A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. $3 



occurred in London alone from smoking, adds : " I have 

 more than once seen a carpenter, under a London station, 

 stop his work, light his pipe, and cast the half-burnt match 

 among the shavings/' In 1869 pipes and lucifers were 

 taken from the pockets of 58 workmen in one day, 

 as they were entering powder- works at Hounslow. 

 Many explosions of gunpowder have this cause. Last 

 July the government powder-magazine at Mazatlan, Mex- 

 ico, was blown up, with many houses round it, and over 

 seventy lives were lost through the cai-elessness of a sol- 

 dier who dropped his lighted cigar/ Cases have fre- 

 quently been brought before the magistrates, of miners who 

 have incurred fines or imprisonment through taking their 

 pipes and matches with them into dangerous coalpits. At 

 the Blantyre explosion (July, 1879), which resulted in the 

 death of 28 persons, the Inspector of Mines reported 

 that, near the bodies, pipes had been found, with tobacco 

 partly smoked, and lucifer matches.'^ This is but one 

 instance among many. Those who work in constant peril 

 are too apt to become reckless ; but the indolent careless- 

 ness, which is considered one of the charms of smoking, 

 greatly enhances the danger. Offenders have sometimes 

 pleaded that they were not even aware that they were 

 smoking, so unconscious were they of what is habitual. 



We shall next consider whether the use of tobacco pro- 

 motes or hinders freedom. Freedom is very dear to 

 Britons, who not only boast that they "never will be 

 slaves," but also that — 



" Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 

 Receive our air, that moment they are free.*' 



But this free air is something different from smoke. For 

 1 " Monthly Letters," p. 272. 2 "Monthly Letters," pp. 162, 193. 



