INTRODUCTION. 3 



many, I have been led to extend my investigations 

 and to venture on a bolder assault. Yet in this 

 public arraignment of tobacco, a power so high in 

 position, so well-nigh supreme in influence, I have 

 been painfully aware of my difficult and delicate 

 task, and, but for the abundance of testimony 

 against the despot, should never have gathered 

 courage to prosecute it. 



Great pains have been taken to authenticate the 

 statements contained in these papers. And I 

 would express my sense of obligation, not only to 

 those able writers on the subject from whom I 

 have gathered much of my material, but also to 

 the various medical authorities — strangers as well 

 as friends — to whose courtesy in response to in- 

 quiries I have been indebted in the performance of 

 my work. 



If I have written strongly, it is because I have 

 felt deeply. But however strong the language 

 used, — and it will be noted that the sharpest, 

 most uncompromising passages are quotations from 

 those much better informed on this subject than 

 myself, — it has been far from my thought to rep- 

 resent the tobacco-vice as the only or the greatest 

 vice in the world, or tobacco-votaries as sinners 

 above all the men that dwell in Galilee. And it 

 has been frankly, though sorrowfully, conceded 

 that among these votaries are men of unquestioned 

 moral and spiritual excellence. 



