PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 39 



but aimed at random all round the wall. After loading 

 a gun they sat down, smoked and conversed for half-an- 

 hour; then fired, reloaded, and resumed their conversa^ 

 tion. Two hours at mid-day, by mutual consent, were 

 Bet apart for meals and recreation." ^' The English cal- 

 culated seven years as the period in which a breach 

 might be effected."* 



44. It is stated that the Sikhs, now named the Pun- 

 jabees, never smoke tobacco, it being contrary to their 

 religion. I may ask, are there any soldiers in India 

 equal to the Sikhs ? At Chillianwallah, at Moodkee, at 

 Ferozshah, at Aliwur, at Mooltan, at Sobraon, no soldiers 

 behaved better. 



45. Mr. Meadows, in an interesting account of the 

 Chinese, states, that " the soldier who smokes tobacco is 

 bambooed, and he who smokes opium is beheaded." — 



Vide British Quarterly Review, No. 61, for July, 1857, 

 page 49. 



46. Humph, in his Herbarium Amhoinense, says, that 

 the Chinese and natives of India used tobacco only as a 

 medicine or medicament. " Neutiquam," he observes, 

 '' vere ad suctionem sed tantum modo ad usum medicum 

 unanimo enim consensu, Indi assentiunt sese Tabaci suc- 

 tionem ab Europeis dedicisse." 



47. The celebrated French surgeon, Percy, states, 

 that tobacco was as regularly served out to the French 

 soldiers as provisions, and thus comments on the prac- 

 tice : " It had doubtless been calculated that smoking 

 hurt the appetite ; and to save daily from four to six 



* Murray's British India, vol. ii. p. 127. The author here allude* 

 to the siege of Darwar, occupied by Tippoo in September, 1791. 



