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THE MYSTERIES OF TOBACCO

2006-08-09T13:29:38Z

Emilie:

===THE MYSTERIES OF TOBACCO===
by Rev. Benjamin I. Lane(New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845, 1846, 1851)

==The Nature of Tobacco==

In prosecuting this subject, we will attend first to the inquiry: What is Tobacco?
It is, says the Encyclopedia Americana, "a nauseous and poisonous weed, of an acrid taste and disagreeable odor; in short, whose only properties are deleterious."
Dr. [Joseph] Bigelow [1787-1879], in his American Medical Botany [Being a Collection of the Native Medicinal Plants of the United States: Containing their Botanical History and Chemical Analysis, and Properties and Uses in Medicine, Diet and the Arts, with Coloured Engravings (Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817, 1820)] says:
::"In its external and sensible properties there is no plant which has less to recommend it than the common tobacco; a small quantity taken into the stomach excites violent vomiting, attended with other alarming symptoms."

In an elaborate [1809] chemical analysis of Tobacco, published by M. [Louis Nicolas] Vauquelin [1763-1829] in the Annales de Chimie, we have the following results.

"The broad-leaved tobacco furnishes from its juices the following constituents.

::1. A large quantity of animal matter, of an albuminous nature.
::2. Malate of lime with an excess of acid.
::3. Acetic acid.
::4. Nitrate and muriate of potash in observable quantities.
::5. A red matter soluble in alcohol and water, which swells and boils in the fire, its nature undetermined.
::6. Muriate of ammonia.
::7. A peculiar acrid, volatile, colorless substance, soluble in water and alcohol, and which appears different from any thing known in the vegetable kingdom. It is this principle which gives to prepared tobacco its peculiar character, and it is perhaps not to be found in any other species of plant. Its medicinal activity is supposed to reside in this volatile portion, which is the "essential oil."

Tobacco is, in fact, a violent, absolute poison. A very moderate quantity introduced into the system,—even applying the moistened leaves over the stomach,—has been known very suddenly to extinguish life.

The fact that it is a powerful article of the Materia Medica, and so powerful that the best physicians use it only in extreme cases as a dernier resort, and that then, in many instances, it proves fatal, abundantly evidences that it never ought to be used, as a luxury, by men in health. No man in his sober senses would think that because calomel has been successfully used as a medicine, therefore a person might be benefitted by taking it daily, when in health. Indeed, ninety-nine hundredths of those who constantly use tobacco, would not risk the consequences of a daily use of opium, and yet the habitual use of tobacco is instrumental in shortening many more lives, and when fairly introduced into the system, proves equally as virulent a poison. The oil of tobacco approaches nearer than any other to that most deadly of all poisons, the prussic acid. The only reason that every quid and cigar does not produce complete prostration or death is, that nature puts forth her best efforts to resist its influence; and, as if mad at the offence given her; either spits it out, or otherwise ejects it from the system. But tlie constant application of it from year to year; will, in the course of time; so wear out her energies, that she will sink under the reiterated assaults.

Most persons who have been in the habit of using tobacco can recollect that sometimes, in taking the pipe or quid, they have suddenly felt its influence go over the whole system; like an electric shock,—in a moment they have felt it to the very end of their fingers, as if the nerves, like the strings of a harp, were vibrating upon the surface. The sensation would not be altogether unpleasant, were it not for the apprehension which instantly arises, that nature has received a terrible stroke, and that some fearful result will be the consequence. This is another evidence of the power of tobacco instantly to affect the whole system, and that such assaults cannot continue to be made without serious injury.

::"Tobacco," says the compiler of a Cyclopedia, "contains an oil of a poisonous quality, which is used in some countries to destroy snakes, by putting a little on the tongue; on receiving it the snake is seized with convulsions; coils itself up and dies, and what is very singular, becomes almost as stiff and hard as if it were dried in the sun."
Many insects die instantly by having tobacco smoke blowed upon them.

