1854 






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STEPHEN J. W. TABOR. 



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B SURGEON uENERAL'S OFFICE !L 

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Section, 



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AN 

ESSAY 



THE INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 



BY R. D. MUSSEY, M. D. 

mtm 

PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN THE MIAMI MEDICAL COLLEGE AT CINCIN- 
NATI, OHIO ; FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES J AND 
. ASSOCIATE OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AT PHILADELMir 4. 



A NEW F.DITION, ENLARGED l:\ THE \l lll"i: 



''^ii- 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 

1J0 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



HI We- 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by PERKINS 
and Makvin, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 

Right 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 countrv. 



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 he 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 sinno- 
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 wile 
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 handfc 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. 



10 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO 

EFFECTS OF TOBACCO UPON ANIMAL LTFE. 

To the organs of srnell 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 cavas con- 
tained some blood, but were not distended. 
The pulmonary artery contained only a small 
quantity of blood. The blood was everywhere 
iluid. 

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-Jive 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 AND 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 Bide. 
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 

tinucd. 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 
^essd 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. Eats 
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 Avith 
the object and reasonable hope of making them 
useful to mankind, and of influencing at least 



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- 



UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. 19 

sions, from having taken a glass of wine with 
which some snuff had been mixed. 

The tea of twenty qr 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. 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. P., 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 he 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, 
trcmulousness, 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 sceu 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 



UrON 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. 



UrON 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- 



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 

Iii 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 tlic 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 clone 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 toba'cco 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 j'ears 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 ; lie thought every 
body hated him, and he in turn hated every 
body. He had often, after lying awake fox- 
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. ofTobac. 



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. Chadbournc, 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 iveakness 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 110 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 ol 
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 
salaeratus, 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 



IITON LIFE AND HEALTH. 57 

remarked, however, that when compelled to em- 
ploy his eyes upon a book for some hours in 
succession, especially 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 agreat 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 
snufftaker. 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, 
with 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. Shaler of Kentucky recently 



60 INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO 

remarked to me, that lie 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, who 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? 



