TOBACCO BENEFITS. 107 



small doses all the narcotics represented by opium, 

 tobacco, the deadly nightshade, strychnine, and 

 other similar drugs, are stimulants, not tonics, that 

 is, in these small doses, they increase the rate of 

 action, or living, without adding to the strength or 

 means of living; that the decree of stimulation 

 varies in different members of the group of 

 narcotics, it being very slight and transient in 

 tobacco, the r soothing,' or narcotic effect being 

 the result usually sought and speedily reached ; 

 that the assertion that ' food and stimulus are equally 

 indispensable ' is a monstrous fallacy ; that any 

 drug stimulation in health is unnecessary and 

 mischievous ; that all such stimulation is followed 

 by a gradual loss of healthful vigor in the tissues 

 and the organs involved; and that while these 

 effects may accumulate slowly, the aggregate re- 

 sults of many years of even moderate indulgence 

 is almost invariably seen in broken health and 

 lessened efficiency, as well as in the presence of 

 positive disease." 



In reply to the claim that tobacco stimulates the 

 mental powers, Dr. Harris writes : " A moderate 

 indulgence may, for a brief period, enliven the 

 imagination, accelerate the thoughts, and give a 

 pleasing sense of intellectual vigor, but, under 

 such unnatural stimulus, the intellect works neither 

 reliably nor safely ; and the reaction and stupor 

 which necessarily succeed, more than counterbal- 

 ance the largest measure even of apparent gain. 

 And he who resorts to such expedients will soon 



