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An Essay on the Influence of Tobacco Upon Life and Health

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About this book

Smoking, chewing tobacco and the cost of a daily habit come under close scrutiny in R. D. Mussey's medical essay, published in 1836. He begins with a forceful moral argument about people overriding their natural instincts, then traces tobacco's spread through accounts of travellers, royal objections and colonial regulations. His case draws on experiments with animals as well as observations of human health.

The discussion moves from physical effects to the household budget. Mussey challenges the belief that tobacco preserves teeth, describes wear he has observed and calculates how small daily expenses accumulate over decades. Reports from Cuba and Mexico connect widespread smoking with his concerns about disease. Readers interested in the history of medicine and health reform can see how a nineteenth-century physician combined clinical claims, religious language and financial arithmetic to argue against an established custom.