springs of life, while we are wholly unconscious of
their operation. Such is the effect of the habitual use of tobacco
and other narcotics, and of all stimulants which, like them, make
an impression upon the whole nervous system, without affording the
materials of supply or nutrition.

It is an alleged fact, that, previously to the age of forty years,
a larger mortality exists in Spanish America than in Europe. The very
general habit of smoking tobacco, existing among children and youth
as well as adults, it has been supposed, and not without reason, might
explain this great mortality. Like ardent spirits, tobacco must be
peculiarly pernicious in childhood, when all the nervous energy is
required to aid in accomplishing the full and perfect developement of
the different organs of the body, and in ushering in the period of
manhood. I once knew a boy, eight years of age, whose father had taught
him the free use of the tobacco cud, four years before. He was a pale,
thin, sickly child, and often vomited up his dinner.

To individuals of sedentary habits and literary pursuits, tobacco is
peculiarly injurious, inasmuch as these classes of persons are, in a
measure, deprived of the partially counteracting influence of air and
exercise. I have prescribed for scores of young men, pursuing either
college or professional studies, who had been more or less injured by
the habitual use of this plant.

In the practice of smoking there is no small danger. It tends to produce
a huskiness of the mouth, which calls for some liquid. Water is too
insipid, as the nerves of taste are in a half-palsied state, from the
influence of the tobacco smoke; hence, in order to be tasted, an article
of a pungent or stimulating character is resorted to, and hence the
kindred habits of smoking and drinking. A writer in one of the American
periodicals, speaking of the effect of tobacco, in his own case, says,
that smoking and chewing "produced a continual thirst for stimulating
drinks; and this tormenting thirst led me into the habit of drinking
ale, porter, brandy, and other kinds of spirit, even to the extent, at
times, of partial intoxication." The same writer adds, that "after he
had subdued his appetite for tobacco, he lost all desire for stimulating
drinks." The snufftaker necessarily swallows a part of it, especially
when asleep, by which means its enfeebling effects must be increased.

The opinion that tobacco is necessary to promote digestion