The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-09-04 00:00:00

HEALTH AND DISEASE.

A CCRE FOR HYDROPHORIA.—The AWN Afeclicak
Beige states, on the authority of Father Legrand de Is
Liray, li.te interpreter to Admiral Rigsld de Genouill7,
and one of the oldest and most venerable missionaries in
Tonquin and Cochin China, that in those countries
hydrophobia is cured with complete success by boiling a
handful of the leaves of Datura Stranionium, or Thorny
Apple, in a litre of water, until reduced to one-belt, and
then administering the potion to the patient all at •
time. A violent paroxysm of rage ensues, which lasts
but • short time, and the patient is cured in the come
of 24 hours. For the benefit of our readers we may
stste that the leaves of Stramoninni are highly narcotic,
and as such are recommended in asthma under the form
of cigars, to be smoked as usual; but that the same
leaves, taken in large quantities, whether in powder, or
under the form of a decoction, will produce temporary
idiotcy. As to its efficacy in confirmed hydrophobia,
it swim to be very earnestly recommended by Father
Legrand, who declares he has tried it several times, and
invariably with success. The great difficulty will, of
course, consist in administering the remedy to the
patient, which probably must be done by main forte,

with the aid of a horn ; but on this subject the Prose
Mb(wale is silent.
TUE VSE AND ABUSE OF ToBACCO.—Sir B. C. Brodie
in • letter to the Times on Friday last. on this subject,
asys--" But the ill affects of tobacco are not confined to
the nervous ',akin. In many instances there is a loss
of the healthy appetite for food, the imperfect state of
the digestion being soon rendered manifest by the loss
of flesh and the sallow countenance. It is difficult to
say what other diseases may not follow the imperfect
assimilation of food continued during • long period of
time. So many causes are in operation in tie human
body which may tend in a greater or less degree to the
production of organic changes in it, that it is only in
sonic instances we can venture to pronounce as to the
precise manner in which a disease that proves mortal
has originated. From cascs, however, which have
fallen under my own observation, and from a considers-
tion of all the circumstances, I cannot entertain a doubt
that, if we could obtain accurate statistics OD the subject
we should find that the value of life in inveterate
smokers is considerably below the average. Nor is this
opinion in any degree contradicted by the fact that
there are individuals who in spite of the inhalation of
tobacco smoke live to be old, and without any material
derangement of the health; analogous exceptions to the
general rule being met with in the case of those who
have indulged too freely in the use of spirituous and
fermented liquors. The inveterate tobacco smoker may
be stupid and lazy, and the habit to which he is addicted
inay gradually tend to shorten his life and deteriorate
olf,pring, lint the dram drinker is imarrelacine, mis•
chiceow, and often criminal. It is under the influence
of gin that the burglar and the murderer become fitted
for the task which they have undirt“ken. If tobacco-
smokers would limit themselves to the ,wcasional indul-
gence of their appetite, they would do little harm either
to themselves or others ; but there is always danger
that a sensual habit once begun may be carried to excess,
and that danger is never so great as in the case of those
who are not compelled by the necessities of their situa-
tion to be actively employed. For such persons the
prudent course is to abstain from smoking altogether.