676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lates to the case of a young officer who had given up tobacco three 

 months before, and was attacked with a suffocation like angina 

 2)ectoris after having passed several nights in his room where his 

 friends came to smoke for some hours every evening. Dr. Ge'lineau 

 tells of an epidemic . of angina pectoris among some sailors who 

 were crowded in the between-decks of a merchant vessel during a 

 storm that made it necessary to close all the hatches, and who 

 smoked to pass away the time. Those who did not join in the 

 smoking suffered equally with the others, for they breathed the 

 same toxic atmosphere. 



Pipe-smokers are in danger of epithelioma, or cancer of the lips 

 and of the tongue. The former occurs chiefly among persons who 

 smoke a very short-stemmed clay pipe. Smokers' cancer appears 

 usually at the point where the hot pipe-stem bears upon the lower 

 lip, and on the side of the tongue at the point where the smoke 

 touches at each aspiration. In some cases it begins with buccal 

 psoriasis, a kind of thickening of the epithelium of the tongue, 

 which becomes white, glossy, and horny. These two forms of a 

 horrible malady are incontestably the most serious danger smok- 

 ers incur ; and the fear of it is the motive that has impelled the 

 majority of conversions from the habit. The frequency of them 

 should not, however, be exaggerated. 



Tobacco has been accused of contributing to the depopulation 

 of the country by enfeebling the reproductive powers of men 

 and inducing miscarriages in women. The former part of the 

 charge is founded on the very real fact that the smoking of to- 

 bacco, while its influence prevails, appeases all ardor ; but its ac- 

 tion is essentially temporary, and does not detract from the gen- 

 eral powers of smokers. Their families are as numerous as those 

 of other persons, and the peoples who smoke most are precisely 

 those who have the most children. The Germans smoke twice as 

 much as the French, and have five times as many children. The 

 possibility of tobacco promoting abortions is more open to discus- 

 sion, but it can not exert any noticeable influence on the move- 

 ment of population, for it concerns only a very limited class of 

 women those who work in tobacco-factories. These establish- 

 ments have borne a bad reputation in the past, and the effect of 

 life in them upon the operatives has been painted in very dark 

 colors. All manufactories were until recently in a deplorable 

 hygienic condition. Now the rooms are spacious and well venti- 

 lated, and all precautions are taken to preserve the health of the 

 operatives. 



But, whatever may be done, the vapors of nicotine can not be 

 got rid of in the shops where large quantities of tobacco are dried 

 and fermented, or where it is stored in bales and casks. When 

 the leaves are cleaned and mixed, in rasping and grinding, dust as 



