PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL VIEW. 29 



CONSIDERED MEDICALLY, THIS WEED RANKS AMONG 

 THE DEADLIEST POISONS. 



This must be a very sick world to require nearly 

 as much medicine as food. Though the scientific 

 men who have charge of the public and private 

 health very seldom prescribe tobacco, they all 

 admit that it is a powerful medicinal agent. As a 

 poison, it stands next to strychnine. Its method 

 of cure is by partially killing. 



In a late treatise on Physiology it is stated : "To- 

 bacco produces remarkable effects on the system, 

 whether it be taken into the stomach, or applied 

 to portions of the body from which the skin has 

 been removed. In the latter instance it is absorbed 

 into the blood, and its use is attended with great 

 danger, sometimes with death." 



Brodie : " It powerfully controls the action of 

 the heart and arteries, producing invariably a 

 weak, tremulous pulse, with all the apparent symp- 

 toms of approaching death." 



Another physician : " If we wish at any time to 

 prostrate the powers of life in the most sudden 

 and awful manner, Ave have but to administer a 

 dose of tobacco and our object is accomplished." 



" The effect on the heart is not caused by direct 

 action, but by paralyzing the minute vessels which 

 form the batteries of the nervous system. The 

 heart, freed from their control, increases the 

 rapidity of its strokes, with an apparent accession, 

 but real waste of force." 



