First: Tobacco and its smoke contain powerful narcotic poisons.
Second: It has never been shown to exert any beneficial influence on the human body in health, and it is not even included in the United States Pharmacopœia as a remedy for disease, notwithstanding the claims that are made for its sedative effects and its value as a solace to mankind. If these benefits are real and dependable, they should be made available in exact dosage and applied therapeutically. If they are not real and dependable in a medical sense, they are not real and safe as a mere drug indulgence.
Third: The symptoms following tobacco-smoking are identical with the effects of tobacco-chewing among those not accustomed to its use; hence, any collateral psychic effect, such as the sight of smoke, the surrounding, etc., are of minor importance in establishing the habit. The main charm to the smoker is the drug effect, as in any other similar indulgence. Nicotinless tobacco is not popular, notwithstanding the efforts of the French and Austrian Governments to make it so.
Fourth: Fortunately, the sedative drug effect is so slight, as compared to that of other narcotics—opium, alcohol, cocaine, etc.—that the tobacco habit is less seductive and may be broken with comparative ease and is therefore less harmful morally. Men who have smoked or chewed steadily for 40 years have been known to give up the habit without experiencing much physical discomfort. Like any other habit, however, there is a tendency to increasing indulgence, and this is a risk that the smoker takes, just as does the alcohol user or the opium habitué who begins with so-called moderate indulgence.
Fifth: The well-known effects of tobacco on the heart and circulation should lead one to pause and consider the possible cost of this indulgence, especially as—
Sixth: It is difficult to determine, years in advance, whether or not one is endowed with sufficient resistance to render so-called moderate smoking comparatively harmless.
Seventh: The vital statistics show that diseases of the heart and circulation are rapidly increasing in this country in which—
Eighth: The per capita consumption has rapidly increased in recent years, while—
Ninth: In the United Kingdom, where these diseases are decreasing, there has been no material increase in the use of tobacco, and the per capita consumption is less than one-third that of the United States.