Nicotiana
tabacum received its specific name from Jean Nicot, French ambassador to
Portugal, who was the means of introducing the tobacco plant into France about 1560. When
Columbus and his followers landed in Cuba in 1492 the practice of smoking tobacco was in
common use among the natives throughout the island, and also throughout the continent of
America. On their return to Spain the practice rapidly spread throughout the Peninsula. Sir
Walter Raleigh and his companions introduced the practice into England in 1586. From that
time the cultivation, manufacture, and use of tobacco, either by smoking, snuffing, or
chewing, rapidly became universal. The symptoms of the pathogenesis are composed partly of
provings made by Lembke, Schreter, and others, and partly of poisonings and over-dosings.
Several instructive articles on tobacco appeared in the Homœopathic
News of 1897, from the pen of M. E. Douglass, then practising at Danville,
Virginia, in the midst of tobacco plantations. His third article (July, 1897) was devoted to
the "medicinal uses" of Tobacco; and it seems that it is regarded as a perfect
panacea by the Virginians for diseases of men and cattle. One use he mentions is as a
palliative for bee-stings and mosquito-bites. A portion of a leaf is moistened with vinegar
and applied to the part. This is interesting, as Ipec.,
one of the antidotes of Tab., has a similar reputation.
Strong tobacco-juice is the most effectual destroyer of the burrowing-flea, Chigoe. For
headache leaves of Tobacco are moistened with vinegar or camphor solution, and applied to
the forehead and nape. The pain is allayed and sleep induced. The local application over the
pit of the stomach relieves nausea. Douglass made in involuntary proving on himself when
about twenty. He was attending an evening writing-class, when a class-mate gave him a bit of
tobacco to chew, and he put it in his mouth. In a few minutes the bell rang and he took his
seat, after first removing the tobacco. He soon began to feel dizzy, and could not
distinguish his copy; the letters danced all over the page; a cold perspiration broke out on
the forehead, and extended all over the body. He felt a deathly nausea at his stomach; his
hands trembled so that he could not hold pen to paper. He felt so weak and faint he feared
he would fall out of his seat. His desk-mate helped him out of the house into the cold air, and gave him a sour
apple, bidding him eat it. It did not seem possible, but he finally tried, and
was so much relieved that he ate it all. In half an hour he was able to return to the class,
but was so weak and tremulous, he did not attempt to write. The nausea was the first symptom
to disappear, then the cold perspiration. The dizziness, trembling, and excessive weakness
did not entirely leave till next day. Since then Douglass has used small doses of vinegar in
acute symptoms of nicotine poisoning, either chewing or smoking, with excellent results.
Nothing, he says, relieves the sensation of constriction of the œsophagus (in his own case
the symptom was a very disagreeable one, "as of a hand clutching the throat") so
quickly as vinegar. One of Douglass's patients, a young man in good health, who was very
fond of cigars, was certain, if he smoked two in an evening, to have an emission on the same
night, sometimes with, but oftener without, dreams. Next day he was prostrated,
hypochondriacal, tongue furred with a thick, fuzzy, yellow coat at base; and dull, occipital
headache. Prostatorrhœa and impotence are also among the effects of Tab. The constrictive sensation is not confined to the throat; it
affects the rectum, bladder, and chest. There is violent rectal tenesmus; and there is also
paralysis and prolapsus ani. The vesical sphincter is paralysed, there is debility of urine,
and enuresis. Two of Lembke's provers, students accustomed to smoke and drink coffee and
beer, had incontinence of urine; in one the quantity of urine was not increased, but it was
"passed more frequently, and dribbled away involuntarily, with slight itching of
urethra in the case of the other the urine was increased, pale, and he "had to pass it
several times in the night, almost amounting to incontinence." The power of Tab. to paralyse sphincters and also morbid constrictions
accounts for its traditional use in cases of strangulated hernia and obstruction of the
bowels, which has been confirmed in homœopathic practice. Renal colic comes under the same
heading. The same pair of opposites─relaxation and constriction─are
seen in the weakness and paralysis on the one hand, and the convulsions on the other. All
shades of nervous tremors, faintings, cramps, jerkings, and restlessness are noted, and it
is by its power of antidoting these conditions that Tab.
holds its place in society. "After an unusually vexatious day," says Douglass,
"when I am in that unpleasant condition of mind when it seems as though the slightest
word would cause an outburst of passion, nothing else does me quite so much good as a
smoke." This is a central nervous action, and if too much indulged leads to
degeneration of nerve tissue, as seen in tobacco-blindness. Tab.
also produces a condition like brain-fag; inability to concentrate thoughts; this may even
go on to a state of idiocy. Silly talking in boys. A curious state was induced in Mr.
