H. GREVILLE.
April 28, 1882.




COUNT GUBERNATIS.


In reply to your favour of the 28th ult., I have the honour to inform
you that I do not smoke, because nicotine acts upon my system as a
most powerful poison. At the age of ten I had a Havana cigar given me
to smoke; after smoking it I fainted and did not come to myself till
after a _deep sleep, which lasted twenty-four hours._ When I was
twenty, the third part of a cigar was given me to smoke as a remedy
for the toothache. I could not finish it. A cold perspiration attended
with vomiting and fainting ensued. I therefore judge from the effects
of tobacco upon myself that it cannot be such a benefactor of mankind
as people have tried to make it out. I am convinced that in any case,
smoking lulls the mind to sleep, and when carried to excess tends to
produce stupefaction or idiotcy.

Perhaps you are aware that in Little Russia, the people call tobacco
the _Devil's herb_; and it is related that the devil planted it
under the form of an idolater. For my part I am quite prepared to
adopt the opinion of the Russian people. Before the time of Peter the
Great, smoking was strictly prohibited in Russia.

The Poet Prati sang one day: