A colonel in the army, lately from Portugal, put one of those curious looking bottles into my hands. I tasted the content, and I recollected something like it. Finding that I recollected a similar taste, I bought one of them. I walked about all the morning tasting it; my confirmation grew more and more strengthened, that the efficient material of the Eau Medicinale was Tobacco. Its taste and action in every respect have confirmed it. After having tasted it on through the whole of the morning, I smoaked a pipe of tobacco, and I found the effect still more confirmed. I then sweetened some white wine, and added to it a little of the infusion of tobacco, with a small quantity of infusion of Columbo root. I gave a boy a taste of both; he affirmed that the taste of both was alike. I gave a girl also a taste of both, and she affirmed it also. The boy and girl were not known to each other. I judged this to be the best method of ascertaining the fact, by thus trying it upon an unadulterated taste. It is well known that waterdrinkers are the best judges of the different flavour of wine. I think D'Husson, by the turbidity of this coarse mixture, gives into it nothing of tobacco but the infusion. An halfpay officer who turns quack has seldom so much of talent as he has of misery; and if we say, that necessity is the mother of invention, yet this invention belongs not to genius, but is confined to the wants of necessity. The simple talent of a quack would not lead him to prepare an extract, or an oil. Those who do not, ought to know, that the oil and extract of tobacco are amongst the strongest and most deleterious poisons of the vegetable kingdom. The Abbé Fontana, the most intelligent philosopher of this age, has said it and proved it by his own experiments. I shall for the present proceed no farther in my investigation. But I cannot close the subject without advising the curious sceptic who doubts the facts I have advanced, not to depend upon the mixture I gave, if it be put into any bottle. No. It must be put into one of D'Husson's vender's bottles, and it must be wrapped all over with the magical mummery of paper and printing, and scaled like his, and then, and then only let the comparison of taste and effect be made. On the first importation of tobacco into England, it was then recommended by the interested for its various powers of curing diseases and restoring health. The properties and the name of the herb were then avowed; whereas at this day its familiarity would not admit of the secret being imparted; because, by the name and property of the herb being known, the charm of the novelty would have been dissolved, the vul- gar gar antidote would have its salutary qualities disowned, and the vender exposed. But till now the Tobacco-herb has been confined to the pipe, the mouth, and the snuff-box, except occasionally and cautiously it has been given in clysters, when its effect is very powerful indeed, and brings on cold sweats, syncope, and sometimes, with all our caution, even death. It has not been permitted in any quantity to pass into the stomach knowingly for any good. The quackery of tobacco has never been from time to time unnoticed. Every age has had its attention called to it. Even the poets of the brightest fame have been celebrated under the fumes of this deleterious and loathsome weed.* And as far back as in the reign of James the First, a Satyrical Poem was written upon it, dedicated to Sir George Villers, by Joshua Sylvester, and from which the following are extracts. The Poem is entitled, TOBACCO BATTERED, or at least wise by A Volley of holy Shot Thundered From Mount Helicon. It must not be forgotten, that the application of Tobacco in this Poem to the human constitution, is confined to chew ing, smoaking, and snuffing. FIRST. The Quackery on the Vertues of Tobacco. "Twere therefore better somewhat else to seek Than rest in this, so worthie of dislike; Sith curing thus one small infirmity, It doth create a greater malady, When thereby freed (perhaps) from Gout we fall In bondage of this custome capitall. For they that physicks to a custome bring, For where's no sickness, what should med'cine doo * See Oxford Sausage, by Browne. SECOND. Utility of Nitrous Acid in Ulceration of the Tongue. 355 SECOND. On the loathsom Offence in Society, of those who accustom themselves to Tobacco. "Offend their friends with a most un-respect, THIRD. ; On the Characters of those who practised and promoted the "Oft have I seen fooles of all sorts frequent it, Fooles RICH and poor, young fooles, old fooles and all, Supposing some discreetly wise (for holy) Could be entangled with so fond a thing." And thus you have had the real and best opinion I have to offer upon l'Eau Medicinale D'Husson. I am, with all respect, The great, great, great grandson of To the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal. GENTLEMEN, ON N perusing Dr. Hall's interesting case of a tumour on the tongue, in your Journal; it occurred to me that a similar case fell under my care, when I was an assistant, which terminated in ulceration, and was successfully