120 Medicinal Propeities of Tobacco. 



Smoking has been prescribed for spasmodic asthma, and 

 undoubtedly with some success ; and the manner in which it 

 affords refief iu this distressing disease has been pointed out, 

 when speakinfj of the narcotic and antispasmodic effects of 

 this drug. But suppose it capable of relieving the paroxysm, 

 when administered to a person unaccustomed to its deadly 

 stimulus, it will by no means be followed by the same happy 

 effect, wl)en once its use becomes habitual. 



But smoking has been the grand resort to secure the sys- 

 tem from the influence of contagion ; and perhaps no power 

 ascribed to it, has ever been so universally acknowledged. 

 But upon what series of experiments are these pretensions 

 founded r From all the attention which I have bestowed on 

 this investigation, I have been unable to discover any evidence 

 of its utility in this respect, except what arose from the preju- 

 dices of the ignorant, or the obstinacy of those who are slaves 

 to the practice of it. The bare assertion of Deimerbroek, 

 ' that it kept oft' the plague,' without a single corroborative 

 fact, would hardly be sufficient authority on which to estab- 

 lish a conclusion so important ; especially when we have the 

 united experience of Rivernus, Chemot and Cullen, to prove 

 the opposite of this position. Hence we conclude, that its 

 properties in keeping ofl^ contagion, depend on its sedative 

 powers, which it possesses in common with other narcotics, 

 wine, brandy and opium. As these lessen sensibility, and 

 sometimes allay anxiety of the mind, it is not impossible that 

 in a very few instances they may have prevented the exci- 

 ting causes of disease from taking effect. But what are these 

 few, when compared with the multitudes whose nervous sys- 

 tems have been destroyed by this pernicious habit, and thus 

 exposed to all the horrors of malignant disease. 



Smoking also assuages the tedium of life. Here is the grand 

 secret. Man fears to be alone ; and when left to his own solitary 

 reflections, he dreads the result of self-examination. He flies 

 for relief to his pipe, his cigar, his quid or his bottle, with 

 the vain hope of escaping from himself To accomplish an 

 object so desirable, he hesitates not to stupify those noble 

 faculties which he cannot hope to extinguish, and with which 

 he has been endowed by the God of nature, for wise and 

 benevolent purposes. And will you, gentlemen, by precept 

 and example, longer sanction such a course of conduct, — 

 conduct so degrading to us as intelligent beings, and as con- 

 servators of the public health ? 



The third mode of habitually using tobacco, is chewing. 

 In this manner all its deadly powers are speedily manifest 



