I have been reading some works on 19th-century views of tobacco, alcohol, tea, and coffee. Here are some notes from:
The Journal of Health volume 1:
TOBACCO SMOKING.
The
opinions which we have expressed in our third, eighth, and tenth numbers on
tobacco-smoking, and snuff-taking, and the pointed enumeration of the evils
which grow out o the use of this substance, render it needless for us to say
much more on the present occasion. To these papers we would refer our
correspondent, “A Victim of the Weed.” He has suffered enough to apprize him of
his danger, without having his constitution entirely broken down, by what he
admts to be a bad practice. He may be very sure, that if smoking now produce
dizziness, tremors will not be far behind; and that a want of appetite for
dinner will, ere long, be followed by its loss at other times, or it will be so
depraved, that its calls cannot be received as a natural indication of the want
of sustenance. It is the property of narcotics, whether opium or tobacco, if
long persisted in, to weaken the tone of the skin, and lay it open to
troublesome eruptions and itchings, which for the most part it is impossible to
cure until the offending cause be withheld.
Experiments
on animals show, that if a decoction of opium or tobacco be applied to the
brain or spinal marrow, there is, at first, increased excitation of the heart,
and ready contraction of the muscles: but, after a time, the circulation
becomes more languid, and the muscles refuse to contract, under any irritant
even directly applied to them. The person who uses much tobacco has his nervous
system affected in the same way:--various secretions, or natural discharges,
from the different surfaces and glans as of saliva from the mouth—mucus
expectorated or coughed up from the lungs—the gastric or digestive juice from
the stomach—bile from the liver, and so on, are, at first, all increased in
quantity. But, after a time, under the prolonged excitation of this noxious
agent, all these are diminished—the mouth is dry and parched—the breast feels
hot, and there is often hoarseness and dry cough—the stomach is perverted in
its office, and indigestion follows; and, finally the liver becoming sluggish
and torpid, no longer secretes the due quantity of bile, and the complexion
loses its freshness, if of a turbid hue, or decidedly jaundiced.
“A Victim
of the Weed” is desirous of knowing whether he can, at once, abandon his pope
and segars, or must part company in a gradual manner. Our advice is, to desist
immediately and entirely from the use of tobacco in every form, and in any
quantity, however small. Let him, with a full knowledge of the pains he has
suffered, and the greater evils yet in store for him if fail to reform,
resolutely and determinately say, “I will cease, from this hour, to smoke or
take any, the slightest whiff.” He may feel distressed at the first withholding
of a stimulus to which he had become, in a measure, accustomed; but this very
feeling of languor and depression, from the deprivation of what neither added
to his strength, nor was conducive to his nourishment, and which, so far from
naturally exciting, invariably obtunds the senses, is a proof of its being an
artificial want, the gratification of which keeps up a forced state of the
animal economy, which, sooner or later, will sink as much below par, as it
before hand risen above it. Independent of those feelings of a purely physical
nature, from the first abandonment of a bad habit, there are others growing out
of our moral and intellectual constitution, by which we feel uneasy and
uncomfortable, and even irritable, at the accustomed hour. Hence the necessity
of our seeking out either business or company of such a character as shall
engage our attention, and somewhat interest our better feelings, at the witching
hour when we used to resign ourselves to the dominion of evil, by falling into
the snares of sensuality.
We rejoice
that our other correspondent has, swayed by our former monitions, abandoned the
practice of chewing, and that he can now sign himself “A Reformer.” (“Tobacco
Smoking,” The Journal of Health 1, no. 14 [March 24, 1830]: 219-20)
M’ALLISTER’S DISSERTATION ON TOBACCO.
We have
read with much pleasure a Dissertation on the use and abuse of Tobacco, by
Doctor.M’Allister. It is a judicious summary of the existing information on a topic
to which the bad taste and folly of man have given most melancholy importance.
The author
first examines the effects of tobacco on the animal economy, when it has been
prescribed as a medicine; and he arrives at the following conclusion. “That few
substances are capable of exerting effects to sudden and destructive as this
poisonous plant. Prick the skin on a mouse with a needle, the point of which
has been dipped in the essential oil of tobacco, and immediately it swells and
dies. Introduce a piece of common “twist,” as large as a kidney bean, into the
mouth of a robust man, unaccustomed to this weed; soon he is affected with
fainting, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, and loss of vision; at length the surface
becomes deadly pale, the cold sweat gathers thick upon his brow, the pulse
flutters, or ceases to beat, a universal tremor comes on with slight spasms,
and other symptoms or dissolution. As an emetic, few articles can compare with
it for the promptness and efficiency of its operation; at the same time there
are none which produce such universal debility.”
