146 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



seen siicli cases terminate fatally with malignant disease 

 of the stomach and liver. Great smokers also, especially 

 those who employ short pipes and cigars, are said to be 

 liable to cancerous affections of the lips. Bnt it happens 

 with tobacco as with deleterious articles of diet, — the 

 strong and healthy suffer comparatively little, while the 

 weak and predisposed to disease fall victims to its poi- 

 sonous operations. Surely, if the dictates of reason were 

 allowed to prevail, an article so injurious to the health, 

 and so offensive in all its modes of enjoyment, would 

 speedily be banished.' 



" Yet reason is not so certainly on Dr. Front's side, for 

 Locke says, — ' Bread or tobacco may be neglected, but 

 reason at first recommends their trial, and custom makes 

 them j)leasant.' " * 



AVhether Lord Bacon was a smoker I know 

 not, but he says of tobacco, " no doubt it hath 

 power to lighten the body and to shake off un- 

 easiness."! 



Warburton, one of the greatest thinkers of 

 any age, was a most inveterate smoker. So 

 was Sir Isaac Newton. 



J have been assured by competent persons that 

 the oldest inhabitants of every town in England 

 are smokers. 



* Johnston, * Chemistry of Common Life.' 

 t Hist. Vitse et Mortis. He thought it hyoscyami quoddam 

 genus — the botanical opinion of the age. 



