- ble action of the heart often returned after its first cessation, and that
its contractility continued after death.[1] An infusion of ten grains caused laborious breathing in ten seconds, and in twenty seconds temporary arrestment of the heart's action, which then returned, and was attended for a time with increased arterial pressure. Soon afterwards the animal recovered, without any convulsions or loss of sensibility. Two scruples had the same effect. But when three drachms were used, convulsions succeeded similar phenomena, and death ensued in two minutes, the heart continuing to act for some time after respiration had ceased, until at length it was stopped by the usual consequences of asphyxia.[2] On the other hand, Sir B. Brodie found that the effects are very different, according to the form in which the poison is used. Thus four ounces of a strong infusion, when injected into the anus of a dog, killed it in ten minutes by paralyzing the heart; for after death the blood in the aortal cavities was arterial. But the empyreumatic essential oil does not act in that manner: it excites convulsions and coma, without affecting the heart. It may prove fatal in two minutes.[3] Like other violent poisons, tobacco has no effect when applied directly to the brain or nerves.[4] Two drops of the alkaloid, nicotina, injected into the jugular vein of a dog, begin to act in ten seconds, and will prove fatal in a minute and a half.[5]
Symptoms in Man.—The effects observed in man are allied to those produced in dogs by the infusion. In a slight degree they are frequently witnessed in young men, while making their first efforts to acquire the absurd practice of smoking. The first symptoms are acceleration and strengthening of the pulse, with very transient excitement, then sudden giddiness, fainting and great sickness, accompanied with a weak, quivering pulse. These effects are for the the most part transient and trifling, but not always. Some degree of somnolency is not uncommon. Dr. Marshall Hall has given an interesting account of a young man who smoked two pipes for his first debauch, and in consequence was seized with nausea, vomiting, and syncope, then stupor, stertorous breathing, general spasms and insensible pupils. Next day the tendency to faint continued, and in the evening the stupor, stertor and spasms returned; but from that time he recovered steadily.[6] Gmelin has quoted two cases of death from excessive smoking,—caused in one by seventeen, in the other by eighteen pipes, smoked at a sitting.[7] It is likewise mentioned by Lanzoni that an individual fell into a state of somnolency and died lethargic on the twelfth day in consequence of taking too much snuff;[8] Dr. Cheyne says, "he is convinced apoplexy is one of the evils in the train of that disgusting practice;"[9] and I have met with an instance where the excessive use of snuff, occasioned twice, at distant intervals, an attack
- ↑ Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, li. 340.
- ↑ Ibidem.
- ↑ Philosophical Transactions, ci. 186, 181.
- ↑ Macartney.—Orfila, Toxicol. Gén. ii. 282.
- ↑ Blake, in Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, liii. 44.
- ↑ Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, xii. 11.
- ↑ Pflazengifte, 550.
- ↑ Ephem. Cur. Nat. Dec. ii.—Ann. x. p. 222.
- ↑ On Apoplexy and Lethargy, p. 150.
