Poisoning by Tobacco.—Dr. Gallavardin in speaking of
the fact communicated to the Academy by Dr. Namias, and
which I mentioned in a former letter concerning a smuggler
nearly poisoned to death by concealing a quantity of tobacco
about his person under his shirt, mentions three similar cases
which occurred in 1801, 1844, and 1854. The first was that
of a whole squadron of cavalry, the men having covered
their bodies with tobacco leaves with a view to smuggle them
across the frontiers. Though they were all inveterate smok-
ers, they all experienced headache, vertigo, and sickness.
The second case was that of a woman of fifty, who had done
the same thing, and was in consequence attacked with nausea
and vomiting, hiccough, oppression of the chest, cold perspi-
ration, chilliness, especially at the extremities, and a slow
and intermittent pulse. In the third case, tobacco leaves
with honey spread over them were applied to the limbs of a
patient who was suffering from rheumatism. He experienced
symptoms similar to the above, and the same phenomena have
been observed where tobacco juice, or the leaf of the plant
was applied to chronic eruptions, or upon parts where the
skin had come off, or upon ulcers and sores. Hence Dr. Gal-
lavardin concludes that tobacco under such circumstances
produces symptoms similar to those it produces when ab-
sorbed in other ways.	W. N. Cote.

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