iSujds'lii; itiiii (Toluuco: THEIR EFFECTS UPON JloL&irrs anti there. BY PAUL F. EVE, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the University of Nashville, NASHVILLE, TENN.: \V. II. F. L1GON, UNIVERSITY BOOK AND JOB OFFICE, MEDICAL COLLEGE. . l866. JOSEPH .TONES, M.D., (Late I'rofessor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Georgia.) Thk Chancellor of the University of Nashville, in Introducing this gentleman to the Nashville public, says: Quite nn ActjuiMition. T'rofessor Joseph .Tones, M.D., of Augusta, Georgia, has accepted the Chair of Pathology in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville. The many graduates nml friends of our University throughout Tennessee and other States cannot hut be highly gratified by this nn liouneement, since Professor .Tones is known in Europe, no less than in America, as one among the most eminent scientific celebrities of the Union. The son of the distinguished and beloved Georgia divine, Charles C. Jones, I).IT., he received a thorough training at Princeton and in Philadelphia. Before he had taken the degree of doctor of medicine, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry In one of the Savannah Medical Colleges, thence he was transferred to the Uni- versity of Georgia, at Athens, and soon afterwards to the Medical College of Augusta. Uni- formly sustaining the high expectation of his friends, his promotion was rapid indeed. As nn educator, lie had won a very high rank before he had reached the age of twenty-five. As a writer and original investigator, he has been equally successful, having, although but lit- tle more than thirty years of age, furnished valuable papers to the Smithsonian Transactions ; a Prize Essay to the American Medical Association; a celebrated Report upon Marls ; and very lull materials for the medical history of the late war, to the United States Sanitary Commission. These papers all bear the Impress of most minute and thorough scientific research, and have given their writer a position ntnong tacaiu surpassed by no one of his years. Modest, unas- suming, high-toned, devout, as well as eloquent and famous, his influence upon students Is in every way happy and ennobling. Many distinguished men has the University brought to Nasi - ) ville, such as Priestley, the elder I.indsley, Troost, Hamilton, and others now living. Our citi- zens have cause for gratul ttion that the list is not closed, aud that the first step after the pros- in'ion by waFis one so well-omened for the future prosperity and renown of our venerable seat of .. arning. Ml) 15111) anil (Tolnitfo: 0 ‘o THEIR EFFECTS I - UPOK §olbrrrs anb iOtlitrs. <£> ° BY PAUL F. EYE, M.D., Professor of Surgery in the University of Sashvillet NASHVILLE, TENN.: w. n. r. ligon, university book and job office, medical college. i 366, WHISKY AND TOBACCO Continuation of Answers to Questions Propounded by Prof. Charles A. Lee, M.D., Agent of the United States Sanita* ry Commission, relative to the Health, &c., of the late Southern Army. By Paul F. Eve, M.D. Question 10th. “ What effect have Whisky and Tobacco ra- tions on the physical endurance and health of soldiers ?” Hygiene in the tented-field has been a fruitful and important theme during the past four years, and well deserves full and se- rious investigation, since all acknowledge how much the efficiency of troops depends upon their sanitary condition. Every thing calculated to produce disease or impair the endurance of soldiers in the field has claimed special attention, and it is presumed been pretty thoroughly examined. Surgeons in the army were appointed to keep strong men in the line of battle. At the close of a campaign is the time to deduce useful lessons from past ex- perience. It was a common remark in the Southern army how few of the men were perfectly healthy. The number was very limited who could attend at all to hygienic practices. The great mass found it utterly impossible under the trying circumstances to which they were subjected during most of the service, to keep in good 4 WHISKY AND TOBACCO. condition—the privations, labor, fatigue, deficiency in clothing and proper nourishment, exhaustion, want of rest and sleep, &c., &c., absolutely prevented the maintenance of health. And unfor- tunately added to these cause's impairing the vigor of the system, was the actual distress of thousands occasioned by dssipation, irregular habits, depraved tastes, hurtful practices, indulgence of passions, &c., &o. I take the position that those who habitually use tobacco and liquor cannot be in the possesion of goofl health; and siucp writing this opinion I find tliat Dr. B. W. Richardson, himselt confessedly a moderate smoker, the distinguished physiologist and pathologist of London, author too of the Ether-spray, now exciting so much attention, admitted before the Physiological Section of the Btitish