We will cite only the following brief statistics from an old physician of a neighboring town.  In looking over the list of the oldest men, dead or alive, within his circle of acquaintance, he finds a total of 67 men, from 73 to 93 years of age.  Their average age is 78 and a fraction.  Of these 67, 54 were smokers or chewers; 9 only, non-consumers of tobacco; and 4 were doubtful, or not ascertained.  About nine-elevenths smoked or chewed.  The compiler quaintly adds, “How much longer these men might have lived without tobacco, it is impossible to determine.”

The tobacco-leaf is consumed by man usually in three ways:  by smoking, snuffing, or chewing.  The first is the most common; the last is the most disagreeable.

Tobacco is smoked in the East Indies, China, and Siam; in Turkey and Persia; over Europe generally; and in North and South America.  Cigars are preferred in the East and West Indies, Spain, England, and America.  China, Turkey, Persia, and Germany worship the pipe.  In Europe the pipe is patronized on account of its cheapness.  Turks and Persians use the mildest forms of pipe-smoking, choosing pipes with long, flexible stems, and having the smoke cooled and purified by passing through water.  The Germans prefer the porous meerschaum,—­the Canadians, the common clay.  Women smoke habitually in China, the East and West Indies, and to a less extent in South America, Spain, and France.

We have no fears that any reasoning of ours would induce the other sex to use tobacco.  The ladies set too just a value on the precious commodity of their charms for that.  There is little danger that they would do anything which might render them disagreeable.  The practice of snuff-taking is about the only form they patronize, and that to a slight extent.

France is the home of snuff.  A large proportion of all the tobacco consumed there is used in this form.  The practice prevails to a large extent also in Iceland and Scotland.  The Icelander uses a small horn, like a powder-horn, to hold his snuff.  Inserting the smaller end into the nostril, he elevates the other, and thus conveys the pungent powder directly to the part.  The more delicate Highlander carries the snuff to his nose on a little shovel.  This can be surpassed only by the habit of “dipping,” peculiar to some women of the United States, and whose details will not bear description.

Chewing prevails par excellence in our own country, and among the sailors of most nations,—­to some extent also in Switzerland, Iceland, and among the Northern races.  It is the safest and most convenient form at sea.

By smoking, each of the three active ingredients of tobacco is rendered capable of absorption.  The empyreumatic oil is produced by combustion.  The pipe retains this and a portion of the nicotin in its pores.  The cigar, alone, conveys all the essential elements into the system.

Liebig once asserted that cigar-smoking was prejudicial from the amount of gaseous carbon inhaled.  We cannot believe this.  The heat of cigar-smoke may have some influence on the teeth; and, on the whole, the long pipe, with a porous bowl, is probably the best way of using tobacco in a state of ignition.