52 A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. 



of time. Those who smoke tenpenny or even sixpenny 

 cigars, would soon dispose of los. 6d. a week, or ^27 6s. 

 a year ; but the few pence weekly spent by very mode- 

 rate smokers among working-men, is often more than 

 they can afford. As for that, many spend on food more 

 than they know how to afford ; but food brings them a 

 return. A well-fed man can do more work than an ill-fed 

 one ; while a smoking man does not do more work than a 

 non-smoker. On the contrary, the smoker is apt to lose 

 time ; the narcotic makes him take things too easily ; 

 and the tendency of smoking is, more or less, to paralyze 

 his faculties, and to shorten his working life. 



It may be said that the money is not lost ; the seven- 

 teen miUions are not flung into the sea. About half goes 

 to the government ; the rest is divided among the growers, 

 the importers, the adulteraters, and the venders. As to 

 the workmen, the employment is unwholesome, and a 

 much larger share would go to them if the money was 

 spent on other manufactured articles. If the sale ceased, 

 the tobacco-buyers would either buy something else, or 

 pay their debts, or save for bad times ; so that the coun- 

 try would be as prosperous — more so ; as much money 

 would circulate, and more would be produced ; because 

 nothing comes of tobacco but smoke and ashes and nox- 

 ious gases. 



Tobacco not only hinders a great deal of productive 

 labor, but it is indirectly destructive of property. It is 

 impossible to compute the fires caused by smoking — fires 

 in bedrooms, workshops, warehouses, stables, barns, ricks, 

 churches, ships, and mines — from the hot ashes of the 

 pipe or cigar, or from the matches used for lighting 

 them. Dr. Ritchie, after stating that in i860 53 fires 



