Two inferences may be drawn from the results of our discussion.
1. It does not appear from the considerations presented above, that tobacco is an agent directly responsible in any large degree for the production of insanity, nor does this appear to be the case as indicated by the statistics of asylums for the insane, nor by observation or experience. It rather appears that it is responsible as an agent which, in some measure, from its effects as a poison on the brain, must tend to check the growth and development of the intellectual and moral power in the individual, especially when indulged in during the period of youth and early manhood; and thus it becomes allied with other agencies which, in many cases, would not otherwise become operative in the production of insanity.
2. It also becomes a factor of importance in indirectly producing disease of the nervous system, through hereditary influence. As we have so frequently had occasion to observe hitherto, any abnormal condition which has existed sufficiently long to become a true diathesis, not only may, but is very likely to be transmitted in some form or other to those who come after. This has been shown in relation to the influence of over-stimulation from application to study, and from the effects of alcohol; and though the effects of both these are essentially different from that of tobacco, yet we can but consider the latter as very injurious in its influence. Indeed, I am inclined to regard the physiological effects of tobacco when used to excess as likely to appear in offspring in the form of a lower grade of intellectual and moral character, though to a less extent than are those of alcohol.
SEX IN RELATION TO INSANITY.