84 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



smokers may be I do not know ; but being myself 

 what would certainly be called an inveterate 

 smoker, I may be permitted to state that I never 

 felt any inconvenience, " neither better nor worse," 

 when, from circumstances, I have passed twelve, 

 fifteen, or even twenty-four hours without smok- 

 ing ; and this occurred during the great trial at 

 the Old Bailey just alluded to, at which I con- 

 stantly attended. Nay, more — I have passed vdiole 

 days without smoking, merely as a test of the 

 human will. I have also tantalised the propensity 

 by cutting down my daily consumption to one- 

 twentieth of the usual quantity, and this, too, 

 without any inconvenient physical sensations what- 

 ever — although, like Dr. Johnson in the matter 

 of wine, I think it a greater trial to refrain than 

 to abstain altogether. 



At all events, we have the admitted fact that 

 no permanent morbid effects remain after giving 

 up the habit ; and therefore, admitting the patient 

 to be actually better for giving up smoking, it 

 only shows that smoking was to the smoker what 

 Hudibras thought the doctors were to all man- 

 kind : — 



