The Anatomy of Tobacco
which reason Scriblerus Redivivus appears to me more correct in defining smoking as "the sucking in of smoke at one part of the mouth, and the ejection thereof at the other." But yet he, too, goes astray in the latter part (as I think) of his definition. For I will maintain that if I suck in the smoke at the right side of my mouth and eject it, also on the right side, I have smoked. Whereas Scriblerus would seem to imply that it is necessary that the smoke should be ejected at some other part, diverse from that at which it was sucked in; whereas, as long as the smoke is exhaled, as far as I know, it is indifferent at what part—whether at mouth, nose, eyes, or ears. So I censure Scriblerus Redivivus for this definition of smoking, and do define it as follows:—"Smoking is the complex act by which we participate in the fumes of tobacco, and for which three things are required—(1) the inhalation of the smoke; (2) the retention thereof within the body for a space of time; (3) the exhalation of some part thereof from the
92
