DOCTORS & HEALTH – An Indictment against smoking

Accreditation the Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 01/03/1878

AN INDICTMENT AGAINST TOBACCO

            Last week, Mr. G. Kirkham, instead of speaking of the evils of alcohol, introduced the twin topic, Tobacco, against which he brought an indictment comprising twelve counts. I am against it, he said-

  1. Because smoking is unnatural. Few learned to smoke without being sick, nature thus rebelling against this foreign importation.
  2. Because it is expensive. In Great Britain about sixteen million (£16,000,000) are annually expended upon Tobacco.
  3. Because it is a dirty habit. The constant expectoration by the use of tobacco is certainly not among the things that are pure, lovely, and of good report.
  4. Because it is dangerous. Who can tell the number of farm-buildings, forests, ships, and mines that have been set on fire by smokers?
  5. Because it is It ensures the intellect, the memory, the body, the offspring, and the manufacturers, because it contains a deadly poison. No less than eighty-seven diseases are trace to it! Sir Benjamin Brodie, Dr. Richardson, and hosts of other medical men, have pronounced against it. The saliva that is first poisoned, and then spat out, ought to go to nourish the body.
  6. Because it is annoying to others. How many ladies and others patiently ensure the nuisance in railway trains, &c.
  7. Because it is not only annoying to others, but troublesome to the smoker himself. What an amount of legislation, the smoker requires to keep himself properly supplied with tobacco, cigars, pipes, mouthpieces, fusees, matches, &c. One tobacconist advertises eighty-four different sorts of cigars! What an amount of experience, a man must have to choose wisely from such a variety!
  8. Because it is a slavish habit. The smoker first masters the pipe, and then the pipe masters him. The conqueror becomes a slave. And how is the habit, those only know who’ve tried to leave it off.
  9. Because it leads to drinking. Inverted commas. “The pipe and pot” are generally in alliance with each other.
  10. Because the smoker sets a bad example, especially to the young. All are agreed that it is not desirable for boys to smoke, and yet how few set them the example by putting out their own pipes!
  11. Because smoking condemns itself. I have never met with a smoker who advised me to learn, though I have met scores who advised me not to do so.
  12. Because it is a selfish habit. The smoker more than anyone else is a selfish man. If he is poor, no matter how hard the times are, he must have his tobacco. Self-denial is a Christian duty: how can anyone “do ungodliness and worldly lusts.”

 

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Lol Hansom October 21, 2016 Redcar