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Show 194 TOBACCO. ‘OBACCO. I have known theinfusion employedwith externally employed, advantage as a lotion for some obstinate ulcers: but the many instances of its beingaes and proving thereby a violent poison, dissuade f such a practice; especially as thereare as much efficacy, that may be employedwith ‘Bénitas recommends it to be employed asa fomentation in the paraphym ; but we have had no opportunity of employing it. Snuff-taking, &c.—Thefollowing excellent observa. tracted from Dr. Cullen :—Tobaccois a well-known rcotic iality, which it discovers in all persons, when first applied to them. I have - ofit, snuffed up the nose, producegid- and vomiting; a1 uantity, there applied in different are many instances ofits more os vin even of ifs proy i ra mortal poison. Inall these the manner of other narcotics: but narcotic qualities it possesses also a stronglystirespect to the wholeoe but erates im respec‘ to the stomach and intestine SO aS rea- even ia no great doses, to prove emetic and i ve. Byy this combination of qualities all the effects of tobacco may 1, but Tshall begin with considering its effects as they uppearin the use of it as an article ie oflivi 3 As such it h is been employed A1 by snuffing, smoking, and chewing; practices which, as having been for two hundred years past common to all Kurope, need not be described here. Like other narcotics, the use of it may be introduced by degrees; so that its peculiar effects, even from large quantities employed, may not, or contradict the may hardly ; it appear: but this does not have given of its quality with respect to persons unaccustomedto it, and even of its tendency to show its powerin those much accustomed to it; for evenin thesethe powerofhabit has its limits ; so that in personsgoingbut alittle beyond the dose to which they have been accustomed, very vidlent effects are sometimes produced. : On this subject it is to be remarked, that the powerof habit ; ule is often unequal; so that in persons accustomed to the use ol tobacco, a lesser quantity than what they had been acc ustomed to, will often have stronger effects than had before commonly appeared. J knew a lady who had been for more than twenty 195 years accustomed to take snuff, and that at every time of day; but she cameat length to observe, that snufling a good deal before dinner took awayher appetite; and she cameat length to find, that a single pinch, taken zanytimebefore dinner, took away almost entirely her appetite for that meal. W hen, however, she abstained entirely from snuff before dinner, her appetite conti. nued as usual ; and after dinner, for therest of the day, she took snuff pretty freely without any inconvenience. This is an instance ofthe inequality of the power of habit in exerting its effects; but in what cases this may take place we cannot determine, and must now go on. in marking its usual and ordinary powers. When snuff, that is, tobacco in powder, is first applied to the nose, it pro res a stimulus, and excites sneezing ; but by repetition that effect eritirely ceases. When snuff jis first employed, if it be not both in small quantity, and be not thrown out eats by sneezing, it occasions some giddiness and confusion of head ; but by repetition these effects cease to be produced, and noparticular effect of it appears in the accustomed, when not taken beyond the usual quantity. But even in the accustomed, when it is taken beyond the usual quantity, it produces somewhat of the same giddiness and confusion of head that it did when first employed ; and in several cases these effects in the accustomed, dependin g on a larger dose, are not only more considerable, as they act on the sensorium, but as they appear also in otherparts of the system, particularly in the stomach, occasioning aloss of appetite and other symptoms of a w ph spo tone in that organ. With respect to this, it is to be observed, that persons who take a great deal of snuff, though they seem, from the powerof habit, to escape its narcotic effects, yet as theyare often liable to go to excess in the quanitity taken, so theyare still in danger from these effects operating in an insensible manner; and I have observed several instances of their being affected in the same Manner as persons are from the Jong-continued useof other nar- cotics, such as wine and opium ; that is, by a loss of memory, ie fatuity, and other symptoms of the weakene d or senile tate of the nervous system, induced-before the usual period. Amongother effects of excess in snuffing, I have found all the symptoms of dyspepsia produced byit, and particularly pains of the stom:ach, occurring every day. The dependence of these uponthe use ofstnuff ae ame veryevident from hence, that 02 |