Association for the Promotion of Social Sciences in 1864, that uo confirmed smoker can be said, so long as he indulges in the habit, to be well. I have never yet. seen such an one who did not haw. a furred tongue or foul breath ; the certiau indication of derange- ment in the digestive organs. The condition of the stomach makes the man not only physically and intellectually, hut exercises its influence over his morals. Whoever yet saw or heard of a happy dyspeptic? What misery has not indigestion entailed on the human family ? How absurd the ,very idea of those being- sound in mind and body, in good health, who are constantly guz- zling that which may steal away their brains; and imbibing that which converts man into a ruminating animal or makes a furnacu of his mouth and keeps his chimney burning ?” i “ That of all th« herb* In any plocr, • It la the raoMt opposed to God'a graec." An army is truly said to crawl on its belly ; must be well fed. It is not what one eats that gives life and sustains the body, but the nutritive properties derived from it. To enjoy health and become strong and vigorous digestion must lie easy and uninter- rupted. Hence the remark of the celebrated English medical author, Erasmus Wilson, F.R.8., that were he commissioned to improve the lmmaD race; to produce finer, stronger, better men; and to extinguish disease ; he would begin with man’s first and best friend—bis siomach. Vow what is the condition of this all- WHISKY AND TOBACCO. 5 important, life-giving, life-sustaining organ ; that which makes every drop of blood, from which every muscle, tendon, artery, vein and nerve, the very heart and brain themselves, are all deri- ved; w hat I ask must be the digestive powers of those who arc continually, hourty during the day and often far into the night, imbibing alcohol and nicotine. Do they extract nourishment from them ? Chemistry, which cannot err, proclaims by her analysis, neither contains an element of nutrition, not a particle to sustain the system ; but on the contrary, classes them in then- active principles with the deadliest poisons. The man must in- deed be blinded by prejudice, given over to self-indulgence, who is insensible to the enormously appalling evils of intemperance. He must be destitute of philosophy, philanthropy-and patriotism not to deplore the incalculable injury sustained by the human race, his country, may he his owrn family, from drunkenness. What arithmetic can compute even the distress caused by whisky alone, inflaming the passions and aggravating the horrors of the late va,x ? Who can calculate the errors made during it by drunken officers and soldiers? I heard the colonel of a regi- ment declare that he knew not the man under his orders who would not get drunk if he had the opportunity ; and I had good evidence for believing that he, the commanding officer would make no exception, doing the very same thing. A soldier intoxicated is far worse than no soldier at all ; and an officer liable to the same condition under any circumstances whatever, is alike with him; yea, more unfit for the army. The irregularity too in distribution of whisky rations is a source of much evil. So much is generally issued to each company, and as there are some who do not drink at all, others are pretty sure to do so to excess. Soldiers in the field are easily led into temp- tation in this respect. T freely admit that wines, brandy, whisky and alcohol are es- sential in a campaign, and v-ere of great benefit to our sick and wounded. We gave wine to the weak and strong drink to him ready to perish. The one sustained life the other frequently re- vived it. ,But thus administered is neither approving tippling or the issuing of whisky rations. One is the proper use of these 6 WHISKY AND TOBACCO. valuable stimulants, the other is their abuse. Happy indeed the soldier who eschews liquor—better for him, as the rest of man- kind, to die sober than live drunk. Alas ! how many choose the latter dreadful alternative. As to the injurious effects of tobacco upon the system, abun- dant evidence is fast accumulating in our Medical Journals from the rapidly increasing consumption of this article throughout the world. A few remarkable facts on the subject must convince any candid mind and ought to satisfy every honest inquirer after truth ; yet we doubt if they will extinguish a single pipe or be w’orth to the consumer a quid of the article, since if against his will, he of course, will be of the same opinion still. In noticing a paper from M. Dumesnil, the London Lancet -for 1862, stated so extensive had become the use of tobacco that .countries producing it had great difficulty in supplying the de- mand. Already do we learn that several of the most fertile counties of Virginia have been exhausted by its cultivation. This writer says that the quantity of this plant in weight con- sumed