CHAPTER IV 



TOBACCO IN RELATION TO HEALTH AND CHARACTER 



But oh, what witchcraft of a stronger kind, 

 Or cause too deep for human search to find, 

 Makes earth-born weeds imperial man enslave, 

 Not little souls, but e'en the wise and brave ? 



ARBUCKLE. 



Is smoking injurious to health? is an old and oft- 

 repeated question which has agitated men's minds for fully 

 three centuries, and out of which has grown a literature of 

 peculiar interest, now signalised by royal Counterblasts 

 and Papal Bulls, now rising in grateful paeans for the 

 blessing conferred on weary humanity by the weed whose 



quiet spirit lulls the lab'ring brain, 

 Lures back to thought the flights of vacant mirth, 

 Consoles the mourner, soothes the couch of pain, 

 And breathes contentment round the humble hearth. 



The utterances of the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir 

 Michael Hicks Beach, calling attention to the vast con- 

 sumption of tobacco in these islands have given force and 

 significance to the question, and naturally they suggest the 

 further inquiry as to how we stand in the matter in relation 

 to the past and to other civilised nations. On the threshold 

 of the inquiry figures present themselves pointing directly to 

 the conclusion that the British nation is spending upon the 



