The confidence of an enlightened community has assigned to you, as
guardians of the dearest interests of society, an elevated and highly
responsible rank among those who labor to promote the great cause of
human happiness. Your influence in the medical councils of this great
and flourishing State, gives a lasting effect to your deliberations, and
stamps a value on those productions which you are pleased to approve.
While the opinions of other men are often exhibited and forgotten with
the occasion which gave them birth, those of the physician continue not
unfrequently to affect at least the physical welfare of the world, after
his "dust has returned to the earth as it was, and his spirit has gone
to God who gave it." In view of this momentous truth, an humble attempt
will now be made, in discharge of the duty assigned me, to examine the
cause of some of the "ills which flesh is heir to."
I regard this principle as an axiom, that whatever conduces to augment
the sum of human happiness, must be an object of solicitude to the
conscientious and intelligent physician. He will be anxious that his
fellow citizens should be sober, peaceable, and virtuous; that they
should be industrious, frugal, and prosperous. Whatever will produce
such results should receive the decided approbation of every benevolent
member of the Faculty. It follows, of course, that whatever has an
opposite tendency should meet his frown. Pursuing this principle, you
have condemned the use of ardent spirits, unless sickness demands their
application as a medicine.
The physical evils resulting from intemperance were eloquently exhibited
in the address, presented by your committee, during the last year. That
address, with its accompanying resolutions, now exerts a beneficial
influence through a widely extended community. We are cheered by the
kind wishes and prayers of the friends of good order, in our efforts to
destroy that vice which has not only "walked" through our country "in
darkness," but "wasted at noon-day." But while we exult in the triumph
of correct principles on _this_ subject, do not other vicious
indulgences demand our attention? Should we slumber over the mischiefs
resulting from such indulgences, while the public look to us as pioneers
who should trace out the pathway to health and happiness, and demand
from us both precepts and examples of sobriety and virtue?
Unfortunately, in all our attempts to abolish practices prejudicial to
the best interests of man, we are compelled, in the outset, to encounter
our own inveterate habits--habits which rise up in mutiny against
reformation, and with clamorous note forbid us to proceed. Are we so
fortunate as to be free from their influence ourselves, we look around
and see our friends bound in chains, from which we should rejoice to
deliver them; but we fear, perhaps, to make an experiment which may
rouse their passions, rather than convince their understandings.
Who can count the multitudes yearly consigned to the tomb, by the
indulgence of a fastidious and unnatural appetite? Headaches,
flatulencies, cholics, dyspepsias, palsies, apoplexies, and death,
pursue the Epicurean train, as ravens follow the march of an armed host,
to prey on those who fall in the "battle of the warrior, with their
garments rolled in blood." The truth of this statement will not be
questioned. Yet where is the physician, possessing sufficient moral
courage to raise his voice against the system of modern cookery? Should
it be thought, that, as medical men have given no more encouragement to
that system than any other class in society, they are not bound to use
any extraordinary exertions to produce a change; still a wide field is
left open to benevolent action in reference to those things, the
influence of which is injurious to mankind.
Gentlemen--there is a baneful habit, diffused, like the atmosphere,
through all classes, and affecting all the ramifications of society. And
this habit owes much of its prevalence to the advice and example of
respectable physicians. We indulge the hope, from the great increase of
medical knowledge, that the time will soon arrive, when persons disposed
to vicious indulgence will be unable to entrench themselves behind our
professional advice. I am aware that I tread on dangerous ground, in
attempting to investigate the propriety of a practice which has been
introduced and approved by a large portion of the members of this
respectable Society. You may start at the suggestion, and regard it as
unworthy of your notice. Let me hope, however, that you will suspend
your opinions, while I endeavor to present the _natural history,
chemical composition_, and _medical properties_ of one of our most
deadly narcotics--the _Tabaci Folia_, _Nicotiana Tabacum_, i. e.
tobacco. If in the prosecution of this inquiry, we shall be able to
discover the great and injurious effects which the use of this poisonous
plant produces on the constitution, I shall be excused, if I urge this
subject on your consideration with more than ordinary importunity.