Smoking is specially harmful to the young. It weakens the stomach, causes indigestion, hastens the action of the heart, thus producing palpitation.
PRODUCES CATARRH.
Cigarette smoking is almost certain to produce catarrh, one of the most offensive and incurable diseases. This arises from the fact that the cigarette being much shorter than a cigar, the smoke is inhaled to a greater extent. You have seen boys swallow the smoke and puff it through the nostrils, thus inviting catarrh.
CAUSES ASTHMA.
Cigarette smoking tends also to cause asthma.
OTHER EVIL EFFECTS.
It renders the system more liable to attacks of pneumonia and bronchitis. It destroys a healthy appetite for solid food, and by the constant spitting it causes, excites a craving for drink. Many instances are known where the nerves of the eye have been destroyed by cigarette smoking. The following are the words of Dr. S. H. Keep, one of the leading physicians of Brooklyn:
“If one could select a fine, healthy boy of from twelve to fifteen years of age, well known for his fine physique, even disposition, and great strength, and start him in his career as a cigarette smoker under the observant eye of the public, what results might not accrue from such example as the panorama was unfolded to them?
“The decay of physical power, emaciation, the irritable temper, the sallow complexion, the drawn and anxious look, the unsteadiness of the hands, the dyspepsia, the capricious appetite, the aversion to parental and other advice, the tendency to seek lower companionship, could hardly fail to leave its impress upon such an audience.
“More especially in the nervous diathesis[[1]] does this rapid decay make itself apparent, and in varying degrees according to the amount of indulgence. Physicians daily watch this process with pain and anxiety for those intrusted to their care. Indeed, if my own professional experience were to be my guide, I could declare the evil of cigarette smoking to be even greater than that of alcohol.”