and infections. From the affinity of opium to nerve tissue, from its tendency to stimulate the heart, thus causing increased blood supply to the brain; from its action on the bowels and the increased resultant work of the liver, this nervous state is much intensified. Opium does not have as great tendencies to interfere with the structure of the ovary and testicles as alcohol, hence the greater danger of the opium _habitué's_ children surviving. Opium, when smoked, stimulates the reproductive apparatus, and thus would greatly increase the number of degenerates due to this habit but for the defects due to the inheritance of the habit and their consequences. [Illustration: FIG. 1.--ANTE-CHRISTIAN IRISH PIPES.] [Illustration: FIG. 2.--ANTE-COLUMBIAN PIPES FROM SCULPTURE AT STRATFORD-UPON-AVON.] The origin of the use of tobacco is usually ascribed to the New World. There is no doubt that immediately subsequent to the discovery of America, the use of tobacco spread over the world, and that its employment by Sir Walter Raleigh made it fashionable. It is certain, however, that the Romans and Irish employed pipes for smoking long ere the Christian era (Fig. 1), but the substances smoked were not tobacco but dried aromatic leaves. The English before Columbus (Fig. 2) did the same. In Western Asia historic botanical evidence leaves no doubt that tobacco was indigenous. Tobacco from the East hence probably encountered tobacco from the West, both currents meeting in Asia Minor. As with alcohol and opium the statistic method generally adopted proves fallacious when applied to the degenerative effects of tobacco. Study of its effects on the individual is needed to determine its effects on the race. The most careful researches show that the typical effects occur as a rule after long-continued use of tobacco, sometimes not until twenty years or more. While many smokers reach old age, many fail to live to old age because they are smokers. The skin is the subject of itching and reddening, the nerves of taste are blunted, and patches develop in the throat; loss of appetite, epigastric fulness, pain, vomiting, and disturbance of bowel function are common. Menstrual disturbance occurs in women. In female cigar-makers abortion and pluriparity are frequent. The sexual appetite is impaired and sometimes sterility and impotence occur; also disturbed heart action, palpitation, rapid and intermitting pulse, precordial anxiety, weakness, faintness and collapse, with sclerosis of the coronary arteries of the heart and left ventricular hypertrophy. Cigars and cigarettes produce irritation of the nose, mucous membrane, diminished smell, chronic hyperæmia of the epiglottis and larynx, and sometimes of the trachea and bronchi predisposing to consumption. Nicotine amblyopia, or sight weakness, is common, with central disturbances of the field of vision and with colour-weakness of sight. Often there is disorder of the ear tubes and