A LECTURE ON TOBACCO. 6$ 



having been warned against it ; and something may be done 

 to induce men of courage and principle to give it up, 

 if they are convinced that it is injurious, and to check 

 its inroads among the young. In doing so we shall have 

 the sympathy of many smokers ; for as pubhcans dislike 

 disreputable, impoverished drunkards, so the patrons 

 of tobacco are disgusted with its victims. The journal 

 of that trade — '' Cope's Tobacco Plant " — says : " Few 

 things could be more pernicious to boys, growing youths, 

 and persons of unformed constitution, than the use of 

 tobacco in any of its forms." Sir Benjamin Brodie, after 

 detailing in "The Lancet" some of the ill effects of to- 

 bacco, adds : " Boys get the habit of smoking, because 

 they think it manly and fashionable to do so, — not unfre- 

 quently because they have the example set them by their 

 tutors, and pardy because there is no friendly voice to warn 

 them, as to the special ill consequences to which it may 

 give rise, when the process of growth is not yet com- 

 pleted." Teachers, who would prepare the young to be 

 manly men, must warn them, both by precept and ex- 

 ample, against this enfeebling and enslaving practice. In 

 this matter parents should themselves be teachers. In the 

 choice of companions for their sons, and in the selection 

 of a school, they should not only consider social and intel- 

 lectual advantages, but whether those habits are counte- 

 nanced which may be very injurious to their physical and 

 moral well-being. 



But if from carelessness or despair, or from a dislike to 

 attack habits to which valued friends may be addicted, we 

 make no protest,^and become like the smokers, " soothed 

 into lazy peace," what may happen? Women are now 

 asserting their claims to do what men do. We are told 



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