On the history and properties chemical and medical of tobacco : a probationary essay presented to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.

  • Cleland, Henry Wilson, -1844
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the history and properties chemical and medical of tobacco : a probationary essay presented to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In the roots of the Tobacco plant, as it grows in Ireland, Mr. Davy found 4.5 per cent of nicotine but when those of the French variety at P Ecole de Pharnracie in Paris were analysed, M. Henri could not detect its presence. In the seeds of Tobacco * Buchner discovered nicotine, which he considered in combination with acetic acid, and in addition, 38 per cent of a bland fixed oil,f which, Geoffroi informs us, is employed by the Italians in Satyriasis : so verifying the assertion of Shakespear, that, “ Within the infant rind of this weak flower. Poison hath residence, and med’cine power.” “ For this,” might the devotee to snuff continue, “ Being smelt, with that part cheers each part,— • • • • , “ Being tasted,” might retort the physiologist, “ Slays all senses with the heart. “ the most instant tetter which bak’d about, Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All his smooth body. “ For sometimes,” says Vogt, during the action of Belladonna, “ there break out on the skin, on account of the in- creased determination of blood, scarlet tetters, (Flecken) wheals, and erythematous eruptions.”—(Pliarmakodynamik, band i. s. 165.) Antony Weldon, in his Court and'fiharader of King James, mentions that “ on Sir Thomas Overbury’s body, after being poisoned, there were thrust out boils, blotches, and blains.” “ When we consider,” adds Dr. Paris, “ how high the public prejudices ran against this herb in the reign of James it seems very likely that Shakspear should have selected it as an agent of extraordinary malignity.” Now, the first edition of this play was printed in 1603, and had, in all probability, been performed sometime previously, and written at a much earlier period. The learned author might, with almost as much plausibility, have maintained that the distilled liquor of Friar Lawrence, by drinking which, as he himself says to Juliet, “ Each part deprived of supple government. Shall stiff, and stark, and cold, appear like death; And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death Thou shalt continue two and forty hours, And then awake as from a pleasant sleep,— was really some preparation of the Virginian weed, from a statement of Mr. Howison’s, (Burnet’s Botany) that from lying down to sleep among some fresh Tobacco, he fell into a peculiar state, during the continuance of which, though conscious of all around, he was unable to move or speak. That some distillation of bitter almonds, or cherry laurel, was the real agent alluded to in the case of Juliet, is almost demonstrated by the fact of patients having lain for a considerable number of hours in a state very similar to that described as Juliet’s, from having had administered to them an overdose of Prussic acid; an example of which occurred in the Royal Infirmary here. * Nicholas Monardes states that in his time the seeds were used for medical purposes when the leaves could not be obtained. + This oleaginous principle has been proposed as an article of traffic; and this seems a very reasonable specu- lation, from the account given by Linnaeus of his having counted on one plant 40,320 grains; and he calculates that, if all these were to be matured at the same time, the whole surface of the earth would not be sufficient to contain the plants!]