==The Influence of Tobacco upon the Body==

Tobacco is an article that ought not to be used even as a medicine, except in extreme cases, and in the hands of a very skillful physician. There are few articles of medicine [Ed. Note, drugs] more powerful and more dangerous in their use. The tea of a few grains introduced into the human body to relieve spasms, has been known to destroy life. Why then, it may be asked, can a person survive the swallowing of the juice of a large quantity? Because it powerfully excites the salivary glands, thereby diluting the juice and preventing its absorption and by its cathartic and diuretic properties quickly passes through the body. But it could not with any safety be retained in the stomach, and if taken into the system by being mixed with the food, the consequence would be quickly fatal. No man, in health, can make a daily use of it, to gratify his appetite, without certain injury to his constitution. He may not perceive the injurious effects for years, on account of the immediate exhilaration, but complicated chronic complaints will, after a time, creep upon him, making life a burden, and ending in premature dissolution, though he may impute his sufferings to other causes, and even die folded, in unsuspicious confidence, in the arms of his murderer.

As there is a great difference in the constitutions of men, the effects of tobacco are not as speedily manifested in all, nor in the same way. Its various, and sometimes apparently contrary effects, constitute a part of what we have been pleased to call the Mysteries of Tobacco. In some instances it produces a sensation of coldness about the head, in other instances a sensation of heat. It sometimes produces cold feet, and at other times an unnatural heat. It causes the heart occasionally to intermit its pulsations, and sometimes causes it to palpitate, especially when lying upon the left side. It is a fruitful cause of piles, and, by deranging the system, prepares for numerous diseases which afflict our race. It causes a thousand disagreeable and painful feelings which the poor victim knows not to be the necessary results of his pernicious indulgence. In mind and body he is miserable; if asked to describe his feelings, he can only say, like the man possessed among the tombs, their name is legion. To find relief he chews his quid, or sucks his pipe, or suffocates himself with tobacco dust, but instead of light, behold darkness and the shadow of death come upon him. We speak what we do know, and testify what we have seen;—would that we knew less.

==The Influence of Tobacco upon the Mind==

The disastrous influence of tobacco upon the mind is no less fearful than upon the body. No tongue or pen can describe the intellectual ruins occasioned by it. If angels ever weep over self-inflicted tortures; they have mingled their tears over the unspeakable wretchedness of the tobacco consumer. The mental misery occasioned by alcohol has often been affectingly set forth, and no one doubts that, like the devil, it tortures its worshippers. But if the tobacco inebriate should tell his tale of mental wretchedness, it would be equally harrowing to every heart of tenderness. But it never has been told, and though a picture, dark as that midnight on which the Egyptian first born were slain, could be drawn, the whole amount of horror never can be told; because tobacco consumers never impute their misery to tobacco; and because rum and tobacco often go hand in hand in the work of destruction; and because a great degree of darkness still rests upon the whole community in relation to the influence of tobacco; and because in proportion as the mind is weakened it is incapable of knowing or describing the process by which it has become so.

Clergymen, and men generally, in the habit of public speaking, after using tobacco for a number of years, have found occasionally considerable difficulty in delivering their thoughts extemporaneously, or without previously writing them. To their astonishment and grief they have found themselves very much dependent upon frames and feelings. However well they may have studied their subject and made their thoughts familiar a trifling circumstance has disconcerted them, and scattered all their well-arranged ideas to the wind. It was not always thus with them. Many have experienced this difficulty for years without knowing the cause. A glance at some individual of distinction in the congregation has at once deprived them of their wonted confidence and self-possession. This is the natural effect of the long-continued use of tobacco. It weakens the vigor of the intellect so that without some excitement to raise it, the perception is dull, the ideas confused, the memory tardy, and the power of expression sluggish. The abandonment of tobacco will, in the course of time, be the restoration of the intellect to its wonted vigor; if its elasticity be not completely destroyed by the withering influence of this strong narcotic.

After a person has learned to use tobacco, for a while its effects are exhilarating, and it seems to render the mind more vigorous, just like any other stimulant. It may be years in some constitutions before its work of destruction will be visible at all. Then, on immediately taking the pipe, or quid, or snuff, they seem rather to invigorate than to weaken. They repair, momentarily, their own desolations. However obvious this may be to those who have examined the subject, it is one of the mysteries of tobacco. Thousands are deceived thereby.

