The time will come
when the tobacco user will not be allowed to poison the atmosphere
that is the common property of the public--will not be allowed to
force the inhalation of nicotine upon the general public, to say
nothing of being allowed to poison the infants and women in his own
family. What would be said of a man who introduced poison in any
degree into the food or drink of his child? Is the poisoning of the
household atmosphere by the ignorant, thoughtless, or selfish smoker
morally more defensible? Tobacco injures health through hereditary
influence. The tobacco user begets, more certainly than the non-user,
puny children with disordered nervous conditions. Luckily for our
race, the women, who have the most important prenatal influence in
guarding its physical well-being, are practically non-users of the
plant. The general health status of the race is improving, not because
the use of tobacco or the indulgence in other questionable practices
is harmless, but because, among other things, of the great advance in
general intelligence and knowledge of hygienic law.
A person, or the public in general, may practice an injurious habit,
and yet more than counteract its influence by opposing beneficial
practices.
Horace Greeley said, "Show me a drunkard who does not use tobacco, and
I will show you a white blackbird.
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