Harrison (C. D. P.), who slept in the cabin of a sloop,
the cabin being full of large packages of tobacco. His sleep was harassed by wild and
frightful dreams, and he suddenly awakened about midnight, bathed in a cold dew, and totally
unable to speak or move. He knew perfectly where he was, and recollected what had occurred
the day before; but could not make any bodily effort whatever, and tried in vain to get up
or change his position. "Four bells" was struck on deck, and he heard the sounds
(though rather, it seemed, through their vibrating in his body than by the ears); and he was
conscious of other things that occurred─so he was not dreaming. At
length be became totally insensible for a time, till a roll of the ship roused him, and he
awakened and got on deck. His memory was totally lost for a quarter of an hour; he knew he
was in a ship, but nothing more. While in this state he saw a man drawing water, and asked
him to pour a bucket on his head. This was done, and all his faculties were instantly
restored; and he acquired a most vivid recollection of a vast variety of ideas and events
which seemed to have passed through his mind, and that had occupied him during the time of
his Supposed insensibility.─The nutrition is profoundly influenced by Tab., and it probably retards growth in children. It produces a
deathly sinking and craving at the stomach, and it is no doubt by virtue of this, acting
homœopathically, that Tab. enables persons who cannot
have proper meals to endure starvation better than they otherwise would. Decaisne (C. D. P.) observed the effects of smoking on youths, aged from 9
to 15. Among the effects were: Bruit in carotids and diminution of red corpuscles of the
blood. Palpitation. Deficient digestive power. Sluggish intellect. Craving for alcoholic
stimulants. Epistaxis. Ulcerated mouth. "The younger the boy, the more marked the
symptoms; the better fed suffer least." "Rapid emaciation, especially of back and
cheeks" has been noted among the effects. Tab. has
a number of backaches, and some are peculiar. C. M. Boger (Hahn. A.,
xxxviii, 41) cured this with Tab. cm: Backache
persistent; < lying down, >
walking; history of anginoid attacks. in cases of cholera, sea-sickness, sickness of
pregnancy, renal colic, strangulated hernia, &c., the keynote symptoms are: deathly
nausea, pallor, coldness; icy cold surface, covered with cold sweat; vomiting violent, as
soon as he began to move, > on deck and in fresh air.
Terrible faint, sinking feeling at pit of stomach. Terry cured a case of sea-sickness with
heat along spine from nape down; cold sweat; then vomit. He also cured a case of Ménière's
disease with a feeling as if sea-sick. A keynote symptom of much importance in many
abdominal cases is: > by
uncovering abdomen. Child wants abdomen uncovered; it >
nausea and vomiting. There may be coldness of the abdomen at the same time. Tab. produces a number of skin affections, notably pruritus.
Teste cured with it several cases of freckles; he repeated the remedy and gave it for weeks
at a time: "A country girl had her face and hands covered with freckles, two-thirds of
which disappeared completely [under Tab.] in summer, the
season in which they are most frequent and obstinate." Burnett told me that an infusion
of tobacco is a popular German remedy for scrofulous glands. Cooper gives as in indication,
"intermittent heart in old people." E. T. Blake (H. R.,
ii. 68) records a case of rheumatism with rigid joints and spinal insomnia in a lady, 40,
who had been heavily drugged with narcotics before he saw her. "Whenever she composed
herself for sleep, just as she was lapsing into unconsciousness, the knees would attempt to
fly up towards the chest with an abrupt jerk, tearing painfully at the acetabular
adhesions." Other symptoms were: sweating, impaired memory, hypochondriasis, drumming
in the ears, facial as well as crural clonus, white tongue, epigastric sinking, alternating
with nausea and flatulence, heart action increased by day, diminished down to severe
fainting during the night. Tab. 12 gave three hours'
refreshing sleep the first night, more the second, and after the third the leg-jerk departed
for good. C. W. (H. W., xxvi. 207) was troubled with
spasm of lower jaw, < out of doors. No remedy did
good till he remained one evening with two friends who were smoking, and got himself well
saturated with the smoke. That cured him. Slight subsequent returns were always removed by Tab. J. W. Scott (H. P., xvi.
420) observed a case of epileptiform convulsions brought on by tobacco. For five months the
patient had two attacks weekly, and they grew worse in spite of treatment till the tobacco
was discontinued. Sensations are: Sensation of excessive
wretchedness. As if struck by a hammer on right side of head. As if a band round head. As if
brains were being bored out. As if black dots filled visual field. As if ears were closed.
As of a plug in œsophagus. As if throat gripped by a hand. As if sea-sick. As if stomach
were relaxed. As if chest too tight. As if a crowbar were twisted round heart. The symptoms
are: > Uncovering abdomen. <
By pressure. < Motion of vessel. < Lying; > walking.
Lying on left side = palpitation. Motion (even least) <. Coughing = hiccough;
stitches in pit of stomach. Rising <. < Morning: vomiting; diarrhœa; sickness of pregnancy; cramps
in fingers. Thirst < night. Sight < evening. > In open
air; (ear symptoms <). >
Cold affusion to head. < Indoors. Symptoms come in
paroxysms; are periodical. < By stimulants. Weeping >. Vomiting >. Music
pains in ears.
