70
thoroughly stirred from the subjects pre-
sented at the tent. Upon asking one man
to sign the petition, the following reply
was received, “No, I won't sign it.
Bring one in in favor of Sunday, and I'll
sign 1t. Take away our Sabbath laws,
and we would be back in heathenism in
a few years.” Many such experiences
might be related. Some agreed that
compulsion of conscience was wrong, but
office and popularity forbade their sign-
ing. Thus those who will not receive
the mark in the foreheads will receive it
in their hands.
All this is in perfect harmony with the
words of the Lord through the Spirit of
Prophecy: “To secure popularity and
patronage, legislators will yield to the
demand for a Sunday law... . The
Sunday movement is now making its
way in darkness. The leaders are con-
cealing the true issue, and many who
unite in the movement do not themselves
see whither the undercurrent 1s tend-
ing. . . . We should bring before them
the real question at issue... . We
should search the Scriptures, and be able
to give the reason for our faith. . ..
Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence.
He who marshals the stars in order in
the heavens, whose word controls the
waves of the deep,— the same infinite
Creator will work in behalf of his people
if they will call upon him in faith. He
will restrain the forces of darkness un-
til the warning is given to the world, and
all who will heed it are prepared for the
conflict.” —F ol. V., pp. 451-453. “He
will restrain,” says the Spirit of God, if
we will call upon him in faith.
Dear reader, we are facing a great
crisis. The people need to be educated
in the principles of religious liberty.
The Catholic power is growing bolder
day by day. Even now there is being
conducted in this town [Newberry, Fla.]
a protracted meeting of the Catholic
Church under the direction of one of its
theologians. Upon the announcement is
written, “Is it as bad as represented?
Come, hear both sides of the question.
Americans like fair play, and that is what
the Catholic Church wants to give.” He
is doing all he can to destroy confidence
in the Bible, and holds up before his con-
gregation the infallibility of the church,
and yet, strange to say, the people go out
night after night to hear him.
In this time of peril, should we not
seek God as never before, to keep back
THE WATCHMAN
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TOBACCO POISONING
IIE poison of tobacco is so
potent and violent in its ac-
tion that even the external
application of the
leaves to the skin is sufficient
to produce
symptoms.
moist
most serious
If a cigar be
unrolled and the leaves com-
posing it be applied over the stomach,
great nausea will be produced in a very
short time. This method has been used
to induce vomiting.
Cowardly soldiers
have been known to place tobacco leaves
under their arms just before going to
battle, for the purpose of producing sick-
ness.
Some years ago a man was detected
in an attempt to smuggle a quantity of
tobacco by placing the leaves next to
his skin. The nearly fatal symptoms
which followed, led to the discovery of
the smuggler.
If tobacco is poisonous when applied
to the skin, it is doubly so when inhaled.
The smoke of tobacco contains, in addi-
tion to nicotine, several other poisons,
the chief of which are pyridine, picoline,
sulphuretted hydrogen, carbon dioxide,
carbonous oxide, and prussic acid, all
of which are fatal poisons when received
into the system in any other than the
most minute quantities. Thus it is not
to nicotine alone that the evil effects of
smoking are due, but to all of these poi-
sons combined.
Birds, frogs, and other small animals
die when exposed to tobacco fumes in a
confined space. Cheese-mites, bees, and
other insects may be quickly killed by
the powers of darkness that his message
be not hindered? This is present truth,
and God would have us do our part in
getting the principles of true liberty of
conscience before the people now, ere it
is too late; for soon, very soon, “the
night cometh, when no man can work.”
directing upon them a stream of tobacco
smoke from an ordinary pipe.
Inhalation is the most speedy way of
getting any volatile poison into the sys-
The reason of this is obvious
when the fact is made known that the
ten.
lungs present a mucous surface fourteen
hundred square feet in extent, every inch
of which is in the highest degree capable
of absorbing gaseous substances brought
in contact with it. This membrane is
of the most marvelously delicate char-
acter, being of such exceeding thinness
that it forms scarcely any obstacle to the
passage of gases which enter the lungs
by respiration. Just underneath this del-
icate membrane passes all the blood in
the body, or an amount equivalent to the
whole quantity of blood, once every three
minutes. The vapory poison inhaled
by the tobacco-smoker is not simply
taken into the mouth and then expelled,
but it penetrates to the remotest air-
cells, and spreads itself out over the
whole of the immense extent of mem-
brane stated. Thus it is plain that the
blood of the smoker is literally bathed in
the narcotic fumes drawn from his pipe
or cigar.
So readily does the system receive the
poison of tobacco in this way that it has
repeatedly been observed as a fact that
persons who are engaged in the manu-
facture of cigars often suffer much from
the characteristic effects of nicotine pois-
oning.
When tobacco is applied to the mucous
membrane as in chewing and snuff-tak-
ing, its poisonous elements are absorbed
in essentially the same manner as when
it is applied to the skin, but much more
rapidly. In chewing, considerable quan-
tities are also absorbed through the stom-
ach, being swallowed with the saliva.
Very few users of the weed need to
have a description of the effects of a
moderate degree of poisoning from to-
bacco. The giddiness, nausea, and
deathly sickness which follow the first