COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTRACTS. 93 



army, has produced a greater amount of pale, sallow com* 

 p.exions, amongst young officers more especially, than 

 had ever before been observed as resulting from any 

 other cause. Had the morbid complexion been all, the 

 matter would have been of little importance ; but here 

 it generally means loss of appetite, defective nutrition, 

 anaemia, and disordered nervous and vascular functions, 

 all in the same individual. My observations lead me 

 altogether to the conclusions of Van Praag, that the 

 operation of tobacco is at first stimulant, and at last de- 

 pressing, not only in the circulation and respiration, but 

 also on the nervous system ; accelerated circulation, in- 

 crease of respiratory movements, and excessive irritation 

 of the muscular system, being th« phenomena first ob- 

 served. The concluding symptoms are those of general 

 depression, both of animal and organic life, with occa- 

 sional instances of moral and physical impotency, accom- 

 panied by the most mournful results. I am here speaking 

 of what I have witnessed. 



" The most ordinary results of excessive use of to- 

 bacco are — the most severe forms of irritable dyspepsia, 

 giddiness, disturbed action of the heart, nervous tre- 

 mors, and cachexia, all amounting occasionally to palsy. 

 Young gentlemen who are in the habit of putting ^ an 

 enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains,' do 

 not become aware of these facts until it sometimes be 

 comes too late. A highly scientific and distinguished 

 captain of engineers of the Indian army told me — 'All 

 the young fellows of my term who went out to India, 

 having bad habits, are dead, excepting two.' And what 

 has become of them ? ' They were cashiered ! ' Her« 

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