PREFACE. XV 



allotted to man. Since then I have been always 

 familiar with the leading authors on their time- 

 honoured shelves ; but 1 cannot, for that very 

 reason, close my eyes and obscure my under- 

 standing to the rampant fact of medical fallacies, 

 medical mistakes, medical obtuseness, and, I may 

 add, medical special 'pleading^ and worse, with 

 whicli we have all become painfully acquainted. 



In this matter of tobacco I behold a frivolous 

 discussion arising from a very trivial cause — the 

 expression of an opinion against smoking by Mr. 

 Solly, in one of his lectures delivered to his pupils. 

 This was sharply noticed and commented on by 

 some anonymous writer — then others replied, as 

 usual — swelling crescendo the subject upon the 

 public ear with " /s smoking injurious? ^^ — then 

 " The tobacco question " — and at last " The GREAT 

 tobacco question " — with ' Lancet '-editions rave- 

 nously exhausted, out of print, at a 'premium, 

 &c. &c. &c. 



Should the following pages tend to impart sound 

 knowledge of the subject, my pleasant labour, 

 though severely hurried to meet the case, is 

 freely tendered ; and it will be some " returns " 



