Considerable reliance has also been placed upon it, by some of the most eminent practitioners, as an injection by the anus of the smoke, in cases of obstinate constipation, threatening Ileus, of incarcerated hernia, of spasmodic asthma, and of persons apparently dead from drowning or other causes.
Dr. Strother speaks of its being beneficial in smoking, to persons having defluxions on the lungs. By long boiling in water, its deleterious power is said to be neutralized, and at length destroyed: an extract made by long decoction, is recommended by Stubb and other German physicians, as the most efficient and safe aperient detergent, expectorant and diuretic.—Lewis Mat. Med.
Bates and Fuller give many encomiums on its powers in asthmatic cases.
Boyle asserts the juice and the plant to be very excellent in curing ulcers and mortifications, although its operation, in this respect, is stated by numerous other authorities, to be deleterious in the extreme. As regarding, indeed, many of the virtues attributed to its use by Lewis and others, in decoctions and poultices, candour obliges us to declare, though with great deference to those opinions which have been expressed by the most eminent of the medical profession, that we cannot consider it of any particular efficacy. We shall, therefore, forbear tiring our readers with recipes of the different forms in which it is prescribed for many illnesses.
Taken as snuff, tobacco is generally allowed to be a mild and inoffensive stimulant, which, indeed, in many cases, is prescribed as a most effectual errhine for clearing the nostrils and head. When taken, however, as it frequently is, in excessive quantities, its consequences become often visible, and tumours and secretions in the nose are said to be the result. It is likewise said by some, when taken immoderately, to greatly tend to weaken the sight and bring on apoplexy.
Revenus and Chenst likewise wrote against the habit of smoking; but like more modern writers, among whom may be named Dr. Adam Clarke, with little or no effect; for it may be set down as a fact, proved in many other instances, as well as this illustrates,—that where a people have the facilities of judging for themselves, they invariably will do so. In this case, practice and precept peculiarly go together.
Of the medical qualities of tobacco, as an antidote against contagion, its inestimable efficacy was never better proved, than in the period of the plagues[17] that have at times visited England.
Dr. Willis says, in his very able treatise, that its power in repelling the infectious air during the plague of 1665 was truly astonishing; so much so, that the shops of the tobacconists remained quite uninfected.
It is also very favourably mentioned by Richard Barker, a physician, at the period of the pestilence, who gives it in the following recipe against the plague: “Carry about with you a leaf of tobacco rolled up in tiffiny or lawn, so dipt in vinegar. Smell often to it, and sometimes clap it to the temples for some few minutes of time. For those that smoke tobacco, let them use it with one-fourth part of flower of sulphur, and seven or eight drops of oil of amber for one pipe.”
Among very many celebrated physicians, who have also recorded and recommended the use of tobacco against the poisonous influence of the plague, may be mentioned Gideon Hovey, M.D.,[18] Dr. Fowler,[19] and Diemerbroek, a distinguished Dutch medical practitioner; besides numerous pamphlets that have been published on the subject of the plague.