8 ANTI-TOBACCO. 



among the articles of trade and commerce, and has sub- 

 sidized both savage and civilized nations and tribes to its 

 indulgence, and is still extending its triumphs. 



To attack it seems as idle as to assault Gibraltar with a 

 flight of Indian arrows. But we remember that most of 

 the gigantic evils that have afflicted humanity — such as 

 human sacrifices, idolatry, torture of witnesses and crimi- 

 nals, the persecution of witches, intemperance, polygamy, 

 slavery and the slave-trade, or war — could, with equal or 

 greater assurance, claim exemption from criticism or re- 

 buke on the ground of their antiquity and their univer- 

 sality. Yet all these abominations now lie more or less 

 under the condemnation of the enlightened sentiment of 

 Christendom, and their dark shadows are passing away 

 before the rising light of a nobler and purer civilization. 



Derivation of the Word. 



The origin of the word tobacco is doubtful. Some 

 trace it to a Carib term, tabacos, signifying a pipe; others 

 to Tabacco, a province of Yucatan ; others to Tabagos, an 

 island in the Caribbean Sea, or to Tabasco, one in the 

 Gulf of Florida. 



Customs of its Use, 



The plant, as grown in different countries and climates, 

 has several species or varieties, though it possesses com- 

 mon properties. In Asia it appears to have been used 

 from a remote antiquity, if we may judge by the ancient 

 sculptured pipes, similar to those still employed in China. 

 In America its use is traced back to the mound-builders, 