Tobacco usually begins its work upon the mind by enfeebling the memory, by producing a confusion of ideas, by impairing one's confidence and self-possession, by weakening the power of concentration, and so on. It is a more prolific source of hypochondria than all other things united. It has been known, like alcohol to issue in delirium tremens. Why should it not? Its nature is adapted to produce it. It has often stupefied and discouraged the student, bewildered the philosopher, and confused and darkened the divine. Many a splendid sermon has it enveloped in smoke. 0, that some of its victims would speak out,—that some of those gigantic powers which it has prostrated could lift up their notes of warning; they would send a thrill of anguish through the bones and marrow of every man who possesses the least spark of humanity or religion.

==The Influence of Tobacco on the Morals==

There are some writers who have carried the original of tobacco into the fabulous ages of Greece, and attributed to Bacchus the glory of having discovered and disclosed its virtues. [Raphael] Thorius [d. 1625], as Dr. [Adam] Clarke tells us, very ominously [in his Tobacco: a Poem] ascribes the discovery and first use of this herb to Bacchus, Silenus, and the Satyrs, (drunkenness, gluttony, and lust,) and yet, observes the Doctor, his poem was written in its praise. Mr. Lamb in his poem has the same thought, and farther adds as his belief that the tobacco plant was the true Indian conquest for which the jolly god has been so celebrated. He, moreover intimates that the Thyrsus of that deity was afterwards ornamented with leaves of tobacco, instead of ivy.

Shakspeare says, "I thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee—devil." But the very name of this plant is supposed by some to be derived from Bacchus, a principal leader in the camp of Satan. This is particularly mentioned by Joseph Sylvester [1563-1618] as quoted by Dr. Clarke, who wrote a poem on tobacco which he inscribed to Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. The title of this tirade is characteristic of the age in which it was written. It is quaint indeed. "Tobacco Battered, and the Pipes Shattered (About their Ears Who Idly Idolize so Base and Barbarous a Weed; or at Least-wise Overlove so Loathsome a Vanity) by a Volley of Holy Shot from Mount Helicon [London: H. Lownes, 1614 and 1617].

::"For even the derivation of the name
::Seems to allude and to include the same
::Tobacco as To Bakcho one would say
::To cup-god Bacchus dedicated ay."

"Smoking and chewing tobacco," says Dr. Rush, "by rendering water and simple liquors insipid to the taste, dispose very much to the stronger stimulus of ardent spirits. The practice of smoking cigars has, in every part of our country, been more followed by a general use of brandy and water as a common drink, more especially by that class of citizens who have not been in the habit of drinking wine or malt liquors. One of the greatest sots I ever knew, acquired a love for ardent spirits by swallowing cuds of tobacco, which he did to escape detection in the use of it; for he had contracted the habit of chewing, contrary to the advice and commands of his father. He died of a dropsy under my care in the year 1780."

==The Illusory Influence of Tobacco==

The excitement occasioned by tobacco is illusive. It is mysterious to those who have not studied it. Many also are the illusions of men in relation to it. This is clear from the fact that the views of men, in reference to it, often undergo a very great change. Mr. Thomas Harriot, who first gave to the British public some account of tobacco, entertained at first a high opinion of its virtues, but subsequently, after using it for a while, changed his opinion. We extract the following from the Medico-Chirurgical Review, vol. 37, No. 32, page 339.

::"Harriot enlarges much on the virtues of this herb, concluding his eulogium with the remark; that those who employ it are not only freed from all kinds of obstructions in the system, but are, in addition, cured of those which they might chance to have, even though the complaint be of long standing. Master Harriot would seem, however, to have taken a spite towards tobacco subsequently, for in his Journal quoted by Knickerbocker he says, of the Susquehanocks

::"Their tobacco pipes were three quarters of a yard long, carved at the great end witli a bird, bear, or other device, sufficient to beat out the brains of a horse!' (and how many asses' brains are beaten out, or rather men’s brains smoked out, and asses' brains haled in, by our lesser pipes at home!")

