The Pedestrian's Record

the pedestrian's record. 47 to act as a soother to the nerves than a depresser of them. At any rate, it has this advantage over alcohol : it has not the power to cause the formation of organic compounds within the body, to which the men of strong drink are prone. If it has a bad effect it exists in depression of the nervous system, which is of an evanescent and not of a permanent character. Medicines and drugs of any kind do not act similarly upon every constitution : to some opium is by no means a sedative ; and in a similar manner tobacco has not the same influence on all individuals ; it may brace up some systems and enervate others ; thus two opposite results are induced by one and the same cause. That smoking is an unnatural habit can­ not be denied, for we notice the youth with his maiden weed often ill at ease, the white face and quivering lip indicating distress, which is relieved by vomiting, and it takes some weeks of persistent practice before a smoke beginner can take the noxious weed with impunity ; but habit becomes second nature, and in time the system accommodates itself to that which had previously disagreed with it. No man in training should smoke ; this is a safe law to enact, and we are confident that every athlete preparing for a race is in better case without a smoke throughout such period. At the same time, should he have been a great smoker previously to his signing articles,and if the negation of tobacco makes him feel uncomfortable, with a longing for the forbidden leaf, then smoke, but in strict moderation, for it is a fact that a man in