in America alone is equal to the bread which would sustain ten millions of people. The London Times and Gazette 1865, contains what it terms a sombre picture of the mischief alleged to be due to smoking, drawn by the physiologist, M. Jolly, before the Academy of Medicine in Paris. He declares that for forty years, viz, from J792 to 1832, during which period the revenue from tobacco to French Government remained about the same, the lunatic ;asylums of France contained about 8000 patients ; but that when, by the increased demand for this article, the revenue went up from 28,000,000 francs to 180,000,(XX), there were then not less than 44,000 paralytic and lunatic patients in the institutions devoted to their accommodation. He affirms most positively that official statistics show that in exact relation to the quantity of tobacco smoked in that empire, was the increase of nervous diseases and certain cancerous affections. He considers it unfor- tunate that smoking has been substituted for the use of snuff, because if more disgusting, this latter habit was more innocent; also deprecates the displacement of the pipe by the cigar, a# WHISKY AND TOBACCO. 7 the juices of the weed are thus more readily inhaled and intro- duced into the system. He says the gums and lips become red and tumefied, the teeth suffer from caries; cancer more frequent- ly attacks the lips; and organic affections of the stomach, par- ticularly in those chewing while fasting, were noticed. That an atmosphere charged with the products of smoking this weed is poisonous, is proved, says he, by its effects on workmen inured to it, who suffer from headache, loss of appetite, colic, vomiting, &c. Even plants and birds exposed to such air became sickly and died. In conclusion, M. Jolly asks the question, what else could be expected from an article so eminently poisonous that in its concentrated form is only equalled by curare and prussic acid. It is due this author to state that he does not attribute the progressive and rapid increase of insanity, general paralysis, paraplegia, ramoillissment, &c., in Fiance, to tobacco alone but to it in connection with the abuse of alcoholic stimulants,, specially absinthe. On investigation, however, their dependence upon smoking was more obvious than to any other cause. The experiment made a few years ago among the students in the Military Academy of France, by order of Napoleon III., in dividing the smokers from the non-smokers, proved to the satis- faction of that greatest man now on the face of the earth, and he himself an inveterate smoker, that, in the course of nine months, the latter class, those students who eschewed tobacco, had advanced 30 per cent, in all their operations over the former. As might have been expected, the use of tobacco proved most deleterious to the young ; producing as a medical writer asserts, impairment of growth, immature manhood and physical decay. The Intelligencer, of Austin, Texas, published not long ago, the death of a little girl, five or six years old, who died from the effects of snuff-dipping. Alas the day, when boys quit nursing their mammas to suck cigars ! Parents should know they will soon give out. J. C. Wordsworth, Surgeon to the Eoyal London Ophthalmic Hospital, publishes in the London Lancet, 1863, three cases of Amaurosis caused by tobacco, which was smoked in large quan- tities. He also quotes from Pr. McKenzie's gTeat work on oph-- 8 WlllSK V'.VNb TOhACeO. thalmotology, in proof of this producing blindness ; and declare* thin to bo the common source of numerous cases of partial loss of vision, which are daily met with in the hospitals of Great Britain. By giving up the use of the weed, improvement in sight began and sometimes ended in complete restoration. Sichel Triquet and Mercier, of Baris, confirm those views in regard to tobacco-smoking injuring the eyes. The late Professor Warren, of Boston, President of the American Medical Association, 1850, thus expresses his opinion : “ Of the three modes of using tobacco, smoking is that which seems to have insinuated itself most extensively among the youth of our community. Tobacco, employed in this way, being drawn with the vital breath, conveys its poisonous influence into every part of the lungs. There the noxious fluid is entangled in the minute, spongy, air cells, and has time to exert its pernicious influences on the blood, not in vivifying but in vitiating it. The blood imbibes the stimulant (narcotic principle and circulates it through the system. It produces in consequence a febrile action in those of delicate habit. Where there is any tendency to phthisis and tubercular deposits in the lungs, debility of those organs, consequent oil the use of tobacco in this way must, favor the deposit of tuberculous matter, and thus sow the seeds of consumption. The practice impairs the natural taste and relish for