MEDICINAL ACTION. 151 



Is exempt from these consequences, if not carried to 

 excess. 



" In truth, the introduction of tobacco amongst nations 

 is a strange fact. Whilst civilisation advances so slowly, 

 a fetid herb has con(j[iiered the world in less than two 

 centuries. 



" This extension, so rapid, still continuing in France 

 (since its branch of the revenue is constantly increasing), 

 proves that it appeals to the very depths of human nature, 

 — qu'elle inte'resse le fond de la nature humaine. 



" Does tobacco only satisfy a fashion, a caprice, an in- 

 veterate habit — that substance which the workmen, the 

 poorest of the land, will get, at the cost of other privations, 

 with the pence which they gain by the sweat of their 

 brow ? . . . 



" Or, in spite of so many observations to the contrary, 

 to which those of Laycock, Wright, and Guerard must 

 now be added, shall we believe, with Knapp, that it 

 exerts a useful influence on the human body and its 

 fmictions ? * 



" Tobacco responds to that imperious craving after 

 sensation, excitement, with which man is tormented, and 

 which he seeks to satisfy by feeding gross appetites, for 

 want of the more delicate impressions which he finds in 

 the bosom of a society of which he is actually deprived. 

 The savage of America, the soldier in his bivouac, the 

 sailor on the deep, the effeminate inhabitant of tropical 

 regions who dreads to think under the whelming 

 weight of the burning climate, the idler of our towns, the 

 Turk enervated by the premature exercise of the repro- 

 ductive function, and sunk in the double inertia of 



* Knapp, ' Die Nahrungs-mittel in ihrem chemischen und 

 technischen Beziehungeu,' p. 101. 



