COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTRACTS. 109 



gpeechless, and paralytic of his left side, which he 

 ascribed to smoking tobacco, generally half-an-ounce 

 daily, since he was a boy. He lay powerless for some 

 weeks among his friends, being unable to earn his live- 

 lihood. In twelve months, he so far recovered as to lead 

 a horse, and has since slowly recovered. Still, he cannot 

 grasp with his left as with his right hand. He " threw 

 away tobacco forever," from the day of his paralytic attack. 

 October 9th, 1858. 



126. Dr. Carlyon, in his ^^ Early Years and Late Re- 

 flections," writes as follows : 



" What can be more deleterious than tobacco. Many 

 an. honest Deutscher have I seen smoking himself into 

 the •'grave ! 



' Rauch — Rauch — immer Rauch ! ' 



the countenance pale and haggard; the frame emaciated; 

 the propensity to smoke irresistible ! 



'A pipe ! a pipe ! My heart's blood for a pipe ! * 



Neither is there need of much physiological acuteness 

 to account for the bad effects of this pernicious habit on 

 the health. Tobacco is a very powerful narcotic poison. 

 If the saliva, the secretion of which it provokes, be 

 impregnated with its essential oil, and so swallowed, the 

 deleterious influence is communicated directly with the 

 stomach ; or if, as more frequently happens, it is ejected, 

 then the blandest fluid of the human frame — that 

 which, as a solvent and diluent, performs an office in 

 digestion secondary only to the gastric juice itself — is 

 lost. Even snuff, my old friend Abernethy used to 

 say, fuddles the nose; but the fumes of tobacco pos- 

 19 