“If such be
a fair statement of its effects on the human system; if it requires all the
skill of the most experienced practitioner to guard against those sudden
depressions, which uniformly follow its use when administered with the utmost
circumspection; and if, with all this caution, its operation is still followed
by the most alarming, and even fatal consequences; what shall we say of those
who habitually subject their constitution to the destructive influence of this
worse than Bohon Upas?” . . . Under the head of chewing, we find the
following examples of its pernicious tendency:--“A clergyman of high standing
informed me that he acquired the habit of using tobacco in college, and had
continued the practice for a number of years; but found, by experience, his
health materially impaired; being often affected with sickness, lassitude, and
faintness. His muscles also became flabby and lost their tone, and his speaking
was seriously interrupted by an elongation of the uvula. His brother, and
intelligent physician, advised the discontinuance of his tobacco. He laid it
aside. Nature, freed from its depressing influence, soon gave signs of
returning vigour. His stomach resumed its wonted tone, his muscles acquired
their former elasticity, and his speaking was no more annoyed by a relaxation
of the azygus uvulae.
“A
respectable man of my acquaintance, about forty years of age, who commenced
chewing tobacco at the age of eighteen, was for a long time annoyed by
depression of spirits, which increased until it became a settled melancholy,
with great emaciation, and the usual symptoms of that miserable disease. All
attempts to relieve him proved unavailing, until he was persuaded to dispense
with his quid. Immediately his spirits revived, his countenance lost its
dejection, his flesh increased, and he soon regained his health. Another man
who used tobacco very sparingly, became affected with loss of appetite,
sickness at stomach, emaciation, and melancholy. From a conviction that even
the small quantity he chewed was the source of this trouble, he entirely left
it off, and very soon recovered.
“I was once
acquainted with a learned, respectable, and intelligent physician, who informed
me, that from his youth he had been accustomed to the use of this baneful
plant, both by smoking and chewing. At length, after using it very freely while
indisposed, he was suddenly seized with an alarming vertigo, which, without
doubt, was the result of this destructive habit. This afflicting complaint was
preceded by the usual symptoms which accompany a disordered stomach, and a
relaxation of nerves, with which, gentlemen, you are too familiar to need a
description here. After the application of a variety of remedies to little or
no purpose, he quit the deleterious practice, and though his vertigo continued long
and obstinate, he has nearly or quite recovered his former health. And he has
never doubted but the use of tobacco was the cause of all his suffering in this
disagreeable disease. Many more cases might be cited, but sufficient has been
said to establish the doctrine here laid down.” (“M’Allister’s Dissertation on
Tobacco,” The Journal of Health 1, no. 21 [July 14, 1830]:329, 330-31)
THE WATER AND WINE DRINKER CONTRASTED
The water
drinker glides tranquilly through life, without much exhilaration or depression,
and escapes many diseases to which he would otherwise be subject.
The wine
drinker experiences short but vivid periods of rapture, and long intervals
of gloom; he is also more subject to disease. The balance of enjoyment, then,
turns decidedly in favour of the water drinker, leaving out his temporal
prosperity and future anticipations; and the nearer we keep to this regiment,
the happier we shall be.—Dr. Jas. Johnson. (“The Water and Wine Drinker
Contrasted,” The Journal of Health 1, no. 23 [August 11, 1830]: 368)
Mr.
M’Naughton very plausibly supposes that the system here, as in the cases of
hibernating animals, lived on its own resources. When the body is emaciated,
the fatty part is taken up by the absorbents, and conveyed into the blood—the chief
condition for which state of things, to be carried on without causing delirium,
raging fever, and death, is a supply of water to dissolve and dilute the saline
and alkaline fluids. No other drink would answer the same intention in cases of
abstinence from all solid food: strong drinks would consume the vital powers,
inflame the digestive canal, and prevent absorption taking place.—The
nutritive, so called, as porter, beer, and the like, would oppress the brain,
cause fever and stupefaction, and dropsy. Hence we still repeat, that water is
the only fitting drink. By what other single liquid, the result of
distillation, or fermentation, or combination of liquids, could life be
sustained, for a fifth part of the above time, without intolerable torment? (“Living
on Water,” The Journal of Health 1, no. 24 [August 25, 1830]: 368)
