absurd. Yet such experimental results are very 

 often made the basis of denunciation of tobacco 

 smoking. 



Finally most investigators have made their 

 inquiries for the exclusive purpose of discover- 

 ing the evil effects of tobacco smoking. They 

 proceed to their work with a biassed mind. 

 They have already assumed that the habit is 

 harmful and they simply want to find out how 

 much harm they can discover. They are pre- 

 judiced from the beginning. It is to this class 

 of investigator that Dr. John Aikman refers to 

 (New York Medical Journal, Oct. 30, 1915), 

 when he says : "In reading the literature on the 

 use of tobacco we are impressed by the fact that 

 much of it is written by persons greatly op- 

 posed to the use of the plant, and naturally 

 prejudiced." It is quite conceivable that a man 

 may investigate the evil effects which follow 

 from wearing clothes and shoes and he could 

 undoubtedly find some evil effects ; but the users 

 of such articles could very justly say that the 

 beneficial results of such habits more than out- 

 weighed the demonstrated harm that might 

 occur. And then the user of tobacco might say 

 that the beneficial effects of smoking more than 

 compensated for any slight harm that may hap- 

 pen. For tobacco has undoubtedly many excel- 

 lent effects, and no one knows this better than 



178 



