mm ■ ■■- , . • v s . * ^;M », STEP HEX J. W. TABOR. DTH'M SINK I.ITEKIS JIOHS EST. J »!Zfi:» w' i*.1 af*Tk i-*-*: s-"Sk S SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE 3. ANNEX Section, ^b. *T >n^,v/A',^w, AN ESSAY THE INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO LIFE AND HEALTH. BY R. D. MUSSEY, M. D. PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN THE MIAMI MEDICAL COLLEGE AT CINCIN- NATI, OHIO ; FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ; AND „ ASSOCIATE OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AT PHILADELPHIA. A NEW EDITION, ENLARGED BY THE AUTHOR. .;">vvjEW' "Mi* PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW Y0BK. 1^4 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year l~3ii, by Perkins and Marvin, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. [light of publishing transferred to the American Tract Society. ESSAY ON TOBACCO. In the great kingdom of living nature, man is the only animal that seeks to poison or de- stroy his own instincts, to turn topsy-turvy the laws of his being, and to make himself as unlike as possible that which he was obviously design- ed to be. No satisfactory solution of this extraordinary propensity has been given, short of a reference to that "first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe, With loss of Eden." While the myriads of sentient beings spread over the earth adhere with unyielding fidelity to the laws of their several existences, man exerts his superior intellect in attempting to outwit nature, and to show that- she has made an important mistake in his own case. Not satisfied with the symmetry and elegance of form given him by his Creator, he transforms himself into a hideous monster, or copies upon 4 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO his own person the proportions of some disgust- ing creature far down in the scale of animal being. Not content with loving one thing and loathing another, he perseveres in his attempts to make bitter sweet and sweet bitter, till noth- ing but the shadow is left of his primitive rel- ishes and aversions. This is strikingly exem- plified in the habitual use of the narcotic or poisonous vegetables. HISTORY. Tobacco is generally regarded as having originated in America. Its name appears to have been derived from Tabaco. a province of Yucatan, in Mexico, from which place it is said to have been first sent to Spain; or, as some assert, though with less probability, from an instrument named Tabaco, employed in His- paniola in smoking this article. Cortez sent a specimen of it to the king of Spain in 1519. Sir Francis Drake is said to have introduced it into England about the year 1560; not far from the same time, John Nicot carried it to France ; and Italy is indebted to the Cardinal Santa Croce for its first appear- ance in that country. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 5 Traces of an ancient custom of smoking dried herbs having been observed, it has been sug- gested that tobacco may have been in use in Asia, long before the discovery of America. The fact, however, that this plant retains under slight modifications the name of tobacco, in a large number of Asiatic as well as European dialects, renders almost certain the commonly received opinion, that it emanated from this country, and from this single origin has found its way into every region of the earth where it is at present known. If this be the fact, the Western hemisphere has relieved itself of a part of the obligation due to the Eastern, for the dis- covery and diffusion of distilled spirit. Early in the history of our country, the cul- tivation and use of tobacco were by no means confined to Central America. In Hawkins' voyage of 1655, the use of this article in Florida is thus described : " The Floridians, when they travele, have a kind of herbe dryed, which, with a cane and an earthen cup in the end, with fire and the dryed herbes put together, do sucke thorow the cane the smoke thereof, which smoke satisfieth their hunger." Still earlier, namely, in 1535, Cartier found it in Canada: "There 6' INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO groweth a certain kind of herbe, whereof in sommer they make great provision for all the yeere, making great account of it, and onely men use it; and first they cause it to be dried in the sunne, then weare it about their necks wrapped in a little beaste's skinne, made like a little bagge, with a hollow peece of stone or wood like a pipe; then when they please they make powder of it, and then put it in one of the ends of said cornet or pipe, and laying a cole of fire upon it, at the other end sucke so long that they fill their bodies full of smoke, till that it cometh out of their mouth and nos- trils even as out of the tonnele of a chimney." In Great Britain the progress of the custom of using tobacco was not unobserved. The civil and ecclesiastical powers were marshalled against it, and popish anathemas and royal edicts with the severest penalties, not excepting death itself, were issued. In the reigns of Elizabeth, of James, and of his successor Charles, the use and importation of tobacco were made subjects of legislation. In addition to his royal authority, the worthy and zealous king James threw the whole weight of his learning and logic against it, in his famous ' Counterblaste UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 7 to Tobacco.' He speaks of it as being " a sinne- ful and shameful lust;" as " a branch of drunk- ennesse;" as "disabling both persons and goods ;" and in conclusion declares it to be " a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black and stinking fume there- of, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse." In the English colonies of North America, it is no wonder that legislation was resorted to for the purpose of regulating the use of this article, when it had become an object of so much value, as that " one hundred and twenty pounds of good leaf tobacco " would purchase for a Virginian planter a good and choice wife just imported from England. In one of the provincial governments of New England, a law was passed, forbidding any person "under twen- ty-one years of age, or any other that hath not already accustomed himself to the use thereof, to take any tobacko untill he hath brought a certificate under the hand^ of some who are approved for knowledge and skill in phisick, that it is useful for him, and also that hee hath received a lycense from the Courte for the 8 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO same. And for the regulating of those who either by their former taking it, have to their own apprehensions made it necessary to them, or uppon due advice are persuaded to the use thereof, "It is ordered, that no man within this colo- nye, after the publication hereof, shall take any tobacko publiquely in the streett, high wayes or any barne yardes, or uppon training dayes in any open places, under the penalty of six- pence for each offence against this order in any the particulars thereof, to bee paid without gainsaying, uppon conviction, by the testimony of one witness that is without just exception, before any one magistrate. And the constables in the severall townes are required to make presentment to each particular courte, of such as they doe understand and can evict to bee transgressors of this order." In the old Massachusetts colony laws, is an act with a penalty, for those who shall " smoke tobacco within twenty poles of any house, or shall take tobacco at any inn or victualling house, except in a private room, so as that neither the master nor any guest shall take offence thereat." UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 9 In the early records of Harvard University is a regulation ordering that " no scholar shall take tobacco unless permitted by the President, with the consent of his parents, on good reason first given by a physician, and then only in a sober and private manner." At a town-meeting in Portsmouth, N. II., in 1662, it was "ordered that a cage be built, or some other means devised, at the discretion of the Selectmen, to punish such as take tobacco on the Lord's day, in time of publick service." But it does not appear that this measure had all the effect intended, for, ten years afterwards, the town voted that "if any person shall smoke tobacco in the meeting-house during religious service, he shall pay a fine of five shillings for the use of the town." But all these forces have been vanquished, and this one weed is the conqueror. Regard- less of collegial and town regulations, of pro- vincial laws, and of royal, parliamentary, and papal power, tobacco has kept on its way, till it has encircled the earth, and now holds in slav- ery a larger number of human minds than any other herb. 2* 10 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO EFFECTS OF TOBACCO UPON ANIMAL LIFE. To the organs of smell and taste in their natural condition, it is one of the most disgust- ing and loathsome of all the products of the vegetable kingdom.