22 tobacco: its use and a»use. 



ential. Spain is now a vast tobacco shop, and its only 

 consolation is, that other nations are fast approaching 

 to its level. Tobacco, as the great flatterer of sensuality, 

 is one of the most energetic promoters of individualism 

 —that is, of a weakening of social ties. Its appearance 

 coincides fatally with reform and the spirit of inquiry. 

 Man inaugurates the introduction of logic in matters in- 

 accessible, at the same time that, as Montaigne says, he 

 gives way to a habit destructive of the faculty of ratioci- 

 nation — a contradiction which shows us that necessity 

 of defect by which he is tormented." 



My own experience confirms much of this, but a more 

 particular physiological account will be found in my 

 Practical Observations. The reader will find a very in- 

 teresting paper by Dr. Alfred Swaine Taylor, in Guy's 

 Hospital Reports, Vol. IV., p. 345. 



