July 21. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



39 



ON THE HEALTH OP TOBACCO MANUFACTURERS. 



There exists at the present moment an associa- 

 tion of well-meaning people, which, styling itself 

 *' The British Anti-Tobacco Society," has for_ its 

 object the " counterblasting" of that plant ; which, 

 according to a late number of Chambers's Journal 

 (Dec. 16, 1854), 



-" is the most extensively used of all vegetable produc- 

 tions ; and, next to salt, "the most generally consumed of 

 all productions whatever — animal, vegetable, or mineral — 

 on the face of the globe." 



A fact which renders their undertaking only less 

 hopeless and Quixotic than that of the late unfor- 

 tunate Dr. Howard himself.* Under the auspices 

 of this Society a serial appears, entitled Smoke 

 Not ; in tlie third number of which is " An Essay 

 by Miss M. A. W., aged xvii, to whom a Prize 

 has been awarded by a Committee," &c. This 

 Essay is, in every respect, below criticism ; but 

 there is one passage to which I would call atten- 

 tion, being curious to learn how far the assertion 

 contained in it is true. The experienced au- 

 thoress asserts : 



" That smoke is an enemy to the health of man, is 

 proved not merely by the universally acknowledged fact, 

 that the most melancholy results constantly ensue from 

 the unavoidable inhalation of it by workmen in certain 

 spheres of manufactory labour." 



Now I am not at all aware that this is " an uni- 

 versally acknowledged fact," although frequently 

 asserted by lecturers and writers on the dele- 

 terious properties of tobacco. Neither in the 

 account of the tobacco manufactory at Seville by 

 the Rev. W. Robertson, — of the cigar manufac- 

 tories at Manilla, by Wilkes (Narrative of the U. 

 S. exploring Expedition), — nor in that at Villa 

 Nueva, by Lyon (Lyon's Mexico), do I find any 

 notice of the "most melancholy results;" nor 

 have I heard them lamented at the vast "fabriks" 

 of Justus and others at Hamburg and Bremen. 

 On the other side of the question, the opinion of 

 M. Simeon may be cited, as embodied in a report 

 presented by him to the minister of public works, 

 and communicated to the Annates d'Hygiene 

 Publique, Octobre, 1 84.3. At that time the French 

 government, which has the monopoly of tobacco, 

 •employed more than 5000 workmen in its manu- 

 facture ; who were found, as a body, to enjoy a 

 remarkable exemption from prevailing epidemics. 

 This was especially the case at Lyons, where those 

 so employed escaped to a man the typhoid fever 

 of 1842; and at Toulouse, when the influenza 

 attacked four per cent, of the inhabitants, while of 

 those employed in the manufacture of tobacco 

 only two out of 286 were affected. With regard 

 to phthisis, this exemption is still more remark- 

 able. It is true that the workmen are subject to 



catarrhs, which are however slight, and easily 

 removed. Phthisis is also of rare occurrence 

 among the workmen at Bordeaux ; at Havre, 

 where this disease makes fearful ravages, the to- 

 bacco manufacturers are exempt ; and at Stras- 

 bourg, Morlaix, and Lille, it is less frequent 

 among this class than those engaged in other oc- 

 cupations. These facts ' are attributed by M, 

 Simeon to the narcotic properties of the tobacco ; 

 but he invites the attention of the profession to 

 the subject. 



In 1836, M. Maurice Ruef, of Strasbourg, pub- 

 lished a paper on the health of the workmen in 

 the Royal Manufactories, in which he asserted 

 that — 



" Pulmonary consumption is rare among the workmen, 

 who are engaged from their youth in the manipulation of 

 tobacco ; moreover, this disease makes much less rapid 

 progress than it does usually in those who may happea 

 to have the germ of it already developed when they enter 

 the workshop." 



Six years afterwards (May 31, 1842), this gentle- 

 man wrote a letter to the editor of the Gazette 

 Medicate, affirming that his experience during the 

 interval had amply confirmed the accuracy of his 

 statements. 



There is a chapter " Of the Diseases of Tobac- 

 conists, or those who make Snuff," in Dr. Rama- 

 zini's Treatise on the Diseases of Artificers, trans- 

 lated, together with other tracts, by Dr. James 

 under the title of Health Preserved, 8fc., London, 

 12mo., 1750. Here, however, I find no heavier 

 charge than that the powder of tobacco — 



" vellicateth the nostrils . . and stimulates and dries the 

 tender coat of the lungs and aspera arteria, and, with its 

 foul steams, not only clouds the animal spirits in the 

 brain, but produces a narcotic effect; and at the same 

 time corrupts the digestion of the stomach by enervating 

 the acid it contains . . . Nay, the very horses which turn 

 the mill are so affected Avith the sharp and offensive ex- 

 halation, that they frequently shake their heads and 

 cough and blow their nostrils." — P. 122. 



I should be glad to learn the opinion of some 

 of the professional or scientific correspondents of 

 " N. & Q." upon this subject. William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



No. 299.] 



Salt, the Forbidden Food, ^c. 



the indefatigablk and les droits dk 

 l'homme. 



Although there are a few inaccuracies in Mr. 

 Osier's Life of Lord Exmonth that may be passed 

 over in silence, yet the ignorant blunder that 

 appears in the account of the action between the 

 British ships Indefatigable and Amazon and the 

 French ship Les Droits de I'Homme, of 74 guns, 

 on January the 13th and 14th, 1797, requires to 

 be noticed. 



At p. 100. of that biography it is stated that 

 "Lieutenant Bell, who was quartered on the fore- 



