[355] Ann. d’Hygiène, 1861, x. p. 404.
Poisoning by nicotine, pure and simple, then is rare. Tobacco-poisoning is very common, and has probably been experienced in a mild degree by every smoker in first acquiring the habit. Nearly all the fatal cases are to be ascribed to accident; but criminal cases are not unknown. Christison relates an instance in which tobacco in the form of snuff was put into whisky for the purpose of robbery. In 1854, a man was accused of attempting to poison his wife by putting snuff into her ale, but acquitted. In another case, the father of a child, ten weeks old, killed the infant by putting tobacco into its mouth. He defended himself by saying that it was applied to make the child sleep.
In October 1855,[356] a drunken sailor swallowed (perhaps for the purpose of suicide) his quid of tobacco, containing from about half an ounce to an ounce. He had it some time in his mouth, and in half an hour suffered from frightful tetanic convulsions. There was also diarrhœa; the pupils were dilated widely; the heart’s action became irregular; and towards the end the pupils again contracted. He died in a sort of syncope, seven hours after swallowing the tobacco.
[356] Edin. Med. Journ., 1855.
§ 333. In 1829 a curious instance of poisoning occurred in the case of two girls, eighteen years of age, who suffered from severe symptoms of tobacco-poisoning after drinking some coffee. They recovered; and it was found that tobacco had been mixed with the coffee-berries, and both ground up together.[357]
[357] Barkhausen, Pr. Ver. Ztg., v. 17, p. 83, 1838.