, 1888-09-29

Ing pOfGeIt, anu, ululnS CuaU ne sufferers
from this special form of disease were
almost exclusively males, they not unna-
turally adopted the inference tnat smoking
was, in a great many instances, the
primary cause of these thOracic diStur-
Dances. 1t must be at once admitted that
the medical alarmlSt i'll question is not
by his W statement by any means one
of those who consider the pipe, the cigar,
or the ordinary cigarette necessarily
injurious; but he has come to the perSua-
sion that the tobacco in cigarettes directly
imported from Egypt and Turkey is mixed,
presumably to impart to it a characteristic
favour, with some lnSidiOus poison. This
conclusion was not adopted without max
ing a careful analysis of cigarettes manu-.
featured at home from foreign tobacco,
and of the Egyptian and Turkish products
themselves. In the latter was found a
large proportion of opium, and an un-
classified alkalOid which was totally absent
from the former. Thus, argues the
medical gentleman, it will be obvious that
an irritant poison constantly brought into
contact with the region OF perhaps the
most sensitive part OF the human organiSa-
ton is calculated to bring about serious
organic trouble; and he consequently
deems it his duty to warn the public
against what he contends to be a grave
danger lurking i'll their midst. Undoubt-
edly from more than one point of view the
medical gentleman has every right to be
considered a public benpfactor and, il
Egyptian and Turkish cigarettes are really
found to yield a dangerous proportion of
irritant poison, be il in the shape of opium
or OF some uuclaSSitied alkaloid, the
sale of such commodities should be
generally discouraged, and, if necessary,
suppressed 10y the law. At the sam
time, the effect of this announcement
on the nerves of the robust INVALID
may he more easily imagined than
described and in amy case is to be earnest
~ deprecated. The SuppcsititiOus Argan, let
It's say, has no stomach for mild, medium
or strong IIavanaS. and cannot even puff
at a y pc with pleasure. SO he took to
cigarettes, being very careful to consume
only those manufactured from Egyptian
or Tu. klSh makers. Suddenly he is told
TO fear the Greeks and the gifts which
they giVe-t)r Il consideration Terrified
10y the warming conveyed with no uncer.
tain sound by our contemporary, he will
ask himself whether he is not already
hopelrssIy far gone in the successive a
of opium poison. GiddineSS, dr0wsincss,
strrtorolS breathing, small, quick, and
irregular pnl&,, Il livid skin, the pupil of
one eve contracted while the other Is dila-
ted; these are Il few Of the manifold
symptoms of 0pium.p poisoning, and the
Malade lmAginairr Will surely fancy that
he has them all, because he ImS labitual-
~ been smoking cigarettes imported from
Smyrna or from Alexandria. What is the
wrercled hypOchOndriac to do under the cir
cumStancrS? There is, to be sure, the quick,
sharp, and almost infailible process of
giving up smoking altogether. Charles
Lamh wrote to Wordsworth that for MANY
years tobacco bad been his evening com.
fort and his morning curse; but the gentle
Ella had al length the courage to abandon
the obnoxious habit. and celebrated his
heroic acf Of sclfdenial in the delightful
verses called The Fare sell to TObacco''
BIZ not t0 I'LL men is given such power of
seltreStraint More lamentable was the
case OF Robert Hall, who, when at Cam
bridge, acquired the habit, of using the
weed from his close companionship with
DIR. Parr, who, as is well known, smoked
like a limrkilm, and who, at the dinner
given at Trinity College to the Duke of
Gloucester as Chancellor of the University,
"blew a cloud into the faces of his neigh
bourS, much to their annoyance, and caus-
ing Royalty to sneeze by the stimulating
stencil Of mundungus." It was the tobac-
co-pipe, hOwever-the yard of clay-and
not the cigar or cigarette, in which the