The conclusion from all this evidence is established, that tobacco _is_ an _active poison_; that its constant use induces the most distressing and fatal diseases; and that, as a medicine, it is rarely needful, and never used, even _medicinally_, with entire confidence. This loathsome weed, then, should not be used, even _medicinally_, except in extreme cases, and then in the hands of a skillful physician. For every man--and especially for every boy, who has hardly entered his teens--to take this poison into his own hands, and determine for himself how much he will use, is as preposterous, as if he were to take upon himself to deal out arsenic, corrosive sublimate, or calomel. No man can devote himself to the pipe, the quid, or the snuff-box, without certain injury to his health and constitution. He may not perceive the injury at once, on account of immediate exhilaration; but complicated chronic complaints will creep upon him apace, making life a burden, and issuing in premature dissolution. And just so certain as it is our duty to do no murder,--to use all lawful means to preserve our lives, and the lives of others; as certain is it our duty and our privilege to practice _entire abstinence_ from the use of tobacco. I maintain the position I have laid down, III. From the consideration of the ruinous effects of tobacco upon the _intellect_. Here, again, let Professor Hitchcock speak. Says he, "Intoxicating drinks, opium and tobacco, exert a pernicious influence upon the intellect. They tend directly to debilitate the organs; and we cannot take a more effectual course to cloud the understanding, weaken the memory, unfix the attention, and confuse all the mental operations, than by thus entailing upon ourselves the whole hateful train of nervous maladies. These can bow down to the earth an intellect of giant strength, and make it grind in bondage, like Sampson shorn of his locks and deprived of his vision. The use of tobacco may seem to soothe the feelings, and quicken the operations of the mind; but to what purpose is it that the machine is furiously running and buzzing after the balance wheel is taken off?" The late Gov. Sullivan, speaking of the use of tobacco, says, "It has never failed to render me dull and heavy, to interrupt my usual alertness of thought, and to weaken the powers of my mind in analyzing subjects and defining ideas."