Chapter M: Stuart

Andover, Jan. 10, 1832.

TO THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE COUNTY OF ONEIDA.

GENTLEMEN,

We have accidentally seen the manuscript copy of an address pronounced lately before your society, by Dr. McAllister. The research on which it is founded, and its perspicuity and arrangement, entitle it to a form more permanent than manuscript. But if the results are true, which it attempts to substantiate, they present imperious considerations for the publication of the address.

We are not disposed to contract the circle of enjoyment; but if mischief crouches under the covert of any pleasure, propriety requires a notification to the unwary. Even should experience warrant the conclusion that habit enables us to use tobacco with physical impunity, (a conclusion Dr. McAllister powerfully controverts,) we must concede, that its use is disgusting to persons not infected with the habit.

Civilization is composed of innumerable acts of self-denial; while the gratification of appetites, regardless of others, is the strongest feature of barbarism. We see then, even as a dictate of refinement, that the use of tobacco should be abandoned; and it has been abandoned by all the polite circles of Europe.

But tobacco possesses that strong characteristic of a bad habit; it seldom leaves its votaries the liberty of abandonment. All which the address can effect, is an admonition to youth, over whom tobacco has not yet acquired its bad supremacy. As parents, then, anxious to see our children uncontaminated by disgustful practices; as citizens, emulous that our country shall not be surpassed in refinement by the nations of Europe, we are solicitous that the address of Dr. McAllister should be published, and in a pamphlet form, under the authority of your society.

We are aware that this request involves a departure from your general disposition of the periodical addresses of your members, but we beg to suggest that the general interest of the present production renders a departure from your usual course not invidious, but a duty which we humbly think you owe to philanthropy. In support of our opinion, we take the liberty of enclosing you a letter from a distinguished fellow-citizen in Albany, who also accidentally saw the address: and we are, Gentlemen,

With very great respect, your ob't serv'ts,

A. B. JOHNSON,
D. C. LANSING,
HIRAM DENIO,
R. R. LANSING,
EDM'D A. WETMORE,
WILLIAM WILLIAMS,
SAM'L D. DAKIN.

UTICA, Feb. 27, 1830.

* * * * *

Lydius Street, Albany, } Friday Evening, January 22d, 1830. }

DEAR SIR,

I have just completed an attentive perusal of the manuscript _discourse on tobacco_, which you handed to me this afternoon; and I really feel obliged to the author for the interest and instruction which it has afforded me. I am sincerely of opinion that the respectable society before whom it was delivered, owe it to themselves, to the public, and to the author, (if they have not already done so,) to request its publication. And, favorably as it leads me to think of the author's intellectual and professional endowments, he must be still more distinguished for his _modesty_, if he declines a compliance with such a request. He has treated a highly important subject, in a clear, forcible, and striking manner; and the public are deeply concerned in knowing what he has said of it. I will only add, that in point of literary execution, it is, in my judgment, most decidedly respectable, and would in that respect reflect no discredit upon any medical gentleman in this state.

Very respectfully and truly yours, &c. &c.

A. CONKLING.

R. R. Lansing, Esq.

* * * * *

At a meeting of the Medical Society of the County of Oneida, on the
5th of March, 1830, a communication was received, signed by a number
of highly respectable gentlemen from this and other counties of this
state, on the subject of a dissertation delivered before this
society, at their late semi-annual meeting, by Dr. McAllister, "on
the properties and effects of tobacco." The communication was
referred to a committee.

The committee reported, "That although dissertations so delivered became the properly of the society, yet believing as we do, that the subject is one of great importance, and the dissertation highly meritorious, and as we have not funds to defray the expense of publication, we will cheerfully relinquish our claim thereto in favor of our correspondents, and cordially unite with them in the desire which they have expressed to us, 'that the dissertation be published in a pamphlet form,' for their gratification and the benefit of the public."

Resolved, That the above report be accepted, and that a copy of the proceedings be delivered to the gentlemen who presented the communication.