90 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. , 



phoenix — and renews the trial — if he has the 

 heart to do so. 



Decidedly this picture seems calculated to 

 disgust for ever all future smokers ; hut the 

 reverse of the medal must be also exhibited ; and 

 the reader will perhaps be able to conceive how 

 it happens that men will poison themselves five 

 or six times in order to enjoy the Elysian plea- 

 sures which smokers profess to experience. 



" The smoker," says a Frencliman, "experiences, in- 

 deed, a great pleasure. The snuff-taker charms away his idle 

 cares by introducing into his nose, from minute to minute, 

 a pinch of powder which excites his pituitary membrane. 

 The chewer excites to a high degree his sense of taste, 

 and at the same time wards off various diseases of the outer 

 membrane of the mouth ; hence our sailors escape thereby 

 many dangerous diseases — for instance, scurvy. As for the 

 smolcer, we shall extend further the study of the sensations 

 which he enjoys, for experience has taught us that, when the 

 smoker has hardened himself to the vaporous emanations 

 of nicotiana, he experiences three very distinct sensations. 

 The first is altogether ideal — it charms his leisure and 

 occupies his idle hour. We place the second in the excite- 

 ment of his sense of taste ; and the third, which in our 

 opinion is the truest, in the brain- excitement caused by the 

 beneficent fume of this admirable weed. This third sen- 

 sation produces a far niente which it is impossible to de- 

 scribe. It imparts the pleasantest thoughts to the soul 

 and magical impressions to the sensorium : what a crowd 

 of ideas does he find in his brain when his organisation is 



