674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to paralysis and insensibility ; respiration is impeded, the pulse 

 declines to a mere thread, and the patient dies in syncope. 



When the patient resists the attack, as is most frequently the 

 case, the evolution of the symptoms described above is arrested, 

 and the sufferer comes out of his comatose condition with a vio- 

 lent headache, extreme weakness, and a gastric disturbance which 

 it requires a considerable time to allay. 



The effects produced by the habitual use of tobacco differ ac- 

 cording to the way it is consumed. They have not been much 

 observed except among smokers, who are most noticed because of 

 their number. Then their habit is open ; the smoke goes every- 

 where, and it causes inconvenience to others ; while the more 

 discreet snuff -taker can hide his snuff-box, and annoys with the 

 smell of tobacco only those who come too near him. 



Beginners at snuff -taking require, like smokers, an apprentice- 

 ship. They begin by sneezing ; then the mucous membrane of the 

 nasal fossae becomes accustomed to the drug, is palled, and even 

 finds itself pleasantly tickled by the ammoniacal piquancy and 

 nicotian perfume of the virulent powder. At last it becomes thick, 

 and with intemperate snuff -takers perceives odors only feebly. It 

 becomes sometimes the seat of a chronic inflammation which ex- 

 tends to the pharynx and produces a slight dry and characteristic 

 cough. Snuff-takers are told of who have suffered from eruptions, 

 ulcerations, and polypi ; others have become deaf ; but such cases 

 are so rare and their etiology is so doubtful that serious account 

 need not be taken of them. 



The only phenomenon peculiar to nicotine often observed 

 among snuff -takers is a rhythmic trembling of the hands, not like 

 that of old men or that of drunkards, but which is observed likewise 

 in excessive smokers. A single case is mentioned by Dr. Bean of 

 angina pectoris in a patient who was addicted to an excessive use 

 of snuff. But a solitary case is not important in the considera- 

 tion of a habit so general, and there is no need of pursuing a fugi- 

 tive enemy. Snuff-taking is condemned by fashion, from whose 

 decrees there is no appeal. Those of hygiene are not so impera- 

 tive. 



Smoking is charged by its opponents with injuring the health 

 and debasing the mind. The former part of the charge has a 

 measure of foundation. There is certainly nothing hygienic in 

 the habit. All are acquainted with the troubles that ensue on the 

 first effort to smoke. There are nauseas, soon followed by vomit- 

 ing, headache, vertigo, and a condition resembling sea-sickness, 

 and much like the earlier phenomena of acute poisoning by to- 

 bacco. These troubles soon pass away, and after a few succeeding 

 efforts the smoker accustoms himself to the action of the smoke. 

 "When the habit is once acquired, smokers feel no further incon- 