food, lessens the appetite and weakens the ]tower of the stomach. As to the pleasure produced by it, it is, I believe, a well known fact that a person smoking in the dark is often unable to determine whether his cigar is lighted or not.” At the meeting hold in 1860, Sir Charles Hastings read a paper before the British Association for the Promotion of Social Sciences, on the Influence of Tobacco-arfohlnri on Public Health. We make from it the following quotation : “• The chemical constituents of tobacco are three in number’*, a volatile oil, a volatile alkali ,and an empyreunmtic oil. The volatile oil has the odor of tobacco, and possesses a bitter taste. On the mouth and throat it produces a sensation similar to that caused bv tobacco smoke. When applied to the nose it occa- sion* sneezing; and when taken internally it drives rise to giddi- WHISKY AND TOBACCO: 9 ness, nausea, and inclination to vomit. The volatile alkali has the odor of tobacco, an acrid, burning, long-continuing, tobacco taste, and possesses narcotic and very poisonous qualities. In this latter respect it is scarcely inferior to prussic acid, a single drop being sufficient to kill a dog. Its vapor is so irritating, that it is difficult to breathe in a room in which a single drop has been evaporated. A hundred pounds of the dry tobacco-leaf yield about seven pounds of nicotin. In smoking a hundred grains of tobacco therefore, say a quarter of an ounce, there may be drawn into the mouth as much as two grains or more of the most subtle of all known poisons. The empyreumatic oil is acrid and disagreeable to taste, narcotic and poisonous. One drop applied on the tongue of a cat brought on convulsions, and in two minntes occasioned death. The Hottentots are said to kill snakes by putting a drop of it on their tongues. Under its influence the reptiles die as instantaneously as if killed by an electric shock. It appears to act nearly in the same way as prussic acid. Experience proves that a large proportion of those who smoke or chew tobacco, do so under the conviction that it is always innocuous in its effects, and often beneficial. Now, this is a mistake which the every-day ob- servation of medical practitioners can attest. For amongst the pa- tients who consult us for various nervous and stomach complaints, it will be found that tobacco smokers form a large proportion. Indeed, we find, unexpectedly sometimes, on inquiry, that the habit of smoking is the source of very distressing ailments, which immediately or gradually subside on omitting the nse of this drug. It is grievous to observe that this habit is prevailing among young people, upon whom its effects are most likely to be prejudicial; Strkingly illustrative of this position is the fact that, which has been recently made public, that in the competitive examinations to which young persons are submitted in the military schools in France, the smokers of tobacco occupy the lowest place.” One of the most severe cases of epilepsy which Sir Charles had ever seen was in a boy of twelve years of age, who had been for two years a tobacco-smoker; he recovered only on being prevented from continuing the habit. It could, no doubt, be said, and it was true that thousands pursue this practice without producing 10 WHISKY AND TOBACCO. epilepsy ; but many of these suffer from nervous and digestive disorders. The late distinguished Professor James Miller, author of works on the Principles and Practice of Surgery, and on Alcohol, made a speech, a few years before his death, to the British Anti- Tobacco Society. He said : “That as the constituent principles which tobacco contains are highly poisonous, the practises of smoking and snuffing tend in a variety of ways to injure the physical and mental constitution. He did not mean to say that because a substance was in itself poisonous, its use in all possible circumstances must prove inju- rious to mind or body, or both together ; but what he said was that tobacco and other narcotics, being well known rank poisons, if they were taken unnecessarily, were taken unwisely and unsafely. This was just in accordance with one of the simplest and most certain rules in therapeutics—that if there was a diseased condi- tion in a man's body which required the use of tobacco, or opium or prussic acid—strongly poisonous as those remedies were—yet when judiciously and skilfully administered, they might be taken not only innocuously, but with the greatest positive advantage. They would do the man no harm, but good. All this was in ac- cordance with what was technically called the law of tolerance ; but this law had a converse ; and the converse here was that if a person took a poison into his system which was not required by any diseased condition of body, there was no law of tolerance to protect him ; and it not only did him no good, but it did him harm more or less. Now, tobacco is one of the strongest narcotic poisons with which we are acquainted ; and the shape in which he would put the question was—were the people who used it so extensively protected by the law of tolerance, or were they met by the converse of that law, which rendered the use of it unsafe ? He presumed 99 out of every 100 of those who were to be seen going smoking about the streets, or using tobacco in some form or other, would never dream about putting in such a plea as that they used it medicinally for some desease under which they were laboring—therefore, it naturally and necessarily followed from the oriDciple which he had laid down that all theeo people were iD- WHI8KY AND TOBACCO. 