PHYSIOLOGICAL POSITION OF TOBACCO. 169 



Pulsation before smoking, 75 pulsations per minute. 

 Smoking 6 minutes 76, 75, 79, 79, 76, 78. 

 Smoking 1 minute 82. Cease smoking. 

 Smoking 10 minutes 81, 88, 83, 82, 84, 83, 83, 80, 82. 



The rate of pulsations was maintained, but was not materially in- 

 creased. 



Experiment 5. 



(To prove if the rapidity of smoking causes a variation in increase ofj 



pulsation.) 



a. Greater volume of smoke. 

 Pulsation before smoking, 70^ per minute. 



Smoking 6 minutes 68, 70, 71, 70, 72, 74 = 70.8 average. 

 Smoking 6 minutes 76, 77, 86, 89, 91, 94 = 85.5 average. 

 Smoking 4 minutes 98, 05, 96, 95 = 96.0 average. 



The maximum effect was thus 27^ pulsations per minute. 



b. Smoking faster. 



Pulsation of the last minute in the previous part of this experiment, 

 viz., 95 per minute smoking 3 minutes, 94, 49, 96. 



c. The pipe recharged. 

 Smoking 5 minutes 87, 93, 96, 96, 96. 



There was, therefore, a large effect upon the pulsation, but probably 

 not more than would have occurred with ordinary smoking. 



Numerous other experiments were made with tobaccos of different 

 reputed strengths and upon different persons, and the author gave 

 minute directions as to the proper method of making such inquiries. " 



The heart, then, during the act of smoking, was doing extra work ; 

 in some of the experiments this additional labor amounting to more 

 than 50 per cent. 



The effect upon the heart is not caused by direct action upon that 

 organ, but by paralyzing the minute vessels which form the bat- 

 teries of the nervous system. Thus paralyzed, they can no longer offer 

 effectual resistance, and the heart, freed from their control, increases 

 the rapidity of its strokes, expanding the vessels, with an apparent ac- 

 cession, but real waste of force. 



Its effect in lowering the animal temperature is very striking. 

 "When the walls of the blood-vessels are distended with that fluid, the 

 increase in volume decreases the rapidity of the circulation and aug- 

 ments the local warmth. When the walls partially collapse, the cir- 

 culation becomes quicker, but the heat diminishes. The heat, in fact, 

 is transformed into motion. 



The action of nicotine upon the iris is well known, yet, while some 

 consider it to produce dilatation, others affirm its effect to be contrac- 

 tion. The iris is composed of two orders of muscular tissue. The 

 circular fibres influenced by the motor oculi, and the radiating fibres 

 obeying the great sympathetic, perform the two functions of the iris, 



