HISTORICAL. 11 



According to Aubrey, the pipe was handed from 

 man to man round the table : tobacco " was sold 

 then for its wayte in silver. I have heard some 

 of our old yeomen neighbours say that, when they 

 went to Malmesbury or Chippenham, they culled 

 their biggest shillings to lay in the scales against 

 the tobacco." 



In Mr. Solly's letter, published in the Lancet, 

 he repeats an absurd opinion put forth by a Mr. 

 Lizars, in his very slovenly and ill-written philip- 

 pic against tobacco. " I believe," says the doctor, 

 ** if the habit of smoking in England advances as 

 it has done during the last ten or twelve years, 

 that the English character will lose that combina- 

 tion of energy and solidity which has hitherto 

 distinguished it, and that England will sink in the 

 scale of nations." Now, since it is quite evident 

 from the doctor's letter that he knows nothing 

 respecting the physiology of smoking — all his 

 long tirade being merely a tissue of opinions 

 without facts to support them — the announce- 

 ment is simply ridiculous, instead of being worthy 

 of deep consideration, as it would have been had 

 his whole letter not forcibly suggested the con- 



