46 A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. 



dozen out of 936 males who did not chew tobacco, and 

 about 162 pounds were consumed every fortnight. When 

 the allowance was stopped they refused to work, till soli- 

 tary confinement and a bread-and-water diet brought them 

 to terms.^ Chewing, of course, involves spitting; and 

 saliva impregnated with tobacco is not a pleasant sight. 

 All travellers in the United States are struck with the 

 spitting. Mr. White, of New York, in his recent work on 

 " England," noticed with pleasure the absence of spit- 

 toons ; for across the Atlantic one sees them everywhere — 

 in steamers, in homes, in churches, in the capitol — but 

 also very obvious tokens that they are not always used 

 when they should be. The dyspepsia, which is so prevalent 

 in America, is no doubt aggravated by this nasty practice, 

 which no one justifies. 



Smoking is the usual mode of treating the weed in this 

 country. Its distinctive evil is the injury- that it inflicts 

 on others. The smoker has neither the power nor the 

 wish to consume his own smoke ; all in his company 

 must share it — will they, nill they. There is, however, a 

 special harm to himself. The saliva must absorb some of 

 the smoke. He either spits it out or swallows it. If he 

 swallows it he takes an infusion of tobacco ; mild it may 

 be, but the repeated dose is not harmless. If he spits, he 

 practises a nauseous habit, and wastes the saliva which 

 nature gave him for important uses. Smoking dries the 

 mouth and throat, and causes thirst. Those who like the 

 narcotic intoxicant do not necessarily desire alcoholic in- 



1 " Monthly Letters," p. 104. On the other hand, after the late 

 terrible fires in Michigan, the convicts in the Ohio State prison 

 sent a gift to the sufferers of a hundred dollars — the result partly 

 of their relinquishment of tobacco. 



