effect
being simply in proportion to the quantity used, though the effects of
moderate use may not be measurable by ordinary means. It is easy to
see the effects of large amounts of tobacco in the stunted growth of
adolescents; in functional cardiac disorders; in intellectual
sluggishness, loss of memory, and color blindness; in loss of
appetite, and other neuroses of motion, and marked blunting of various
functions of sensation, and in degeneracy of descendants; but that
lesser evils are produced must be proved mostly by inference,
circumstantial collateral evidence, and analogy.

The greater evils that are the outcome of a moderate use of tobacco
are probably due to prolonged slight interference with nutrition, and
consequent general decrease of vitality, which renders the individual
more susceptible through indirect influence to the invasion of
disease, and which lessens the capacity for productive effort.

It is of course difficult, and perhaps even impossible, to accurately
estimate the value of tobacco to the race; but let us glance at the
pros and cons, and then each one can roughly estimate for himself.
Tobacco may be used medicinally, but it is a dangerous and uncertain
remedy, and it probably has not one medicinal use that cannot be more
suitably met by other remedies. One can readily imagine easier
digestion as the result of the sedative influence of the after-dinner
cigar upon a disquieted nervous system, especially if the coincident
irritation of alcohol and coffee have need of correction; but it can
also be imagined that in most of such cases the remedy has been the
cause of and will further increase the disordered condition, and that
nutrition of deficiently nourished nerve tissue is rationally
indicated rather than partial narcotization. There then remains, so
far as I can see, the solace of moderate anaesthesia and, occasionally,
of occupation for idlers, as the only items that can be placed to the
credit of tobacco. There certainly are individual cases where such
usage may be more provocative of physical benefit than evil, but,
before judging for the race as a whole, compute the other side of the
question.

Tobacco injures the general health of the public through the economic
loss caused by its consumption. The people of our country spend
annually over seven hundred millions of dollars for tobacco--twenty
per cent. more than is spent for bread. This sum represents only a
minor part of the cost of