Medicinal Properties of Tobacco. 119 



of taking the only rational method, tljat of adapting the 

 quantity of food to the powers of digestion, he pursues a 

 course which continues to weaken the organs of digestion and 

 assimilation, and at length plunges him into all tlie accumu- 

 lated horrors of dyspepsia, with a complete prostration of the 

 nervous system. 



But it has been said that smoking will cure the toothache ; 

 and we should have iccourse to any means for the removal 

 of so painful a disease. That it will, as a powerful sedative, 

 lessen the pain, and sometimes even altogether remove tooth- 

 ache, is probably true; but why continue the practice after the 

 occasion has ceased ? Opium and calomel, judiciously ad- 

 ministered, will relieve cholera morbus ; but whoever thought 

 of making them an article of diet, because from their applica- 

 tion he had experienced relief in that dangerous complaint .'' 

 Or whoever dreamed of using them constantly, lest he might 

 again be attacked with it ? Would not prudence dictate to 

 lay them aside, that they might not lose their influence on the 

 system, and consequently their medicinal virtues ? 



But smoking sometimes diminishes the secretions of the 

 mouth, producing dryness and thirst, instead of moisture; 

 still it is used with the same perseverance as in the fornjer 

 case, and to obviate the same difficulty, an overburdened 

 stomach. And such is the united influence of its stimulant 

 and narcotic qualities, that the thirst it occasions is not to be 

 allayed by ordinary drinks, but wine, ale and brandy must 

 be taken, to satisfy this unnatural demand. Hence, smoking 

 has, in many instances, been the sad precursor to the whis- 

 key jug and brandy bottle, which together have plunged 

 their unfortunate victims into the lowest depths of wretched- 

 ness and wo. 



I am well acquainted with a man in a neighboring county, 

 whose intellectual endowments would do honor to any station, 

 and who has accumulated a handsome estate; but whose 

 habits, of late, give unerring premonition to his friends of a 

 mournful result. This man informed me that it was the fatal 

 thirst occasioned by smoking his cigar, in fashionable society, 

 that had brought him into his present wretched and miserable 

 condition. Without any desire for ardent spirit, he first 

 sipped a little gin and water, to allay the disagreeable sensa- 

 tions brought on by smoking, as water was altogether too 

 insipid to answ'er the purpose. Thus he went on from year 

 to year, increasing his stimulus from one degree to another, 

 until he lost all control over himself; and now he stands as 

 a beacon, v/arning others to avoid the same road to destruc- 

 tion. 



