Practical observations on the use and abuse of tobacco : greatly enlarged from the original communication on the effects of tobacco smoking which appeared in Medical Times and Gazette, August 5, 1854, accompanied with cases, illustrated by coloured plates, the drawings after nature / by John Lizars.

  • John Lizars
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical observations on the use and abuse of tobacco : greatly enlarged from the original communication on the effects of tobacco smoking which appeared in Medical Times and Gazette, August 5, 1854, accompanied with cases, illustrated by coloured plates, the drawings after nature / by John Lizars. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    sinoldng seventeen pipes, the other eighteen pipes. Fourcroy cites several instances of the destructive effects of Tobacco in his translation of Eamozzini. The little daughter of a tobacco merchant died in frightful convulsions, from having slept in a chamber where a great quantity of Tobacco had been rasped. An intoxicated soldier swallowed his saliva impregnated Avith Tobacco, awoke in strong convulsions, and nearly became insane. I have strong suspicions that such a melancholy event as the latter, must have occurred frequently. Orfila, in his General System of Toxicology, 1817, vol. ii. p. 211, quotes the following experiments to show the poisonous qualities of To- bacco— Sir Benjamin Brodic injected into the rectum of several dogs, and one cat, from one to four ounces of a strong infusion of Tobacco; tliese animals became insensible, motionless, and all died in less than ten minutes; the pulsations of the heart wore no more sensible a minute be- fore death ; one of them only vomited. Their bodies wore opened immediately after death ; the heart was very much distended, and no longer contracted. Sir B. Brodie states in his Piiysiological Researches, ])ublished in 1851, under Effects of Vegetable Poisons — We may conclude from tliese experiments, that the empyreumatic oil of Tobacco occasions death, by destroying the functions of tlie brain, without directly acting on the circulation. In other words, its effects are similar to those of alcohol, the juice of aconite, and the essential oil of almonds. B. In volume seventh of the Biographical Dictionary, the Rev. Mr. Rose, under the life of Richard Fletcher, Bishop of London, informs us, that he (the Bishop) was very fond of Tobacco, then little known, and that Camden imputes his death to the immoderate use of it. And Camden, in his Annals, 3rd edition, p. 469, translation, states, that Richard Fletcher, Bishop of London, a courtly prelate, who while, by immoderate use of Tobacco, he smothered the cares he took by means of his unlucky marriage, and by the Queen misliked (who did not so well like of married bishops), breathed out his life. The Bishop died in 1596. C. Dr. Cloland, in his treatise on the Properties, Chemical and Medical, of Tobacco, states, that the circumstance which induced Anun-atli tho Fourth to bo so strict in punishing Tobacco smokers, was the dread whidi
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