"In 1867, Harper's Weekly editor George William Curtis, who had himself stopped smoking in the 1850's, pleaded with his tobacco-smoking readers to ask themselves whether their habit was conducive to good health. Among several points, he mentioned that tobacco products contain ingredients which are poisonous to the human body, and how those who quit smoking undergo an improvement in their health."

1867 ain't nothin'. Check out this lute ayre by Tobius Hume from 7 years before the founding of Jamestown!

---

Tobacco

from: The first part of Ayres - London 1605

Tobacco, Tobacco
sing sweetly for Tobacco,
Tobacco is like love, O love it
for you see I wil prove it
Love maketh leane the fatte mens tumor,
so doth Tobacco,
Love still dries uppe the wanton humor,
so doth Tobacco,
love makes men sayle from shore to shore,
so doth Tobacco
Tis fond love often makes men poor
so doth Tobacco
Love makes men scorneal Coward feares,
so doth Tobacco
Love often sets men by the eares
so doth Tobacco.

Tobaccoe, Tobaccoe
Sing sweetely for Tobaccoe,
Tobaccoe is like Love, O love it,
For you see I have prowde it.

You know that someone is going to ask how a cartoon from 1868 is "Current Events". You know they will. Grin!

Yep, even in the 1860's, there were people who feared that someone, somewhere, was enjoying themselves.

/john

In 1897, during Carry Nation's War on Booze, Lucy Page Gaston started the Chicago Anti-Cigarette League and before she was done, 14 states had outlawed the sale and use of tobacco. This battle is not new, but our foes are far better armed and funded this time around.

Yankee propaganda against Southern agricultural products is certainly nothing new.

"Yep, even in the 1860's, there were people who feared
that someone, somewhere, was enjoying killing themselves."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

In 1604 King James I of England published 'A COUNTERBLASTE TO TOBACCO.' Much of it is devoted to refuting the belief that tobacco was a cure-all, but he has many other arguements against its use. Here's an excerpt:

Thus having, as I trust, sufficiently answered the most principle arguments that are used in defense of this vile custom, it rests only to inform you what sins and vanities you commit in the filthy abuse thereof: First, are you not guilty of sinful and shameful lust...Secondly: it is as you use, or rather abuse, it a branch of the sin of drunkenness...Thirdly: Is it not the greatest sin of all that you, the people of all sorts of this kingdom who are created and ordained by God, to bestow both your persons and goods for the maintenance both of the honor and safety of your king and commonwealth should disable yourselves in both? In your persons having by this continual vile custom brought yourselves to this shameful imbecility that you are not able to ride or walk the journey of a Jew's Sabbath, but you must have a reeky coal brought to you from the next poor house to kindle your tobacco with.
http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/kjcounte.htm

I'm very fond of American and English popular novels of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although I can't cite chapter and verse, I distinctly remember that the popular slang name for cigarettes in those early days (before then, there were only cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco) was "coffin nails."

Of course people knew they were unhealthy. It's obvious. But they smoked them anyway.

There's nothing new under the sun.

Peer pressure to start smoking?
• 1600: ENGLAND: Sir Walter Raleigh persuades Queen Elizabeth to try smoking

Medical men jealous of their perogatives?
• 1603: ENGLAND: Physicians are upset that tobacco used by people without physician prescription; complain to King James I.

Excise tax to try to change behavior?
• 1604: ENGLAND: King James I increases import tax on tobacco 4,000%

Protective trade regulations?
• 1606: SPAIN: King Philip Ill decrees that sale of tobacco to foreigners is punishable by death.

It's all here:
The History of Tobacco

Birth certificates come with post-dated death certificates. My doctor once told me that cigarettes were going to kill me, so I asked him if I quit, would I live forever? He assured me as a medical professional that no, I wouldn't live forever even if I quit smoking.

/john

He assured me as a medical professional that
no, I wouldn't live forever even if I quit smoking.

Did you get a second opinion?  ;)

Yep, my minister told me the same thing.

/john

So how exactly did young and promising Tom die? I suspect that it was not the tobacco that killed him but Tom's habit of smoking in bed that was the real cause of his death. He likely fell asleep with his lit pipe and died in the ensuing fire.

On January 11, 1868, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about tobacco use.

LOL I just posted this for posterity it happened on the same date in history

How tempting was it to post this under "BREAKING NEWS"??

Bob Newhart did a funny bit - at least funny to a non-smoking me - about a telephone call between an English King and Sir Walter Raleigh (IIRC): "They do what? They take this weed, set it on fire, and willingly draw the smoke into their bodies? You're a card, Walt - you expect me to believe that?"

A bit more on the old Newhart smoking routine (phone conversation between Sir Walter Raleigh and the King):

"Are you saying "snuff," Walt? What's snuff? You take a pinch of tobacco (starts giggling) and you shove it up your nose! And it makes you sneeze, huh. I imagine it would, Walt, yeah. Goldenrod seems to do it pretty well over here. It has some other uses, though. You can chew it? Or put it in a pipe. Or you can shred it up and put it on a piece of paper, and roll it up - don't tell me, Walt, don't tell me- you stick in your ear, right Walt? Oh, between your lips! Then what do you do to it? (Giggling) You set fire to it! Then what do you do, Walt? You inhale the smoke! You set fire to it! Then what do you do Walt? You inhale the smoke! Walt, we've been a little worried about you...you're gonna have a tough time getting people to stick burning leaves in their mouth...."

Poooooo-ooor Tom Smudger...lied to his entire life by those eeeeeeviiiil tobacco companies...wait a minute, when was RJR founded? Well, surely someone forced pooor Mr. Smudger to smoke the evil weed...it couldn't have been his CHOICE, could it? Naaaahhhh.

I distinctly remember that the popular slang name for cigarettes in those early days (before then, there were only cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco) was "coffin nails."

Could be wrong, but I believe the term was coined in 1906 by O.Henry.