[18] "It is a positive fact that the gastric secretion can at any time be produced by simply stimulating the salivary glands with tobacco."—Lewes, Physiology of Common Life, vol. i. p. 192. The gastric secretion is also stimulated by the action of tobacco on the pneumogastric or eighth pair of nerves.
[19] A possible means of testing this inference would be the judicious employment of smoking as a dietetic measure in cases of jaundice. This distressing disease occurs when the torpid liver secretes too little bile. The biliverdine, which would ordinarily be taken up to make bile, remains in the blood until, seeking egress through the sweat-glands, it colours the skin yellow. In the case of novices, however, great care would need to be taken; as unskilful smoking is very likely to induce narcosis.
[20] See a paper by Dr. E. Smith, read before the British Association in 1862.
[21] See an admirable paper by Lewes in the Fortnightly Review, May 15th, 1865.
[22] We fear that this explanation will be rather unintelligible to the general reader. But it is hardly practicable for us to insert here a disquisition on physiological chemistry. Those who are familiar with modern physiology will readily catch our meaning. Those who are not may skip, if they choose, this parenthetical paragraph.
[23] "Tobacco, when the food is sufficient to preserve the weight of the body, increases that weight, and when the food is not sufficient, and the body in consequence loses weight, tobacco restrains that loss." Hammond, Physiological Effects of Alcohol and Tobacco, Am. Journal of Medical Sciences, tom. XXXII. N.S., p. 319.
[24] In this exposition we have assumed that the tobacco is smoked and the saliva retained. If the saliva be frequently ejected, the case is entirely altered. Habitual spitting incites the salivary glands to excessive secretion, thereby weakening the system to a surprising extent, and probably lowering nutrition. Many temperate smokers, who think themselves hurt by tobacco, are probably hurt only because, though in all other respects gentlemen, they will persist in the filthy habit of spitting. There is no excuse for the habit, for with very little practice the desire to get rid of the saliva entirely ceases, and is never again felt. In chewing, the saliva is so impregnated with the nicotinous constituents of the leaf, that the choice lies far more narrowly between spitting and narcosis. Of the two evils we shall not venture to say which is the least. In snuffing, too, the question is complicated by the acute local irritation caused by the contact of the stimulant with the nasal membranes. This, no doubt, has its medicinal virtues. But for a healthy man it is probable that smoking is the only rational, as it is certainly the only decent, way in which to use tobacco.
[25] Mill's System of Logic, 6th ed. vol. I. pp. 503-508.
[26] "The Puritans, from the earliest days of their 'plantation' among us, abhorred the fume of the pipe." Fairholt, Tobacco, its History, etc., p. 111.
[27] Smoking has also been charged with acting as a predisposing, or even as an exciting, cause of insanity,—a notion effectually disposed of by Dr. Bucknill, in the Lancet, Feb. 28th, 1857. Before leaving this subject, it may be well to allude to Mr. Parton's remarks (p. 35) about "pallid," "yellow," "sickly," and "cadaverous," tobacco-manufacturers. He evidently means to convey the impression that workers in tobacco are more unhealthy than other workmen. Upon this point we shall content ourselves with transcribing the following passage from Christison, On Poisons, p. 731:—"Writers on the diseases of artisans have made many vague statements on the supposed baneful effects of the manufacture of snuff on the workmen. It is said they are liable to bronchitis, dysentery, ophthalmia, carbuncles, and furuncles. At a meeting of the Royal Medical Society of Paris, however, before which a memoir to this purport was lately read, the facts were contradicted by reference to the state of the workmen at the Royal Snuff Manufactory of Gros-Caillou, where 1000 people are constantly employed without detriment to their health. (Revue Médicale, 1827, tom. III. p. 168.) This subject has been since investigated with great care by Messrs. Parent-Duchatelet and D'Arcet, who inquired minutely into the state of the workmen employed at all the great tobacco-manufactories of France, comprising a population of above 4000 persons; and the results at which they have arrived are,—that the workmen very easily become habituated to the atmosphere of the manufactory,—that they are not particularly subject either to special diseases, or to disease generally,—and that they live on an average quite as long as other tradesmen. These facts are derived from very accurate statistical returns. (Annales d'Hygiène, 1829, tom. I. p. 169.)" The reader may also consult an instructive notice in Hammond's Journal of Psychological Medicine, Oct. 1868, vol. II. p. 828.