Navy journal from 1801: Tobacco smoke saves lives

(AP) For some 19th-century British navy surgeons, reviving men who nearly drowned after falling overboard required what is now a rather unorthodox treatment: tobacco smoke.
The treatment is documented in an 1801 journal, one of more than 1,000 navy medical officers' reports released Thursday by Britain's National Archives. From drunken mutinies to disease outbreaks to a walrus attack, the journals paint a colorful picture of 18th- and 19th-century ship life. Continued

Image: Long John Silver and Hawkins. Illustration by N. C. Wyeth for Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1911