In the TEXNOIAMIA, or Marriage of the Arts by Barton Holiday, 1680, there is a singular poem on the subject of tobacco, where, in successive stanzas, it is compared to a musician, a lawyer, a physician, a traveller, a criitike, an ignis fatuus, and a whyfler. Beloe's Sketches, vol. 2, page 10.

It is indeed a Proteus. It is an insidious foe. No man is aware of its power over him, no one is sensible that it is doing him any injury, until it has inflicted upon him the sting of a scorpion. Men under its influence often have, for a moment, most horrible convictions that it is deeply injuring them, but even then the very next instant they will resort to its use, and persuade themselves that it is a comfort and a blessing. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing on this stupefying, blinding weed.

==The Expensiveness of Tobacco==

This is a serious evil, whether we regard the necessities of most families, or the claims of individuals and the public, upon our benevolence. The expense, upon investigation, will be found much more than is generally imagined. It is among "the little foxes that spoil the vines"—one of the small streams that dry up and exhaust a fountain of wealth. Suppose a young man to spend twelve and a half cents a week for this article;—in fifty years it would yield him at compound interest about fifteen hundred dollars; and at twenty-five cents a week it would yield, in the same time, between three and four thousand dollars. Six cents a day for cigars, allowing annual interest, would, in thirty years, amount to three thousand, five hundred and twenty-nine dollars and thirty cents!—A handsome sum against the infirmities of declining years. But there are a very large number whose cigars cost them more than seventy dollars a year—Here then is a fortune smoked away in a few years. When a young man is seen with a cigar in his mouth it would be well to raise the alarm by the cry of fire! fire! fire! Put out his cigars and you may save him a splendid house, and a life beside. If you see a little smoke issuing from a crevice of your neighbors building, you give the note of alarm, and yet perhaps there is not half the danger,—not near the amount of damage would accrue, were the whole to be consumed, that may result from that young man's smoking.

Sir Walter Raleigh, who first brought tobacco into fashion in England, was accustomed, at first, to smoke secretly. One day having sent his servant for some beer, he entered, and for the first time saw his master fumigating his pipe. Supposing his masters head on fire, on seeing the smoke issue from his mouth, he threw the pot of beer directly in his face. Happy would it have been for Sir Walter had he taken the hint; and thrice happy for every young man who treats tobacco as Solomon teaches us to treat contention—"leave it off before it be meddled with."

According to the best estimate that can be made, tobacco to the amount of $16,000,000 is consumed in the United States annually. Of this sum $9,000,000 are supposed to be for Spanish cigars; $6,500,000 for smoking American tobacco and for chewing it, and $500,000 for snuff. Add to this sum, the value of the time lost, and the pauper tax which it occasions, and it would amount at least to $25,000,000 annually. What a sum spent for that which is not only useless, but pernicious. How small is the sum in comparison, which is devoted annually to our Bible, Tract, and Missionary Societies. If the amount consumed in the use of this worse than useless article, were appropriated to the cause of education, or to any other useful object, what might it not accomplish?

Any individual can amuse himself by calculating the expense of tobacco for an individual or family, for thirty or forty years. Let these small sums be carefully preserved, and but few aged people would be found suffering from want. Yet this habit prevails extensively among the poor. There are many who subsist upon the bounty of others, who nevertheless consume a daily supply of tobacco. A considerable portion of the scanty pittance they can command is thus thrown away. This ought to receive the attention of benevolent societies, and individuals, and no person should be aided by public or private charity who will not abandon this pernicious habit.

