I have been in the use of it for thirty-five years; but I confess myself unable, on any ground, to defend or to excuse the practice. The wants which are altogether artificial, are such as duty calls us to avoid. The indulgence of them can in no way promote our good or our real comfort.
I commend, therefore, the following sheets to the public: hoping that all, and especially the young, will read and well consider the suggestions they offer.
M. STUART.
Andover, Jan. 10, 1832.
To the Medical Society of the County of Oneida.
Gentlemen,
We have accidentally seen the manuscript copy of an address pronounced lately before your society, by Dr. McAllister. The research on which it is founded, and its perspicuity and arrangement, entitle it to a form more permanent than manuscript. But if the results are true, which it attempts to substantiate, they present imperious considerations for the publication of the address.
We are not disposed to contract the circle of enjoyment; but if mischief crouches under the covert of any pleasure, propriety requires a notification to the unwary. Even should experience warrant the conclusion that habit enables us to use tobacco with physical impunity, (a conclusion Dr. McAllister powerfully controverts,) we must concede, that its use is disgusting to persons not infected with the habit.
Civilization is composed of innumerable acts of self-denial; while the gratification of appetites, regardless of others, is the strongest feature of barbarism. We see then, even as a dictate of refinement, that the use of tobacco should be abandoned; and it has been abandoned by all the polite circles of Europe.