IV PREFACE. 



Having vigorously and robustly lived in this 

 category — an inveterate smoker — for the last 

 twenty years of my life, the question concerned 

 me nearly. That the tide of this " interesting 

 discussion " was running against " inveterate 

 smokers, " indeed against the gentle weed, was 

 but too apparent from the notice. I had lately 

 read a ridiculous pamphlet, by a Mr. Lizars, 

 against tobacco. Could that pamphlet have 

 originated the " discussion " ? I thought not ; 

 for it had seemed to me, perhaps erroneously, to 

 belong to that class of publications by which 

 credulous men are entrapped into the hands of 

 those who pretend to know infallibly the cause 

 of their secret and other ailments, and ultimately 

 find themselves in a position which few like to 

 disclose for the benefit of the public. But per- 

 haps some " new discovery " had been made by 

 these men of the lancet? Perhaps this Mr. 

 Solly, populi contemner e voces soHtus, has at last 

 been enabled to establish an overwhelming 

 Bevtare against the universe in the matter of 

 smoking! 



I procured the ' Lancet,' read Mr. Solly's 



