Part 6

Tobacco is acknowledged to be one of the most deadly of the vegetable narcotics: yet experience proves that the nerves, by habit, become so accustomed to its stimulus, that it in a great measure loses its power. How then can we hope with ordinary remedies to make an impression, when even this powerful agent has itself lost its proper and natural effect?

The unparalleled mortality of the great epidemic of 1812 and 1813, was in a good measure owing to the immense quantities of ardent spirit consumed by the victims of that fatal malady. In the town in which I then resided, about forty adults died in the course of the winter and spring; and most of those were in the habit of using ardent spirit freely. And though numbers of temperate persons were attacked, yet many of these recovered; while every instance within my knowledge, where an intemperate person was attacked with this formidable disease, it proved fatal.

The ravages of the cholera in India and Persia, since 1816: and in the North of Europe, for the last eighteen months; settle the point in question beyond reasonable doubt. In one hundred cases where the cholera proved fatal, ninety of them had been in the liberal use of ardent spirit. And this fact should be carefully noted, when this formidable disease has reached Great Britain, and threatens us with its visitation.

If then the habitual use of alcohol, by exhausting the nervous energy, predisposes the system to disease, and at the same time renders the disease, when it has commenced, so much more intractable; what shall be said of the common use of tobacco, which is allowed by all to be a still more deadly poison, and of course must exhaust the power of the nerves in a proportionate degree?

A female, aged 27 years, was attacked in December 1829 with a sore mouth, accompanied with diarrhoea and profuse salivation. These complaints continued to increase, notwithstanding the application of a variety of remedies, prescribed by her medical attendant, until the 5th of March following, when I was called to take charge of the patient. She was much emaciated. The discharge from the bowels continued unabated, and was often attended with severe pain and great prostration of strength. The salivation was accompanied with a burning or scalding sensation in the mouth and stomach, which proved excessively irritating to the patient, as well as perplexing to me. On examining her case, I found the nervous system entirely deranged and much broken by the habit of smoking, which she had practiced to great excess from the age of eleven years. I learned, to my surprise and regret, that she commenced this habit, which afterwards cost her so much suffering, by the advice of some wise member of the Faculty, who had prescribed it for some slight derangement of the stomach.

My first efforts were directed to repair the injuries inflicted by the tobacco-pipe; and though the difficulties to be overcome were many and obstinate, by patience and perseverance they were all surmounted, and the woman was at length restored.

The conflict which this poor woman endured, in overcoming a habit that not only injured her health, but nearly destroyed her life, was dreadful beyond description. When her pain and distress were great, she would complain more of this privation, than of all her other sufferings; and so strong was the desire for smoking, that she, several times during her recovery, contrary to my orders, indulged in it a few minutes, and each time with manifest injury; so that she finally was induced to abandon it altogether, and thus recovered her health. Indeed, she now enjoys better health than she has done for years.

Any one acquainted with this ordinary effects of this foolish indulgence in the free use of narcotics, on the nervous system of its victims, will be convinced by a few years close observation, that such persons especially, if they are of sedentary habits, are more subject to fits of despondency, and to a far greater degree, than persons of the same general health and of the same employment, but who have escaped contamination.

I shall here introduce the following extract of a letter, from a respectable clergyman to the author, as illustrative of this point.

"When I say that the effects of the habitual use of tobacco on the human system, are injurious; I speak from years of painful experience. I commenced the use of tobacco when young, like many others, without any definite object, but experienced no very injurious consequences from it until I entered the ministry. Then my system began to feel its dreadful effects. My voice, appetite, and strength soon failed; and I become affected with sickness at the stomach, indigestion, emaciation, and melancholy, with a prostration of the whole nervous system. For years my health has been so much impaired as to render me almost useless in the ministry, and all this I attribute to the pernicious habit of smoking and chewing tobacco. And had I continued the practice, I doubt not but that it would have brought me to an untimely grave. I was often advised to leave it off, and made several unsuccessful attempts. At length I became fully convinced that I must quit tobacco or die. I summoned all my resolution for the fearful exigency, and after a long and desperate struggle I obtained the victory. I soon began to experience the beneficial results of my conquest. My appetite has returned; my voice grows stronger, and I am in a measure freed from that mental dejection to which I once was subject. My general health is much improved, and I feel that I am gradually recovering; though it is not to be expected I shall ever regain what I have lost by this needless and vicious indulgence. I am satisfied that the common use of tobacco is injurious to most people, especially those of sedentary habits. On them it operates with ten-fold energy. I am acquainted with many in the ministry, who are travelling this road to the grave. I uniformly say to them: "Lay aside your pipes and tobacco, or you are undone--your labors in the ministry will soon be at an end.""

A mere hint at these evils would seem to be sufficient to awaken inquiry, among the votaries of the plant in question. I shall therefore leave it to their candid decision, after a full and free investigation enables them to arrive at a just conclusion.

