94 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



that it is calculated to cause a feverish state of the body; 

 and in certain constitutions it weakens the membranes which 

 line the nostrils, throat and lungs, produces a susceptibility 

 to colds, and even more serious alfections of these parts, when 

 it has been much employed. 



From what I have seen, I have been led to believe that 

 this article is not necessary nor useful for the preservation of 

 health ; and that it is often a cause of weakness and sickness. 

 Boston, Jan. 25, 1832. JOHN C. WARREN. 



Note. — Many persons have the opinion that the use of 

 tobacco is a preventative of contagious diseases; because it 

 has been asserted that tobacconists and others living in the 

 midst of the effluvia of this article, are exempted from the 

 attacks of such disorders. The practices above alluded to 

 have, in my opinion, a contrary effect. Those who live con- 

 stantly in the region of tobacco, by the effect of habit cease 

 to be stimulated and over excited by the diffusion of its lighter 

 particles in the air they breath. But those who employ it 

 occasionally, whether in smoking, chewing or snuffing, un- 

 dergo an excitemerlt, more or less considerable : which is 

 infallibly followed by a proportionate debility, in whichf state 

 they would be subject to the attacks of a disease they might 

 otherwise have escaped. J. C. W. 



In our next number we shall make an extract treating of 

 the medical properties of tobacco, and the injurious effects 

 attending its use, and of its political and moral influence. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Feline Sagacity. 

 De la Croix relates the following almost incredible instance 

 of sagacity in a cat, which, even under the receiver of an air 

 pump, discovered the means of escaping a death that appeared 

 to all present inevitable. ' I once saw,' says he, ' a lecturer 

 upon experimental j^hilosophy place a cat under the glass 

 receiver of an air pump, for the purpose of demonstrating that 

 very certain fact, that life cannot be supported without air 

 and respiration. The lecturer had already made several 

 strokes with the piston, in order to exhaust the receiver of 

 its air, when the animal, that had began to feel herself very 

 Hncomfortable in the rarified atmosphere, was fortunate 



