TOBACCO-SMOKING ; SNUFF. 483 



derived from savages, and as in itself filthy; and the Royal 

 Author not only condemned it as injurious to the health, but as 

 absolutely poisonous. He gives the following ridiculous account 

 of the appearances found in the bodies of inveterate smokers, as 

 sober truth. " Surely smoke becomes a kitchen farre better than 

 a dining chamber ; and yet it makes a kitchen oftentimes in the 

 inward parts of men, soy ling and infecting them with an unctuous 

 and oyly kind of soote, as hath been found in some great tobacco- 

 takers, that after death were opened." He concludes with 

 styling it " a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, 

 harmfull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black 

 stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian 

 smoke of the pit that is bottomless." Notwithstanding such 

 opposition, smoking, together with the use of snuff, has spread 

 not only through civilized but among savage nations ; and there 

 is now probably no single product of the Vegetable kingdom 

 which is so extensively employed. 



658. That excessive smoking is injurious, like excessive 

 indulgence of any other kind, there can be no doubt ; that the 

 more moderate practice of it injures the health of many persons, 

 who would be very unwilling to give it up, is equally certain ; 

 but, in regard to the deleterious effects of the use of it, there is 

 less to be said, than against the habitual employment of fermented 

 liquors ; and the discontinuance of the practice might be rather 

 urged on the ground of cleanliness and economy, than upon such 

 arguments. We quite agree with King James that "smoke 

 becomes a kitchen ;" and in regard to snuff-taking we are of the 

 opinion of the barrister, who is said to have thus replied to a 

 friend who offered him a pinch, "Sir, if the Almighty had 

 intended my nostrils for a dust-hole, he would not have turned 

 them upside-down." We would seriously urge, upon our younger 

 readers especially, the desirableness of not being drawn by 

 example or ridicule, into a custom which has nothing really to 

 recommend it, and which will often prevent them, by the expense 

 and time it involves, from doing what they might for the 

 improvement of their minds. Some idea of the amount of money 

 expended upon this indulgence may be formed from the fact, that 