The great increase of dyspepsia within the last twenty years, with the dark and lengthened catalogue of nervous complaints that follow in its train, is, I have no doubt, in part owing to the universal prevalence of practices, the propriety of which we are calling in question.

The misery to which the consumers of this drug are subject, when from any cause they are temporarily deprived or it, would go far to deter a reflecting man from voluntarily binding himself to this most ignominious servitude. I have known a hard laboring farmer, who would have resented the name of slave, as much as did the Jews, arise from his bed in the middle of the night and travel half a mile to procure a quid of tobacco, because his uneasiness was such, that he could neither sleep nor rest without it. This uneasiness is more distressing than bodily pain, and has in some instances produced an agitation of mind bordering upon distraction.

Col. Burr informed Dr. Rush, that the greatest complaints of dissatisfaction and suffering, that he heard among the soldiers who accompanied General Arnold in his march from Boston through the wilderness to Quebec, in the year 1775, arose from the want of tobacco. This was the more remarkable, as they were so destitute of provisions as to be obliged to kill and eat their dogs.

The Persians, we are informed, often expatriate themselves, when they are prohibited the use of tobacco, in order to enjoy unmolested this luxury in a foreign country. Nor are these facts incredible to those, who are familiar with the laws that regulate the animal economy.

Long and obstinate is the conflict with nature, before the taste or smell of such disgusting things as alcohol, opium, and tobacco can be endured. But when she, worn out by repeated and continued assaults, abandons her post, and gives up the dominion to the artificial appetite, the order of things is reversed, and we at last find, to our sorrow, that this unnatural appetite is vastly more ungovernable than the one implanted by our Creator for things originally pleasant and agreeable. Add to all these considerations the well attested fact, that no sensible man, who has himself used the baneful weed, ever advised his neighbor or child to follow his example, but often the contrary; and its inutility is sufficiently proved.

Having thus far endeavored to shew the futility of the objection raised against our doctrine, by the consumers of this drug; let us now, in our turn, call on them to give a good reason why so much money should be expended, and so much time wasted, as are annually squandered in the various departments of raising, preparing, and consuming this plant; and to point out, if they can, in what manner a poison so deadly acts on the healthy system without producing evil consequences.

To make out the case, it will be necessary for its advocates to prove one of the following positions; either,

1. That it produces no effect at all, and is therefore harmless; or,

2. That it produces a good effect, and is indispensable to the enjoyment of perfect health.

As this part of the enquiry is somewhat important, and since it regards the success of our principles, we will examine these positions a little in detail, to see how they are sustained by fact and experience.

If it produces no effect at all, why that universal uneasiness, amounting as we have seen in some instances almost to distraction, uniformly manifested by the consumers of this plant, when by accident they are temporarily deprived of the means of indulgence?

If tobacco produces no effect, why fly to it as a solace for every woe, as a refuge from affliction and trouble, and as a hiding-place from the tempests of misfortune?

It will not, it cannot be doubted, that, in its power to allay the stormy agitations of mind to which we are exposed in our voyage over the tempestuous sea of life, consists the latent excellence, the summum bonum, of the virtues of tobacco. This sedative power will not be questioned, by those who have ever witnessed its peculiar effects.

The medicinal effects of tobacco, as applied for the removal of corporeal disorders, are nearly or quite destroyed by habitual use; but with what success it is constantly resorted to, to allay anxiety of mind, let its votaries answer.

A medical gentleman of high standing, in an adjoining county, who has recently abandoned the common use of tobacco, informed me, that on a certain occasion his muscular and vital energies were so overcome, by chewing, that in attempting to put his horse into the stable, he was obliged to lie down until he had so far recovered his strength as to enable him to proceed to his house. Many other instances were related by the same gentleman, of its injurious effects which he had observed, both on himself and others; particularly in producing watchfulness, which it was almost impossible for the greatest degree of weariness and fatigue to overcome. Many others have frequently mentioned this fact to me, since I began to investigate this subject. Now if tobacco produces no effect, why are such results witnessed by its consumers, and why do the candid among them acknowledge that these evils arise from its use? The health of the medical gentleman above named was materially improved after laying aside tobacco; and those to whom he recommended a similar course, have experienced a like favorable result.

The second position is equally unsupported either by experience or sound reasoning; and is contrary not only to all medical authority on this subject, but against the investigations of other scientific men who have chemically examined the constituent principles of tobacco, and who have experimented largely to ascertain with precision its natural operation on the living fibre. The lower order of animals have been selected for these experiments. Given in substance to them, it has uniformly proved fatal, even in very minute doses.

When its expressed juice or essential oil has been introduced under the skin of pigeons, kittens, or rabbits, it produced violent convulsions and often instantaneous death. Does any one doubt the correctness of these experiments? He can easily satisfy himself of their accuracy, by obtaining the oil of tobacco, and applying eight or ten drops to the root of a kitten's tongue. The same deadly effects, as we have seen, uniformly attend its first application to the human system, if taken to any considerable extent. This is well understood by its consumers, who are very cautious for many weeks, and even months, how they deal with the poisonous drug.