==References==
* [http://medicolegal.tripod.com/lane1845.htm#effectonbody The Mysteries of Tobacco by Rev. Benjamin I. Lane (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845, 1846, 1851)]

THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO

2006-08-09T13:26:36Z

Emilie:

===THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO===
by John Lizars, M.D. (Edinburgh: 1856, 1857, 1859, reprinted,Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co, 1883)

==General Characteristics of Tobacco==

It is generally agreed that the use of tobacco in Europe, as a meaning of inebriation, originated in the introduction of the leaves of the plant into Spain from America. There is every reason to suppose that the plant previously existed in Asia, if not from the earliest times, though we have no very reliable authority for its having been used, at least to any great extent, for any of the purposes to which we have devoted it. I am aware that various old authors report, that the ancients of the extreme East were acquainted with the burning of vegetable substances as a means of inhaling narcotic fumes, and, indeed, when we consider their love of incenses, both as a luxury and an element of their religious cult, we need not be surprised at this; but we have no evidence that the smoking of tobacco was known in the Old World before the introduction of the plant from the New. It was in 1492 that Columbus first be held, at Cuba, the custom of smoking cigars; but it was not until some years afterwards that a Spanish monk recognized the plant in a province of St. Domingo, called Tabaca—a much more likely foundation for the name of the herb than that adopted by some, who assert that it originated in tabac, a tube used by the natives for smoking. That there was no particular aptitude in the European taste for the use of this herb, seems to me evident from the very slow progress which ensued even of the knowledge of its qualities. So late as 1560, when Jean Nicot, the French ambassador at the court of Portugal reported of it to his sovereign, scarcely any thing was known of the foreign vegetable, and in place of the men who accompanied Columbus having taken to any imitation of the Cuban-natives when they returned to Europe, it would rather seem that the adoption of 'the pipe is attributable to an Englishman, Raphelengi, who, having accustomed himself to it in Virginia, introduced the practice into England.

Sir Walter Raleigh does not seem to have used the pipe until after the return of Sir Francis Drake in 1586, so that nearly a hundred years expired before even the roots of the habit were fixed in the English people. Nor, probably, would the practice after this have spread so rapidly as it did, if it had not been for the persecution to which it was almost immediately exposed. If it is true, as has been paid, that a few opposing volumes will fix the roots of a heresy, we need scarcely wonder at the triumph of tobacco, against the use of which more than a hundred fulminating volumes issued from the press within a few years.

These observations suggest a reference to the question, how far tobacco was intended for the use of man? The practice of the Cuban savages is seized by one party as a proof of a final cause, insomuch as savages are supposed to follow the first dictates of nature; and then comes the other party, who point to the tardy adoption of nature's gift by a civilized people as a clear proof that the weed was not intended for the uses to which it is applied. I believe that it is utterly vain to discuss questions of this kind. We have no elements for a proper judgment. Perhaps, for aught we know, the American savages were some thousands of years in coming to the habit—at least we have no reason to suppose that it could be a very primitive adoption. Whether, indeed, man's custom, in most cases, is a proof of itself of nature's intention, must always be a puzzle; but as we know that many very bad things are greatly more natural to human beings than we would wish them to be, we have just as good a right to say for those to whom good tendencies are delightful from the beginning, that nature intended they should do their best to eradicate what is hurtful, and reclaim their fellow creatures from the indulgences of vice. The true practical question must in short always be, what is beneficial and what is hurtful, according to the results of our experience.

The botany of our subject presents us with seven or eight different species of the plant, all affecting, more or less, the warm latitudes. Virginia seems, of all regions, the best suited to its culture, and yields in great quaritity the common or Virginian tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). A more hardy kind (N. rustica,) may be cultivated in such latitudes as that of Scotland. This is the species which has been found in Europe, Asia, and Africa; and were it not for the restriction imposed by statute, we would produce it on rich soils in greater quantities than would be convenient for our treasury, or beneficial to our people. I need hardly say here, that the question of intention, on the part of nature, is not much helped by the habitat of the production used; otherwise we might expect to find the northern races less addicted to the use of this tropical weed than those of the warmer regions. We know that probably the contrary is the truth; but all our efforts to draw any conclusion for or against the adaptation of a race to a production of a climate, are rendered futile by the teachings, not more of our religion, than of naturalists, who insist for a central point of origin for all races, and a constitution suited to all climates. The safest position to hold, is that for which I insist, that a bad habit may be formed in any latitude, and supported by any number of arguments, where the wish still holds its mysterious power over the conclusions of what we call reason.

