on the contrary, the poor and rank tobaccoes, grown under a northern sky, are the richest in nicotin. but it will be better to continue the argument about its effects upon the nervous system in connection with the assertions of the reformers. the following is a list, by no means complete, of these asserted ill effects from its use. tobacco is said to cause softening of the brain,dimness of vision,(the germans smoke; the germans are a _spectacled_ nation! _post hoc, ergo propter hoc?_ the laborious intellectual habits of this people, and their trying text, are considered of no account,)cancer of the stomach,disease of the liver,dyspepsia,enfeebled nutrition, and consequent emaciation,dryness of the mouth,the clergymans sore-throat and loss of voice,irritability of the nervous system,tremulousness,palpitation and paralysis,and, among the moral ills, loss of energy, idleness, drunkenness. a fearful catalogue, which would dedicate the _tabatière_ to pandora, were it true. hygienic reformers are usually unequalled in imaginary horrors, except by the charlatans who vend panaceas. we have no reasons for believing that tobacco causes softening of the brain equal in plausibility to those which ascribe it to prolonged and excessive mental effort. the statistics of disease prove cancers of other organs to be twice as frequent, among females, as cancer of the stomach is among males; and an eminent etiologist places narcotics among the least proved causes of this disease. a hot climate, abuse of alcohol, a sedentary life, and sluggish digestion happen, rather curiously, to be very frequent concomitants, if not causes, of disease of the liver. dyspepsia haunts both sexes, and, we venture to assert, though we cannot bring figures to prove it, is as frequent among those who do not use tobacco as among those who do. we are ready to concede that excessive chewing and smoking, particularly if accompanied by large expectoration, may impair nutrition and cause emaciation: that the mass of mankind eat and digest and live, as well as use the weed, is proof that its moderate employment is not ordinarily followed by this result. dryness of the mouth follows expectoration as a matter of course; but the salivation excited in an old smoker by tobacco is very moderate, and not succeeded by thirst, unless the smoke be inhaled too rapidly and at too high a temperature. we come next to a very tender point with reformers, the laryngeal cough and failing voice of the reverend clergy. the later generations of ministers of this vicinity, as a body, have abandoned tobacco, and yet the evil has not diminished. an eminent divine of our acquaintance, who does not smoke daily, always finds a cigar relieve a trifling bronchitis, to which he is occasionally subject the curious will find in the medical journal of this city, for 1839, that quite as much can be said on one side as on the other of this subject. the minor, rarely the graver affections of the nervous system, do follow the use of tobacco in excess. we admit this willingly; but we deny these effects to its moderate use by persons of ordinary health and of no peculiar idiosyncrasy. numerous cases of paralysis among tobacco-takers in france were traced to the lead in which the preparation was enveloped. we pass next to what we claim as the effects of _moderate_ tobacco-using, and will take first the evidence of the toxicologists. both pereira and christison agree that no well-ascertained ill effects have been shown to result from the habitual practice of smoking. beck, a modern authority, says, common observation settles the question, that the moderate and daily use of tobacco _does not_ prove injurious. this is a general rule: and he adds, that exceptions necessarily exist, etc. the repugnance and nausea which greet the smoker, in his first attempts to use tobacco, are not a stronger argument against it than the fact that the system so soon becomes habituated to these effects is a proof of its essential innocuousness. certainly the love of tobacco is not an instinctive appetite, like that for nitrogen and carbon in the form of food. man was not born with a cigar in his mouth, and it is not certain that the _nicotiana tabacum_ flourished in the garden of eden. but history proves the existence of an instinct among all racescall it depraved, if you will, the fact remainsleading them to employ narcotics. and narcotics all nations have sought and found. we venture to affirm that tobacco is harmless as any. the betel and the hop can alone compare with it in this respect; and the hop is not a narcotic which satisfies alone; others are used with it. opium and indian hemp are not to be mentioned in comparison; while coca, in excess, is much more hurtful. tobacco may more properly be called a sedative than a narcotic. opium, the type of the latter class, is in its primary action excitant, but secondarily narcotic. the opium-eaters are familiar with this, and learn by experience to regulate the dose so as to prolong the first and shorten the second effects, as much as possible. tobacco, on the other hand, is primarily sedative and relaxing. a high authority says of its physiological action: first, that its greater and first effect is to assuage and allay and soothe the system in general. second, that its lesser and second, or after effect, is to excite and invigorate, and at the same time give steadiness and fixity to the powers of thought. either of these effects will predominate, we conceive, according to the intellectual state and capacity of the individual, as well as in accordance with the amount used. the dreamy oriental is sunk into deeper reverie under the influence of tobacco, and his happiness while smoking seems to consist in thinking of nothing. the studious german, on the contrary, thinks and dreams, and dreams and thinks, alternately; but while his body is soothed and stilled, his mind is ever awake. this latter description resembles, to compare small things with great, the effects of opium, as detailed by de quincey. in habitual smokers, says pereira, the practice, when moderately indulged, produces that remarkably soothing and tranquillizing effect on the mind which has caused it to be so much admired and adopted by all classes of society. the pleasure derived from tobacco is very hard to define, since it is negative rather than positive, and to be estimated more by what it prevents than by what it produces. it relieves the little vexations and cares of life, soothes the harassed mind, and promotes quiet reflection. this it does most of all when used sparingly and after labor. but if incessantly consumed, it keeps up a constant, but mild cerebral exhilaration. the mind acts more promptly and more continuously under its use. we think any tobacco-consumer will bear us out in this definition of its varying effects. after a full meal, if it does not help, it at least hides digestion. it settles ones dinner, as the saying is, and gives that feeling of quiet, luxurious _bien-aise_ which would probably exist naturally in a state of primeval health. it promotes, with most persons, the peristaltic movements of the alimentary passages by its relaxing properties