* Dr. Franklin ascertained that the oily mate- rial which floats upon the surface of water upon a stream of tobacco smoke being passed into it, is capable, when applied to the tongue of a cat, of destroying life in a few minutes. Mr. Brodie applied one drop of the empyreu- matic oil of tobacco to the tongue of a cat; it occasioned immediate convulsions and an ac- celerated breathing. Five minutes after, the animal lay down on the side, and presented, from time to time, slight convulsive movements. A quarter of an hour after, it appeared recov- ered. The same quantity of the oil was appli- ed again, and the animal died in two minutes. In December, 1833, aided by several gentle- men of the medical class, and occasionally in the presence of other individuals, I made a number of experiments upon cats and other animals, with the distilled oil of tobacco. * This is proved by applying it to these organs in infancy, among those children whose parents do not use tobacco. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 11 FIRST EXPERIMENT. A small drop of the oil was rubbed upon the tongue of a large cat. Immediately the ani- mal uttered piteous cries and began to froth at the mouth.' In one minute the pupils of the eyes were dilated and the respiration was labo- rious. In two and a half minutes vomiting and staggering. In four minutes evacuations ; the cries continued, the voice hoarse and un- natural. In five minutes repeated attempts at vomiting. In seven minutes respiration some- what improved. At this time a large drop was rubbed upon the tongue. In an instant the eyes were closed, the cries were stopped, and the breathing was suffocative and convulsed. In one minute the ears were in rapid convul- sive motion, and presently after tremors and violent convulsions extended over the body and limbs. In three and a half minutes the ani- mal fell upon the side senseless and breathless, and the heart had ceased to beat. Slight tremors of the voluntary muscles, par- ticularly of the limbs, continued, more or less, for nineteen minutes after the animal was dead. Those of the right side were observed to be more and longer affected than those of the left. 12 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO Half an hour after death the body was open- ed, and the stomach and intestines were found to be contracted and firm, as from a violent and permanent spasm of the muscular coat. The lungs were empty and collapsed. The left side of the heart, the aorta and its great branches were loaded with black blood. The right side of the heart and the two cava? con- tained some blood, but were not distended. The pulmonary artery contained only a small quantity of blood. The blood was everywhere fluid. SECOND EXPERIMENT. A cat was the subject of this experiment. The general effects were very much like those in the last, excepting, perhaps, that the oil oper- ated with a little less energy. This cat was said to have lived for several years in a room almost perpetually fumigated with tobacco- smoke. The history of the animal employed in the first experiment, was unknown. THIRD EXPERIMENT. Three drops of the oil of tobacco were rub- bed upon the tongue of a full-sized, but young cat. In an instant the pupils were dilated and UPON LIFE AN*D HEALTH. 13 the breathing convulsed; the animal leaped about as if distracted, and presently took two or three rapid turns in a small circle, then dropped upon the floor in frightful convulsions, and was dead in two minutes and forty-five sec- onds from the moment that the oil was put upon the tongue. FOURTH EXPERIMENT. To the tongue of a young and rather less than half-grown cat, a drop of the oil of tobac- co was applied. In fifteen seconds the ears were thrown into rapid and convulsive* mo- tions; in thirty seconds fruitless attempts to vomit. In one minute convulsive respiration ; the animal fell upon the side. In four minutes and twenty seconds violent convulsions. In five minutes the breathing and the heart's mo- tion had ceased. There was no evacuation by the mouth or otherwise. The vital powers had been too suddenly and too far reduced to admit of a reaction. The tremors which followed death, subsided first in the superior extremi- ties, and in five minutes ceased altogether. The muscles were perfectly flaccid. 14 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO FIFTH EXPERIMENT. In the tip of the nose of a mouse, a small puncture was made with a surgeon's needle, bedewed with the oil of tobacco. The little animal, from the insertion of this small quan- tity of the poison, fell into a violent agitation, and was dead in six minutes. SIXTH EXPERIMENT. Two drops of the oil were rubbed upon the tongue of a red squirrel. This animal, so ath- letic as to render it difficult to secure him sufficiently long for the application, was in a moment seized with a violent agitation of the whole body and limbs, and was perfectly dead and motionless in one minute. SEVENTH EXPERIMENT. To the tongue of a dog rather under the middle size, five drops of the oil of tobacco were applied. In forty-five seconds he fell upon the side, got up, retched, and fell again. In one minute the respiration was laborious, and the pupils were dilated. In two minutes the breathing was slow and feeble, with puffing of the cheeks. In three minutes the pupils were smaller, but continually varying. The UPON LIFE A'ND HEALTH. 15 left fore leg and the right hind leg were affect- ed with a simultaneous convulsion or jerk, cor- responding with the inspiratory motions of the chest. This continued for five minutes. In nine minutes alimentary evacuations; symptoms abated, and the animal attempted to walk. At ten minutes two drops of the oil were applied to the tongue. Instantly the breathing became laborious, with puffing of the cheeks; pupils much dilated. The convulsive or jerking motions of the two limbs appeared as before, recurring regularly at the interval of about two seconds, and exactly corresponding with the inspirations. In twelve minutes the pupils were more natural; slight frothing at the mouth, the animal still lying upon the siue. At this time a drop of the oil was passed into each nostril. The labor of the respiration was suddenly increased, the jaws locked. In twenty-two minutes no material change; the jaws were separated and five drops of the oil were rubbed on the tongue. In one minute the pupils were entirely dilated, with strong convulsions. In one and a half minutes, in trying to walk, the animal fell. In three min- utes the eyes rolled up, and convulsions con- 16 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO tinued. In six minutes the plica semilunaris so drawn as to cover half the cornea. In seven minutes slight frothing at the mouth. In forty minutes the inspirations were less deep, the con- vulsions had been unremitted, the strength fail- ing. From this time he lay for more than half an hour nearly in the same state; the strength was gradually sinking, and as there was no prospect of recovery, he was killed. In this case, the true apoplectic puffing of the cheeks was present the greater part of the time. From the foregoing, and from additional ex- periments, which it is not necessary to give in detail, it appeared, that when applied to a ■^Gund made in the most sensitive parts of the integuments, the oil of tobacco, though it caus- ed a good deal of pain, had a far less general effect than when applied to the tongue. Bats were less affected than cats. Two and some- times three drops rubbed upon the tongue of a rat, did not kill in half an hour. Three large drops rubbed upon the tongue of a full-sized cat, usually caused death in from three to ten minutes, and in one instance already stated, in two minutes and forty-five seconds. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 17 One drop passed into the jugular vein of a large dog, occasioned an immediate cry, fol- lowed in a few moments by staggering, convul- sive twitchings of the voluntary muscles, and vomiting. In those cases in which full vomiting occur- red, evident relief followed. Young animals suffered much more than those which had come to their full growth and vigor. In those animals whose lives were suddenly destroyed by the tobacco, no coagulation of the blood took place. The bodies of several cats were examined the next day after death, and only in a single instance was a slight coagulum ob- served ; and this was in a cat whose constitu- tion possessed strong powers of resistance, and whose death was comparatively lingering. It is not improbable, that the charge of inhu- manity may be made against experiments pros- ecuted upon defenceless animals, with a poison so painful and destructive in its operation as tobacco 5 the justice of this charge is freely admitted, if such experiments be made merely for the gratification of curiosity, and not with the object and reasonable hope of making them useful to mankind, and of influencing at least Q* Inf ofTobac. «-> 18 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO some few individuals to abandon the practice—■ humane can it be called?