at the top generally the best.

The different sorts are packed in separate hogsheads, and sent away to be sold to manufacturers of cigars, snuff, etc.

The manufacturer has some leaves rolled into cigars, some pressed into cakes for chewing, or into little pieces to be smoked in a pipe; while some are ground for snuff. While the dried leaves are being rolled, pressed, or ground, various substances are mixed with them to give them an agreeable odor and pleasant taste.

Yet, however pleasant the manufacturer may make them as he rolls, presses, or grinds, he cannot take the poison out of them. It remains in its brown covering to do much harm to those who may smoke the cigars, use the snuff, or chew the tobacco.

BLACKBOARD OUTLINE.

THE TOBACCO PLANT.

NATIVE OF FOUND BY TAKEN TO GROWS IN THE America. Columbus, 1492. Portugal, Torrid and 1496. temperate zones.

France, 1560.

(About 50 species.) England, 1586.

DESCRIPTION. FAMILY _Height_, 3 to 6 feet. _The same as the_ Jerusalem Cherry, _Leaves,_ lance-ovate, and running Petunia, down the stem. Potato, _Stem,_ hairy and sticky. Tomato, _Flowers,_ funnel-shaped and Egg-plant, purplish. Red pepper, etc.

HOW MADE READY FOR USE.

(1) (2) Cut-off above the roots. Flavored and scented.

Dried. Rolled for cigars.

Stripped; sorted. Pressed for chewing.

Packed, and sold to the Ground for snuff.

manufacturers.

THE POISON IN TOBACCO AND THE HARM IT DOES.

_THE POISON._--What is the poison in fermented liquors?--"Alcohol." In distilled liquors?--"Alcohol" True; and the strongest poison in tobacco is _nicotine_, named from the man who first sent it to France, Jean Nicot.

Beside this it contains several others, some of which we shall tell you about when we make up our blackboard outline.

Tobacco, like alcohol, is a narcotic; that is, it soothes pain and produces sleep. Alcohol acts first upon the nerves; tobacco upon the muscles, which it weakens and causes to tremble. It often causes palpitation of the heart.

If the skin is scratched or punctured, and tobacco poison put into the wound, it will do the same harm as if it were taken into the stomach.

Tobacco is so dangerous that physicians do not use it much as a medicine.

_HARM DONE IN THE STOMACH._--You remember that after alcohol has been swallowed, the little mouths of the stomach take it up and carry it to the liver, which sends it with the blood to different parts of the body.

Tobacco, as we have already told you, poisons more slowly. People do not swallow it purposely, yet some of it goes down, accidentally, into the stomach with the saliva, and makes trouble there, causing nausea and vomiting when taken for the first time. By and by the stomach seems to take the poison without being hurt, but it really suffers from dyspepsia or other diseases, and often loses its appet.i.te for wholesome food.

_HARM DONE IN THE MOUTH, THROAT, AND LUNGS._--The mouth takes in some of the poison through the pores of the membrane, or skin, which lines it; those who smoke, sometimes have what is called "smokers' sore throat"; besides this, the senses of taste and smell arc more or less injured by nicotine and the other poisons in tobacco.

The fumes, or smoke, from the weed fills the air with poisonous vapor which irritates the lungs, not only of the smoker, but of all who are where they must breathe the same atmosphere. Lungs thus irritated are liable to become diseased.

Cigarettes are still more injurious than cigars because of the smoke from their paper coverings; also, because from the way they are made, more of the tobacco poison goes into the lungs. The cheap cigarette which boys use is made from cast-away cigar stumps and other filthy things.

_HARM DONE IN THE BRAIN AND NERVES._--The smoker feels so rested and comfortable, after his cigar, and his brain is so rested, that he does not think about the mischief that is going on among its blood-vessels and nerves; perhaps he has never heard that tobacco, snuffed, chewed, or smoked hurts the brain, and does not learn about it until he finds he is losing his memory, that his mind is not so strong to think as it should be, and his will too weak to help him conquer his love for the snuff, tobacco, or cigar, when he wishes to stop using it. He has become the slave of tobacco, and it is not easy to get free from his cruel enemy.

The nerves also lose their power, or become more or less paralyzed by nicotine and the other tobacco poisons.

_MORE ABOUT THE HARM DONE BY TOBACCO._--Some persons who continue to use tobacco are strong enough to throw off the poison through the lungs, the skin, and in other ways; but how much better it would be if they were not obliged to employ their strength in getting rid of that which does them no good, which only gives a little pleasure to n.o.body but themselves, and often makes those suffer who are compelled to remain where they are having "a good smoke." Beside, their breath and clothing have the tobacco odor, which not only makes the air impure, but is disagreeable to most people.