An Essay on the Influence of Tobacco upon Life and Health Part 1

An Essay on the Influence of Tobacco upon Life and Health.

by R. D. Mussey.

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.

Tobacco is generally regarded as having originated in America. Its name appears to have been derived from _Tabaco_, a province of _Yucatan_, in Mexico, from which place it is said to have been first sent to Spain; or, as some a.s.sert, though with less probability, from an instrument named _Tabaco_, employed in Hispaniola in smoking this article.

Cortez sent a specimen of it to the king of Spain in 1519. Sir Francis Drake is said to have introduced it into England about the year 1560, and, not far front the same time, John Nicot carried it to France; and Italy is indebted to the Cardinal Santa Croce for its first appearance in that country.

Traces of an ancient custom of smoking dried herbs having been observed, it has been suggested that tobacco might have been in use in Asia, long before the discovery of America. The fact, however, that this plant retains, under slight modifications, the name of tobacco, in a large number of Asiatic as well as European dialects, renders almost certain the commonly received opinion, that it emanated from this country, and from this single origin has found its way into every region of the earth, where it is at present known. If this be the fact, the Western hemisphere has relieved itself of a part of the obligation due to the Eastern, for the discovery and diffusion of distilled spirit.

Early in the history of our country, the cultivation and use of tobacco were by no means confined to central America. In Hawkins' voyage of 1655, the use of this article in Florida is thus described: "The Floridians, when they travele, have a kind of herbe dryed, which, with a cane and an earthen cup in the end, with fire and the dryed herbes put together, do sucke thorow the cane the smoke thereof, which smoke satisfieth their hunger." Still earlier, viz. in 1535, Cartier found it in Canada: "There groweth a certain kind of herbe, whereof in sommer, they make great provision for all the yeere, making great account of it, and onely men use it; and first they cause it to be dried in the sunne, then weare it about their necks wrapped in a little beaste's skinne, made like a little bagge, with a hollow peece of stone or wood like a pipe; then when they please they make powder of it, and then put it in one of the ends of said cornet or pipe, and laying a cole of fire upon it, at the other end sucke so long, that they fill their bodies full of smoke, till that it cometh out of their mouth and nostrils, even as out of the tonnele of a chimney."

In Great Britain the progress of the custom of using tobacco was not un.o.bserved. The civil and ecclesiastical powers were marshalled against it, and Popish anathemas and Royal edicts with the severest penalties, not excepting death itself, were issued. In the reigns of Elizabeth, of James and of his successor Charles, the use and importation of tobacco were made subjects of legislation. In addition to his Royal authority, the worthy and zealous king James threw the whole weight of his learning and logic against it, in his famous 'Counterblaste to Tobacco.' He speaks of it as being "a sinneful and shameful l.u.s.t"--as "a branch of drunkennesse"--as "disabling both persons and goods"--and in conclusion declares it to be "a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black and stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse."

In the English colonies of North America, it is no wonder that legislation was resorted to, for the purpose of regulating the use of this article, when it had become an object of so much value, as that "one hundred and twenty pounds of good leaf tobacco" would purchase for a Virginian planter a good and choice wife just imported from England. In one of the provincial governments of New England, a law was pa.s.sed, forbidding any person "under _twenty-one_ years of age, or any other, that hath not already accustomed himself to the use thereof, to take any tobacko untill he hath brought a certificate under the hands of some who are approved for knowledge and skill in phisick, that it is useful for him, and also that hee hath received a lycense from the Courte for the same. And for the regulating of those, who either by their former taking it, have to their own apprehensions, made it necessary to them, or uppon due advice are persuaded to the use thereof,--

"_It is ordered_, that no man within this colonye, after the publication hereof, shall take any tobacko publiquely in the streett, high wayes or any barne yardes, or uppon training dayes, in any open places, under the penalty of six-pence for each offence against this order, in any the particulars thereof, to bee paid without gainsaying, uppon conviction, by the testimony of one witness, that is without just exception, before any one magistrate.

And the constables in the severall townes are required to make presentment to each particular courte, of such as they doe understand, and can evict to bee transgressors of this order."

In the old Ma.s.sachusetts colony laws, is an act with a penalty for those, who should "smoke tobacco within twenty poles of any house, or shall take tobacco at any Inn or victualling house, except in a private room, so as that neither the master nor any guest shall take offence thereat."

In the early records of Harvard University is a regulation ordering that "no scholar shall take tobacco unless permitted by the President, with the consent of his parents, on good reason first given by a physician, and then only in a sober and private manner."

At a town-meeting in Portsmouth, N.H. in 1662, it was "ordered that a cage be built, or some other means devised, at the discretion of the Selectmen, to punish such as take tobacco on the Lord's day, in time of publick service." But it does not appear that this measure had all the effect intended, for, ten years afterwards, the town "voted that if any person shall smoke tobacco in the meeting-house during religious service, he shall pay a fine of five shillings for the use of the town."

