A LECTURE OJV TOBACCO. 49 



fear our foes when they bring us gifts ; one is suspicious 

 of the benefits said to be conferred by alcohoHc or nar- 

 cotic poisons. They silence the warnings of exhausted 

 nature. E\^en if the person under their influence seems 

 to be highly exalted or delightfully composed, we want to 

 know what the reaction will be. Those who rely on smoke 

 find in time that they cannot do without smoke ; and they 

 may perhaps experience the truth of what was said by the 

 famous Abernethy, that it stupefies all the "senses and 

 all the faculties, by slow but enduring intoxication, into 

 dull obliviousness." 



Its bad effects are most obvious in the young. In 

 1855, 102 of the pupils in the Polytechnic School in Paris 

 smoked, and 58 did not; yet of the 20 who stood highest 

 in the examinations, there were only six smokers and four- 

 teen non-smokers. Similar experiences led the Minister of 

 Public Instruction, in i860, to issue " a circular addressed 

 to the directors of the colleges and schools throughout the 

 empire, forbidding the use of tobacco and cigars to stu- 

 dents ; giving as a reason that ' the physical as well as the 

 intellectual development of many youths has been checked 

 by the immoderate use of tobacco.' " ^ It has been lately 

 reported ^ that " the experiment of permitting the naval 

 cadets to smoke at the Naval Educational Establishment 

 of the United States, at Annapolis, having been fairly tried 

 for three years, has been found injurious to their health, 

 discipline, and power of study. The medical officers 

 of the Academy and the Academic Board therefore 

 urge, in the strongest terms, that this permission be re- 

 voked." These are important testimonies ; but ?fien who 



1 " May Young England Smoke ? " p. 19. 



2 « Monthly Letters," p. 265. 



4 