—of administering this poison to themselves and their children, till it occasions disease and death. Indeed, there are but few who would willingly witness more than a single experiment of this kind, with no prospect of benefit to result from it. When applied to sensitive surfaces of con- siderable extent,even in a form somewhat dilute, tobacco often produces the most serious effects. The tea of tobacco has been known to destroy the life of a horse, when forced into his stom- ach to relieve indisposition. When used as a wash, to destroy vermin upon certain domestic animals, tobacco tea has been known to kill the animals themselves. A farmer not long since assured me that he had destroyed a calf in this manner. " A woman applied to the heads of three chil- dren, for a disease of the scalp, an ointment prepared with the powder of tobacco and but- ter ; soon after, they experienced dizziness, vio- lent vomitings and faintings, accompanied with profuse sweats." Orfila. .. The celebrated French poet Santeuil came to his death through horrible pains and convul- [JPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 19 sions, from having taken a glass of wine with which some snuff had been mixed. The tea of twenty or thirty grains of tobacco introduced into the human body for the purpose of relieving spasms, has been known repeatedly to destroy life. The same tea, applied to parts affected with itch, has been followed by vomiting and con- vulsions. The same article, applied to the skin * on the pit of the stomach, occasions faintness, vomiting, and cold sweats. I knew a young man who, only from inhal- ing the vapor arising from the leaves of tobacco immersed in boiling water, was made alarming- ly sick. A medical friend assured me that he was once thrown into a state of great prostration and nausea, from having a part of his hand mois- tened, for a few minutes, in a strong infusion of tobacco. Col. G---- says, that during the late war, under hard service on the Canadian frontier, the soldiers not unfrequently disabled themselves for duty, by applying a moistened leaf of tobacco to the armpit. It caused great pros- tration and vomiting. Many were suddenly 20 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO and violently seized soon after eating. On investigation, a tobacco leaf was found in the armpit. « Dr. M. Long, of Warner, N. II., writes me, under date of April 26, 1834, that on the 6th of May, 1825, he was consulted by Mrs. F. on account of her little daughter L. F., then five years old, who had a small ringworm, scarcely three-fourths of an inch in diameter, situated upon the root of the nose. Her object was to ascertain the doctor's opinion as to the propri- ety of making a local application of tobacco in the case. He objected to it as an exceedingly hazardous measure ; and to impress his opinion more fully, related a case, a record of which he had seen, in which a father destroyed the life of his little son by the use of tobacco spittle upon an eruption or humor of the head. Immediately after the doctor left the house, the mother besmeared the tip of her finger with a little of the " strong juice" from the grand- mother's tobacco pipe, and proceeded to apply it to the ringworm, remarking, that " if it should strike to the stomach, it must go through the nose." The instant the mother's finger touched the part affected, the eyes of the little UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 21 patient were rolled up in their sockets, she sal- lied back, and in the act of falling, was caught by the alarmed mother. The part was imme- diately washed with cold water, with a view to dislodge the poison. But this was to no pur- pose, for the jaws were already firmly locked together, and the patient was in a senseless and apparently dying state. The doctor, who had stopped three-fourths of a mile distant, to see a patient, was presently called in. The symp- toms were "coldness of the extremities, no perceptible pulse at the wrists, the jaws set together, deep insensibility, the countenance deathly." He succeeded in opening the jaws, so as to admit of the administration of the spirits of ammonia and lavender; frictions were employed, and every thing done which at the time was thought likely to promote resuscita- tion, but "it was an hour, or an hour and a half, before the little patient was so far recov- ered as to be able to speak." " Till this time," says Dr. Long, " the child had been robust and healthy, never having had but one illness that required medical advice; but since the tobacco experiment, she has been con- tinually feeble and sickly. The first four or 22 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO five years after this terrible operation, she was subject to fainting fits every three or four weeks, sometimes lasting from twelve to twenty-four hours; and many times, in those attacks, her life appeared to be in imminent danger. Within the last three or four years, those turns have been less severe." The foregoing facts serve to show that to- bacco is one of the most active and deadly veg- etable poisons known; it acts directly upon the nervous power, enfeebling, deranging, or ex- tinguishing the actions of life. Is it possible, that the habitual use of an article of so actively poisonous properties can promote health, or indeed fail to exert an injurious influence upon health? It will readily be admitted, that the daily use of any article which causes an ex- haustion of the nervous power beyond what is necessarily occasioned by unstimulating food and drink, and the ordinary physical agents, as heat, cold, light, together with mental and corporeal exertion, is not only useless, but hurt- ful, tending directly to produce disease and premature decay. Such is tobacco. Ample evidence of this is furnished by a departure, more or less obvious, from healthy action, in the UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 23 organic, vital movements of a large majority of tobacco consumers. From the habitual use of tobacco, in either of its forms of snuff, cud, or cigar, the following symptoms may arise : a sense of weakness, sink- ing, or pain at the pit of the stomach ; dizziness or pain in the head ; occasional dimness or tem- porary loss of sight; paleness and sallowness of the countenance, and sometimes swelling of the feet; an enfeebled state of the voluntary muscles, manifesting itself sometimes by tre- mors of the hands, sometimes by weakness, tremulousness, squeaking or hoarseness of the voice, rarely a loss of the voice; disturbed sleep, starting from the early slumbers with a sense of suffocation or the feeling of alarm; incubus, or nightmare; epileptic or convulsion fits; confusion or weakness of the mental fac- ulties ; peevishness and irritability of temper ; instability of purpose; seasons of great depres- sion of the spirits; long fits of unbroken melan- choly and despondency, and in some cases, en- tire and permanent mental derangement.* * I have recently seen two cases: one caused by the excessive use of snuff, the other by the chewing of tobacco and swallowing the saliva. 