86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



narian ; and, after abstaining for a few days, with a rapid recovery 

 from the symptoms, commenced to smoke a sj>ecific allowance per day 

 of Connecticut, four pipes in fact, which I continued until the first of 

 June, with less vital depression than was produced by perique and 

 cavendish, but with a distinct tendency in that direction, and with a 

 more marked cloudiness of recollection than had followed either. 



June 1st. Withdrew the allowance of leaf and commenced to smoke 

 irregularly an occasional cigar, scarcely one per day on the average, 

 and to note the effect. The vital depression consequent upon a single 

 cigar was often so great as to compel resort to quinine in two-grain 

 doses. Finally, discarded the habit altogether, with sufficient benefit 

 to the arms to assure me that the symptoms were contingent on the 

 use of tobacco. The numbness had almost disappeared in three weeks 

 of abstinence ; I began to wake up refreshed in the morning, not in a 

 vital swoon. My weight, July 10th, was 125 lbs. 3 oz., and I regarded 

 myself as thoroughly convalescent of the habit, though still a Laocoon 

 struggling with his serpents. A violent agitation of the mucous mem- 

 brane lining the nose has, I should have stated in its proper place, at- 

 tended every withdrawal of the narcotic, supervening on the second 

 day. The throat has also been considerably affected at these crises, and 

 all the phenomena, of a violent cold have been brought on in a few 

 hours ; but whether these effects have been mainly due to the with- 

 drawal of the heat evolved in smoking, or to recovery of the mem- 

 brane from local narcotism, or whether in part to both, 1 cannot ven- 

 ture to say. 



Omitting all details of analysis of different tobaccos as too familiar 

 for repetition, my experiments have led me to conclude : 



1. That nicotine is the special agent concerned in vital paralysis 

 and in disturbances of muscular coordination, and that its action 

 upon the medullary centres is propagated by way of the pneumo- 

 gastric nerve ; that the cerebellar centres (coordinating the muscles 

 concerned in locomotion), and the corpora striata (or great motor 

 ganglia of the cerebrum), are next affected ; in other words, that the 

 motor tracts follow the vital in yielding to the influence of the poison. 



2. That the cortex of the brain is the last to be affected by nice- 

 tine, but is more specifically affected by the pyridine, picoline, and 

 collidine bases. Hence the difference in physiological action between 

 Honradez, with its minimum of nicotine, and perique and cavendish, 

 with their excess ; also the analogous difference between Havana 

 cigars and cigars manufactured from Connecticut leaf. 



3. That smoking is often the exciting cause of the various neuroses, 

 and always a fruitful source of local aneurism, by impairing the ner- 

 vous circulation and laying the foundation for defective nutrition in 

 various directions. Cessation from tobacco should be made a con- 

 dition precedent to medical treatment in writer's cramp and nervous 

 affections of that type (the paralytic). 



