BIOLOGY. 801 



festation, a result which is due to the greater amount of chemical 

 change which takes place during high degrees of temperature. 

 From the conclusions, it will be observed that M. Scoutetten be- 

 lieves rather in an electric than a chemico-phj'siological action of 

 these waters. In some minor experiments he discovered that 

 even tlie partial immersion of the body in a mineral bath produces 

 an amount of electrical excitation, which occasionally extends so 

 far as to produce feverish symptoms. 



• EFFECTS OF TOBACCO ON HEALTH. 



M. Jolly has presented a paper to the French Academy of Med- 

 icine, in which he takes the oj^posite ground from that of Dr. B. 

 W. Richardson (see "Annual of Scientific Discovery" for 1865, 

 page 229) . Starting from the fact that there has been of late years 

 an enormous increase of smoking in France, and stating that six- 

 teen pounds of tobacco, equivalent to fifty or sixty grammes of 

 nicotine, are annually consumed by each smoker, he says that 

 " statistics show that in exact relation with this increased consump- 

 tion of tobacco is the iuci'ease of diseases of the nervous centres 

 (insanity, general paralysis, paraplegia, ramollissement) and cer- 

 tain cancerous att'ections. Now, although Orientals, Turks, Greeks, 

 Brazilians, and Hungarians, smoke to an excessive extent, they 

 do so with almost imi^unity, from the fact that the indigenous to- 

 bacco which they use contains very slight proportions of nicotine, 

 and sometimes none at all ; while other nations, such as the Eng- 

 lish, the Swiss, French, Americans, etc., suifer much more severely. 

 Up to the present time, no case of general or progressive paraly- 

 sis has been discovered in any of the numerous localities of the 

 East, where tobacco of so eminently mild a character, or some 

 succedaneum, is employed. M. Moreau, in a careful investiga- 

 tion Avhich he has made in the hosjjitals of Constantinople, Smyrna, 

 Malta, and all the Mediterranean islands, has not been able to de- 

 tect a single case of this kind. ' The cause,' he remarks, ' is plain 

 enough, and eminently physiological. In all the regions of the Le- 

 vant they do not intoxicate themselves with nicotine or alcohol, 

 or the ambition of fortune or glory, but saturate themselves with 

 opium and jjerfumes, sleeping away their time in torpor, indolence, 

 and sensuality. They narcotize, but do not nicotinize themselves ; 

 and if opium, as has been said, is the jioison of the intellect of the 

 East, tobacco may one day prove in the West the poison of life 

 itself.'" 



M. Melsens has found, upon the average, a pi'oportion of seven- 

 tenths per cent, of nicotine held in suspension by tobacco smoke. 

 The mischievousness of such an atmosphere is dwelt upon by M. 

 Jolly, who also holds that general or progressive paralj-sis — a 

 disease scarcely met with thirty years ago — is making rapid ad- 

 vance under the increased abuse of alcohol and tobacco. Insanity 

 and aifections of the nervous centres have enormously increased 

 in France, and this increase is found to be, in men, almost entirely 

 made up of cases of progressive paralysis (now forming more than 

 sixty per cent, of the total cases) ; and whenever, in the asylums, 

 26 



