This led off a controversy which continued for several months in the columns of the “Lancet,”—­a controversy conducted in a wonderfully good-natured spirit, considering that more than fifty physicians took part in it, and that these were almost equally divided.  The debate took a wide range, and some interesting facts were elicited:  as that Lord Raglan, General Markham, and Admirals Dundas and Napier always abandoned tobacco from the moment when they were ordered on actual service; that nine-tenths of the first-class men at the Universities were non-smokers; that two Indian chiefs told Power, the actor, that “those Indians who smoked gave out soonest in the chase”; and so on.  There were also American examples, rather loosely gathered:  thus, a remark of the venerable Dr. Waterhouse, made many years ago, was cited as the contemporary opinion of “the Medical Professor in Harvard University”; also it was mentioned, as an acknowledged fact, that the American physique was rapidly deteriorating because of tobacco, and that coroners’ verdicts were constantly being thus pronounced on American youths:  “Died of excessive smoking.”  On the other hand, that eminent citizen of our Union, General Thomas Thumb, was about that time professionally examined in London, and his verdict on tobacco was quoted to be, that it was “one of his chief comforts”; also mention was made of a hapless quack who announced himself as coming from Boston, and who, to keep up the Yankee reputation, issued a combined advertisement of “medical advice gratis” and “prime cigars.”

But these stray American instances were of course quite outnumbered by the English, and there is scarcely an ill which was not in this controversy charged upon tobacco by its enemies, nor a physical or moral benefit which was not claimed for it by its friends.  According to these, it prevents dissension and dyspnoea, inflammation and insanity, saves the waste of tissue and of time, blunts the edge of grief and lightens pain.  “No man was ever in a passion with a pipe in his mouth.”  There are more female lunatics chiefly because the fumigatory education of the fair sex has been neglected.  Yet it is important to notice that these same advocates almost outdo its opponents in admitting its liability to misuse, and the perilous consequences.  “The injurious effects of excessive smoking,”—­“there is no more pitiable object than the inveterate smoker,”—­“sedentary life is incompatible with smoking,”—­highly pernicious,—­general debility,—­secretions all wrong,—­cerebral softening,—­partial paralysis,—­trembling of the hand,—­enervation and depression,—­great irritability,—­neuralgia, —­narcotism of the heart:  this Chamber of Horrors forms a part of the very Temple of Tobacco, as builded, not by foes, but by worshippers.  “All men of observation and experience,” they admit, “must be able to point to instances of disease and derangement from the abuse of this luxury.”  Yet they advocate it, as the same men advocate intoxicating drinks; not meeting the question, in either case, whether it be wise, or even generous, for the strong to continue an indulgence which is thus confessedly ruinous to the weak.