Produced by David Garcia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Kentuckiana Digital Library) AN ESSAY ON THE INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. BY R. D. MUSSEY, M. D. Price ten cents. AN ESSAY ON THE INFLUENCE OF TOBACCO UPON LIFE AND HEALTH. BY R. D. MUSSEY, M. D. Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the Medical Institution of New Hampshire, at Dartmouth College; Professor of Surgery and Obstetrics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the Western District of the State of New York; President of the New Hampshire Medical Society; Fellow of the American Academy of Sciences; and Associate of the College of Physicians at Philadelphia. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY PERKINS & MARVIN. PHILADELPHIA: HENRY PERKINS. 1836. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, By PERKINS & MARVIN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. ESSAY ON TOBACCO. In the great kingdom of living nature, man is the only animal that seeks to poison or destroy his own instincts, to turn topsy-turvy the laws of his being, and to make himself as unlike, as possible, that which he was obviously designed to be. No satisfactory solution of this extraordinary propensity has been given, short of a reference to that-- "first disobedience and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our wo, With loss of Eden." While the myriads of sentient beings, spread over the earth, adhere, with unyielding fidelity, to the laws of their several existences, man exerts his superior intellect in attempting to outwit nature, and to show that she has made an important mistake, in his own case. Not satisfied with the symmetry and elegance of form given him by his Creator, he transforms himself into a hideous monster, or copies upon his own person, the proportions of some disgusting creature, far down in the scale of animal being. Not content with loving one thing and loathing another, he perseveres in his attempts to make bitter sweet, and sweet bitter, till nothing but the shadow is left, of his primitive relishes and aversions. This is strikingly exemplified in the habitual use of the narcotic or poisonous vegetables. _History._