nt conversations that I have
listened to have been accompanied by clouds of tobacco-smoke; and a
great deal of the best literary composition that is produced by
contemporary authors is wrought by men who are actually smoking whilst
they work. My own experience is that very moderate smoking acts as a
pleasant stimulus upon the brain, whilst it produces a temporary
lassitude of the muscular system, not perceptible in times of rest, but
an appreciable hindrance in times of muscular exertion. It is better
therefore for men who feel these effects from tobacco to avoid it when
they are in exercise, and to use it only when the body rests and the
mind labors. Pray remember, however, that this is the experience of an
exceedingly moderate smoker, who has not yet got himself into the
general condition of body which is brought on by a larger indulgence in
tobacco. On the other hand, it is evident that men engaged in physical
labor find a muscular stimulus in occasional smoking, and not a
temporary lassitude. It is probable that the effect varies with
individual cases, and is never precisely what our own experience would
lead us to imagine. For excessive smokers, it appears to be little more
than the tranquillizing of a sort of uneasiness, the continual
satisfaction of a continual craving. I have never been able to ascertain
that moderate smoking diminished intellectual force; but I have observed
in excessive smokers a decided weakening of the will, and a preference
for talking about work to the effort of actual labor. The opinions of
medical men on this subject are so much at variance that their science
only adds to our uncertainty. One doctor tells me that the most moderate
smoking is unquestionably injurious, whilst others affirm that it is
innocent. Speaking simply from self-observation, I find that in my own
case tea and coffee are far more perilous than tobacco.

Almost all English people are habitual tea-drinkers, and as the tea they
drink is very strong, they may be said to use it in excess. The
unpleasant symptoms which tea-poisoning produces in a patient not inured
by habit, disappear in the seasoned tea-drinker, leaving only a certain
exhilaration, which appears to be perfectly innocuous. If tea is a safe
stimulant, it is certainly an agreeable one, and there seems to be no
valid reason why brain-workers should refuse themselves that solace. I
knew a worthy clergyman many years ago who from the most conscientious
motives