That the ordinary habitual, so-called moderate use of
stimulants and narcotics, such as tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol,
is, in the vast majority of cases, really an abuse, is a proposition
that I think should be admitted by all who have given the subject an
unbiased study.
The idea that the user of tobacco and other injurious substances will
be cognizant of the injury inflicted by habitual use in moderate or
even excessive amounts is an undoubted fallacy. The daily, weekly, or
monthly injurious effect may be entirely unobservable to even trained
physicians, and yet the ultimate cumulative effect may be fatal. I can
instance numerous cases of physicians directly fatally injured by the
use of alcohol, who have never had the slightest cognizance of the
fact; and I can also instance cases of grave disease from the use of
tobacco where the patients never have believed that tobacco has been
the cause of their troubles, even after a unanimous opinion to that
effect has been expressed by a number of competent medical advisers.
The habitual consumption of opium, in doses of any amount, is
generally admitted by most people to be physically injurious outside
of its strict medicinal application. Moderate indulgence in alcohol as
a beverage is beginning to acquire a very widespread evil reputation.
But how about tobacco? Tea and coffee we can confidently leave to the
consideration of a somewhat remote posterity of a considerably
advanced intelligence and elevated hygienic ideals.
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