Revelations about tobacco : a prize essay on the history of tobacco, and its physical action on the human body, through its various modes of employment / by Hampton Brewer.
- Brewer, Hampton.
- Date:
- 1870
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Revelations about tobacco : a prize essay on the history of tobacco, and its physical action on the human body, through its various modes of employment / by Hampton Brewer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![to oause them to secrete profusely. This is just what we might ex- pect ; and I may take as a good illustration of the theory, the effect which the habitual use of purgatives has on the alimentary canal. At first, a small dose of a mild aperient will cause the mucous lining of the intestines to secrete freely, after a while a larger dose of the same medicine is required to produce the desired effect, and lastly a different and more powerful drug is needed. I ask, therefore, if the mucous membrane of the intestines should thus become habituated to the constant use of irritants in the form of purgatives, why should not that of the mouth, which is a continuation of the same membrane, become affected in the same way by the constant irritation of tobacco ? [Note F.] You seldom find the smoker eat much without drinking, and this is another proof that the natural fluid, the saliva, is absent, the second purpose of the saliva being to moisten the food during mastication, and lubricate its passage from the mouth, through the fauces, to the stomach. One other circumstance may be noticed as regards digestion influenced by smoking, viz., that you rarely find the tongue of the inveterate smoker healthy; it is seldom free from fur (though I have occasionally noticed it preternaturally red, and more or less glazed), and a coated tongue is a clear indication of a disordered stomach. [Note G.] Dr. Copland says, “ Smoking weakens the digestive and assimilating functions, impairs the due elaboration of the chyle and of the blood, and prevents a healthy nutrition of the several structures of the body.” Dr. Prout says: “Tobacco disorders the assimulating functions in general, but particularly, as I believe, the assimulation of the saccharine principle. But it happens with tobacco as with deleterious articles of diet, the strong and healthy suffer comparatively little, while the weak and predisposed to disease fall victims to its poisonous opera- tion. Surely if the dictates of reason were allowed to prevail, an article so injurious to the health and so offensive in all its modes of employment, would speedily be banished by mankind.” There is but little doubt that different constitutions are affected to different extents by the use of tobacco, but I firmly believe that every man, whether he be of a strong or delicate constitution, cannot employ tobacco without some day suffering for his folly; still you will always](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28085784_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
