88 ST NICOTINE 



admonitory finger, utters the solemn warning ' but the 

 end of that man is not yet ! ' 



Fortunately there is no longer need to consider whether 

 the weed deserves the hard things said of it, or whether it 

 is to be ranked among the chief blessings a beneficent 

 Providence has conferred upon this nether world. These 

 things are settling themselves in their proper places under 

 the critical eyes of modern science, and the larger and 

 more rational views derived from experiences in the field, 

 the camp, and the hospital. Conspicuous among medical 

 treatises of recent years, wherein the subject is dispassion- 

 ately surveyed, may be mentioned that of Dr. John C. 

 Murray, of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Remarking upon the 

 observed curative effect of tobacco-smoking on the sick 

 and wounded in the Franco-German war, he says that its 

 healing virtues were so obvious to an army surgeon of his 

 acquaintance that from being strongly opposed to the use 

 of tobacco he became a convert, in so far that he actually 

 purchased cigars and presented them to the wounded, in 

 consequence of having observed that their smoking 

 assisted recovery. ' This experience,' adds Dr. Murray, ' is 

 contrary to what has been enunciated as theory, or deduced 

 from isolated examples taken from the hospitals. Practical 

 observation from previously healthy men must, however, 

 be allowed precedence of speculation when inferred from 

 disease.' This admission marks a decided advance to- 

 wards harmonising the faults of speculative reasoning with 

 the actual experience of every-day life. 



Taking a general survey of army medical officers' reports 

 of work done in the hospital-camps, he finds evidence in 

 abundance supporting the view that tobacco-smoking does 

 in some indefinable way mitigate suffering and help to a 

 speedy recovery. Not only were the good effects manifest 



