102 tobacco: its use and abuse. 



ployment, and in a sliort time tobacco-smoking begins to 

 affect him as it does the man of sedentary habits. His 

 hand begins to shake, his mouth feels clammy and he 

 has a bad taste in it ; he loses to a great extent his fine 

 gustatory sense ; his appetite becomes . capricious ; he 

 feels languid and indolent; his memory becomes con- 

 fused ; he has cardiac disturbance ; and spermatorrhoea, 

 with all its evil results, not unfrequently comes on from 

 smoking. A strong constitution may resist it for a few 

 years, but it ultimately gains the victory. It is gene- 

 rally supposed, that those who labor in the open air are 

 exempted from its bad effects. This is only the case in 

 certain conditions. They must be well fed. On the 

 laborer with low wages, it exerts its baneful influence — 

 first, from its own effects ; secondly, from squandering a 

 large portion of that which should go to nourish him, 

 whereby he is still further debilitated. 



" I may mention a curious fact, not generally known, 

 but which requires only to be tried to be proved, viz., 

 that no smoker can think steadily or continuously on any 

 subject while smoking. He cannot follow out a train 

 of ideas — to do so he must lay aside his pipe. 



" On woman it takes a sad hold. She soon becomes 

 lazy and indolent, of dirty habits, and makes bad recove- 

 ries from her confinements; her children at the breast 

 are liable to erysipelatous and other skin diseases. 



" In Scotland, in addition to the effects of tobacco, 

 may be added those of its adulterations, viz., copperas, 

 •Bait of tartar, saltpetre, and sand. The salts cause the 

 tobacco to feel intensely hot and acrid, irritating mostly 

 all the mucous membranes. These adulteratioas ara 



