Francis Gerry Fairfield

“ In smoking, even, to say nothing of other forms of the tobacco-habit, it makes a material difference whether the same quality is used in conjunction with the pipe or consumed in the form of the cigar—a fact mainly due, no doubt, to the escape of the pyreiline, a base of extreme volatility, in cigar-smoking, and to its conservation to a greater extent in pipe-smoking. ”

“ Others may be very differently affected by habitual smoking. I simply contribute my leaf to the record; and, although I am not satisfied that the tobacco-habit ever produces neurosis, I am satisfied that it is often the exciting cause of nervous disorder in cases where the neurotic tendency exists, and that in these cases it is productive sometimes of morbid moral phenomena, in a degree only less marked than the epileptic aura, and penetrating to the very roots of volition and ethical emotion. ”

“ That smoking is often the exciting cause of the various neuroses, and always a fruitful source of local aneurism, by impairing the nervous circulation and laying the foundation for defective nutrition in various directions. Cessation from tobacco should be made a condition precedent to medical treatment in writer's cramp and nervous affections of that type (the paralytic) . I am not going to take any radical ground on the tobacco question in its general aspects. Every man must judge for himself, and experiment for himself, as to the physiological action of the weed. ”

“ In order that the lay reader may clearly apprehend the various bearings of the facts, and the intimate relation of the diverse symptoms to each other in tobacco-sickness, it is, perhaps, necessary to map out the pneumogastric nerve and indicate its function, which is not fairly deducible from its name. The origin of nearly every pair of cranial nerves has been traced into the vital bulb, the medulla oblongata, or continuation and expansion of the spinal cord as it passes into the cranium, to blossom into the complex structure of the brain. ”

“ These symptoms disappeared on the second day. The use of this tobacco (a strong Louisiana variety) was not attended with the marked tendency to tremor and sleeplessness incident to Honradez, but with a marked narcotism of the motor tract, and a marked vital depression—the specific action, no doubt, of its excess of nicotine on the great nervo-vital centre, the medulla oblongata. On the fourth day a peculiar sinking at the heart kept me in bed half an hour later than usual in the morning, but a cup of strong coffee taken in bed dissipated the lassitude and restored the vital energy. ”

“ So far as I have any opinion to express, it consists of induction from actual experiments, and of inferences from actual symptoms; and, if I seem to leave many points undetermined, it must be set down to the fact that they are not within the scope of the particular method I have followed. That tobacco differently affects different temperaments there is no doubt. That different grades and qualities of tobacco differ materially in their physiological action, in manner and symptom, if not essentially, is demonstrated by experiment. ”

“ Have never used stimulants habitually, or even with ordinary frequency. Have taken morphine in quarter-grain doses, or the equivalent in laudanum, a dozen times, possibly, in the course of as many years. Am regular in my habits, temperate, and accustomed to protracted intellectual effort; inherit a narcotic tendency from my father, which exhibits itself in peculiar psychical phenomena whenever defective nutrition or protracted nervous tension is permitted. ”

“ Yet, making all due allowances for differences of temperament, for the bias of transmitted habit, and for idiosyncrasies developed by special circumstances, I am constrained to the conclusion that, in the majority of instances, the habit of smoking is productive of nervous degeneracy. ”

“ I now increased the ration of Honradez to three-fourths of an ounce per day, with an intensification of the symptoms so rapid and determinate as to leave no doubt of their origin. I was wild with nervousness, yet could not sleep soundly, and invariably woke up in the morning with a more or less pronounced pain in the region of the corpora striata (across the forehead) shooting downward and backward to the base of the brain; but the symptoms were still limited to the motor tract (the corpora striata and its connections) , and there were no perturbations of the sensory. ”

“ My opportunities for observation in hospitals and asylums have not been extensive enough to permit me to pronounce definitely on the point I am about to suggest; but it is my impression that the larvated type of epilepsy occurs more frequently than any other among persons addicted to tobacco, and that the habit is very generally influential in the larvation of nervous maladies. Statistics only can settle this issue, which must be left to the consideration of medical psychologists. ”

“ Blue ink, elastic pen-holders, and broad-nibbed pens, were altogether incapable of ameliorating the affection or mending the scrawling, irregular handwriting that resulted from it; and so essential is it that the hand and mind should work together in a kind of rhythm, in order to form a good style, or to preserve it when formed, that any affection of the nerves of the arm that breaks up this rhythm is nearly as fatal to the poet, essayist, and novelist, as to the artist or the pianist ”

“ The throat has also been considerably affected at these crises, and all the phenomena, of a violent cold have been brought on in a few hours; but whether these effects have been mainly due to the withdrawal of the heat evolved in smoking, or to recovery of the membrane from local narcotism, or whether in part to both, I cannot venture to say. ”

“ No tendency to talk precedes narcotism, nor is the slightest tendency to fantasy developed by the drug. Hasheesh acts in a manner analogous to morphia, bringing on stupor at the moderate dose, but engendering none of those deliciously intangible sensations which are so generally attributed to its action by Bayard Taylor and others who profess to have experimented with it. ”

“ The par vagum, generally known as the pneumogastric nerves, spring laterally from this bulb, and properly include three pairs of nerves, namely—the glosso-pharyngeal, which supply the base of the tongue with sensation, and connect and coordinate the motions of the organ with those of the pharynx and of the digestive function ”