24 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO The animal machine, by regular and perse- vering reiteration or habit, is capable of accom- modating itself to impressions made by poison- ous substances, so far as not to show signs of injury under a superficial observation, provided they are slight at first, and gradually increas- ed ; but it does not hence follow that such impressions are not hurtful. It is a great mis- take, into which thousands are led, to suppose that every unfavorable effect or influence of an article of food, or drink, or luxury, must be felt immediately after it is taken. Physicians often have the opportunity of witnessing this among their patients. The confirmed dyspeptic consults his physi- cian for pain or wind in the stomach, accom- panied with headache or dizziness, occasional pains of the limbs, or numbness or tremors in the hands and feet, and sometimes with difficult breathing, disturbed sleep, and a dry cough and huskiness of the voice in the morning. The physician suggests the propriety of a light diet for a time; but the patient objects, alleging that he never feels so well as when he has swal- lowed a good dinner. He is then advised to avoid spirit, wine, cider, beer, etc.; the reply UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 25 is, "It is impossible that the little I take can do me hurt: so far from that, it always does me good ; I always feel the better for it. I do not need any one to tell me about that." He is asked if he uses tobacco. " Yes, I smoke a little, chew a little, and snuff a little." " You had bet- ter leave it off altogether, sir." " Leave it off? I assure you, doctor, you know but little about it. If I were to leave off smoking, I should throw up half my dinner." " That might do you no harm, sir." " I see you do not understand my case, doctor ; I have taken all these good things for many years, and have enjoyed good health. They never injured me. How could they have done so without my perceiving it? Do you suppose I have lived so long in the world with- out knowing what does me good, and what does not?" " It would appear so, sir, and you are in a fair way to die without acquiring this impor- tant knowledge." The poor man goes away, in a struggle be- tween the .convictions of truth and the over- whelming force of confirmed habit. Under the sustaining power of a good constitution, and in the activity of business, he never dreamed of injury from the moderate indulgence, as he re- 4* 26 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO garded it, in the use of stimulants, as spirit, wine, tobacco, till the work was done. His is the case of hundreds of thousands. The vital principle in the human body can so far resist the influences of a variety of poisons, slowly introduced into it, that their effects shall be unobserved, till, under the operation of an exciting or disturbing cause, their accumulated force breaks out in the form of some fearful or incurable disease. The poison which comes from vegetable decompositions, on extensive marshes and the borders of lakes, after being received into the body remains apparently harm- less, in some instances a whole year, before it kindles up a wasting intermittent or a destruc- tive bilious remittent fever. Facts of this nature show that pernicious in- fluences may be exerted upon the secret springs of life, while we are wholly unconscious of their operation. Such is the effect of the habitual use of tobacco and other narcotics, and of all stim- ulants which, like them, make an impression upon the whole nervous system, without afford- ing the materials of supply or nutrition. It is an alleged fact, that previously to the age of forty years, a larger mortality exists in UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 27 Spanish America than in Europe. The very gen- eral habit of smoking tobacco, 'existing among children and youth as well as adults, it has been supposed, and not without reason, might explain this great mortality. Like ardent spirits, tobacco must be peculiarly pernicious in childhood, when all the nervous energy is re- quired to aid in accomplishing the full and per- fect development of the different organs of the body, and in ushering in the period of manhood. I once knew a boy, eight years of age, whose father had taught him the free use of the tobac- co cud four years before. He was a pale, thin, sickly child, and often vomited up his dinner. To individuals of sedentary habits and lit- erary pursuits, tobacco is peculiarly injurious, inasmuch as these classes of persons are in a measure deprived of the partially counteract- ing influence of air and exercise. I have pre- scribed for scores of young men, pursuing either college or professional studies, who had been more or less injured by the habitual use of this plant. In the practice of smoking there is no small danger. It tends to produce a huskiness of the mouth, which calls for some liquid. Water is 28 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO too insipid, as the nerves of taste are in a half- palsied state, from the influence of the tobacco smoke; hence, in order to be tasted, an article of a pungent or stimulating character is resort- ed to, and hence the kindred habits of smoking and drinking. A writer in one of the Ameri- can periodicals, speaking of the effect of to- bacco in his own case, says that smoking and chewing " produced a continual thirst for stimu- lating drinks; and this tormenting thirst led me into the habit of drinking ale, porter, bran- dy, and other kinds of spirit, even to the ex- tent at times of partial intoxication." The same writer adds, that " after he had subdued his appetite for tobacco, he lost all desire for stimulating drinks." The taker of snuff neces- sarily swallows a part of it, especially when asleep; by which means its enfeebling effects must be increased. The opinion that tobacco is necessary to pro- mote digestion is altogether erroneous. If it be capable of soothing the uneasiness of the nerves of the stomach occurring after a meal, that very uneasiness has been caused by some error of diet or regimen, and may be removed by other means. If tobacco facilitates diges- UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 29 tion, how comes it, that after laying aside the habitual use of it, most individuals experience an increase of appetite and of digestive ener- gy, and an accumulation of flesh ? It is sometimes urged, that men occasionally live to an advanced age who are habitual con- sumers of this article: true, and so do some men who habitually drink rum, and who occa- sionally get drunk ; and does it thence follow that rum is harmless, or promotes long life ? All that either fact proves is, that the poison- ous influence is longer or more effectually re- sisted by some constitutions than by others. The man who can live long under the use of tobacco and rum, can live longer without them. An opinion has prevailed in some communi- ties, that the use of tobacco operates as a pre- servative against infectious and epidemic dis- eases. This must be a mistake. Whatever tends to weaken or depress the powers of the nervous system, predisposes it to be operated upon by the causes of these diseases. If tobac- co affords protection in such cases, why does it not secure those who use it against cholera ? In no communities, perhaps, has that disease committed more frightful ravages, than where 30 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO all classes of persons are addicted to the free use of this article. In Havana, in 1833, con- taining a stationary population of about one hundred and twenty thousand, cholera carried off, in a few weeks, if we may credit the public journals, sixteen thousand; and in Matanzas, containing a population of about twelve thou- sand, it was announced that fifteen hundred perished. This makes one-eighth of the popu- lation in both places ; and if, as in most other cities, the number of deaths as published in the journals falls short of the truth, and a consid- erable deduction be made from the whole popu- lation on account of the great numbers who fled on the appearance of the disease, the mor- tality will be still greater. In Havana, after the announcement of the foregoing mortality, and after a subsidence of the epidemic for some weeks, it returned, and destroyed such numbers as to bring back the public alarm. The degree in which the practice of smoking prevails, may be judged of by a fact stated by Dr. Abbot in his letters from Cuba, namely, that in 1828 it was the common estimate, that in Havana there was an average consumption of ten thou- sand dollars' worth of cigars in a day. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 31 Dr. Moore, who resides in the province of Yucatan in Mexico, assures me that the city of Campeachy, containing a population of twenty thousand, lost by cholera in about thirty days, commencing early in July, four thousand three hundred and a fraction of its inhabitants. This is a little short of one-fourth of the population; although Dr. Moore says that the people of Campeachy made it as a common remark, " We have lost one in four of our number." With reference to the habits of the people in that part of Mexico, Dr. Moore says, "Every body smokes cigars, I never saw an exception among the natives. It is a common thing to see a child of two years old learning to smoke." The opinion that the use of tobacco pre- serves the teeth, is supported neither by physi- ology nor observation. Constantly applied to the&interior of the mouth, whether in the form of cud or of smoke, this narcotic must tend to enfeeble the gums, and the membrane covering the necks and roots of the teeth, and in this way must rather accelerate than retard their decay. We accordingly find that tobacco con- sumers are not favored with better teeth than 32 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO others; and on the average, they exhibit these organs in a less perfect state of preservation. Sailors make a free use of tobacco, and they have bad teeth. The grinding surfaces of the teeth are, on the average, more rapidly worn down or ab- sorbed from the chewing or smoking of tobac- co for a series of years, being observed in some instances to project but a little way beyond the gums. This fact I have observed in the mouths of some scores of individuals in our own commu- nities ; and I have also observed the same thing in the teeth of several men belonging to the Seneca and St. Francois tribes of Indians, who, like most of the other North American tribes, are much addicted to the use of this narcotic. In several instances, when the front teeth of the two jaws have been shut close, the surfaces of the grinders, in the upper and lower jaw, especially where the cud had been kept, did not touch each other, but exhibited a space be- tween them of one-tenth to one-sixth of an inch, showing distinctly the effects of the to- bacco, more particularly striking upon those parts to which it had been applied in its most concentrated state. