124 Medicinal Properties of Tobacco. 



evidence that the habits are in a manner associated, or have a 

 sort of natural affinity. If such be its tendency, what moral 

 responsibility rests upon the man who shall recommend it, 

 either by professional advice, or by his own example ! What 

 an infinitude of moral evil must follow in its train, if drunken- 

 ness be its legitimate effect ! What woes, what sorrows, what 

 wounds without cause, may spring into existence at your 

 bidding, when you prescribe the habitual use of this baneful 

 plant ! By such a prescription you incautiously open a fountain 

 from which may issue streams, disturbing the peace of private 

 families, pouring the waters of contention into peaceful and 

 harmonious neighborhoods, embittering every condition of life, 

 and poisoning every department of human society. 



3. It is an indecent practice. To say nothing of the disa- 

 greeable contortions of countenance assumed by the great 

 variety of snuffers, smokers and chewers; to say nothing of 

 the pollution, inseparable from these habits, to the mouth, 

 breath and apparel, to the house and its furniture, (all which 

 are too familiar to require description,) I ask, where is the 

 man making any pretensions to refinement, who would not 

 blush to oftend the delicate sensibilities of the fair, by smok- 

 ing his pipe or cigar in their presence ? True politeness would 

 seem to require, moreover, that even the feelings of gentlemen 

 should be respected. But all sense of propriety seems to 

 have fled before the indulgence of this foolish habit. To such 

 an extent has it obtained, that we meet it in the kitchen, 

 in the dining room, and in the parlor ; in every gathering of 

 men of business; in every party of pleasure; in our halls of 

 legislation ; in our courts of justice ; and even the sanctuary 

 of God is sometimes polluted by this loathsome practice. It is 

 impossible to walk the street without being constantly assailed 

 by this noxious vapor, as it is breathed from the mouth of all" 

 classes in community, from the sooty chimney sweep to the 

 parson in his sacredotal robe. You can scarcely meet a man 

 in the street, with whom you have business, but he pours a 

 stream of smoke into your face, exceedingly disgusting. And 

 this he does too, without imagining that he transgresses the 

 rules of politeness, or gives you any cause of offence. 



In these habits we resemble the Aborigines of our country. 

 They load their huge pipes with the dried leaves of this plant, 

 and when lighted, they breathe the dark cloud of smoke from 

 their mouth and nostrils, and as it curls around their head, 

 ascending towards heaven, they present it as an oflfering to 

 appease the anger of the Great Spirit. A mutual influence 

 has resulted from our intercourse with the Indian. We have 



