102 TOBACCO AND ITS EFFECTS. 



itating agent, we should not be likely to look for a rapid 

 building up of injured tissues under its use. I have 

 never had good results, and never expect to have them, 

 in cases where tobacco has been applied directly to 

 wounds, as is the foolish practice with many working- 

 men ; in not a few cases in which extensive injuries have 

 been done up with tobacco, and kept in that condition for 

 a length of time, the process of repair has been much 

 retarded." 



" In one instance I had a case in which a person had 

 bitten his tongue while smoking a cigar; the wound 

 seemed to be poisoned, and extensive inflammation and 

 ulceration followed, with serious results." 



" I have seen instances where death has followed severe 

 injuries, the patients having been habitual users of tobacco* 

 in which I could attribute the fatal result to no other 

 cause than the depression of the vital powers resulting 

 from long use of the weed." 



" It is scarcely possible to comprehend the amount of 

 harm the use of tobacco produces in some cases of 

 venereal disease. I think it may safely be said that 

 severe syphilitic or gonorrhoeal cases more frequently 

 pass uncured than cured, if the patient continues the 

 excessive use of tobacco." 



Question 5. " Have you observed any local effects of 

 tobacco upon the mucous membrane of the nose, the 

 throat, or the ear, which leads you to suspect that it acts 

 as a predisposing cause of catarrh or other disease ? If 

 so, give details." 



Sixty-eight per cent of the replies to this question are 

 in the affirmative, thirty per cent in the negative. One 

 '' has cured several cases of catarrh by withdrawing the 



