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169 
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«' It 13 well known, tliat in cafes of obftinate coflivenefs, in ileu 
and incarcerated hernia, the fmoke of burnin 
s 
thrown intp the anus with great advanta 
tobacco has been 
e. 
The fmoke operates 
here by the fame qualities that are in the infufions of it above 
mentioned^; but as the fmoke reaches much further into the intef- 
tines than injedions can commonly do, it is thereby applied to a 
larger furface, and may therefore be a more powerful medicine 
than the infufions. In feveral inftances, however, I have b 
difappointed of its effeds, and have been obliged to have recourfe 
to other means. 
een 
" The infufion of tobacco, when it is carried into the blood-veffels, 
has fometimes fhown its ilimulant pov/ers exerted in the kidneys ; 
and very lately we have had it recommended to us as a powerful 
diuretic of great fervice in dropfy. Upon the faith of thefe recom- 
mendations we have now employed this remedy in various cafes of 
dropfy, but wdth very little fuccefs. From Jthe fmall dofes that are 
proper to begin with, we have hardly obferved any diuretic efFeds ; 
and though from larger dofes they have in fome meafure appeared, 
we have feldom found them confiderable : and when, to obtain 
/ 
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thefe in a greater de 
ree, we 
have 
gone on increafmg the dofes 
J 
we have been conllantly reftrained by the fevere ficknefs at ftomach, 
and even vomiting, which they occafioned : fo that we have not 
yet learned the adminiilration- of this remedy fo as to render it a 
certain or convenient remedy in any cafes of dropfy. 
The fame circumilances have occurred to feveral other pradi 
tioners of this city and neighbourhood ; and of late the trials of it 
have been very generally omitted, owing perhaps to our practitioners 
being direded at the fame time to the ufe of the digitalis, with which 
(( 
they have had fome more fuccefs. 
(( 
From fome experiments we are certain that tobacco contains a 
quantity of volatile parts that may be diffipated by long boiling in 
water ; and that by fuch a pradlice its emetic, purgative, and nar 
cotic qualities may be greatly diminifhed ; and we are of opinion 
that the preparation in extrad:, as prefcribed in the Wirtenberg 
difpenfatory, is upon a good foundation, and may be employed in 
pedoral cafes with more advantage and fafety than the fimple in- 
fufion or decodion made by a jQiort boiling only. 
I 
When 
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