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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![R. H., a strong-looking young Cornishman, oamo to mo, com- plaining of “a severe oppression at his heart,” which increased in the recumbent posture. Upon examining his heart, I found nothing organically wrong, but its action was feeble and fluttering, his pulse was only fifty-five beats of small volume per minute, and his hand was tremulous. He said he had never been able to find out the cause of his complaint. I told him it was the use of tobacco. He looked astounded, but since owned that he had always noticed his unpleasant sensations were increased after taking his pipe, but never paid any attention to it. [Note M.] Henry Hale, an intelligent working-man, aged fifty-one years, gave me the following account of the manner in which smoking affects him, if he uses above a certain quantity per week. He has been in the habit of smoking thirty-five years. He said: “ I first noticed that smoking did not suit me, when I was a young man; I found it shorten my breath, make my heart palpitate so much that I thought it would beat through my chest, and cause me to tremble from head to foot. I still stuck to it, in spite of all this, thinking I should get used to it, but I never did: and now, if I smoke any more than an ounce a week, it has just the same effect on me.” I may add that this man’s pulse is feeble, tremulous, and with not more than fifty beats per minute. From the foregoing remarks it is obvious that the use of tobacco does affect the nerve centres and heart; it causes debility and im- pairment of the action of those organs, and consequently, through the loss of nerve force, there are imperfect circulatory efforts carried on by the heart. Although we find that smoking for a time exhilarates the nervous and vascular systems, when this, its primary influence, has passed off, depression—which causes a peculiar condition of nervous irritability—its secondary effect, becomes plain: and as its antidote, another pipe, or some form of stimulus is resorted to; and thus we often see the man who has for a long time given way to this pernicious habit, seldom, if ever, without a pipe in his mouth. Another objection I raise to the habit of smoking is the frequent occurrence of cancerous affections of the lips and tongue following the use of clay-pipes. Dr. Prout says : “ Great smokers, especially those who employ short pipes and cigars, are said to be liable to cancerous affections of the lips.” I have undoubtedly seen cancer of the lips and tongue following the employment of clay-pipes, but never could trace it with perfect certainty as the result of cigars, but hope that I](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28085784_0038.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
