S2 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



of Life', where the subject is fully discussed.* 

 There we read of "a hale man of sixty, who 

 enjoys capital health at present, takes for every 

 dose a piece about two grains in weight. For the 

 last forty years he has continued the habit, which 

 he inherited from his father, and which he will 

 transmit to his children." It is not for the mere 

 result of such a practice in the apparent well- 

 being of the subject, that I allude to arsenic and 

 other poisons thus familiarly taken into the human 

 system. My object is very different ; and per- 

 haps the argument will be assisted to a right 

 development by this aid of comparative toxi- 

 cology : — 



" 'No symptoms of illness or chronic poisoning are ob- 

 servable in any of these arsenic-eaters, when the dose is 

 carefully adapted to the constitution and habit of body of 

 the person using it. But if from want of material, or any 

 other cause, the arsenic be left off for a time, symptoms 

 of disease occur ^Yhich resemble those of slight arsenical 

 poisoning." f 



Now, if we proceed in the same way with 

 smoking, chewing, or snuffing, carefully adapting 



* Johnston's ' Chemistry of Life,' No. x. 

 f Ubi supra. 



