It will come as no surprise that those who plunge their fingers into a newly bought pouch of chewing tobacco are taking significant health risks. Whether tobacco manufacturers are liable for the inclusion of cancer-causing substances in its products may still be debated by some. Still, the inclusion of carcinogenic “stuff" in chewing tobacco is one thing. I think everyone draws a line at the inclusion of human appendages in freshly opened "chaw”.
So we can only imagine Mr. Pillars' surprise when he opened a new pouch of Brown Mule tobacco, took a plug and started getting sicker - even making him foam at the mouth. The cause of his nauseating suffering: a decomposed human toe hidden amidst the tobacco.
In an understatement from 1918, up there with an assertion that the ongoing Great War was a disagreement, the Mississippi Supreme Court announced:
“if toes are found in chewing tobacco, it seems to us that somebody has been careless.”
Pillars v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 78 So. 365, 366 (Miss. 1918)
I for one am glad the Court clarified that mystery for us all.
