Miscellany. [Volume: 2, Issue: 1, August, 1860, pp. 50-56]

PERISCOPE OF MEDICAL AND GENERAL SCIENCE.

51

weakness, languidness, vomiting, vertigo, stupor, giddiness, paralysis, nervousness, and great debility, with often fatal prostration. It also acts
upon the nervous and circulatory systems to an extent that is both terrifying and alarming, often causing death. When chewed or rubbed, it
exerts a great influence upon the mucous membrane of the mouth, and
also upon the salivary glands, the sublingual and the submaxillary, causing them to secrete a larger amount of saliva than nature intended them
to do, or than is necessary for the purpose of accomplishing the duties
assigned them; thus robbing the system of a portion of its fluids which
are required for the healthy maintenance of its animal functions, merely
for the gratification of a morbid appetite. The sense of taste is generally perverted or greatly impaired in all those who either rub or chew the
noxious weed."
Dr. H. furthermore observes: " When tobacco is smoked it acts as an irritant, and frequently a portion of the smoke is carried into the lungs, rendering the air breathed hot and impure. It then acts as a sedative upon the
circulation, and often irritates the lining membrane of the air cells in the
lungs, which brings on inflammation, laying broad and deep the seeds of
disease, which may in time hurry its victim to an early grave. Death has
resulted from the inhalation of the smoke, and blindness has been occasioned by it in the case of Mr. L d, of New Jersey, with whom the
passion became so strong that it was impossible for him to rest satisfied
unless he was smoking, and thirty-five segars a day were his usual allowance. In 1849 he first perceived that his eyesight was failing him. This
alarmed him somewhat, and caused him to call upon a physician, who recommended the employment of spectacles, and advised his quitting the
use of cigars. This he did for nearly a year; his eyesight improved
rapidly, until it was as good as it had ever been. But a habit which had
been fostered for years was not to be so easily eradicated. He again
became a victim to its use, and consequently his eyes began to fail. He
endeavored to quit the cigar; when he did so his eyes improved. But
the habit was too strong; at last he gave way to it entirely, and in 1855
was almost totally blind, being only able to distinguish night from day;
becoming, according to his own acknowledgment, at the early age of
twenty-eight years, a victim to the immoderate use of tobacco."
The New Orleans Med. and Surg. Jour. for July contains an interesting article on the hygienic influence of travel by railroad, in which the
author, DR. B. DOWLER, thus alludes to the beneficial effects upon the
sight of looking at distant objects: "I will here mention a fact new to
me, and not the less valuable because it happens to be personal. During
a travel of less duration than three weeks, my habit of looking at objects
comparatively distant, removed a short-sightedness which, though slight,
had been of long duration-I have said distant as compared to books,
manuscripts, etc. I have never used the glasses for near-sighted persons,
except for distant vision; for these, however, after a few days' travel, I
had no use, having been able to see perfectly as others at the usual distances. This long-sightedness I still retain, though slightly diminished
by pen-work and proof-reading, which often extend far into the night."
In a paper upon the surgical and medical treatment of the wounded in
the battle of Solferino, translated from the German by DR. STRUBE for
the journal just mentioned, it is stated that "the extensive destruction
and crushing of the facial bones mostly succeeded well, although in the
beginning the prognosis seemed very unfavorable. One case of a Turco is