| Description Of Item | Press cutting of pages 380 to 381 from Medical Circular, originally published on 24 December 1864. Consist of two cuttings glued together to form the full article. Reports a meeting of the Harveian Society [of London] held on 7 November 1864. The society’s president at the time was William Adams, Esquire, FRCS [Fellow of The Royal College of Surgeons]. The subject was ‘lesions caused by excessive tobacco-smoking’. Besides the president, the doctors who presented their opinions and cases were Dr Charles Drysdale, Mr [John Brendon] Curgenven, Mr [Thomas] Weeden Cooke, Dr [William] Royston, Mr [Stephen] Jakin, and Mr [Henry G] Times. It was agreed that smoking tobacco in excess could be responsible for many ailments, especially dyspepsia, liver diseases, palpitations of the heart, and impotence, but also nervous diseases, jaundice and ‘impairment of intellect’. But it was also noted that, like opium, small doses of tobacco could be beneficial to subdue desires and ‘strong animal passions’ in young men.
From the collection of Thomas Laycock. |