11 juring themselves more or less. Medical men were but too fami- liar with these evil effects. They knew that it injured the whole organism, put the stomach out of order, and weakened the frame. But it acted mainly upon the nervous system—not strengthening, on the contrary weakening it and depriving it of its tone. No man who was a hard smoker had a steady hand ; and as the an- cients said, Ex pede Herculem, he would say, Ex manu hominem —by its effects on the man’s hand we might judge of its effect upon his whole nervous system. But not only had it a debilita- ting and paralyzing effect; but he could tell of patients who weT© completely paralyzed in their limbs by inventerate smoking. He might tell of a patient of his who brought on an attack of pa- ralysis by smoking, who was cured by simple means enough, ac- companied with the complete discontinuance of this practice; but who afterwards took to it again, and got a new attack of paralysis ; and who could now play with himself as it were, be- cause when he wanted a day’s paralysis or an approach to it he had nothing to do but to indulge more or less freely with the weed. Then as to the effect of smoking upon the intellectual powers—for he would leave its moral and social consequences to other speakers—there could be no doubt that it obfuscated mental vision more or less. ‘ Blowing a cloud’ was a very good symbol of the cloudy kind of ratiocination which the person who did so got in consequence. It might not be easy to prove that in individual cases, but it was not difficult to do so on a large scale. Only the other day, the French—among whom the prac- tice was carried even to a greater extent than with us—made an estimate of its effects in their schools and colleges. They took the young men attending these institutions, classified them into those who smoked habitually, and those who did not, and esti- mated their physical and intellectual standing—perhaps their moral standing too, but he could not say. The result was that they found those who did not smoke were both the stronger lads and better scholars, were altogether more reputable people and more useful members of society, than those who habitually used the drug. What was the consequence ? Louis Napoleon—-one of the good he had done—instantly issued an edict 12 WITISKY AND TOBACCO. that no Bmoking should be permitted in any school, college, or academy. This edict in one day put out about thirty thousand pipes in Paris alone. Let our young smokers put that in their pipe and smoke it. That was one of the advantages of an au- tocracy ; and he (Prof. Miller) would be very glad if the Lord Provost had the power to issue a similar edict in Edinburgh, which he was quite sure would derive much benefit from it. Perhaps there might be smokers present who thought this all stuff; and who were ready to say that they knew from expe- rience that smoking did them good, and that they could reason a great deal better after a comfortable smoke than they could be- fore it. Very good; but that only made his case all the stronger. Let a healthy man, unaccustomed to smoking, take a pipe of to- bacco and smoke it to the end, or give him three or four pinches of snuff in succession, and then let them ask him whether he felt better or worse. Set him to work out a difficult problem, and seo what was the condition of his reasoning powers. The man would at once admit that they were in very bad condition. The men who felt the better after using a narcotic were just the men who were slaves to it; and it was merely the disordered'and morbid state of his physical and nervous system which required to be tickled up again w’ith that stimulant which had already exhausted and weakened him. Professor Miller went on to refer at some length to the effects of opium among the Chinese, and showing many points of similarity between it and tobacco smoking when extensively indulged in. He then referred to the increase of the use of tobacco, particularly in the form of smoking among the young, remarking that its prevalence—taking into account its un- failing physical, intellectual, and moral effects—was calculated to alarm those who had the welfare of the community at heart. After relating several anecdotes tending to show' the extreme dif- ficulty, and in some cases the impossibility, of giving up the habit when it had been fairly formed, notwithstanding the pain with it, caused by inducing cancer or other diseases, Professor Miller went on to say it could not be denied that there was a diversity of medical opinion regarding the injurious effects of the use of tobaooo. But be would ask them to inquire who warn tho modi-. WHISKY AND TOBACCO. 