TOBACCO AND ITS EFFECTS. 



application of small quantities to wounds, would indicate 

 that the process is more complex. The whole subject 

 of the physiological action of tobacco is so complicated 

 that but little is really known concerning it ; there is, it is 

 said, a remarkable difference between the action of the 

 alkaloid and the essential oil, the one of which possesses 

 the power of paralyzing the heart's action, while the other 

 has no such property. Given to a person in ordinarily 

 good health but unaccustomed to its use, tobacco, either 

 chewed or smoked, causes distressing sickness at the 

 stomach, fulness at the head, and frequently ringing in 

 the ears and giddiness, relaxation of the bowels, partial 

 paralysis of the sphincter muscles, especially those of the 

 large intestine, and other equally serious effects. These 

 conditions are not all met with in each case, but a suf- 

 ficient number is always present to startle any one who 

 sees them for the first time. 



Persons of a nervous temperament have found it im- 

 possible, for a long time after beginning the use of tobacco, 

 to indulge in it without experiencing decidedly unpleasant 

 sensations. Dr. Pereira says that " in small doses tobacco 

 causes a sensation of heat in the throat, and sometimes a 

 feeling of warmth in the stomach. These effects are less 

 obvious when the agent is taken in liquid form and largely 

 diluted. By repetition it usually acts as a diuretic, and 

 less frequently as a laxative. Accompanying these effects 

 are often nausea, and a peculiar feeling usually described as 

 giddiness, — scarcely according, however, with the ordinary 

 acceptation of that term. In larger doses it produces 

 nausea, vomiting, and purging; though it seldom gives 

 rise to abdominal pain, it produces a most distressing 

 sensation of uneasiness at the pit of the stomach. It 



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