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 33 The expensiveness of the habit of using tobac- co is no small objection to it. Let the smoker estimate the expense of thirty years' use of cigars, on the principle of annual interest, which is the proper method, and he might be startled at the amount. Six cents a day, ac- cording to the Rev. Mr. Fowler's calculation, would amount to $3,529 30; a sum which would be very useful to the family of many a tobacco consumer when his faculties of provid- ing for them have failed. Eighty thousand dollars' worth of cigars, it was estimated, were consumed in the city of New York in 1810; at that rate the present annual consumption would amount to more than two hundred thousand dollars. The statement of Rev. Dr. Abbot, in his letters from Cuba, in 1828, already alluded to, is, that the con- sumption of tobacco in that island is immense. The Rev. Mr. Ingersoll, who passed the winter of 1832-3 in Havana, expresses his belief that this is not an overstatement. He says, " Call the population 120,000 ; say half are smokers ; this, at a bit a day," that is, twelve and a half cents, "would make between seven and eight thousand dollars. But this is too low an esti- Inf. of Tobao 34 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO mate, since.not men only, but women and chil- dren smoke, and many at a large expense." He says, that " the free negro of Cuba appropriates a bit from his daily wages to increase the cloud of smoke that rises from the city and country." This, in thirty years, would amount to $7,058 72—a respectable estate for a negro, or even for a white man. The Rev. 0. Fowler, from considerable at- tention to the statistics of tobacco consumption in the United States, estimates the annual cost at $10,000,000; the time lost by the use.of it, at $12,000,000; the pauper tax which it occa- sions, at $3,000,000 : amounting to $25,000,000. This estimate I must believe to be consider- ably below the truth. It has been estimated that the consumption of tobacco in this country is eight times as great as in France, and three times as great as in England, in proportion to the population.* * The annual expenditure of cigars in the city of New York now, 1854, amounts, probably, to the sum of $300,000. I have it from the most reliable authority, that a single house in the city of New York, has recently realized in one year, from commissions on the article of cigars alone, more than $100,000. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 35 The habit of using tobacco is uncleanly and impolite. It is uncleanly from the foul odor, the muddy nostril, and darkly smeared lip it confers, and from the encouragement it gives to the habit of spitting, which, in our country, would be sufficiently common and sufficiently loathsome without it. "True politeness," said a distinguished Eng- lish scholar, "is kindness, kindly expressed." The using of tobacco, especially by smoking, is any thing but kindness or the kindly expression Dr. Trail remarks, " As long ago as 1839, Great Britain derived a revenue of $18,000,000 from the duty on tobacco. The actual loss to the nation was, of course, treble or quad- ruple that enormous sum—an amount sufficient to have fed, clothed, and educated every one of the starving millions under the government of Queen Victoria; and even suffi- cient to have extinguished, at no distant day, the immense national debt of the country." A late writer in Blackwood's Magazine says, " Leaving the question of its origin, the reader will not be surprised, when he considers how widely the practice of smoking pre- vails, that the total product of tobacco grown on the face of the globe, has been calculated by Mr. Crawford to amount to the enormous quantity of two millions of tons. The comparative magnitude of this quantity will strike the reader more forcibly when we state that the whole of the wheat consumed by the inhabitants of Great Britain—esti- mating it at a quarter a head, or in round numbers, at 36 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO of it, when it creates an atmosphere which, whether it comes directly from the pipe, the cigar, the deeply imbued clothing, or the worse than alligator breath, is absolutely insupporta- ble to many who do not use it, causing depres- sion of strength, dizziness, headache, sickness at the stomach, and sometimes vomiting. By what rule of politeness, nay, on what principle of common justice may I poison the atmosphere my neighbor is compelled to breathe, or so load it with an unhealthy and loathsome material as twenty millions of quarters—weighs only four and one-third millions of tons; so that the tobacco raised yearly for the gratification of this one form of the narcotic appetite, weighs as much as the wheat consumed by ten millions of Englishmen. And reckoning it at only double the market value of wheat, or two pence and a fraction per pound, it is worth in money as much as all the wheat eaten in Great Britain." < The following estimate of the annual produce and value of tobacco, is from " Chemistry of Common Life," by Prof. J. F. W. Johnston, F. R. S. etc. " Produce per acre, 800 lbs. Acres employed, 5,600,000. Total produce in pounds, 4,480,000,000. Value per pound, 2d.: total value in pounds sterling, £37,000,000, or about $185,000,000. And it may be estimated," says Prof. Johnston, "that tobacco is used among 800,000,000 of men." Must it then be said of so many of our race, " They are all gone out of the way?" UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 37 to make him uncomfortable or wretched so long as I am in his company ? What would be said of the physician who, having acquired a strong liking for assafoetida, should allow himself in the constant habit of chewing it, to the great annoyance, from his foul breath, of many of his patients, as well as more or less of the healthy individuals of the families who employ him ? Or how would a gentleman traveller be regard- ed, who should not only keep his breath con- stantly imbued with this assafoetida, but also insist upon spurting successive mouthfuls of the tincture of it upon the floor of a stage-coach, or of the cabin of a steam-boat? Would he be commended, either for his cleanliness, politeness, or kindness? Nay, would he be tolerated in such a violation of the principles of good breed- ing? I have seen numbers who have been made sick, dizzy, and pale by the breath of a smoker; and I have seen a person vomit out of a stage- coach, from the influence of that indescribable breath which results from alcoholic liquor and tobacco smoke. How painful to see young men in our scien- tific and literary institutions—men, who are soon to lead in our national councils, to shape 38 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO the morals and the manners of the circles of society in which they will move—making them- selves downright sick, day after day and week after week, in order to form a habit of taking a disgusting poison, steeping their nerves and their intellects in its narcotic influence, the direct tendencies of which are to impair their health, to enfeeble their minds, and to disqual- ify them for a place in cleanly and polite so- ciety. The use of tobacco, like that of alcoholic liquor, should be abandoned totally and for ever. The plan of taking less and less daily, is seldom successful. This is what is called " trying to leave off." If a little less be taken one day, generally a little more is taken the next. A respectable patient, for whom I have prescribed on account of a severe nervous affec- tion, has been' ". trying " for the last six months to quit her snuff, and she is apparently no nearer the accomplishment of her object than when she began. It does not answer to treat with the least deference an appetite so unnatural and imperative as that created by a powerful nar- cotic ; it must be denied abruptly, totally, and perseveringly. