200 
T^IGQTIANA TABACUM, 
Medical Properti-es and USibs. From what we have already 
said, the medical properties of tobacco will be easily understood ; 
the great difficulty is the management of so energetic a remedy. 
i)r. Fowler, we believe, has used it more extensively than any other 
phvsician, and recommends the infusion in cases of dropsy and 
dysuria, taken in such small doses as to have httle effect on the 
stomach ; the following is his method of preparing it ; to one ounce 
of the dried leaves he adds a pound of boiling water, and macerates 
for one hour, in a close vessel placed in a sand bath ; fourteen 
ounces of this infusion are pressed out, and when cool, two ounces 
of rectified spirits of wine are added, the better to preserve it. 
From eighty to two hundred drops are given for a dose. 
The very energetic action of tobacco on the muscular system has 
naturally pointed it out as an antispasmodic, and in this way it has 
"been advantageously employed in colic, ileus, strangulated hernia, 
suppression of urine, &c.; by the injection into the rectum of the 
smoke, or the infusion, the latter is now more generally employed, 
tut it is right to add, that death has been frequently produced by 
the use of it, and we should therefore pronounce it a remedy only 
to be resorted to in extreme cases. Sir A. Cooper recommends a 
reduced quantity, half a pint, of the infusion to be first injected, and 
Tepeated, if necessary, at intervals. We have once or twice seen 
good effects produced by an injection of the smoke in obstinate 
constipation of the bowels, but in more instances we have found it 
produce the most distressing and alarming symptoms, without any 
corresponding good result. 
Dr. Cullen says, we have employed tobacco in various cases of 
dropsy, but with very little success ; small doses having very little 
effect, and large ones exciting such severe sickness, and even vomit- 
ing, as to iiiake it a very inconvenient remedy. Dr. C. employed both 
the infusion and decoction. 
Smoking has been much recommended as a means of guarding 
against contagion, but many facts are related which prove the in- 
utility of the practice. Dr. Cullen says, we cannot suppose that 
tobacco contains an antidote against any contagion, or that it has 
any antiseptic power ; but it is very probable that this and other 
narcotics, by diminishing sensibility, may render men less liable to 
contagion, and by rendering the mind less active and anxious, it may 
also render men less liable to fear, which has so often the power of 
exciting the activity of contagion. 
From the effects of tobacco as an antispasmodic, it is probable 
hat it might be advantageously used in cases of tetanus ; we are not 
