1872.] The Physiological Position of Tobacco. 491 
to care and labour neither sought nor needed by the weaker 
sex; it is an enormous and yearly increasing source of na- 
tional improvidence. Above all, it is the foe to youthful 
development, the bane of youthful blood and brain. The 
subject may seem to some too trivial for serious attention ; 
but when we consider the extent of juvenile smoking, we see 
that the national life and stamina are seriously threatened by 
this ignoble habit. So a noble tree, heaven-aspiring, with 
wide-spreading branches, whose leaves are a refuge for the 
singers of God, may be attacked by some insignificant 
parasitical plant, which winds round and round it in serpent- 
folds, and sucks away its sap and vigour, till the green leaves 
are blasted and the singers flee away, till the glory is de- 
parted, and Death and Ruin alone remain. 
