14 TOBACCO, INSANITY AND NERVOUSNESS. 



increasingly, until a limit of endurance is reached, and the 

 disastrous results of the abuse become patent enough to 

 impress even the dullest mind. 



But under existing conditions the habit will not want for 

 new generations of victims, as long as the cigar is looked 

 upon as a symbol of manliness by the young, and the pipe 

 as that of peace and comfort by the adult, and as long as 

 tobacco is praised in word and picture. To what extent 

 the habit is fostered among boys on the theory of forbidden 

 fruit, it is not my province to discuss. 



This paper was designed to bring before this Society 

 and the profession at large my views on a subject with 

 which unusual opportunities have made me familiar. Im- 

 perceptibly I have drifted from the role of the author of a 

 paper into that of a moralist and exhorter, and yet I know 

 what an unpopulur figure the man cuts that has the slightest 

 suspicion of a reformer about him. My consolation is that 

 I foresee the results of these remarks on my readers. One 

 will say with a pitying smile: All true, but exaggerated. 



Another one who reads this will be convinced of the cor- 

 rectness of some points as applying to his own case. He 

 will fling his freshly-lit cigar away with the firm resolve of 

 quitting the weed forever. The effect is immediate. In a 

 few days he feels that his mental and physical energies are 

 wonderfully strengthened ; there is a buoyancy of spirits, 

 a return of healthy animal life, which he has not expe- 

 rienced for many a year and, one fine day, when he feels 

 particularly bright and happy over so wonderful a change, 

 he celebrates the event and — lights another cigar. The 

 Angel of Constancy veils his face, and the same train of 

 the old familiar symptoms of neurasthenia and mental 

 depression, of irritability and don't-know-what's-the-mat- 

 ter-feeling take a renewed and firmer hold of him. 



So I fear I shall share the fate of the preacher in the 

 desert. 