As regards the composition of tobacco, we have endless experiments in that nearly new science, Organic Chemistry, which seems to try the patience of industry itself. There are some nine or ten different substances which go to the formation of a tobacco leaf, and these seem to change in their proportions according to the condition of the plant. Setting aside starch, various acids and salts, we come to what may be termed the essential element or principle called Nicotina, with the formula C20H14N 2. These proportions of carbon, hydrogen, and azote, really tell to the analyst nothing from which he could predicate any thing certain as to the character of the compound. In this respect, all the formula of organic substances are nearly under the same mystery; a small difference in the proportions producing the greatest difference in the combined results. But we can be under no mistake as to the character of the element which is called Nicotina—a colorless liquid alkaloid, with an acrid, burning taste. It is one of the most intense of all poisons, approaching in its activity the strongest preparation of prussic acid.

The other important element procured from the analysis of tobacco, is an oil called nicotinin, supposed to be "the juice of cursed hebanon" referred to in Hamlet; this is the poet's formula; the chemist's is C11H11N 2; but if the latter did not know from actual experience the deadly power of the substance, he would have a small chance of arriving at it by any analogy between formula. As this oily substance is also a very intense poison, differing essentially from the alkaloid, and indeed it is supposed capable of acting on different vital organs, we have thus in tobacco two poisons—rather a remarkable fact in organic chemistry, where we find, generally, only one very active principle at the base of any particular production in the vegetable kingdom. It is indeed asserted by Landerer, that there is none of this deadly oil in the fresh leaves of tobacco; and Mr. Pereira remarks, that the substance must be developed in the drying of the leaves under the influence of air and water. The discovery; if true; may free the weed from the charge of possessing a double poison; but the consequence is all the same to the foreign consumer; who never sees the leaf in its green state.

It has been said that the smoke of tobacco, as analyzed by Zeise and others, contains nothing of the deadly alkaloid; and tobacco smokers have pleaded for less detrimental effects from the pipe or cigar than from the quid, but I fear their conclusion is not very tenable; for the detrimental oil, as we in fact see from the pipe itself, is largely increased by the continued roasting and burning. We know; too, that the old pipe is a favorite with the epicures; the more oil by which it is blackened the better becomes the instrument; till it attains perfection as a mass of clay soaked with poison; and dried, and soaked and dried a hundred times; so that the entire matter is imbued with the absorption. See Dr. Waller Lewis's recommendation to the gentlemen of the London Post-Office; at page 137. The chewer takes less of the oil; but more of the alkaloid; the smoker less of the alkaloid; but more of the oil; the comparison is simply a balance of evils; which is odious to either set of debauchees; and some get quit of the invidious comparison by taking the drug in both forms—a refuge from scientific doubt compensating for the greater amount of destruction to health and comfort. But if we are to believe Dr. Morries, the nicotianin is not destitute of a portion of the alkaloid; and as we know that the inhaled smoke is largely infected with the oil of an old pipe; the smoker has less to say for his habit than the chewer will concede; and I fairly admit; that it does not appear to me to be at all clear; that the former has any advantage over the latter in other respects; for while the smoker's account must be debited with the topical diseases; chiefly carcinomatous; from which the chewer is to a great extent free; he consumes a far greater portion of the weed than his competing debauchee—a surplus so great; in the confirmed cigar smoker, that we are often called upon for a surprise at the number of these small rolls which constitute his daily supply.

==Practical Observations on the Use and Abuse of Tobacco==

A writer on tobacco describes Paris, in its relation to smoking, thus:
::"In Paris," says he, "it is impossible to walk in the streets without being constantly exposed to receive into the mouth, and consequently to inhale, the fumes of tobacco from so many mouths, clean and unclean, passing before and behind, to the great annoyance, and indeed injury to the health of every one, and most disgusting to those cognizant of its poisonous effects. In the arcades and passages it is particularly offensive and obnoxious, the atmosphere of those close places being always contaminated by the pestilential exhalations. I may add, this must be still more so the case in the smoking-rooms of our clubs. And I may here put a query—May not the fumes of tobacco, exhaled from a smoker laboring under syphilitic sore throat and mouth, be inhaled by a clean, healthy individual, with an abraded or ulcerated lip, and the former contaminate the latter? I have seen syphilitic ulceration of the lip, the chin, the mouth, and the throat, individually and collectively, where no trace whatever could be brought to bear on how the ulcers were caused. How often does syphilitic onychia occur without our being able to discover any contamination?"

