86 tobacco: its use and abuse. 



jLoison by its smoke, and througli the lungs, just as cer. 

 tainly as through the bowels. 



" It is true, that the all-perfect laws of Nature point 

 out to careless man, that he is taking in a poison, and 

 by the sickness, headache, and vomiting which follow, 

 stop for the time the .poisonous dose, and avert the 

 fatal end. 



" Look at the pale face, imperfect development, and 

 deficient muscular power of the inhabitants of unhealthy 

 malarious districts. They live on, but with only half 

 the proper attributes of life. So it is with the habitual 

 smoker : his system is accustomed to the poison ; and so 

 the opium-eater can take an ounce of laudanum for his 

 morning's dram, and feel it not, when the eighth part 

 of it would be fatal to the uninitiated. 



" What a blessing it would have been to mankind, if 

 all men had shrunk from this plague of the brain, as did 

 the first Napoleon. One inhalation was enough. In 

 disgust he exclaimed, ' Oh, the swine ! My stomach 

 turns. It is a habit only fit to amuse sluggards.' 



" It is not, however, to be denied, that when the first 

 poisonous efi'ect has passed ofi", and the system begins to 

 tolerate it, that tobacco acts as a slight stimulant to 

 many organs. First to the brain, like wine and spirits 

 in small quantities, or inflammation in its very earliest 

 and very transitory stage, it excites to an unnatural 

 degree the natural function of the part. I once knew a 

 young clergyman, who could only write his sermons 

 under the stimulus of tobacco, and there is no question 

 that these discourses were brilliant, eloquent, and most 



