170 



PLANTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



perhaps hastens their decay. If you wish to produce the most 

 deadly sickness with retchings, which seem hke the giving way 

 of nature, give a person a dose of the juice of tobacco. 



It is a stimulant, and a powerful narcotic ; any considerable 

 dose produces most alarming symptoms. 



The virulence of the poison in tobacco has been ascertained 

 by direct experiments of Franklin, Brodie, and Mussey. A 

 drop or two of the oil of tobacco applied to the tongue of strong 

 and healthy cats, produce convulsions, agony, retching, and death 

 in a few minutes. Upon a dog, and some other animals, similar 

 dreadful effects were produced from the oil by Dr. Mussey. A 

 small quantity of the decoction of tobacco leaves produces most 

 serious effects upon the human system, and upon animals, when 

 taken internally, or applied to the surface. Death has sometimes 

 soon followed such applications. Dr. Long has reported the 

 effects of applying the oil from a tobacco pipe for the cure of a 

 ringworm at the root of the nose. "Immediately loss of sense, 

 locking of the jaws, and deathlike countenance followed. Re- 

 covery from the ill effects has not been complete ; from a healthy 

 child, she has continued sickly to this time," as Dr. Long in- 

 formed me a few days ago. The poison was apphed in April, 

 1834. Other similar facts are on record. To the teeth, the ap- 

 petite, and the stomach, the nostrils and throat, the use of tobacco 

 is injurious. The waste of money, too, for so dirty a gratifica- 

 tion, is prodigious and astonishing. 



"It is doubtful whether all the benefits which have accrued to 

 Europe from the discovery of America, have not been counter- 

 balanced by the introduction of this universal luxury [poison], 

 produced at the expense of human Hberty, and of a soil which 

 could otherwise be employed in augmenting the necessaries of 

 life, independent of the diseases inseparable from the use of so 

 powerful a narcotic." JYuttall. 



It is cultivated to considerable extent in some parts of the 

 State. 



Lycium. L. 5. 1. 



L. harharum. L. Matrimony Vine. Introduced from the 

 East, and named from Lycia, the province where one of the 