13 cal men who would come forward as the champions of tobacco? They were men who were themselves smokers. But these men, by their addiction to this vice, had put themselves out of court, and their opinion was therefore of no consequence. The man best qualified to give an opinion on the subject was the man who had been so far enslaved by the habit, but who had given it up. Professor Miller went on to say that he wras in this position, having at one time been addicted to snuffing, but after ten or a dozen vain and difficult attempts he had given it up. He had tried it both ways, and he had a bright recollection of the comforts of snuffling. The first pinch in the morning was delicious ; the pinch after dinner was—magnificent! But until that pinch was got he was stupid, dull and restless, and the effect, both mentally and corporeally, was evil, and nothing but evil.” The late celebrated Prof. Lizars, of Edingburg, thus expressed his opinion, in his counterblast to tobacco : “ Devoted smokers affirm they cannot relinquish their intem- perate habit, Such cases as I have referred to, if such should meet their eye, may possibly awaken in them a sense of their dan- ger, and act in the same way as I have known bad and repeated attacks of delirium tremens operate on the minds of noted drunk- ards, causing them to desist from their delusive and dangerous practice of dram-drinking. “Emasculation is an unhappy and by no means an unfrequent ef- fect produced by the excessive and abusive indulgence in smoking, Such a defective condition of the generative system is unaccount- able to many affected with it. I have been consulted by several fathers, from 30 to 40 years of age, who had the usual number of children in the ordinary period after their marriage, but were surprised that they had for a considerable time lost all inclination for sexual indulgence. I invariably found, upon inquiry, that all these individuals were inveterate and most intemperate smokers; and I never failed to convince them of the cause of the change in the reproductive organs, to arrest their progress in the use of the emasculating narcotic, when the natural functions of which they were deprived returned at no distant date accompa- nied with an incrcaeo of family. Unmarried persons who have 14 WHISKY AND TOBACCO. been martyrs to tobacco indulgence in smoking, are equally liable to the loss of all desire for commerce with the opposite sex. Cowardice, or want of moral courage, I have uniformly expe- rienced to influence those individuals addicted to excessive smoking who required a surgical operation, when such a mode of imparting relief to them was proposed for their concurrence.” In the last, 12th edition, of the U. S. Dispensatory, 1865, the well known work by Profs. Wood and Bache, it is stated that “ the action of nicotine on the animal system is one of the most virulent poisons known. A drop destroys a dog, small birds perish at the approach of a tube containing it, and in man, it is said to destroy life, in poisonous doses, in from two to five minutes. * * * The use of tobacco enfeebles digestion, produces emaciation and general debility, and lays the founda- tion of nervous disorders.” They enumerate deaths from injec- tions of its effusion into the rectum, from inhalation of the smoke, and expressed juice applied to a child’s head having tenia. The late Dr. Chapman, known throughout this country, inorcr over, assured them that he had seen several instances of mental disorder resembling delirium tremens; and Dr. Kirkbride, for many years Superintendent of the Pennsylvania lunatic asylum, refers to four cases of insanity, all ascribed to tobacco. - I have known a fatal case poisoned by tobacco. The patient, too was remarkable for his excellent constitution, fine personal appearance—he possessing a large, stout, athletic frame—and of good health five years previous to contracting the unfortunate habit of swallowing the saliva in chewing tobacco. I was called to operate for an immense carbuncle, (a sure indication of ca- chexia,) so large that five crucial incisions were made into it. The patient never hesitated to ascribe his illness to the cause named and said that he knew it was killing him. Nor is even the external application of this plant innocuous. A short time ago, a smuggler designing to evade the revenue duty, covered his body with tobacco, which the perspiration