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
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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 Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal there is contained a paper written by Dr. Page, in which an inflammation of the substance of the lungs which had proved obstinate, in spite of the ab- straction of ninety-five pounds of blood, and the application of vesicatories, was completely cured by the injection into the rectum of an infusion similar to, but three times weaker than the last mentioned.* Riverius, in the treatment of catarrh, recommends the extract of Tobacco in aqua vitse, to be held under the tongue “ in the bigness of a pease ;”f and Lorinser inculcates a similar practice in bronchitis while we learn from Pfaff that a good formula for its administration, and which at the same time prevents its causing vomiting, is the solution of two grains in cinnamon water.§ The wine of Tobacco may be substituted for the tincture of hyosciamus, or hydrocyanic acid in pectoral mixtures ; and the custom of smoking the herb by those unaccustomed to it, for the purpose of curing common colds, is prevalent among the lower ranks of society. || In pleuropneumonia, when a fistulous aperture exists, Epiphanius Ferdinandus advises Tobacco to be used both in the form of infusion and vapour, in order that by the continued coughing the pus may be excreted.T Short recommends Tobacco to be chewed by a person labouring under cynanche tousillaris, on the principle of derivation ; but discountenances snuffing seeing that “the parts require rest and relaxation, and not convulsive shocks and contractions ;”** and an immediate recovery of a boy from the same disorder followed the administration of an enema under the direction of Dr. Page.ff Monardes found, by the imposition of warm leaves or of a linen cloth, soaked in the warm juice of the leaves, on the parts affected with rheumatism, that the arthritic pains were alle- viated, and he supposed this amendment to depend upon the plant “ resolving and digesting the humours.”JJ Gerard recommends the roasted leaves of the plant to be laid upon a part affected with gout and Platerus relates the case of an old man in whom the redness and tumour entirely disappeared after the application of a Tobacco poultice to the toe. || |] Indeed, a writer in the Medical and Physical Journal, entitling himself a great-great-great grandson of Joshua Sylvester, is of opinion that Tobacco is the really active constituent in the Eau Medicinale dHusson, founding his supposition on the similarity of their effects, and on the circumstance that, when a little of the infusion of that plant was mixed with that of columbo, no difference in appearance and taste could be perceived betwixt the mixture so prepared and the empirical nostrum.lHf For the cure of that hell o’ a’ diseases which is of so intolerable a nature as that there never lived philosopher who could endure it patiently, the advocates of Tobacco bring forward their favourite weed as * Vol. xviii. 1822. + The Practice of Physich, lib. i. ch. 15. J Die Lehre von den Lungenkrankheiten, s. 467. § Op. cit. || From thi9 circumstance was probably derived the following homoeopathic doggrel:— “ Tobacco reek, Tobacco reek. It makes me hail when I am sick, Tobacco reek, Tobacco reek, When I am hail it makes me sick. •r he Fevre, op. cit. ** Op. cit. ++ Loc. cit. XX Paulli, op. cit. §§ Op. cit. |||| Observations, lib. ii. p. 509. ■» Vol. xxiv. p. 351.