So much concerning narcotics has been established, with vast and profound learning, by Dr. Anstie. No doubt, by this time, the reader is beginning to rub his eyes and ask, Is this the way in which you are going to show that smoking is beneficial? You define tobacco as a poison which causes paralysis, and then assure us that it pays to smoke! It is true, this has at first sight a paradoxical look; but as the reader proceeds further, he will see that we are not indulging either in paradoxes or in sophisms. We wish him to take nothing for granted, but merely to follow attentively our exposition of the case. We have indeed called tobacco a poison,--and so it is, if taken in narcotic doses. We have accused it of producing paralysis,--and so it does, when taken in adequate narcotic doses. We would now call attention to a property of narcotics, which is well enough known to all physiologists, but is usually quite misapprehended or ignored by popular writers on alcohol and tobacco.[6] We allude to the fact that narcotics, when taken in certain small quantities, do not behave as narcotics, but as _stimulants_; and that they will in such cases produce the exact reverse of a narcotic effect. Instead of lowering nutrition, they will raise it; instead of paralyzing, they will invigorate. Taken in a stimulant dose, tobacco is not only not a producer, it is an averter, of paralysis. It is not only not a poison, but it is a healthful, reparatory stimulus. [6] Mr. Lizars (On _Tobacco_, p. 54) has the impudence to cite Pereira (vol. ii. p. 1426) as an opponent of smoking, because he calls nicotine a deadly poison! And on p. 58 he similarly misrepresents Johnston. This is the way in which popular writers contrive to marshal an array of scientific authorities on their side. In the case of tobacco, however, it is difficult to find physiologists who will justify the popular clamour. They have a way of taking the opposite view; and when Mr. Lizars cannot get rid of them in any other way, he insinuates that all writings in favour of tobacco "have been _got up_ from more than questionable motives." (p. 137.) This is in the richest vein of what, for want of a better word, we have called radicalism; and may be compared with Mr. Parton's belief that physicians recommend alcoholic drinks because they like to fatten on human suffering! (_Smoking and Drinking_, p. 56.)