is altogether
erroneous. If it be capable of soothing the uneasiness of the nerves
of the stomach, occurring after a meal, that very uneasiness has been
caused by some error of diet or regimen, and may be removed by other
means. If tobacco facilitate digestion, how comes it, that, after laying
aside the habitual use of it, most individuals experience an increase of
appetite and of digestive energy, and an accumulation of flesh?

It is sometimes urged, that men occasionally live to an advanced age,
who are habitual consumers of this article; true, and so do some men who
habitually drink rum, and who occasionally get drunk; and does it thence
follow that rum is harmless or promotes long life? All, that either fact
proves, is, that the poisonous influence is longer or more effectually
resisted, by some constitutions than by others. The man, who can live
long under the use of tobacco and rum, can live longer without them.

An opinion has prevailed in some communities, that the use of tobacco
operates, as a preservative against infectious and epidemic diseases.
This must be a mistake. Whatever tends to weaken or depress the powers
of the nervous system predisposes it to be operated upon, by the causes
of these diseases. If tobacco afford protection, in such cases, why does
it not secure those who use it, against cholera? In no communities,
perhaps, has that disease committed more frightful ravages, than where
all classes of persons are addicted to the free use of this article.
In Havana, in 1833, containing a stationary population of about _one
hundred and twenty thousand_, cholera carried off, in a few weeks, if
we may credit the public journals, _sixteen thousand_; and, in Matanzas,
containing a population of about _twelve thousand_, it was announced
that _fifteen hundred_ perished. This makes one-eighth of the population
in both places; and if, as in most other cities, the number of deaths,
as published in the journals, falls short of the truth, and a
considerable deduction be made from the whole population on account
of the great numbers who fled on the appearance of the disease, the
mortality will be still greater. In Havana, after the announcement of
the foregoing mortality, and after a subsidence of the epidemic, for
some weeks, it returned, and destroyed such numbers as to bring back the
public alarm. The degree, in which the practice of smoking prevails, may
be judged of by a fact, stated by Dr. Abbot in his Letters