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 39 In several of our penitentiaries tobacco is not allowed to the inmates, almost all of whom were consumers of it. The testimony of the agents of these institutions is, that none are injured by quitting this narcotic, but*that in a few days, seldom over twenty, their uneasiness and agita- tion subside, their appetite is increased, and their appearance is manifestly improved. A distinguished physician has assured me, that he never knew a person sustain the least perma- nent injury from the disuse of tobacco, but on the contrary every one had received decided benefit. My own observation is in perfect ac- cordance with this remark; I have known a large number of this description, and can say that I have never conversed with an individual, who, after having been freed from the habit a year, did not confess that an advantage, greater or less, had resulted from his self-denial. CASES ILLUSTRATIVE OF ITS EFFECTS. A gentleman of distinction, in the profession of law in New Hampshire, wrote me under date of Dec. 10, 1833, as follows: "At the age of twelve years, misled by some boyish fancy, I commenced the use of tobacco, 40 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO and continued it with little restraint for about nineteen years. Generally I was in the habit of chewing tobacco, but sometimes for two, three, or four months together, I exchanged chewing for smoking. I have always led a sedentary life. After attaining to manhood, my ordinary weight was about 130 pounds; once or twice only rising to 135, and falling not unfrequently to 125, and sometimes to 117. My appetite was poor and unsteady, the nervous system much disordered, and my life was greatly imbittered by excessive and inordinate fear of death. My spirits were much depressed. I became ex- ceedingly irresolute, so that it required a great effort to accomplish what I now do even with- out thinking of it. My sleep was disturbed, faintings and lassitude were my constant attend- ants. " I had made two or three attempts to redeem myself from a habit which'I knew was at best useless and foolish, if not prejudicial. But they were feeble and inefficient. Once, indeed, I thought I was sure that the giving up the use of tobacco * injured my health, and I finally gave up all hopes of ever ridding myself of this habit. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 41 "In the summer of 1830, my attention was called to the subject by some friends whom I visited, and by the advice and example of a friend who had renounced the practice with the most decided advantage, I thought seriously upon the subject, and felt what had scarce oc- curred to me before, how degrading it was to be enslaved by a habit so ignoble. I threw away my tobacco at once and entirely, and have not since used the article in any form. Yet this was not done without a great effort, and it was some months before I ceased to hanker for the pernicious weed. Since then my health has decidedly improved. I now usually weigh 145 pounds, and have arisen to 152 ; rarely below 145. My spirits are better. There is nothing of the faintness, lassitude, and fearful appre- hensions before described. My appetite is good and my sleep sound. I have no resolution to boast of, yet considerably more than I formerly- had. " In fine, I cannot tell what frenzy may seize me; yet with my present feelings, I know not the wealth that would induce me to resume the unrestrained use of tobacco, and continue it through life." 42 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO To Dr. A. Hobbs I am indebted for the fol- lowing case, which occurred in his own family connection: " Mr. J. H----began to chew tobacco at an early age, and used it freely. When about fifty- five years old, he lost his voice and was unable to speak above the whisper for three years. During the four or five years which preceded the loss of his voice, he used a quarter of a pound of tobacco in a week. He was subject to fits of extreme melancholy; for whole days he would not speak to any one, was exceeding- ly dyspeptic, and was subject to nightmare. When about fifty-eight years old, that is, about thirteen years ago, he abandoned his tobacco. His voice gradually returned, and in one year was pretty good ; his flesh and strength were greatly increased, and he now has a younger look than when he laid aside his narcotic." April, 1834. The case of Mr. L. B----, a shoemaker, now about fifty-two years of age, exhibits strikingly the injurious effects of tobacco. About fourteen years ago, he consulted me on account of dys- pepsia, obstinate costiveness, and palpitation UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 43 of the heart, which symptoms had existed for several years. The palpitation he had observ- ed about seven years before. In a small degree it occurred almost daily. For years a slight fluttering was generally felt in the morning, for a short time after breakfast, which com- pelled him to sit still, avoiding mental as well as muscular exertion. After an hour or more, he was better. He was besides subject to severe paroxysms of palpitation, occurring at irregular periods. Six or seven of these took place in a year. These turns were excited under stomach irritations or oppression from indigestible food. They came on instantane- ously, and often left in a moment; " the pulse was nothing but a flutter." So great was the prostration, that during the paroxysm he was obliged to lie still upon the bed. The length of the paroxysm was various; sometimes an hour, sometimes several hours. He was in the habit of using tobacco in all its forms of cud, cigar, and snuff; he drank tea and coffee freely, and spirit and cider moder- ately. I advised him to the entire disuse of tobacco, tea, coffee, and all other drinks, save water, and to live on plain and unstimulating 44 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO food. He followed the advice in regard to drinks, in so far as to confine himself to water, and threw away the cud and cigar, but contin- ued to take snuff. Under this change his health was improved, and the turns of palpitation were less frequent, and generally less severe. In this way he continued for about eight years, his general health being considerably improved; he was subject, however, to an occasional attack of palpitation. At length he had a paroxysm, which was so terribly severe and protracted as to keep him nine hours and a half motionless upon his back, under the incessant apprehension of immediate dissolution. In the course of this nine and a half hours he made up his mind to take no more snuff. He has kept his resolution, and has not had an attack since, now about six years. He says he has sometimes felt a slight agitation or tremor, but this has been rare. Once his fingers were tremulous, now they are perfectly steady; and his memory, which was alarmingly impaired, is very much improved. A physician, with whom I was intimately acquainted during the greater part of his med- ical pupilage, which included the latter part of his tobacco experience, has given the following UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 45 account of his own case. He has a preference for withholding his name from the public, and has described himself as "the patient." The circumstances of the case as related, may be re- lied on. I was present each time when he threw away his tobacco. " The patient," says he, " at the early age of fourteen, under the impression that it was a manly habit, commenced chewing tobacco; and a long and painful course of training was re- quired, before the stomach could be brought to retain it. At length the natural aversion of this organ to the poison was so overcome, that an exceedingly large quantity might be taken without producing nausea. For several years the patient continued its uninterrupted use, swallowing all the secretions of the mouth sat- urated with this baneful narcotic, without ex- periencing much disturbance of health. At length he began to be harassed with heart-burn, attended with copious-eructations of an intense- ly acid fluid, together with other indications of dyspepsia. A watery stomach was suspected, and smoking was at once recommended in ad- dition to chewing, to alleviate the accumula- 46 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO tion of water in the stomach and to assist diges- tion. Smoking was accordingly practised after every meal, with little alleviation of the diffi- culty. The patient, however, being determined to be benefited by its use, resorted to it more frequently, smoking not only after eating, but several times between meals. Yet, to his great surprise, his troublesome symptoms were grad- ually augmented, notwithstanding his strenuous adherence to the practice. "To the heart-burn and acid eructations, soon succeeded nausea, loss of appetite, a gnawing sensation in the stomach when empty, a sense of constriction in the throat, dryness in the mouth and fauces, thickening or huskiness of the voice, costiveness, paleness of the counte- nance, languor, emaciation, aversion to exercise, lowness of spirits, palpitations, disturbed sleep; in short, all the symptoms which characterize dyspepsia of the worst stamp. He was well nigh unfitted for any kind of business, and his very existence began to be miserably burden some. " At last, being advised to abandon the use of tobacco in all its forms, and being fully per- suaded that he either must relinquish it volun- UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 47 tarily, or that death would soon compel him to do it, 'he summoned all his resolution for the fearful exigency, and after a long and desperate struggle, obtained the victory.' ' All the incon- venience ' he experienced, ' was a few sleepless nights, and an incessant hankering after the accustomed fascinating influence of the cigar and cud.' "In a few days a manifest improvement in health was apparent, his appetite and strength returned, his sleep became more sound and re- freshing, and he directly found himself in the enjoyment of better health than he had possess- ed at any time during ten years of vile submis- sion to a depraved and unnatural appetite. " After abstaining from it about two months, he again, by way of experiment, returned to the cud, cigar, and pipe ; and but a few days were requisite to recall all his former dyspeptic symptoms. He again relinquished the habit, under the full conviction that tobacco was the sole cause of his illness, and he firmly resolved never to make further use of it." After recovering a second time from the effects of his poison, this gentleman assured me, that at times his feelings had bordered on 48 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO those of mental derangement; he thought every body hated him, and he in turn hated every body. He had often, after lying awake for several hours in the night under the most dis- tressing forebodings, arisen, smoked his pipe to procure a temporary alleviation of his suffer- ings in fitful and half-delirious slumbers. He even thought of suicide, but was deterred by the dread of a hereafter. In a few weeks after relinquishing the indulgence, all these feelings were gone ; and when I last saw him, about two years, I believe, after quitting his tobacco, he was in fine health and spirits. The following letter from Dr. Moore de- scribes his own case. "Wells, Maine, April 10, 1833. "Dear Sir—It was not until this late hour that I received your letter of the 4th inst. With pleasure I hasten to answer your inqui- ries with regard to my experience in the use of tobacco. " In the autumn of 1817,1 commenced, I know not why, the use of tobacco. It was not until the spring of 1825, that I experienced any ill effects from it, except now and then heart-burn, acid eructations, and occasional fits of melan- UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 49 choly. At that time I became dyspeptic. My food gave me much uneasiness ; I had a sinking sensation at the pit of the stomach, wandering pains about the limbs especially by night, dis- turbed sleep, loss of appetite, great difficulty of breathing from slight exercise, debility, emacia- tion, depression of spirits. Such have been my symptoms and feelings the last seven years; and in that time I have had two attacks of haemoptysis, (spitting of blood,) which I attrib- ute solely to the relaxing effects of this nar- cotic. " The various remedies for dyspepsia were all tried in my case without the least benefit. About the first of December last, I gave up the use of tobacco, and to my astonishment, within the first twenty-four hours my appetite return- ed ; food gave no uneasiness, and strength re- turned. I have been generally gaining flesh, so that now my weight is greater than it ever was except once. " I never was in the habit of using more than half an ounce of tobacco a day. This would be but a moderate allowance for most persons who use the cud. I never was a smoker; my use of it was wholly confined to chewing. Inf. of Tobac. 52 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO all these unpleasant sensations. I will tell you. It was returning to the gratification of a de- praved appetite in the use of tobacco; and I have no hesitancy in declaring it as my opin- ion, that could the causes of the many acts of suicide committed in the United States be in- vestigated, it would be found that many instan- ces were owing to the effects of tobacco upon the nervous system. " It is now nearly two years since I have had any thing to do with this enemy of the human race, and my health has never been better. I have a good appetite for food. My dyspeptic affection troubles me so little, that I hardly think of it. I never weighed so much before by several pounds. " One of the persons of whom I wrote before, is still in this vicinity, and uses no tobacco; he enjoys uninterrupted health. The others do not now reside in this place. " Yours, "E. G. MOORE." It is presumed that henceforward Dr. Moore will retain so little doubt as to the effects of tobacco, as to avoid making further experiments with it upon his own constitution. UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 53 Jonathan Cummings, Esq., an intelligent farmer, now living in Plymouth, N. II., in a letter to Dr. Chadbourne, about three years ago, says that he was accustomed to manual la- bor from childhood, and enjoyed almost unin- terrupted health till he was twenty-five years old, about which time he commenced chewing and smoking tobacco ; having for some time taken snuff for weakness of his eyes. His stomach soon became affected, he had faintings and tremblings, and was unable to perform the la- bor he had been accustomed to do. "I went on in this way," says he, " for thirty years; tobac- co seemed to be my only comfort; I thought that I could not live without it. "Two years ago, finding my strength still more rapidly declining, I determined to be a slave to my appetites no longer, and I discon- tinued the use of tobacco in every form. The trial was a severe one, but the immediate im- provement in my general health richly paid me for all I suffered. My appetite has returned, my food nourishes me, and after thirty succes- sive years of debility I have become strong. " My weight, during the time I used tobacco, varied from 130 to 140 pounds, but never ex- 54 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO ceeded 150; I now weigh over 180, and am a vigorous old man. I am in a great measure free from those stomach and liver complaints which followed me for thirty years. I do more work than I did fifteen years ago, and use none of what you doctors call artificial stimulants; for I have more recently reformed as to tea, which I had drank at least twice a day for forty- five years. It is useless, therefore, for folks to tell me that it wont do to break off old habits; I know, for I have tried it." In an estimate of the expenses incurred by what he calls his bad habits, he puts his tobac- co only at two dollars a year, which he says is much below its actual cost, his snuff at one dol- lar, and his tea at four dollars. At annual in- terest he computes that the amount would be $615; "not reckoning loss of time, and now and then a doctor's bill, any thing." "A pretty little sum," says he, " for one in my circumstan- ces, having always been pressed for money." In a letter I received from him about a year ago, he remarks, that among the symptoms oi ill health, while he used tobacco, were "a hol- low, faint feeling at the stomach, want of appe- tite, and sometimes severe spasms at the UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 55 stomach. All the time I used tobacco my complaint was supposed to be liver complaint, and I took medicine for it. I was troubled with my food lying in my stomach for hours after eating; frequently I took rhubarb and salaoratus, to help digestion; when the weight passed off, it left my stomach debilitated and full of pain, and I then took my pipe to relieve it." There were frequent seasons when he was obliged to quit labor, although this was his whole dependence for a living. Some additional particulars I obtained in April, 1836, in a personal conversation with Mr. Cummings. He remarked, that he con- tinued to take a little snuff for about four months after discontinuing smoking and chew- ing. "While in the habit of smoking," said he, " there was a hollow place in my stomach large enough to hold my two fists, which noth- ing could fill : food would not do it; drink would not do it; nothing but tobacco smoke." After quitting the tobacco, " the hollow place was gradually filled up ;" the appetite increas- ed, food digested better, and all the unpleasant symptoms were removed in about a month after the entire disuse of the snuff. 