PRA13TI€AL OB8EBYATION8 28 



CHAPTER II. 



PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE USE AND ABUSE 

 OP TOBACCO. 



10. Although for a considerable time past I had 

 collected many important facts regarding the Use and 

 Abuse of Tobacco, the publication of these Practical 

 Observations has nevertheless been in some measure 

 accelerated by the perusal of a paper by Professor Sig 

 mund of Vienna, "Upon Syphilitic Contagion from 

 Cigar Smoking," which appeared in th^ Medical Times 

 and Gazette, under " Selections from Foreign Journals." 

 From the brief statement there given, it is difficult to 

 decide what opinion Dr. Sigmund entertains on the 

 subject — whether he considers that the tobacco generates 

 the syphilitic ulceration of the lips, tonsils, and gums ; 

 or that the cigar is impregnated with the venereal virus, 

 through the medium of the manufacturer of it. 



11. Many cases of syphilitic virus, introduced into the 

 healthy constitution, by smoking a cigar or pipe used by 

 a diseased person, have come under my notice. The 

 practice is by no means uncommon, in some ranks of 

 life, for two individuals to smoke the same pipe or cigar 

 alternately, the one taking a puff, or draw, after the 

 other, and in this way the morbid poison produces a 

 siftiilar effect to what is exemplified in the communica- 



