238 OUR BODIES AND HOW WE LIVE 



such families of infant mortality, convulsions, epilepsy, 

 hysteria, obscure brain diseases, and imbecility. 1 



321. Tobacco and its Effect upon the Nerve Centers. 

 Tobacco, whether snuffed, chewed, or smoked, is a nar- 

 cotic and a poison. Its injurious effects are due to its 

 active principle called nicotine, which is a narcotic poison. 2 



Tobacco is hurtful to young people, and by no means 

 free of harm to adults. It produces an artificial exhaustion, 

 as it were, of the nerve centers. The tobacco habit once 

 acquired generally leads to continual and increasing use. 



Thus, after a time, tobacco may produce functional 

 derangement of the nervous system, palpitation of the 

 heart, certain forms of dyspepsia, and more or less irrita- 

 tion of the throat and lungs. 3 



Sometimes, after long smoking, a sensation of dizziness, 

 with a momentary loss of consciousness, is experienced. 

 While the stomach is empty, protracted smoking will often 

 produce a feeling of nausea, accompanied by a headache. 



1 Of all the effects of alcohol, none are so deplorable as the fact that 

 the offspring must suffer for the craving of its parents. This is more 

 apparent when both father and mother have been habitual alcoholics. 

 P. M. LIGHTFOOT, M.D. 



A man may claim that he has drunk whisky all his life and is yet in a 

 good state of preservation. Such may be the case, but to see the full 

 effect of his habit, look at his children, and we find that they will not com- 

 pare favorably with those whose parents have not been given to strong 

 drink. Journal of the American Medical Association. 



2 The external application of tobacco to chafed surfaces, and even to 

 the healthy skin, will occasion severe and sometimes fatal results. . A tea 

 made of tobacco, and applied to the skin, has caused death in three hours. 

 Smoking a large quantity of tobacco at one time has been known to pro- 

 duce violent and even fatal effects. Nicotine is one of the most rapidly 

 fatal poisons known. It takes about one minute for a single drop to kill 

 a full-grown cat. One drop has killed a rabbit in three minutes. 



3 I never smoke because I have seen the most efficient proofs of the 

 injurious effects of tobacco on the nervous system. CHARLES IIDOUARD 

 BROWN-SEQUARD, M.D. 