56 INFLUENCE OF.TOBACCO He observed to me that he never in his life used tobacco to excess, but always "temperate- ly ;" although he admitted, the employing it in three forms might have been equivalent to a rather free use of it in one mode. The effects of tobacco on the senses of seeing and hearing, in his case, were very striking. He used spec- tacles for several years, during his indulgence in tobacco, and he assured me that at the age of fifty-five years, he could not read a word in any common book, even in the strongest sun- shine, without spectacles. He had also a ring- ing and deafness in both ears for ten years, and at times the right ear was entirely deaf. Dur- ing the last year of his tobacco life this diffi- culty very perceptibly increased. " In about a month," said he, "after quitting tobacco in its last form, that is, snuff, my head cleared out, and I have never had a particle of the com- plaint since ; not the least ringing, nor the least deafness." It was not many months before he could dispense with his spectacles, and " from that time to the present," says he, " I have been able, without spectacles, to read very conven- iently, and to keep my minutes, having been a good deal engaged in surveying lands." He UrON LIFE AND HEALTH. 57 remarked, however, that when compelled to em- ploy his eyes upon a book for some hours in succession, e>pecially at evening, he found his spectacles convenient. He certainly hears quick, and his eye is altogether keener and stronger than usual with men of his age. He is now in his sixty-third year. That the defective vision and hearing were owing, in a great degree, to the tobacco, must be inferred from the fact of his food and drinks having been nearly the same before and since quitting that article. Said he, "I never lived high, my food was always plain, and I eat now the same things I did formerly." For organs so enfeebled as his, and for so long a time, to regain their powers to so great an extent, denotes a native energy of constitution far above the standard of mediocrity. An illustration of one frequent influence of the use of tobacco, in causing neuralgic affec- tions, is furnished by the following case of the late Chief Justice Richardson of New Hamp- shire, as reported by himself in a letter dated July 31, 1837. " I have never been much of a smoker or snuff taker. I began to chew tobacco in 1807. 58 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO I never was able at any time to hold in my mouth a piece larger than half a common pea, without making me sick. The practice of using it was continued till 1822, when I began to think my nerves affected by the use of it, and I abandoned it. In 1825 I resumed the use of it, taking every precaution to use it moder- ately. I did not carry it about me, but kept it where I could have access to it when I want- ed it. I used only the mildest I could procure. But notwithstanding all my precaution, the spasms and disagreeable sensations I had for- merly felt at my stomach returned. I could not persuade myself that the very moderate use I made of tobacco could be the cause, and I continued the use until within six or seven years last past. I had several most severe at- tacks of neuralgia, which confined me for weeks, witli the most excruciating pains in my right side and breast. It did not occur to me or to my physicians that the disorder had any con- nection with the use of tobacco, till in the last attack I had it occurred to me that it might be worth the trial to see what effect the abandon- ment of tobacco might have. This was in July, 1830. Since that time, I have had nothing UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 59 to do with tobacco in any shape. I have not even taken a pinch of snuff, and during all the time I have thus abstained, I have not felt the slightest symptom of my old complaints, but have enjoyed better health than I have had be- fore for many years. I am satisfied that the use of tobacco, combined with my sedentary habits and great mental exertion, was the source of all my suffering; and my firm resolve is, never to have any thing to do with it in any shape hereafter." The influence of tobacco upon the nerves of volition, is very distinct in some constitutions. Daniel Chase, Esq., of New Hampshire, at the age of seventy-nine, gave up tobacco, which he had chewed for many years. The muscles of his arms and hands had become habitually tremulous. When he was eighty-four years old, he assured me that his nerves were steady, and that he could now shoot a squirrel from the highest tree as unerringly as he could at fifty. He made this remark, that it did not satisfy him to be told that old folks could not give up bad habits ; "I know," said he, "for I have tried it." My friend Dr. Slialer of Kentucky recently 60 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO remarked to me, that he considered the use of tobacco a stepping-stone to drunkenness; that it produced a feeling of sinking and depres- sion at the stomach, which was relieved by al- coholic liquors. For this purpose, he usually took his brandy at least four times a day. He has done without tobacco for the last four years, and has no craving for brandy or other strong drink, and takes none. The following statement from the late Dr. Chapman, professor of theory and practice of physic in Philadelphia, shows the influence of this' article upon the functions of the alimen- tive organs, as well as of the brain. "Numerous are the instances of constipa- tion which I have met with from this article. The primary effect of it, in whatever mode con- sumed, is rather aperient; and the persistent or inordinate use, directly the contrary." Also in an article on dyspepsia, the same author uses the following emphatic language: " The most common of the causes of the disease, in certain parts of our country, is the enormous consump- tion of tobacco in the several forms. Certain I am, at least, that a large proportion of the cases of it which come to me, are thus pro- UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 61 duced. It is usually very obstinate, and some- times of a truly melancholy character." Then follows the description of several striking cases. One, " A member of Congress from the west, in the meridian of life, and of a very stout frame, wdio told me that he labored under the greatest physical and moral infirmity, which he was utterly unable to explain ; and that from having been one of the most healthy and fearless men, he had become, to use his own phrase, ' sick all over, and timid as a girl.' He could not present even a petition to Con- gress, much less say a word concerning it, though he had long been a practising lawyer, and served much in legislative bodies. On in- quiry, I found that his consumption of tobacco was almost incredible, by chewing, snuffing, and smoking. Being satisfied that all his misery arose from this poisonous weed, its use was discontinued, and in a few weeks he en- tirely recovered." I was acquainted with a gentleman in Ver- mont who conscientiously abstained from all intoxicating drinks, yet died of delirium tre- mens from the excessive use of tobacco. The reasonings employed in defence of the 64 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO. How can a temperance man use tobacco? With what consistency can he ask his neighbor to abstain from alcohol, on the ground of its being injurious to body and mind, while he in- dulges himself in the habitual gratification of an appetite unnatural and pernicious, and hold- ing in some respects a strong alliance with that produced by an alcoholic beverage? How long shall the widow's mite, consecrated, under many personal privations, to the great object of doing good to mankind, be perverted to sustain a disgustful and hurtful habit by the beneficiary of an Education Society? What Christian can indulge himself in the habit of using tobacco—a habit which benumbs the moral sense as well as pollutes the body; that temple which is designed for the indwell- ing of the " Spirit of truth?" How long are the sacred altars of .God to be polluted with this unhallowed offering, and the garments of the priesthood to remain uncleansed from its defile- ments? How long shall transgressors be call- ed upon to listen, with a spirit of conviction and repentance, to sermons on the great duties of Christian self-denial, prepared and pronounced under the inspiration of this poison?