An essay on the influence of tobacco upon life and healthMussey, R. D. (Reuben Dimond)
Science
An essay on the influence of tobacco upon life and health
Mussey, R. D. (Reuben Dimond)
Tobacco use
A physician, with whom I was intimately acquainted, during the greater
part of his medical pupilage, which included the latter part of his
tobacco experience, has given the following account of his own case.
He has a preference for withholding his name from the public, and has
described himself as 'the patient.' The circumstances of the case as
related, may be relied on. I was present each time when he threw away
his tobacco.
"The patient," says he, "at the early age of fourteen, under the
impression that it was a manly habit, commenced chewing tobacco;
and a long and painful course of training was required before the
stomach could be brought to retain it. At length the natural
aversion of this organ to the poison was so overcome, that an
exceedingly large quantity might be taken without producing nausea.
For several years the patient continued its uninterrupted use,
swallowing all the secretions of the mouth saturated with this
baneful narcotic, without experiencing much disturbance of health.
At length he began to be harassed with heart-burn, attended with
copious eructations of an intensely acid fluid, together with other
indications of dyspepsia. A watery stomach was suspected, and
smoking was at once recommended in addition to chewing, to alleviate
the accumulation of water in the stomach and to assist digestion.
Smoking was accordingly practised after every meal, with little
alleviation of the difficulty. The patient, however, being determined
to be benefited by its use, resorted to it more frequently, smoking
not only after eating, but several times between meals. Yet to
his great surprise, his troublesome symptoms were gradually
augmented, notwithstanding his strenuous adherence to the practice.
"To the heart-burn and acid eructations, soon succeeded nausea,
loss of appetite, a gnawing sensation in the stomach, when empty,
a sense of constriction in the throat, dryness in the mouth and
fauces, thickening or huskiness of the voice, costiveness, paleness
of the countenance, languor, emaciation, aversion to exercise,
lowness of spirits, palpitations, disturbed sleep; in short, all
the symptoms which characterize dyspepsia of the worst stamp. He was
well nigh unfitted for any kind of business, and his very existence
began to be miserably burdensome.
"At last, being advised to abandon the use of tobacco in all its
forms, and being fully persuaded that he either must relinquish
it voluntarily, or that death would soon compel him to do it, 'he
summoned all his resolution for the fearful exigency, and after a
long and desperate struggle, obtained the victory.' 'All the
inconvenience' he experienced, 'was a few sleepless nights, and an
incessant hankering after the accustomed fascinating influence of the
cigar and cud.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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