Nicotiana tabacum. Tobacco. *N.O. Solanaceae. Tincture of the fresh leaves collected before the flowers are developed.
Clinical
*Amaurosis. Anaemia. Angina pectoris. Anus, prolapse of. Apoplexy. Asthma. Backache. Brain, anaemia of. Brain-fag. Catalepsy. Cholera. Cholera infantum. colour-blindness. Constipation. Diarrhoea. Epilepsy. Freckles. Glands, enlarged. Heart, intermittent. Hernia. Hiccough. Idiocy. Leg, jerking of. Lip, cancer of. Masturbation, effects of. Meniere’s disease. Oesophagus, stricture of. Optic neuritis. *Pregnancy, pruritus of, *sickness of, toothache of. Prostatorrhoea. Pruritus. Pyrosis. Rectum, paralysis of, stricture of. Seasickness. Speech, embarrassed. Strabismus. Tetanus. Toothache. Varicocele.
Characteristics
*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-dosing. Several instructive articles on tobacco appeared in the *Homoeopathic 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 be-stings and mosquito bites. A portion of a leaf is moistened with vinegar and applied to the part. This is interesting, as *Ipecac., one of the antidotes of *Tabacum, 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 an 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 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 oesophagus (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. Prostatorrhoea and impotence are also among the effects of *Tabacum 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 *Tabacum 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 homoeopathic 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 *Tabacum 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. *Tabacum 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 he 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 *Tabacum, 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 homoeopathically, that *Tabacum 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. *Tabacum has a number of backaches, and some are peculiar. ***C.M. Boger (*Hahn. A., xxxviii. 41) cured this with *Tabacum CM: Backache persistent, worse lying down, better 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, better 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 Meniere’s disease with a feeling as if sea-sick. A keynote symptom of much importance in many abdominal cases is: better *by uncovering abdomen. Child wants abdomen uncovered, it better nausea and vomiting. There may be coldness of the abdomen at the same time. *Tabacum 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 *Tabacum] 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 an 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. *Tabacum 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, worse 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 *Tabacum ***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 oesophagus. 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: better Uncovering abdomen. Worse by pressure. Worse motion of vessel. Worse lying, better walking. Lying on left side causes palpitation. Motion (even least) aggravates. Coughing causes hiccough, stitches in pit of stomach. Rising aggravates. Worse morning: vomiting, diarrhoea, sickness of pregnancy, cramps in fingers. Thirst worse night. Sight worse evening. Better in open air, (ear symptoms aggravate). Better cold affusion to head. Worse indoors. Symptoms come in paroxysms, are periodical. Worse by stimulants. Weeping improves. Vomiting improves. Music causes pains in ears.
