VI PREFACE TO FIFTH EDITION. 



those who plead for total abstinence from intoxi- 

 cating liquors. Such persons assert that temper- 

 ance means "the moderate use of all these good 

 things ; " that it is really intemperance to insist on 

 entire abstinence. I can only reply that in many 

 cases the tobacco users with whom I have conversed 

 frankly concede that the habit, however limited, is 

 not only foolish but injurious, and that they wish 

 themselves well rid of it. 



On the other hand, not a few insist that their use 

 of tobacco is moderate, even when physicians and 

 friends are alarmed by their excessive indulgence. 

 It is very hard for such smokers, perhaps indeed 

 for smokers generally, to admit that they smoke 

 too much. Is not this an evidence that the tobacco 

 habit impairs the judicial faculty? 



I have discussed this subject with more than one 

 excellent clergyman who assert that their temperate 

 use of the "divine weed" is not only harmless, but 

 really beneficial. May I not respectfully refer 

 back the subject to these preachers of self-denial 

 for a fuller consideration ? 



That there may not be exceptions to the rule 

 governing the habitual use of narcotics, I dare not 

 insist. But if such exceptions exist, are they not 

 so rare that they may almost be regarded as 

 strengthening the general rule ? 



C (DC 



Totally apart, however, from the more or less 

 injurious results, physical and intellectual, of the 

 tobacco habit, arises the question whether, in an 



