p. 269 | Giving Up Tobacco

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 6, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 17.

Giving Up Tobacco.

THE following case, from the Half-Yearly Abstract of the Medical Sciences, for January onward to July, 1854, page 70, satisfactorily shows that tobacco can be given up. It is likewise a terrible illustration of its baneful effects on the constitution. Drs. Rankin and Radcliffe, the editors, head it, "A case of Angina Pectoris resulting from the use of tobacco," and thus introduce it: "The following case possesses a very high degree of interest." The history of the case is thus related by Dr. Corson, of New York:—

"A highly intelligent man, aged sixty-five, stout, ruddy, early married, temperate, managing a large business, after premising that he commenced chewing tobacco at seventeen, swallowing the juice, as is sometimes customary, to prevent injuring his lungs from constant spitting, and that years after he suffered from a gnawing, capricious appetite, nausea, vomiting of meals, emaciation, nervousness, and palpitation of the heart, dictated to Dr. Corson, recently, the following story:—

"Seven years thus miserably passed, when one day after dinner, I was suddenly seized with intense pain in the chest, gasping for breath, and a sensation as if a crowbar were pressed tightly from the right breast to the left, till it came and twisted in a knot round the heart, which now stopped deathly still for a minute, and then leaped like a dozen frogs. After two hours of death-like suffering, the attack ceased; and I found that ever after my heart missed every fourth beat. My physician said that I had organic disease of the heart, must die suddenly, and need only take a little brandy for the painful paroxysms; and I soon found it the only thing that gave them any relief. For the next twenty-seven years I continued to suffer milder attacks like the above, lasting from one to several minutes, sometimes as often as two or three times a day or night; and to be sickly looking, thin, and pale as a ghost. Simply from revolting at the idea of being a slave to one vile habit alone, and without dreaming of the suffering it had cost me, after thirty-three year's use, I one day threw away tobacco forever.

"Words cannot describe my suffering and desire for a time. I was reminded of the Indian, who, next to all the rum in the world, wanted all the tobacco. But my firm will conquered. In a month my paroxysms nearly ceased, and soon after left entirely. I was directly a new man, and grew stout and hale as you see. With the exception of a little asthmatic breathing, in close rooms and the like, for nearly twenty years since I have enjoyed excellent health."

On examination, Dr. Corson found the heart seemingly healthy in size and structure, only irregular, intermitting still at every fourth pulsation.

After such a well-marked example of manly firmness, no one need pretend to affirm that the luxury of smoking, snuffing, plugging, or chewing, or quidding, cannot be given up; or that the stimulus of wine, or spirits, or malt liquors, cannot be relinquished.—Use and Abuse of Tobacco.