In compliance with your request, I have read over the
pamphlet of Dr. McAllister on the use of Tobacco. Though my
present occupations have prevented my doing it so carefully,
as to entitle me to suggest any alteration or improvement.
The general tendency of the pamphlet is excellent: and I most
cordially give my opinion in its favor: for I have often had
occasion to observe the pernicious effects of the free use of
tobacco. Many instances of dyspepsia have come under my
notice, the origin of which was traced to the practice of
_chewing_; and on the abandonment of the habit, the patients
were restored to health. I have seen a number of cases of
injury to the voice, from the introduction of _snuff_ into
the _facial sinuses_. As to _smoking_, I am well satisfied
that it is calculated to cause a feverish state of the body;
and in certain constitutions it weakens the membranes which
line the nostrils, throat, and lungs, produces a
susceptibility to colds, and even more serious affections of
these parts, when it has been much employed.
From what I have seen, I have been led to believe that this
article is not necessary nor useful for the preservation of
health; and that it is often a cause of weakness and
sickness. I am, with great respect,
Your ob't serv't,
JOHN C. WARREN.
_Boston, Jan. 25, 1832._
NOTE.--Many persons have the opinion that the use of tobacco
is a preventive of contagious diseases: because it has been
asserted that tobacconists and others living in the midst of
the effluvia of this article, are exempted from the attacks
of such disorders. The practices above alluded to, have in my
opinion, a contrary effect. Those who live constantly in the
region of tobacco, by the effect of habit cease to be
stimulated and over excited by the diffusion of its lighter
particles in the air they breathe. But those who employ it,
occasionally, whether in smoking, chewing or snuffing,
undergo an excitement, more or less considerable; which is
infallibly followed by a proportionate debility, in which
state, they would be subject to the attacks of a disease they
might otherwise have escaped.