82 SMOKERS' STORIES. 



WHAT "TOBACCO" MEANS. 



I MUST beg leave to dissent from some- 

 body who has written very unfavorably 

 of smoking tobacco as bad for the lungs, 

 etc. If he means to say that the frequent 

 practice of smoking* and such a 1 habit of 

 doing it as that a man cannot be happy 

 without it, is a prejudicial thing, I agree 

 with him. Tobacco smoke is a stimulant, 

 and therefore the frequent and immoder- 

 ate use of it must tend to weaken the con- 

 stitution in the same way, though in a 

 much smaller degree, that dram-drinking 

 or anything else that excites the nervous 

 system does. But against the moderate 

 and occasional use of it there exists no 

 rational objection. It is a valuable article 

 in medicine. I have known much good 

 from its various cases, and have myself 

 been recovered by it, at times, from a 

 languor which neither company nor wine 

 was able to dissipate. 



