without for some time affecting much the action of the heart; so that, in this respect, it operates very much in the manner of prussic acid.

8. On man, the physiological effects have been very minutely observed. I cannot do better than give the words of Mr. Pereira: "In small doses, tobacco causes a sensation of heat in the throat, and sometimes a feeling of warmth at the stomach. These effects are, however, less obvious when the remedy is taken in a liquid form, and largely diluted. By repetition, it usually operates as a diuretic, and less frequently as a laxative. Accompanying these effects are often nausea, and a peculiar feeling, usually described as giddiness, scarcely according with the ordinary acceptation of this form. As dropsical swellings sometimes disappear under the operation of these doses, it has been inferred that the remedy promotes the operation of the absorbents. In larger doses it promotes nausea, vomiting, and purging: though it seldom gives rise to abdominal pain, it pro duces a most distressing sensation of sinking at the pit of the stomach. It occasionally acts as an anodyne, or more rarely promotes sleep. But its most remarkable effects are languor, feebleness, relaxation of muscles, trembling of the limbs, great anxiety, and tendency to faint. Vision is frequently enfeebled, the ideas confused, the pulse small and weak, the respiration somewhat laborious, the surface cold and clammy, or bathed in a cold sweat, and, in extreme cases, convulsive movements are observed. In excessive doses, the effects are of the same kind, but more violent in degree. The more prominent symptoms are nausea, vomiting, and in

some cases purging, extreme weakness, and relaxatior of the muscles, depression of the vascular system (manifested by feeble pulse, pale face, cold sweats, and tendency to faint), convulsive movements, followed by paralysis, and a kind of torpor terminating in death."

9. As an accompaniment to these physiological effects, I may here give an extract from the newly published pamphlet by Monsieur Fiévée, showing the mental or moral effects of this deleterious agent.

"We do not insist principally on the material disasters resulting from tobacco, knowing very well that any reasoning on this subject will not produce conviction. A danger of far greater interest to those concerned in the preservation of the individual, is the enfeeblement of the human mind, the loss of the powers of intelligence and of moral energy; in a word, of the vigor of the intellect, one of the elements of which is memory. We are much deceived, if the statistics of actual mental vigor would not prove the low level of the intellect throughout Europe since the introduction of tobacco. The Spaniards have first experienced the penalty of its abuse, the example of which they have so industriously propagated, and the elements of which originated in their conquests and their ancient energy. The rich Havanna enjoys the monopoly of the poison which procures so much gold in return for so many victims; but the Spaniards have paid for it also by the loss of their political importance, of their rich appanage of art and literature, of their chivalry, which made them oue of the first people of the world. Admitting that other causes operated, tobacco has been one of the most influ

ential. Spain is now a vast tobacco shop, and its only consolation is, that other nations are fast approaching to its level. Tobacco, as the great flatterer of sensuality, is one of the most energetic promoters of individualism —that is, of a weakening of social ties. Its appearance coincides fatally with reform and the spirit of inquiry. Man inaugurates the introduction of logic in matters inaccessible, at the same time that, as Montaigne says, he gives way to a habit destructive of the faculty of ratiocination a contradiction which shows us that necessity of defect by which he is tormented."

My own experience confirms much of this, but a more particular physiological account will be found in my Practical Observations. The reader will find a very interesting paper by Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor, in Guy's Hospital Reports, Vol. IV., p. 345.

CHAPTER II.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF TOBACCO.

10. ALTHOUGH for a considerable time past I had collected many important facts regarding the Use and Abuse of Tobacco, the publication of these Practical Observations has nevertheless been in some measure accelerated by the perusal of a paper by Professor Sig mund of Vienna, "Upon Syphilitic Contagion from Cigar Smoking," which appeared in the Medical Times and Gazette, under "Selections from Foreign Journals." From the brief statement there given, it is difficult to decide what opinion Dr. Sigmund entertains on the subject—whether he considers that the tobacco generates the syphilitic ulceration of the lips, tonsils, and gums; or that the cigar is impregnated with the venereal virus, through the medium of the manufacturer of it.

11. Many cases of syphilitic virus, introduced into the healthy constitution, by smoking a cigar or pipe used by a diseased person, have come under my notice. The practice is by no means uncommon, in some ranks of life, for two individuals to smoke the same pipe or cigar alternately, the one taking a puff, or draw, after the other, and in this way the morbid poison produces a similar effect to what is exemplified in the communica

tion of yaws or sibbens, by drinking out of an infected cup or vessel. I have often been consulted by gentlemen having marked syphilitic ulcerated throat, which they could not account for, having had no primary symptoms on the genitals. On interrogating them, they have admitted lighting a pipe used by another, or having accepted a puff of a friend's cigar. Some patients have presented themselves with syphilitic ulceration on the lower or upper lip, or the commissure between them having a thickened base. Some have had syphilitic ulcers of the mucous membrane of the cheeks, tongue, and tonsils. A few have had, with the preceding ulcers, secondary eruption of the skin and loose hair: while others have been affected with secondary condylomata. I once witnessed an operation performed upon a woman with syphilitic ulcer of the lower lip, combined with a hardened base, produced by smoking a pipe of a syphilitic patient. Excision of the diseased mass was resorted to by the operator, a man of great experience and dexterity, mistaking the affection for carcinoma. In a few weeks after the operation, the secondary syphilitic eruption manifested itself, and was cured by the hydriodate of potass. It is scarcely possible to heal a syphilitic sore, or to unite a fractured bone, in a devoted smoker - his constitution seems to be in the same vitiated state as in one affected with scurvy.

12. A writer on tobacco describes Paris, in its relation to smoking, thus: "In Paris," says he, "it is impossible to walk in the streets without being constantly exposed to receive into the mouth, and consequently to inhale, the fumes of tobacco from so many mouths, clean and