The following report of a meeting for the discussion of the great tobacco question is published for the benefit of those who, from a variety of circumstances, are precluded the benefit of public meetings on this important subject / British Anti-Tobacco Society.

Date:
[1857?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The following report of a meeting for the discussion of the great tobacco question is published for the benefit of those who, from a variety of circumstances, are precluded the benefit of public meetings on this important subject / British Anti-Tobacco Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    use of stimulating drinks. I say Smoke not! (Drink not! But if you do smoke, tobacco will inflict on you much greater injury if you drink waiter, tea, or coffee than if you take a moderate quantity of diffusive stimuli. To this every physiologist, who has considered the subject, will readily subscribe. Besides, every smoker present knows that drinking is mainly traceable to smoking. Smoke and drink are like sole and upper leather—they will go together. Not to attempt the suppression of smoking, is comparable to watching the ravages of fire with an unemployed engine by one’s side. To attempt the suppres¬ sion of drunkenness without attacking its superinducing cause— Smoking—is comparable to playing an engine on the smoke instead of the fire. This morning, in a neighbouring town, I called at an inn to inquire about the departure of a train, and there I saw four persons sitting in the bar with long pipes in their mouths and each of them with a glass before him. But in order to give place to other gentle¬ men, I shall only add, that the habits under consideration very greatly tend to keep up and extend sickness, drunkenness, penury, crime, and lunacy, and unless something be done to stop these evils at their source, inevitable and fearful consequences must inevitably befal our country. The Bev. T. G. Lee next addressed the audience, who said:—It afforded him great pleasure to witness so large a gathering on such an interesting occasion. Too much importance, he thought, could not he attached to such a movement. It was an affecting sight to see so many youths, and even boys, walking about the streets with pipes and cigars in their mouths. The increase of this practice was everywhere apparent, and unless some steps were taken to suppress it, very serious consequences must inevitably occur, in the future history of our country. The connexion between smoking and drinking, which had been submitted by Mr. Reynolds, added to the effects of tobacco on the system, was to him a question of a very grave character. He had taken considerable pains to acquaint himself with the probable outlay for intoxicating drinks in the townships of Pendleton, Pendlebury, and Broughton, and the result of his investigations, had brought to light that upwards of T'7,000 were annually spent for drinks than the whole rental of those three important townships. It was, he believed, an impossibility to prevent the increased consumption of strong drinks, while the habit which so extensively led to their use was so greatly on the increase. The Anti-Tobacco movement, he believed, would prove an important auxiliary, to other kindred efforts which have for their object the advancement of our fellow-countrymen in the scale of being, and he sincerely hoped that he might soon see far less smoking than he had been accustomed to witness The Rev. J. S. Hill fully concurred in the objects of the meeting. It had been to him a cause of lamentation that so injurious a habit as smoking should have grown to such an extent. When he was very young, he drew a few whiffs from his father’s pipe, but it made him so ill that he tumbled into a cradle, but fie could not remember how he got out, and he never made another attempt to smoke. He had known many instances of injurious consequences resulting from the use of tobacco, and he felt it to be his duty to give his countenance to an effort, which he considered, so extensively calculated to improve the social condition of the working-classes. Their families, as well as their health, would derive much benefit by the proper appropriation of their time and their money. Many privations must necessarily be endured when indulgence in the habit of smoking and its kindred vice