The physiological position of tobacco.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiological position of tobacco. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/18 (page 11)
    that all the poison is ultimately expelled from the system. But it is certain, from an experiment of M. Morin,* that the nicotine can be detected in the tissues of the lungs and liver after death. So little is the theory true which would have us believe that the tobacco poison is immediately excreted, that the very cannibals turn up their noses at the nicotised flesh of smokers! -f* Blatin made experiments upon three dogs to determine the effects of chronic poisoning. From 15 to 30 c.grms. of tobacco were mixed with their food, and given twice or thrice daily. The vomitings which were noticed at first soon ceased, the action of the heart became extremely irregular, the circulation grew daily feebler, digestion became difficult, appetite dimin¬ ished, they were subject alternately to diarrhoea and constipa¬ tion, the mucous membrane of mouth and pharynx soon became so dry that deglutition was very difficult, the gums swelled, the teeth loosened, and some of them fell out. These and other symptoms preceded paralysis of the posterior extremities, blindness, deafness, and death from sheer exhaustion. Their autopsy showed the heart to be pale, soft, slightly atrophied, the blood poor in the red globules, fluid, and deprived of flbrine. A closely parallel case in a human subject is given. Brigitte V., a married woman, of 46 years, having lost one of her children, took to tobacco as a consoler. She snuffed, smoked, and chewed, spending about two francs weekly for tobacco. When Dr. Le Briert was called, her voice was rough, not a word could be distinguished, respiration was difficult, pulse feeble and intermittent, the heart beat with difficulty, the pupil dilated and insensible to the light, hearing defective, but not absolutely lost, swallowing difficult, &c., &c. Next day she died, all her organs being in a manner paralysed by the influence of tobacco. The rough voice of snuff-takers, and the “smoker’s sore * Year Book of Medicine (New Sydenham Society), 1861, p.447, and Blatin, p, 93. 4 Strebel, p. 30,