Written in 1830 by Dr. A. McAllister, A Dissertation on the Medical Properties and Injurious Effects of the Habitual Use of Tobacco is mostly included here as a way to point out that while tobacco had some physicians singing its praises, it also had its detractors. Its medical benefits were a matter of significant debate. Dr. McAllister notes right away in his book that physicians helped to spread tobacco:
“Gentlemen – there is a baneful habit, diffused, like the atmosphere, through all classes, and affect ing all the ramifications of society. And this habit owes much of its prevalence to the advice and example of respectable physicians…I endeavor to present the natural history, chemical composition, and medical properties of one of our most deadly narcotics – the Tabaci Folia, Nicotiana Tabacum, i.e. tobacco.”
He goes on to do just that. While some other physicians wrote about cures which seemed miraculous after the use of tobacco, Dr. McAllister wrote about several patients who were killed after having it applied. Tobacco is reviewed through each of its potential uses in medicine, and Dr. McAllister finds it problematic rather than effective in each instance. He ends up determining, “few substances are capable of exerting effects so sudden and destructive, as this poisonous plant.”
McAllister completes his attack on tobacco by taking a moral stance: tobacco is costly, it paves the way to drunkenness, and it is indecent.
This book is an interesting read, with many memorable quotations and examples. It’s a good example of the type of back-and-forth that was going on in the medical community about the use of tobacco.
A Dissertation on the Medical Properties and Injurious Effects of the Habitual Use of Tobacco is in the public domain and can be read for free at Project Gutenberg.