Part 3

It is not improbable, that the charge of inhumanity may be made against experiments prosecuted upon defenceless animals, with a poison so painful and destructive in its operation as tobacco; 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, 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 considerable 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 stomach 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 children, for a disease of the scalp, an ointment prepared with the powder of tobacco and butter; soon after, they experienced dizziness, violent vomitings and faintings, accompanied with profuse sweats." [Orfila.]

The celebrated French poet, Santeuil, came to his death through horrible pains and convulsions, 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 spasm, has been known repeatedly to destroy life.

The same tea, applied to parts affected with itch, has been followed by vomiting and convulsions. 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 inhaling the vapor arising from the leaves of tobacco immersed in boiling water, was made alarmingly 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 moistened, 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 prostration and vomiting. Many were suddenly and violently seized soon after eating. On investigation, a tobacco leaf was found in the armpit.

Dr. M. Long, of Warner, N. H., 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 ring-worm, 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 propriety 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 grandmother's tobacco pipe, and proceeded to apply it to the ring-worm, 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 patient were rolled up in their sockets, she sallied back, and in the act of falling, was caught by the alarmed mother. The part was immediately washed with cold water, with a view to dislodge the poison. But this was to no purpose, 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 symptoms 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 resuscitation, but "it was an hour, or an hour and an half, before the little patient was so far recovered as to be able to speak."

"Till this time," says Dr. S., "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 continually feeble and sickly. The first four or 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 tobacco is one of the most active and deadly vegetable poisons known; it acts directly upon the nervous power, enfeebling, deranging, or extinguishing 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 exhaustion 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, &c., is not only useless but hurtful, 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 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, sinking, or pain at the pit of the stomach; dizziness or pain in the head; occasional dimness or temporary 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 tremors 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 faculties; peevishness and irritability of temper; instability of purpose; seasons of great depression of the spirits; long fits of unbroken melancholy and despondency, and, in some cases, entire and permanent mental derangement.

The animal machine, by regular and persevering reiteration or habit, is capable of accommodating itself to impressions made by poisonous substances, so far as not to show signs of injury under a superficial observation, provided they are slight at first, and gradually increased, but it does not hence follow that such impressions are not hurtful. It is a great mistake, 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 physician for pain or wind in the stomach, accompanied 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 his laying aside animal food for a time; but the patient objects, alleging that he never feels so well as when he has swallowed a good dinner. He is then advised to avoid spirit, wine, cider, beer, &c.; the reply 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 better 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 without 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 important knowledge.

The poor man goes away, in a struggle between the convictions of truth and the overwhelming 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 regarded it, in the use of stimulants, as spirit, wine, tobacco, &c., 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 harmless, in some instances, a whole year, before it kindles up a wasting intermittent, or a destructive bilious remittent fever.

Facts of this nature show, that pernicious influences 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 stimulants which, like them, make an impression upon the whole nervous system, without affording the materials of supply or nutrition.

It is an alleged fact, that, previously to the age of forty years, a larger mortality exists in Spanish America than in Europe. The very general 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 required to aid in accomplishing the full and perfect developement 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 tobacco cud, four years before. He was a pale, thin, sickly child, and often vomited up his dinner.

To individuals of sedentary habits and literary pursuits, tobacco is peculiarly injurious, inasmuch as these classes of persons are, in a measure, deprived of the partially counteracting influence of air and exercise. I have prescribed 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 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 resorted to, and hence the kindred habits of smoking and drinking. A writer in one of the American periodicals, speaking of the effect of tobacco, in his own case, says, that smoking and chewing "produced a continual thirst for stimulating drinks; and this tormenting thirst led me into the habit of drinking ale, porter, brandy, and other kinds of spirit, even to the extent, 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 snufftaker necessarily swallows a part of it, especially when asleep, by which means its enfeebling effects must be increased.

The opinion that tobacco is necessary to promote 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 facilitate digestion, how comes it, that, after laying aside the habitual use of it, most individuals experience an increase of appetite and of digestive energy, and an accumulation of flesh?

It is sometimes urged, that men occasionally live to an advanced age, who are habitual consumers of this article; true, and so do some men who habitually drink rum, and who occasionally get drunk; and does it thence follow that rum is harmless or promotes long life? All, that either fact proves, is, that the poisonous influence is longer or more effectually resisted, 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 communities, that the use of tobacco operates, as a preservative against infectious and epidemic diseases. 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 tobacco afford 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 all classes of persons are addicted to the free use of this article. In Havana, in 1833, containing 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 thousand, it was announced that fifteen hundred perished. This makes one-eighth of the population 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 considerable deduction be made from the whole population on account of the great numbers who fled on the appearance of the disease, the mortality 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 then the common estimate, that, in Havana, there was an average consumption of ten thousand dollars' worth of cigars in a day.

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 make 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 preserves the teeth, is supported neither by physiology 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 consumers are not favored with better teeth than 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 absorbed, from the chewing or smoking of tobacco 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 communities, 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 between them of one-tenth to one-sixth of an inch, showing distinctly the effects of the tobacco, more particularly striking upon those parts, to which it had been applied in its most concentrated state.