A disquisition on the evils of using tobacco : and the necessity of immediate and entire reformation : delivered before the Fall River Lyceum, and before the congregation to whom the author statedly ministers / by Orin Fowler.

  • Fowler, Orin, 1791-1852.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A disquisition on the evils of using tobacco : and the necessity of immediate and entire reformation : delivered before the Fall River Lyceum, and before the congregation to whom the author statedly ministers / by Orin Fowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    and over all our hills, from Greenland to Cape Horn,—and with a lustre that shall illumine the world. I maintain my position, l\ . From a consideration of the ruinous effects of tobacco upon public and private moral*. The ruinous effects of tobacco upon public and private morals, are seen in the idle, sauntering habits, which the use of it engenders,— in the benumbing, grovelling, stupid sensations which it induces,— but especially in perpetuating and extending the practice of using in- toxicating drinks. Governor Sullivan has truly said, that the tobacco pipe excites a demand for an extraordinary quantity of some beverage to supply the waste of glandular secretion, in proportion to the expense of saliva; and ardent spirits are the common substitutes; and the smoker is of- ten reduced to a state of dram drinking, and finishes his life as a sot. Dr. Agnew has truly said, that the use of the pipe leads to the immoderate use of anient spirits. Dr. Rush has truly said, that smoking and chewing tobacco, by rendering water and other simple liquors insipid to the taste, dispose very much to the stronger stimulus of ardent spirits; hence [says he] the practice of smoking cigars, has been followed by the use of bran- dy and water as common drink. A writer in the Genius of Temperance, says that his practice of smoking and chewing the filthy weed, produced a continual thirst for stimulating drinks; and this tormenting thirst [says he] led me into the habit of drinking ale, porter, brandy, and other kinds of spir- it, even to the extent, at times, of partial intoxication. He adds, I reformed; and after I had subdued this appetite for tobacco, I lost all desire for stimulating drinks. Now the fact that some chew, and smoke, and snuff without be- coming sots, proves nothing against the general principle, that it is the natural tendency of using tobacco to promote intoxication. Prob- ably one tenth, at least, of all the drunkards annually made in the na- tion, and throughout the world, are made drunkards through the use of tobacco. If thirty thousand drunkards are made annually in the United States, three thousand must be charged to the use of tobacco. If thirty thousand drunkards die annually, in the United States, three thousand of these deaths must be charged to the use of tobacco. If twenty thousand criminals are sentenced to our penitentiaries in twenty years, through the influence of strong drink, two thousand must be charged to the use of tobacco. If fifty-six millions of gal- lons of ardent spirits have been annually consumed in this country, five and a half millions must be charged to the use of tobacco. And of all the Sabbath-breaking, profanity, quarrelling, and crime of ev- ery description, caused by the use of intoxicating drink; a tithe must be charged to the use of tobacco. And what friend of good morals, —what friend of man,—what friend of his country,—what friend of Christ and true religion,—and especially, what friend of the temper- ance cause,—can look at these results with the eye of candor and