108 tobacco: its use and abtjse. 



United States, from which I extract the following : " In 

 the Massachusetts State Hospital, in 1843, there were 

 eight cases of insanity produced by the abuse of to- 

 bacco." 



123. Dr. Kirkbride, in his report of the Pennsylvaoia 

 Hospital for the Insane for 1849, states that " two cases 

 in men and five in women were caused by the use of 

 opium, and four in men by the use of tobacco." " The 

 use of tobacco," continues he, "has, in many indivi- 

 duals, a most strijiing effect on the nervous system ; and 

 its general use in the community is productive of more 

 serious efi"ects than is commonly supposed." 



124. The following interesting case has been sent me 

 by a medical friend, -the ordinary attendant on the pa/- 

 tient. A gentleman about thirty-five years of age, long 

 addicted to drinking, smoking, and chewing, became 

 quite fatuous, and subject to fits closely resembling epi- 

 lepsy. He was removed to a lunatic asylum, where the 

 ardent spirits were first given up ; but no change for the 

 better for six months. The smoking tobacco was then 

 reduced, when some little improvement took place ; and 

 when both the smoking and chewing tobacco were re- 

 duced, a great amendment followed ; and when totally 

 given up, the fits ceased, and he became perfectly sane. 

 It is upwards of two years since he became rational and 

 free from the fits ; and when interrogated, what was the 

 cause of his mental alienation and fits ? he unhesitatingly 

 ascribes them to the use of tobacco. 



125. The next case corroborates the efi"ects of tobacco 

 on the nervous system. A strong, brawny carter, thirty 

 years of age, states that five years ago he was struck 



