84 
POPULAR SCIEXCE REVIEW. 
pain^ or unable to sleep from any cause, is not by any means 
a palsy of sensitive nerves sucb as shall render them unable 
to express to the mind the idea of pain ; or a palsy of the 
brain sucb as shall incapacitate it from supporting the func- 
tions proper to its fully conscious state. In each of these 
cases we desu-e a stimulant effect ; we desire that the nerves 
may be replaced in their normal condition of healthy vigour, 
so that they may cease to utter the cry of distress ; or that 
the brain may be restored to the natural state in which sleep 
is the inevitable consequence of a certain amount of pre^'ious 
fatigue. In neither case does the opiate perform the duty of 
annihilating some positive materies morhi ; it simply supplies 
a missing influence necessary to the bodily harmony. The 
rest is nature^s own work. Excessive doses of opium produce 
palsy of sense, of motion, of consciousness, or, in creatures of 
weakly developed nervous system (as human infants, dogs, 
cats, and still more in some reptiles), convulsions of an 
epileptic or even tetanic character. 
The soothing and restorative action of tobacco, which is 
enjoyed by the smoker who is sufficiently experienced to have 
overcome the flrst purely mechanical difficulties of the act, 
are famihar -enough. The narcotic effects of an over-dose fall 
first upon that portion of the nervous system which is con- 
nected with the stomach; and, as the first effect of their 
paralysing action, induce nausea, and sometimes vomiting. 
A more powerful narcotic effect tends to paralyse the s}unpa- 
thetic nervous system generally, and more especially that part 
of it which is concerned in the action of the heart ; and there 
is grave danger of actual paralysis of the latter organ, an 
accident which has occurred many times as a consequence of 
the pernicious practice of smoking a number of cigarettes in 
succession and inhahng all the smoke into the lungs, the result 
of which is to introduce a very large quantity of the poison 
into the circulation. Cold perspiration, and failure or inter- 
mittence of the pulse, are not merely disagreeable, but really 
very serious, symptoms of tobacco-pOLS'O^uhp, and should be 
met by the instant use of cold water affusion and the adminis- 
tration of ammonia or brandy. 
Now tea and coffee are just as capable, when given in 
excess, of producing narcosis as are the above mentioned 
agents, although the evidences of paralysing action are not so 
obvious. The excessive or untimely use of tea, especially of 
green tea, is well known to produce a restlessness which 
precludes the advent of sleep. This condition is, in fact, a 
narcotic delirimn, analogous to the condition induced in many 
opium eaters by a debauch with that narcotic, and which has 
been described by De Quincey and others. The true remedy 
for it is the administration of a httle hot soup and a glass of 