But all these forces have been vanquished, and this one weed is the conqueror. Regardless of collegial and town regulations, of provincial laws, and of royal, parliamentary and papal power, tobacco has kept on its way, till it has encircled the earth, and now holds in slavery a larger number of human minds than any other herb.

_Effects of Tobacco upon Animal Life._

To the organs of smell and taste in their natural condition, it is one of the most disgusting and loathsome of all the products of the vegetable kingdom.[1]

[Footnote 1: This is proved by applying it to these organs in infancy, among those children whose parents do not use tobacco. Caspar Hausser, who was fed wholly on farinaceous food and water, from infancy to the age of sixteen or seventeen years, was made sick to vomiting by walking for a "considerable time by the side of a tobacco field."]

Dr. Franklin ascertained, that the oily material, which floats upon the surface of water, upon a stream of tobacco smoke being pa.s.sed into it, is capable, when applied to the tongue of a cat, of destroying life in a few minutes.

Mr. Brodie applied one drop of the empyreumatic oil of tobacco to the tongue of a cat; it occasioned immediate convulsions and an accelerated breathing. Five minutes after, the animal lay down on the side, and presented, from time to time, slight convulsive movements. A quarter of an hour after, it appeared recovered. The same quant.i.ty of the oil was applied again, and the animal died in two minutes.

In December, 1833, aided by several gentlemen of the medical cla.s.s, and occasionally in the presence of other individuals, I made a number of experiments upon cats and other animals, with the distilled oil of tobacco.

EXPERIMENT 1.

A small drop of the oil was rubbed upon the tongue of a large cat.

Immediately the animal uttered piteous cries and began to froth at the mouth.

In 1 minute the pupils of the eyes were dilated and the respiration was laborious.

" 2-1/2 do. vomiting and staggering.

" 4 do. evacuations; the cries continued, the voice hoa.r.s.e and unnatural.

" 5 do. repeated attempts at vomiting.

" 7 do. respiration somewhat improved.

At this time a large drop was rubbed upon the tongue. In an instant the eyes were closed, the cries were stopped, and the breathing was suffocative and convulsed. In one minute the ears were in rapid convulsive motion, and, presently after, tremors and violent convulsions extended over the body and limbs. In three and an half minutes the animal fell upon the side senseless and breathless, and the heart had ceased to beat.

Slight tremors of the voluntary muscles, particularly of the limbs, continued, more or less, for nineteen minutes after the animal was dead.

Those of the right side were observed to be more and longer affected than those of the left.

Half an hour after death the body was opened, and the stomach and intestines were found to be contracted and _firm_, as from a violent and permanent spasm of the muscular coat. The lungs were empty and collapsed. The left side of the heart, the aorta and its great branches were loaded with black blood. The right side of the heart and the two cavae contained some blood, but were not distended. The pulmonary artery contained only a small quant.i.ty of blood. The blood was every where fluid.

EXPERIMENT 2.

A cat was the subject of this experiment. The general effects were very much like those in the last, excepting, perhaps, that the oil operated with a little less energy. This cat was said to have lived for several years, in a room almost perpetually fumigated with tobacco smoke. The history of the animal employed in Experiment 1, was unknown.

EXPERIMENT 3.

Three drops of the oil of tobacco were rubbed upon the tongue of a full-sized, but young, cat. In an instant the pupils were dilated and the breathing convulsed; the animal leaped about as if distracted, and presently took two or three rapid turns in a small circle, then dropped upon the floor in frightful convulsions, and was dead in _two minutes_ and _forty-five_ seconds from the moment that the oil was put upon the tongue.

EXPERIMENT 4.

To the tongue of a young and rather less than half-grown cat, a drop of the oil of tobacco was applied. In fifteen seconds the ears were thrown into rapid and convulsive motions,--thirty seconds fruitless attempts to vomit. In one minute convulsive respiration; the animal fell upon the side. In four minutes and twenty seconds violent convulsions. In five minutes the breathing and the heart's motion had ceased. There was no evacuation by the mouth or otherwise. The vital powers had been too suddenly and too far reduced to admit of a reaction. The tremors, which followed death, subsided first in the superior extremities, and in five minutes ceased altogether. The muscles were perfectly flaccid.

EXPERIMENT 5.

In the tip of the nose of a mouse, a small puncture was made with a surgeon's needle, bedewed with the oil of tobacco. The little animal, from the insertion of this small quant.i.ty of the poison, fell into a violent agitation, and was dead in six minutes.

EXPERIMENT 6.

Two drops of the oil were rubbed upon the tongue of a red squirrel. This animal, so athletic as to render it difficult to secure him sufficiently long for the application, was in a moment seized with a violent agitation of the whole body and limbs, and was perfectly dead and motionless in one minute.