Review. 187 



ticed into the recesses of indulgence, and sloth and 

 despondency may close the passage to our return. 



****** * 



M Of the seemliness or decency of the practice of 

 smoking and chewing tobacco, more may be said than 

 you will have patience to hear. Boerhaave observes, 

 that " it is allowed, by the universal consent of the 

 more civilized nations, that spitting in company is 

 both unmannerly and nasty ; insomuch, that among 

 the inhabitants of the East, it was held in the highest 

 detestation and abhorrence!" A physician should 

 never use tobacco, in any form, as some weak patients 

 will faint at the smell. 



" The fashion of smoking tobacco was introduced 

 into England by Sir Walter Raleigh, in the reign of 

 James I. The custom was followed by almost all the 

 nobility and high officers of the realm, to the great dis- 

 satisfaction of the fastidious monarch. So universally 

 prevalent was this fashion, that his majesty could not 

 readily find any one to write or preach against it. 

 He therefore wrote a tract himself, which he entitled, 

 " A Counter-blast to Tobacco ," a copy of which may 

 be seen in the library of this University. After ex- 

 posing, in strong language, the unhealthiness and of- 

 fensiveness of this practice, he closes with this royal 

 Counter-blast : " It is a custom, loathsome to the 

 eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dan- 

 gerous to the i. u n c s ; and in the black, stinking fume 

 thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of 

 the pit, that is bottomless /" 