softening, produced a real poison. He suffered great feebleness of the pulse, cold sweats, faintings, and great prostration. M. WHISKY ANH TOBACCO- 15 Gallarvardin, in 1861, published the fact that a squadron of cavalry covered their bodies with tobacco leaves, for the purpose of smuggling it across the frontier, and all of them experienced vertigo, headache and sickness. We have reported in a recent number of the American Journal of Medical Sciences, a collec- tion of no less than eleven cases observed by as many different physicians, mostly Germans, in which they believed the local application of this article was followed by poisonous symptoms. We believe there are few practitioners of experience who are not witnesses of the positively deleterious effects of tobacco on the system. Take the following instances : my friend, Dr. J. W. Morton, saw a case, an adult and an habitual consumer of the weed, who had applied an ointment made with the oil of tobacco to a ring-worm (herpes circinatus), which caused alarm- ing poisonous symptoms ; and my colleague, Dr. Watson, ano- ther one under similar impressed system, from tobacco leaves placed on an ulcer of the leg. M. Morin, of Rouen, France, 1864, declared that he has de- tected nicotine in an old snuff-taker of that city. By subjecting his lungs and liver to a careful analysis, he found this alkaloid diffused through them. Indeed authors now recognize a pecu- liar affection which they term yiarcotism of the heart, induced by the use of tobacco, &c., and so constant and certain are these effects resulting from it and other stimulants that in treating cases we speak of the system being poisoned by nicotine, alcohol, laudanum, tea or coffee ; but the vast majority of such are pro- duced by spirits and tobacco. To appreciate the effects of this article of the meteria medica, (for such it is,) on the animal economy, we must recollect that the active agent at work is the nicotine which it contains. Origi- nally found growing in Tobago (Tobaco), an isle of the Antilles, its cultivation was formerly limited to the tropics. But now, to supply the immense demand, it is produced not only in the West- Indies, but in North and South America, in Europe, in fact almost everywhere. In its native soil, near the equator, the- plant yields only 21 per cent, of nicotine, while that of the more nothern production contains 6 1-10 to 7 35-100 of this noxious 16 WHISKY AND TOBACCO. element. It was the Cuban, Brazil and Arabian tobaccos, the mild and more aromatic article, which rendered its use so fash- ionable and popular the world over; so that now the consumer readily forgets how highly charged with this acronarcotic principle are the European, the Virginia and Kentucky productions. It will thus be seen that the more northern its growth, the greater the danger of its use : and in the estimate that ten per cent, of nicotine is extracted in smoking, it is not contended that this amount is permanently imbibed into the system, as some is re- jected in the puff and saliva. A substance which is actually so repugnant to the taste as to produce nausea and vomiting, and even when tolerated by the system, excites continual salivation, by which fatal poisoning lrom it is alone prevented, yet in spite of this, by perseverance, is declared to become agreeable* then an indispensable want, an overpowering necessity ; even considered a luxury though vio- lating good taste, decency, personal cleanliness and social enjoy- ment ; which, therefore, should never be inflicted on the public nor imposed on genteel society ; and fortunately is prohibited in the streets of Paris, London, Boston, &c.* and should be in all well regulated cities ; for any one exercising so little self-abnega- tion that by his loathsome habits the very atmosphere is vitiated, public resorts polluted, even the earth itself soiled, ought no more to be permitted to go at large than the opium-eater or drunkard, as they are alike rendered monomaniacs by their bad practices ; an article which pervades the whole physical man, depressing his vital powers, interrupting his digestion, enervating and emascu- lating his system, perverting his judgment, and may produce delirium, paralysis, malignant disease, even insanity, and some- times leads to the hospital, asylum or premature grave—cannot, surely, be proper for rations to soldiers on a campaign, but must inevitably diminish their physical endurance and greatly impair their health. Forty years observation in the United States, on the Atlantic* in Europe and during three revolutions, have convinced me that the habitual use of whisky and tobacco is evil, and only evil, to mankind. PEOSPECTTJS f OF THE NEW SERIES OF THE NASHVILLE JOURNAL OF IHciutiiu ani) Stintcm. -V It is not unknown to the Medical Profession that this Journal, during the decade from 1851 to 1861, enjoyed a very