106 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



involved, the heart's action is disturbed ; then the 

 entire brain necessarily responds to the heart's 

 arrested action — the cerebellum can no longer 

 preside over the locomotive muscles — the limbs 

 totter, the patient falls and faints, until the vital 

 force again assumes its wonted energy. 



How comes it, then, that the novice so soon 

 becomes habituated to smoking — enjoys the 

 pleasure without suffering the pain ? Five or six 

 trials, I am told, will always be sufficient to 

 launch the smoker : but it is difficult to conceive 

 how the nerves affected by the nicotin and oily 

 vapour — the latter acting on the heart, the former 

 on the brain, as just described — can become so 

 soon habituated to the poison. I venture to sug- 

 gest that these nerves never become thus habi- 

 tuated to the poison ; and if the most inveterate 

 smoker were to imbibe the smoke, after the 

 fashion of all novices in general, and Napoleon in 

 particular, there would necessarily be an end to 

 all smoking. It is the art or method of smoking 

 which makes all the difference. The smoker 

 does not drive the poisoned fume backwards, nor 

 does he retain it in contact with the oral organs. 



