TOBACCO, INSANITY AND NERVOUSNESS. 



and healthy, especially if he lead an active outdoor 



b,* may use jbacco in its various forms with apparent 



ity, t. e without experiencing any demonstrable 



*o holy or mind, the neurasthenic and the 



^ath ha^e no business either to smoke or chew.t 



it is just persons of this category (who are often not 



I aware of their morbid condition) that become such 



1 i owerless slaves to the habit. They fall 



.rly in life as a rule. Whilst the healthy 



1 revolts against the drug as intensely as 



a cat, and has to gradually accustom itself 



ove e unpleasant sensations accompanying the 



■at attempts i using it, the born neurasthenic often takes 



it as the yoi lg duck does to water. Only in this manner 



i] the pecu xr phenomenon of infant-smokers be 



e does not prefer to look upon such per- 



ite as a species of precocious moral insanity 



herited from parents who are generally not only excessive 



-users, I ut evidently mentally defective. 



. I do n >t believe that, with approaching maturer 



I am one f those who eye through pessimistic specta- 



risins; deration, but I simply repeat the every-day 



ch I have never seen doubted or cont ra- 



te eliminate nicotine so quickly as muscular ex- 

 : 



X It is strange am would be amusing to the observer, were it not such 



ter, to see the delusion on the part of many young neuras- 



;s who imagine that they have a great deal of nerve force. It is 



. 3 ung man that he has a deranged stomach. or kidney, 



oms are present; but a statement that his nerves 



ad brain are Helow par, and that tobacco is rank poison to him, is 



jceived with more r less incredulity. Thus, a young man, a patient of 



line, knew that on various occasions, after excesses in smoking, he had 



_>f a grave and pronounced character. Yet he consid- 



>ng, because he was energetic; after periods of 



bstinence •■ woul. iudulg 



Lways with the ^ame result. 



