THE CONFESSION OF A REFORMED SMOKER. 85 



my broiled steak and drank my cup of coffee with a relish to which I 

 had long been a stranger. The longing for tobacco did not recur 

 strongly until the third day, when it was so importunate that, had I not 

 been trying an experiment, it would have triumphed over all scruples. 



Mentally, during the ten days, I was as one coming to himself 

 after a long drowse an Epimenides recovering from weeks of trance ; 

 and, after the third day, during which I suffered from a dull, contin- 

 uous pain at the base of the brain, in the medullary rather than the 

 cerebellar region, the numbness began to disappear from the arms, 

 which continued to improve pending the progress of the experiment. 



21st. Weighing 122 lbs. 6 oz., put myself on an allowance of three 

 Reina Victoria (Regalia) cigars per day, one after each meal, and con- 

 tinued the regimen for ten days, with the same general result that had 

 followed the pipe and Honradez regimen, but somewhat less marked 

 in its nervousness and tendency, to tremor. 



3lst. Weighed 120 lbs. 15 oz., and smoked my last Reina Victoria. 



February 1st. Commenced another ten days of abstention, with 

 recovery from the symptoms, at the expiration of wiiich my weight 

 was 122 lbs. 13 oz. 



11th. Placed myself on an allowance of a quarter of an ounce 

 perique per day. The first day I suffered from dizziness after 

 smoking, and from slight nausea while in the act. These symptoms 

 disappeared on the second day. The use of this tobacco (a strong 

 Louisiana variety) was not attended with the marked tendency to 

 tremor and sleeplessness incident to Honradez, but with a marked 

 narcotism of the motor tract, and a marked vital depression the spe- 

 cific action, no doubt, of its excess of nicotine on the great nervo-vital 

 centre, the medulla oblongata. On the fourth day a peculiar sinking 

 at the heart kept me in bed half an hour later than usual in the morn- 

 ing, but a cup of strong coffee taken in bed dissipated the lassitude 

 and restored the vital energy. The numbness in my arms grew more 

 and more pronounced every day, until it required some minutes in the 

 morning with the flesh-brush to readjust the circulation ; and with this 

 came a tendency of the legs to fall asleep, showing obstructed nervous 

 circulation, to be followed, in the nature of things, by defective nutri- 

 tion and ultimate paralysis. During the last two days of the experi- 

 ment the vital depression became so oppressive that I resorted to 

 brandy in doses of a tablespoonful three times a day. Lost 1 lb. 11^ 

 oz. during the experiment. 



Discarding the perique, with its excess of the nicotine, I now lim- 

 ited myself to three pipes of Honradez per day, with a resultant con- 

 sumption of two ounces a week. This regimen I maintained until the 

 first of April, when I put myself on a daily allowance of a quarter of 

 an ounce of Virginia cavendish ; but the vital depression was so rapid 

 that I desisted from the experiment after four days of lassitude. 



April 10th. Left New York for the country a thorough valetudi- 