A remarkable change occurs to the excessive smoker, when he labors under influenza or fever, as he then not only loses all relish for the cigar or pipe, but even actually loathes them. Does not this important fact satisfactorily show, that the furor tabaci depends on the morbid condition produced on the salivary secretion and organ of taste by the deletenous drug, and at the same time illustrate the pathological law, that two morbid states seldom or ever co-exist in the same individual? The sudden removal of all desire to smoke, affords the best refutation to the delusive representations which the unhappy tobacco victim urges for continuing the injurious habit, on the ground, that its abandonment would be prejudicial to his health, and proves, if he had a will to relinquish the pipe or cigar, he would find a way. The best argument to use in dealing with the obstinate prejudices of such peopIe, is to tell them, that an accidental attack, of a new disease can safely and at once occasion the total withdrawal of tobacco without producing any bad consequences. It is scarcely possible to cure either syphilis or gonorrhea, if the patient continue to indulge in smoking tobacco.

Mania is a fearful result of the excessive use of tobacco—two cases of which I have witnessed since the publication of this treatise. I have also to mention, that a gentleman called on me, and thanked me for the publication of my Observations on Tobacco, and related to me, with deep emotion, what had occurred in his own family from smoking tobacco. Two amiable younger brothers had gone deranged, and committed suicide. There is no hereditary predisposition to mania in the family. At a meeting of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, on May 2d, 1854, a paper was read, entitled, "Additional Remarks on the Statistics and Morbid Anatomy of Mental Diseases," by Dr. Webster, wherein he cites, among the causes, the great use of tobacco, which opinion he supported by reference to the statistics of insanity in Germany.

Loss of memory takes place in an extraordinary degree in the smoker, much more so than in the drunkard, evidently from tobacco acting more on the brain than alcohol. The cure consists in "throwing away tobacco for ever."

Amaurosis is a very common result of smoking tobacco to excess, but I have never seen it produced by snuffing or chewing. It occurs with or without congestion of the brain. It is commonly confined to one eye. It is generally curable, but not always, by "throwing away tobacco for ever"—by inserting a seton in the back of the neck, another seton in the temple or temples, according as one or both eyes are affected. In the course of eight or ten days, the seton in the temple is to be withdrawn, a common fly blister applied, and the blistered surface sprinkled with strychnia. The bowels to be freely opened with calomel and aloes. The diet to be light, as the farinaceous. The patient should be confined in a large, well-ventilated apartment, and an obscure light.

Nervousness is remarkably common from indulging too much in smoking, snuffing, or chewing tobacco. It is to be treated by "throwing away tobacco forever"—by having recourse to the shower-bath in winter, and sea-bathing in summer—by nourishing diet, attention to the bowels, the alterative powder, as prescribed under ulceration of the lips, the tonics, as quassia and gentian, and even quinine; exercise in the open air, and by mixing in quiet, agreeable society, as the nervous system is easily and readily over-excited; and, lastly, by change of air, and ultimately traveling about.

==References==
* [http://medicolegal.tripod.com/lizars1859.htm#p36-36 The Use and Abuse of Tobacco by John Lizars, M.D. (Edinburgh: 1856, 1857, 1859, reprinted, Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co, 1883)]

Articles

2006-08-09T13:08:27Z

Emilie:

===Tobacco And Cigarettes Articles===

1. [[THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITY OF THE TOBACCO HABIT]] by Herbert H. Tidswell, M.D.(London: J. & A. Churchill, 1912)

2. [[THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO]] by John Lizars, M.D. (Edinburgh: 1856, 1857, 1859, reprinted, Philadelphia: P. Blakiston, Son & Co, 1883)

3. [[THE MYSTERIES OF TOBACCO]] by Rev. Benjamin I. Lane(New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845, 1846, 1851)