O'SHEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 125 



produces in the majority of people a heavy, dull condition, 

 which impedes digestion and assimilation, and interferes in 

 some degree with that "motion of the tissues which constitutes 

 vital activity." But when the mind is occupied for a long 

 time, so that exhaustion supervenes, a pipe gives to some 

 habitues a feeling of relief; it soothes, it is said, and makes pos- 

 sible clear thinking. Few men become so habituated to the 

 pipe that they can begin the day well on tobacco. "Many try, 

 but it almost invariably obtains that they go through their la- 

 bors with much less alacrity than other men who are not so 

 addicted." 



