INFLUENCE ON THE HUMAN SYSTEM. 93 



and produces that remcarkably soothing and tranquillising 

 effect on the mmd which has caused it to he so much 

 admired and adopted by all classes of society, and by all 

 nations, civilised and barbarous." * 



Mr. Johnston, in his ' Chemistry of Life,' pro- 

 ceeds in a similar vein : — 



" It is chiefly because of * the soothing and tranquil- 

 lising effect it has on the mind,' as it is exj)ressed by Dr. 

 Pereira, that tobacco is indulged in. And were it pos- 

 sible," he continues, " amid the teasing, paltry cares, as 

 well as the more poignant griefs of life, to find a mere 

 material soother and tranquilliser, productive of no evil 

 after-effects, and accessible alike to all — to the desolate 

 and the outcast equally with him who is rich in a happ}^ 

 home and the felicity of sympathising friends — who so 

 heartless as to wonder or regret that millions of the world- 

 chafed should flee to it for solace ! I confess, however, 

 that in tobacco I have never found this soothing efiect. 

 This no doubt is constitutional, for I cannot presume to 

 ignore the united testimony of the millions of mankind 

 who assert, from their own experience, that it does pro- 

 duce such effects. ****** Generally of the physio- 

 logical action of tobacco upon the bulk of mankind, and 

 apart from its moral influences, it may be received as 

 characteristic of this substance among narcotics — 



" First. That its greater and first efiect is to assuage 

 and allay and soothe the system in general. 



^^ Second. That its lesser and second or after-effect is 

 to excite and invigorate, and at the same time give steadi- 

 ness and fixity to the powers of thought. 



* Materia Medica, p. USl. 



