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The Ministry of Healing
is only nervous excitement. When the influence of the stimulant is
gone, the unnatural force abates, and the result is a corresponding
degree of languor and debility.
The continued use of these nerve irritants is followed by
headache, wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trem-
bling, and many other evils; for they wear away the life forces. Tired
nerves need rest and quiet instead of stimulation and overwork. Na-
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ture needs time to recuperate her exhausted energies. When her
forces are goaded on by the use of stimulants, more will be ac-
complished for a time; but, as the system becomes debilitated by
their constant use, it gradually becomes more difficult to rouse the
energies to the desired point. The demand for stimulants becomes
more difficult to control, until the will is overborne and there seems
to be no power to deny the unnatural craving. Stronger and still
stronger stimulants are called for, until exhausted nature can no
longer respond.
The Tobacco Habit
Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison. In
whatever form it is used, it tells upon the constitution; it is all
the more dangerous because its effects are slow and at first hardly
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perceptible. It excites and then paralyzes the nerves. It weakens
and clouds the brain. Often it affects the nerves in a more powerful
manner than does intoxicating drink. It is more subtle, and its effects
are difficult to eradicate from the system. Its use excites a thirst for
strong drink and in many cases lays the foundation for the liquor
habit.
The use of tobacco is inconvenient, expensive, uncleanly, defiling
to the user, and offensive to others. Its devotees are encountered
everywhere. You rarely pass through a crowd but some smoker puffs
his poisoned breath in your face. It is unpleasant and unhealthful to
remain in a railway car or in a room where the atmosphere is laden
with the fumes of liquor and tobacco. Though men persist in using
these poisons themselves, what right have they to defile the air that
others must breathe?
Among children and youth the use of tobacco is working un-
told harm. The unhealthful practices of past generations affect the