A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. 59 



weed than for flowers may begin to fume, and you begin 

 to fret/ Sometimes one is half tempted to accustom 

 one's self to smoke, so as to get indifferent to it ; but it is 

 not wise to be indifferent to an evil, and if the non-smoker 

 suffers from nausea at the habits of others, he at all 

 events retains his power of enjoying fresh and pure air. 

 If a smoker could only appreciate the injury to the health 

 and comfort of others which his habit causes, he would 

 ask himself whether he has any more right to foul or 

 poison the air they must breathe than to foul or poison 

 the water they must drink. We are, in this to\vn, taxing 

 ourselves heavily for drainage — to remove, as far as 

 possible, ill odors and bad gases from our houses and 

 streets ; yet hundreds are taxing themselves still more 

 heavily to supply our streets and houses with nicotine 

 and carbonic acid. 



The steadfast resistance to the drink-t\Tanny won im- 

 portant concessions to abstainers. The value of pure 

 water has been recognized, and colossal enterprises have 

 been undertaken to provide it. Many social meetings, at 

 which intoxicants used to appear as a matter of course, 

 are now enjoyed without them. It is the reverse as 

 regards smoking ; it has claimed, first toleration, and then 

 dominion, where, till of late years, it never ventured to 

 intrude ; it drives away many from places and companies 

 where they have a right, and where they used to find a 

 welcome ; or if they sacrifice their disgust for the sake of 

 social intercourse, they may have good reason to rue 

 their complaisance.-^ 



1 No doubt many non-smokers, including ladies, are compara- 

 tively indifferent to inhaling a moderate amount of smoke ; it is no 

 less the case that others are made more or less ill by it. 



