Year: 1873

That tobacco Injuries the sense of smell


we presume no one, even Of its votaries


will have the hardihood to deny. How


can it be otherwise to the snuff.taker


who is constantly filling his nose with


an acrid and irritating powder ! Or the


smoker, who inhails through his nostrals


a smoke laden atmosphere : Or to the


chewer, who never escapes from the odor


of the filthy weed !? We all know what


a disagreeable odor we perceive upon en-


tering drug store. Yet, after we have


been in for an hour or two we do not


notice it. The shop-keeper. who stays


there all the time, does MT perceive it


His sense of smell has become blunted


Druggists sometimes lose the sense of
smell altogether. We have known iu-
stances of the kind. The habitual user
of tobacco carries about him all the time
the odor of a drug of the worst kind.
lives in it. breathes it; yet he does not
perceive it. Should it, then, be matter
of astOnishment that his sense of smell
should; after a time, become so obtuse as
to render him well nigh incapable Of
smelling anything 2 That the use of to-,
bacco impairs the sight and hearing, will
not, perhaps, be SO readily believed -
Nevertheless, there are upon record well
authenticated cases, not only of impaired
hearing, but of total deafness. produced


by the uae of snuff. Do you ask how :
The cavities of the mouth, nose ard ears
all communicate with each other, as do
these also with other cavities in the cram
ium called sinuses, by means Of internal
passages, lined continuously with mucous
membrance. Amy substance, therefore,
which is introduced into the nose can
readily find its way into any of these
other cavities-the passages Of the inter-
nal ear, for instance-with which it is
continuous. The late Rev. DR.. Cooper,
of Boston, by the constant use of snuff,
brought on disorder of the head which
was thought to have ended his days. A
post mDrtem examination disclosed a
quantity Of hard and impacted Scotch
snuff lodged between the nose and the
brain. Now, in addition to the patho-
logical effect which all narcotics have in
bunting and deadening the special SEN
ses, snuff, by getting into the passages of
the internal ear, may ca use deafness. by
its mere mechanical effect in blocking
them up We dare to assert. without
fear of successful contra diction, that
every man and women who uses snuff
carries about with him or her, constantly
more or less of the detestable stuff lodg-
ed in some of the cavities of the skull :;
and that post mOrtem examination
would reveal the fact ! Do you wish to
make snuf-box of your frontal sinus ?


1t is only of late years that the atten-
tiou of medical men has been directed to
the inaueuce of tobacco upon vision.-
That loss of sight is one of the symp-
toms of acute nicotinism, has long been
known to the faculty but it is only
within a recent period that the agency
of chronic nicotinism in causing blind
ness-at least that species of it called
become well establish
ed fact. Amaurosis is paralysis of the
optic nerve, and was formerly one of the
most intractable maladies that physicians
were called upon to treat-in most cases
incurable. But since the causes which
produce it have been better studied, grea
ter success has been met with. Thus,
Mackenzie, whose work on the eye is a
standard authority, Hutchinson, and
other oculists of eminence were led to
notice that great majority Of those who
came to them to be treated for amaurosis
used tobacco in some form many of
them to excess. Acting upon this him,
their amaurotic patients were advised to
abandon the habit. In the case of those
who followed this advice, the disease
soon became amenable to remedies it had
hitherto resisted. In some instances sight
was restored after a time, without any
treatment whatever just as many other
diseases get we'll of themselves, when the
causes which produced them cease to
operate. No fact in medical science is
now better established than that the use
of tobacco is one of the most efficient as
well as one of the most frequent causes
of amaurosis. In most medical text
books of late date this is cited as one
of the causes of this disease. And so
prominent cause is it allowed to be that
the disease itself is sometimes character
lied by medical writers by the term to
bacco blindness.


But short of producing total blindness
that the use of tobacco, at least tobacco
smoking. causes weak eyes and impair
ment Of the sight, the Germans furnish
US with the best of proof In Germany
nearly all the men smoke, and an aston
ishingly large number of them wear
glasses. DR.. Alcott characterizes them
as a specialized nation. Diseases of the
eye and defective vision are surprisingly
common. Every town of any importance
has its eye infrmary, with surgeons who
practice this specially. Heidelberg. with
a population Of 10000, has one. Wies-
baden. with population of 10000. has
one employing four surgeons, and treat
ing 2 500 patients annually. While the
eye clinic of the University Of Vienna
receives 5000, and that Of Prof Won