SMOKING.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 662, 24 May 1870, Page 2

SMOKING.

If the physiological action of tobacco] is not well known it is no fault of the] doctors ; for they are fond of studying] the subject, and telling all about thef results of their inquiries. This time j the French Professor Sees is the expo-] nent of nicotine's virtues and vices ; I for he accords it some good qualities j if smoked in moderation. He says; that in small doses it facilitates respiration ; but in excess it produces a species of convulsion of the respiratory muscles. Asthmatic sufferers should use it moderately, because it stimulates the circulation, but too free indulgence in it causes stagnation of the blood. The heart does not appear to be at all affected by gentle smoking, but the opposite extreme leads to serious consequences; the pumping has a tendency to stop, and palpitations are retarded and intermittent pulses are produced. The excitable and hypochondriacal condition of inveterate smokers the doctor attributes to a diminution of blood in the marrow. As to the action of the weed upon the intellectual faculties, the conclusion is similar to those concerning the bodily functions' —that in little it is stimulating and harmless, but in gross it gives rise to sloth and mental apathy. The present writer's idea is that moderate smoking has no effect at all upon the mind's workings ; he cannot find that it stimulates thought, except in that it gives an opportunity of thinking quietly without appearing idle. No man would like to sit for half-an-hour doing absolutely nothing, while his brain is at work, but if he has a cigar or pipe in his mouth he seems to be doing something, but his mind is left entirely free. Great thinkers, who do not smoke, often scribble on paper, wander about, and play and fidget during their cogitations.

What a glorious world this would be if all ** B inhabitants could say with Sbakspere's shepherd:—" Sir,' I am a [me laborer; I earn that I wear; I jwe no man hate; envy no man's )a ppiness; glad of other men's good j :ontent with my farm." A rieh saddler, whose daughter was ifterwards married to Dunk, the oeleirated Earl of Halifax, ordered in his pill that she should lose the whole of L er fortune if she did not marry a isddler. The young Earl of Halifax, n order to win the bride, actually ie rved an apprenticeship of seven fears to a saddler, and afterwards ,ound himself to the rich saddler'B laughter for life.