176 Review, 



the best informed practitioners of the healing art. 

 We take the liberty of selecting, for this part of the 

 Journal, the following observations on Tobacco, and 

 other Narcotics. We would not wish, however, to 

 be thought to be implicit believers in the whole of 

 what the learned Professor has said on the subject ; 

 as, independently of other circumstances, the late ob- 

 servations of Sir John Sinclair, which Dr. Water- 

 house has not, perhaps, seen, would seem to show, 

 that the use of tobacco is not unfavourable to the 

 attainment of a good old age. On this subject, we 

 can speak with impartiality, as we are not attached 

 to the use of the American weed, in any shape, unless 

 as an article of the Materia Medica, in which case 

 we agree, with Dr. Fowler and Dr. Waterhouse him- 

 self, that the tobacco is entitled to the notice of phy- 

 sicians. 



" Among the causes, which act directly and im- 

 mediately on the stomach, we mentioned, besides 

 ardent and vinous spirits, certain Narcotic sub- 

 stances. 



" Narcotics are soporiferous drugs, which in- 

 duce stupefaction. It is the property of narcotics to 

 exhilarate first, and then to relax and stupify. They 



pipe-stem, of about six inches long. The smoke is conveyed 

 through the winding folds, which prevent it from expanding ; 

 there is, however, a small aperture made through the middle, by 

 a wire. The cigarr preceded the invention of the pipe. The 

 best come from the Havanna; those most esteemed are made ii 

 the convents." Da. Watebhouse. p. 27. 



