The Express.
London, England, 1868-12-01 00:00:00

THE TOBACRID CONTROVERSY.

TuE argument& employed by the opponents of
tobacco would be enough, if sound, to restrain
the most inveterate smoker. It has been asserted
again and again, with various degrees of emphasis,
that smoking deranges the healthy condition of
every vital function, that it weakens the action of
the heart, destroys the appetite, injures the brain,
arrests the growth of the young, is a frequent
cause of paralysis, cancer, madness, and, in short,
is at the root of more than half the evils which
afflict humanity. Moreover, it is affirmed in the pub-
lications of the British Anti-Tobacco Society, that
the cigar is a powerful cause of Immorality, tilling
our gaols and reformatories and rendering the
I young especially incapable of resisting temptation.
Theta statements, which are but a few out of
many brought forward in the Anti-Tobacco tracts,
would be very terrible if they were true, for it un-
doubtedly is true that smoking is every year be-
coming more customary in England, and that in
the face of the frightful evils--madness, idiotcy,
paralysis, and a score besides—which it is* said to
occasion.

Exaggeration, however, defeats itself, and the
. .

opponents of tobacco, like the total abstainers,
deetroy the whole weight of their arguments
by confounding moderation with excess. The
drunkard, says the teetotaller, is a curse
to himself and to society, which is perfectly true ;
therefore, he adds, it is wrong to drink a glass of
inc or of beer, which is an exquisitely absurd
conclusion. Just as absurd is the argument
advanced against moderate smoking, because im-
moderate smoking, like over-much eating, is in-
jurious to the constitution.

Mr. GIORGI HINRY Liwia has recently endea-
voured to put the tobacco controversy upon a fair
footing. Mr. LIWES, who, among manifold gifts in
other departments, is also distinguished as a physio-
logist, points out with his accustomed clearness
the fallacy of the arguments urged against the
use of tobacco, and at the same time the evils
arising from an abuse of the weed.
" I f," he says, " the slight increase of the heart's
" action, consequent on smoking a cigar, is injuri-
" ous because it is an increase, and if such
" excitement is cumulative through daily re-
" petitions, and by accumulation, will produce
" idiotcy, mania, loss of memory, general pars-

lysis, and all the other terrors of tobacco, then

" On similar grounds, we should avoid the slight
increase of the heart's action which follows our
" (hilly cup of tea or coffee, our morning tub,
and daily walk, with all other stimuli of food,

'• emotion, and thought."
On the other hand Mr. Limn argues that the
stimulus of tobacco, while it quickens the circula-
tion does not necessarily depress it in the long
run, and he appeals to the reader's experience of
Lis tobacco-loving acquaintances "to decide
" whether they are more bloodless and feeble
" than their non-smoking fellows." At the same
time he has no doubt whatever that smoking in
excess, or in exceptional cases, does produce the
injuries attributed to it, " but the argument from
'• excess is an mesa in argument."
The Lofted agrees entirely with the statements
of Mr. Lxwxs, but perhaps lays more stress upon
" the too prevalent habit of excessive smoking."
Mr. LEWES thinks that the limit of moderation
an easily be determined by each man for himself,
and that having determined his limit, he should
rigorously confine himself to it, since " there is a
" lurking danger in tobacco which only fool-hardy
" men will play with."
At this point we are compelled to dissent from
Mr. Limes. Himself one of the most temperate
of men, ho is not, we think, sufficiently alive to
the fascination of tobacco upon men who crave
after excitement, and are naturally prone to
excess. Such smokers cannot determine the limit
which it is perilous to exceed. The delights of
tobacco are so alluring that they shut their eyes to
its dangers, and sines massive smoking does not,
like drunkenness, disgrace them in the eye of the
world, they yield to it without rionipunotion. The
test of moderation is not whether a man can smoke
several cigars in a day, or is content with one or
two, but whether be has strength of will moue'