cured by the exhibition of nitrous nitrous acid. As near as I can recollect, the following are the particulars: Miss C-made application to me in the year 1808, to examine her tongue, which was ulcerated to a considerable extent, and very deep: her mind was much impressed, as she conceived it to be a cancerous affection. On examination, I found the edges hardened, elevated, and irregular, and the discharge was of a foetid nature; not the least indisposition presented itself, until the mind became influenced with the idea of cancer; and as this appearance is a characteristic of that malady, I certainly was suspicious of its partakin g of that nature. As the part had ulcerated to a great extent, an operation was out of the question, especially upon such a delicate organ; I prescribed an infusion of Fol. Conii Maculati, with Sulph. Allum et Myrrh, for a gargle, to be frequently used; and directed small doses of the Sub murias Hydrarg. twice a day, with an opiate at night. These were persevered in for a considerable time without any good effect, and the ulcer rapidly augmented in size. Several sorts of gargles were afterwards applied, and likewise medi cines internally, without any beneficial result. At this time, Dr. Beales, of Bury St. Edmund's, had occasion to visit a patient in the neighbourhood where Miss C resided, and upon my detailing the particulars of the case, politely expressed a desire to see her. When he had examined the tongue, in the most minute manner, he was of opinion that it bore the characteristic of a cancerous ulcer, and was rather doubtful of success; but as he had given the Nitrous Acid in similar cases, and the effects produced were generally favourable, he particularly wished it to be tried in this; and prescribed as follows, Acid. Nitric. Dil. 3. Mellis, 3ij. Aq. Font. bij. m. capiat cochlear. iij, sæpe in die; (it was directed to be sucked through a tube, to prevent the acid from corroding the teeth) an opiate was likewise given at night, and a lotion, composed of Ext. Conii. Spr. Vin. Rect. et Aquæ, was ordered to be applied to the tongue frequently. In fourteen days after the exhibition of the acid, healthy granulations were perceived to shoot out at the bot tom of the ulcer, which gradually healed from this time, and in the course of three months, (although half the tongue had been in a state of ulceration) it was perfectly well. In about ten days after the tongue was healed, a vesicle appeared upon another part, and ulcerated, but it was soon counteracted by the effects of the acid, which it was now deemed advisable to administer for some time after the cure was complete. I had but little confidence in the external remedies, as si milar applications were used before. Several cases of a simi lar appearance have occurred in my practice of late, and I always always found the Nitrous Acid, exhibited in the above form, of considerable utility. I apprehend that this medicine has not been mentioned by any author as being serviceable in such affections; but as I have witnessed the beneficial result arising from its exhibition in numerous cases; I take particular pleasure in promulgating it through the medium of your widely circulating publication, with the motive of inducing practitioners to give it a trial in appropriate cases, and acquaint us with the result of their experiments. Newmarket, Sept. 24th, 1810. I am, &c. E. L. KNOWLES, Chir. To the Editors of the Medical and Physical Journal. GENTLEMEN, WAS led by your criticism on Dr. Rees's observations on disorders of the stomach; to peruse his treatise. Dr. Rees has made use; at the latter end of his remarks, of a well-known work by Dr. Bree on disordered respiration, but I was rather surprised at his report of the opinions of that writer. Dr . Rees gives a quotation from this work, "Not merely from his admiration of its merit, but because the author has no intention of attributing to the stomach that share in the produc tion of the disease which he is persuaded it possesses. To this quotation now referred to, he adds many more from diffe rent parts of the work; as testimony unintended of the truth of the theory, that a dyspeptic state of the stomach causes asthma. It appears, however, on perusing the "Practical Inquiry," that Dr. Bree has no doubtful opinion on the subject, and the reader will there sce fully proved what Dr. Rees sliews in part, by quotations, "That Dyspepsia is a certain predisposing cause in all cases, and so frequently an immediale cause! as to forin one species of asthma."-Pract. Inq. p. 148. A quotation that appears at pag. 189, of Dr. Rees's work, might have been given with more precision, as follows, viz. "Whenever dyspepsia prevails, there shall we find a fruitful opportunity of exciting the paroxysm of asthma. If it exist, unaccompanied by other causes, it may be said to occasion the third species; but this debility of the stomach must probably concur with other causes before the disease appears in the form of the first species."-Pract. Ing. 4th Edit. p. 145. Treating of this complaint as a predisposing cause of (No. 141.) li asthma, |