82 TOBACCO AND ITS EFFECTS. 



occasionally acts as an anodyne, or more rarely promotes 

 sleep. But its most remarkable effects are languor, ful- 

 ness, relaxation of the muscles, trembling of the limbs, 

 great anxiety, and tendency to faint. Vision is frequently 

 obscured ; the ideas are confused, and the pulse is small 

 and weak ; respiration is somewhat laborious ; the surface 

 is cold and clammy, or covered with a cold sweat, and in 

 extreme cases, convulsive movements are observed. In 

 excessive doses the effects are of the same kind, but more 

 violent in degree. The more prominent symptoms, in 

 addition to those already noted, are extreme weakness and 

 relaxation, depression of the vascular system (manifested 

 by feeble pulse, pallor, cold sweat, and tendency to faint), 

 convulsive movements followed by paralysis, and a kind 

 of torpor, sometimes terminating in death." 



One would suppose that a substance producing such 

 effects as those just described at the beginning of its 

 use would be very soon abandoned. '' Nothing, however, 

 with mankind appears so attractive as a habit surrounded 

 by all the attributes which lift it into the dignity of a 

 fashion." 



The enormous consumption of tobacco in our country, 

 heretofore mentioned, has been ascertained from the 

 yearly returns of the revenue officers ; but the physical, 

 mental, and moral deterioration resulting therefrom admit 

 of no such tangible analysis. These, although sure, are 

 slow and imperceptible in their development, and it is 

 therefore impossible to estimate the amount of the injury 

 which tobacco thus inflicts upon the public welfare. We 

 cannot do better in this connection than quote the 

 remarks of Dr. B. W. Richardson, an eminent prac- 

 titioner, whose researches are taken by Chambers as the 