large circulation. We are pretty certain that in 1861 it had a larger circu- lation than any other Medical Periodical in the United States. Since the begining of 1862 its publication has been suspended. The former Senior Editor proposes to become his own- pub- lisher, and with the assistance of his colleague, Prof. Paul F. Eye, to edit a New Series. He lias t herefore provided a new Press and Material, and secured the services of an experienced com- positor. The typographical and mechanical execution of the work we feel assured will be sat- isfactory. As to the editing we feel ourself better qualified now than when we conducted the old series. We have, we hope, a good deal of unexpended force and grit in us, which with a modicum of enthusiasm and wordly prudence might be made availiable for good. We do not desire to make any money by the Journal, and if we did we have experience enough to know that we could not‘do it—but we hope to be useful in our generation. Assuming for the first time the full responsibility of Publisher, a new relation arises between the public and ourself. A pecuniary relation, except between misers and professional skinners and skinnees is a very delicate one. Between, gentlemen the subject cannot be discussed—We cannot hereafter allude to it, and would therefore suggest an inflexible rule here which makes subsequent allusion unnecessary. In every ease, without exception, the Journal must he paid for in advance. At the end of the time subscribed for, the Journal will stop. This is not to be regarded as questioning the ability or willingness of the late subscribers to pay for it,—not at all. When the subscription expires he is no longer a subscriber—and delicacy would suggest the impropriety of teasing him into a re- newal of his subscription by forwarding him the Journal. The Journal will be published monthly in numbers of Eighty pages each. Six numbers will make a Volume of nearly Five Hundred pages, so that there will be two Volumes a year. Subscription price for One Year [two volumes]-- - - $5 00 For One Volume [half year] 2 50 The first number will be mailed July 1, 1866. Advertisements solicted at the usual prici s, as follows: 1 Page One Year $80 00 For One Insertion $10 00 j “ “ “ 70 00 “ “ “ - 8 00 l “ “ “ 50 00 “ “ “ - 6(H) i “ “ “ 30 00 “ “ “ 4 00 I “ “ “ 20 00 “ “ “ 2 00 1-16 “ “ “ 10 00 “ “ “ 1 00 CKF"Monoy sent by Mail, retaining receipt of Post Master, at our risk. Address. W. Ii. HOWLING, No. HO, High Street, Nashville, Ten n W. K. BOWLING, M. D., Editor and Proprietor, and Prof, of Institutes and Practice of Medicine in the University of Nashville. PAUL F. EVE, M. I)., Assistant Editor, and Prof, of Surgery in the I'nirersity of Nashville. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE Clnibcrsitn of Sasbbiflf. AN N OUNCEMEN T — 1 h< (( 5-7. The regular course of instruction will begin on the first Monday of November, 18tkl, and end on the first day of March, 18fi7. The Museum, Cabinets, Library, Building and apparatus, are still as perfect as ever and the old corps of teachers each in his place, except Professor Buchan- an, removed by death, and whose place has been Allied by l’rof. Briggs, formerly Professor of Practical Anatomy. The Anatomical Room will be opened on the first Monday in October, and every facility afforded for the prosecution of that corner-stone study. / \ . 1 •' t i s f ■ . PEEH. For Tickets to the entire Course - $105 00 Matriculating Fee 5 00 Graduating Fee.... 25 00 I tissecting Ticket - 10 00 Students after matriculating have the option of attending the lectures of one or more Pro- fessors, or of all, as may suit their convenience. The fee for a course of lectures on a single branch is $15. To graduate, the student must previously have attended two full courses of lectures, lie must be 21 years of age, have studied medicine under a preceptor three years, Including the time spent in attending lectures, and be of good moral character. A Ticket from any reputable school counts a ticket here. Boarding, in good houses, $4 00 to |5 00 a week. PKOFEKNOKS. JOSEPH JONES, M.D., (late Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Georgia) Pro- fessor of Pathology. W. K. BOWLING, M. D., Professor of Institute and Practice of Medicine, and Dean of the Faculty. THOMAS R. JENNINGS, M. D., Professor of Anatomy .T. BERRIEN LIND8LEY, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy. C. K WINSTON, M. I)., Professor of Materia Mcdica and Medical Jurisprudence. WM. T. BRIGGS, M. I)., Professor of Surgical Anatomy and Physiology. JOHN M. WATSON, M. D., ITofesor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children. PAUL F. EVE, Professor of the Principles and Practice of Surgery. T. B. BUCHANAN, M. D., Curator of Museum, and Prosector to the Chairs of Anatomy ami Surgery. V. 8. LINDSLEY, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy.