Many an excellent cause has been lost through the want of sound arguments, founded on a knowledge of the case, to support and place it in its proper light. None, perhaps, more than smoking and snuff-taking , the propriety of which, in the upper orders of life, have been and are, whether as regards their social or medicinal qualities, so frequently called in question by their enemies. These, the author is sorry to say, by the use of a few specious arguments, that chiefly pass current in refined s

The earth, perhaps, has never offered to the use of man a herb, whose history and adoption offer so varied a subject for thought and the mind’s speculation, as tobacco. In whatever light we view it, there is something to interest the botanist, the physician, the philosopher, and even the historian, while, from the singularity of its discovery in a corner of the world where it had remained so long concealed, it would almost seem intended by Providence, to answer some especial purpose in the creat

Snuff was manufactured and consumed in great quantities in France, long previous to its adoption in England. For the account of its being introduced to Great Britain we are indebted to the once celebrated [4] Charles Lillie. Before the year 1702, when we sent out a fleet of ships under the command of Sir George Rook, with land forces commanded by the duke of Ormond, in order to make a descent on Cadiz, snuff-taking was very rare, and indeed very little known in England; it being chiefly a luxuri

TOBACCO. [ From a Book Published in 1618, called Texnotamia, or the Marriage of the Arts. ] SNUFF. THOU ART A CHARM FOR WINTER. ALL NATIONS HONOR THEE. WALTON AND COTTON. [8] ON A PIPE OF TOBACCO. BY ISAAC HAWKINS BROWN, ESQ. MY LAST CIGAR.  ...

During the reign of Elizabeth, a facility had been afforded to the dissemination of tobacco, that was soon destined to receive a check, on the accession of her successor, James the First, to the throne. This arose from a prejudice, that, with many others, rendered this weak and vacillating monarch remarkable. Whether it arose, as many have supposed, from his dislike to Sir Walter Raleigh, so despicably and cruelly shown, and that the source of his peculiar feelings turned with bitterness to the

“For the taking of fumes by pipes, as in tobacco and other things, to dry and comfort.”— Bacon. “Bread or tobacco may be neglected: but reason at first recommends their trial, and custom makes them pleasant.”— Locke. Hail! inspirers of the profoundest and the brightest things that have been said and done since the creation, and, in the strength and plenitude of our recollections of thy divine virtues, aid us to sing thy praises! What though there be those, who, in the whim, caprice or ignorance

Of the properties attributable to the plant in the Materia Medica , a variety of opinions prevail, and have done, indeed, since its first appearance in the civilized portion of the globe. It certainly cannot but strike the reader as a fact to be very greatly lamented, that science should be so unfixed, even in this much boasted-of-enlightened æra, that some medical men should be found to ascribe every bad and pernicious quality to the use of tobacco; and others, equally celebrated for their prof

Tobacco is a genus of the class pentandria . Order monogynia ; natural order of luridæ (solaneæ, Juss. )— Generic characters —Calyx; perianthium one-leafed, ovate, half five-cleft, permanent. Corolla: one-petalled funnel-form.— Essential Character —Corolla funnel-form, with a plaited border, stamina inclined; capsule two-valved and two-celled. There are six kinds of tobacco peculiar to America: which we shall proceed to notice in their relative order. 1. Nicotiana Fruticosa, or shrubby tobacco:

The Precious Pipe. —Napoleon greatly patronized the habit of smoking in the French army, so that it soon became actually indispensable for the continuance of that gaité du cœur , for which his troops were remarkable, even in the moments of severest peril. Under the cheering influence of the pipe, they surmounted all difficulties; and, under its consoling power, bore fatigue, and hunger, and thirst with a fortitude and philosophy, remarkable in the annals of military record. During the latter end

It is with feelings of pleasure we have remarked of late years the change that has gradually taken place in regard to places of public nightly amusement. Formerly, the metropolis had no other allurements than were comprised in the theatre or the tavern,—the former of these being but too frequently a precursor to the latter; and that latter, in its turn, among young men in general, to scenes of a worse, and, in the end, more fatal description. As a preventative in a great degree to the above ince

Cigars.—The best and most approved cigars consumed among our nobility and gentry, are those brought from the Havanah in the West Indies. The Woodville, so called from the name of the importer, are held in the greatest estimation. In form, these should gradually decline from the middle to long and tapering ends. Color, a clear raw sienna brown, variegated with bright brown yellow spots. In flavour they should be light and spicy, draw free, leaving a firm white ash. An excellence too, that should