Thus far we find tobacco to be a friend and not an enemy. Now, in the second place, when we smoke, we stimulate the medulla oblongata, and through this we send a wave of stimulus down the pneumogastric nerve, and this makes the heart's action easier. One of the earliest stimulant effects of tobacco to be noted is the slightly increased frequency and strength of the pulse.[20] A narcotic dose produces quite the opposite effect. It begins by greatly increasing the frequency while diminishing the strength, so as to make a feeble, fluttering pulse; and it ends by reducing the frequency likewise. After some years of temperate smoking we accidentally felt, for the first time, the narcotic effects of tobacco. Eight or nine cigars (large twenty-cent ones, such as Mr. Parton delights in the recollection of) smoked consecutively while taking a cold midnight drive, were followed by unmistakable symptoms of narcosis. Along with the muscular tremour of the stomach, much more acute than that of ordinary nausea, it was observed that the pulse, normally strong and regular at 80, had been reduced to 69, and was feeble and flickering. Similar, no doubt, are the symptoms which ordinarily worry the novice, in whom acute narcosis is liable to result from the lack of skill with which he draws in too large a quantity of the narcotic constituents of his cigar. The effects of tobacco, through the medulla and pneumogastric, upon the heart, are among its most notable effects. A dose of pure nicotine stops the heart instantly, a narcotic dose interferes with its action, but a stimulant dose facilitates it. The same results are attainable by means of electricity.[21] A powerful current through the pneumogastric of a frog or rabbit will stop the heart, a less powerful current will slacken it, a slight current will somewhat accelerate it. Emotional effects are precisely similar. Sudden overwhelming joy or sorrow may operate as a true narcotic, arresting the heart's contractions, while steady diffusive pleasure always facilitates them. [20] See a paper by Dr. E. Smith, read before the British Association in 1862. [21] See an admirable paper by Lewes in the _Fortnightly Review_, May 15th, 1865.