662 Cholera Speculalions. [^Dec. 



and those are as ^joocl fruits as fifty per cent. ; secure in liis income and 

 quiet in his conscience. In the mean time we must protest against the 

 rise of the anti-cholera remedies. We have heard something of this 

 exorbitancy in the public institutions for supplying the community 

 with medicine. We must hope that the reports are untrue. 



But among the speculations which M'e most discountenance, is the spe- 

 culation for making everj' man a cigar-smoker. The story is fabricated 

 for the London market. We are told that " in Russia and Prussia the 

 Cholera has spared all persons employed in the manufactories of tobacco 

 (or snuff ) , the tanyards, and medical laboratories. The smoke of tobacco 

 seems to neutralise most animal miasmata, and it is generallj^ considered 

 as a preservative against the Cholera. Accordingly the Prussian, Aus- 

 trian and Russian magistrates have given permission to smoke in the 

 streets." 



Our readers may be assured that the Prussian, Russian and Austrian 

 magistrates have not given any such permission, nor found any necessity 

 for giving it, the permission having been taken many a year before the 

 name of Cholera was heard of. Theiact is that the Continent is poisoned 

 with tobacco smoke from one end of the land to the other, and every hour 

 of the twentv-four. That tobacco may kill insects on shrubs, and that 

 one stench may overpower another, is all possible enough ; but that 

 thousands and tens of thousands die of diseases of the lungs, and gene- 

 rally brought on by tobacco smoking, is a fact as well known as any in 

 the whole history of disease. How is it possible to be otherwise ? To- 

 bacco is a poison. A man -.vill die of an infusion of tobacco as soon as 

 of a shot through tlie head. Can inhaling this powerful narcotic, in 

 however small portions, be good for man ? Its operation in those small 

 portions is to produce a sensation of giddiness and drowsiness — is it 

 good to be within the next step to perpetual drunkenness } It inflames 

 the mouth, and requires a perpetual flow of the saliva, a fluid known to 

 be among the most important to the whole economy of digestion ; it 

 irritates the eyes, corrupts the breath, and excites the throat to perpetual 

 thirst. No doubt the human frame may grow so far accustomed to this 

 drain, that the smoker may go on from year to year making himself a 

 nuisance to societjr, yet there can be no doubt whatever that the custom 

 is as deleterious in general as it is filthy and un-English. A great por- 

 tion of it has arisen among us, from the puppyish afiectation of our 

 shopkeepers' boys and city dandies, for being thought foreign field-mar- 

 shals. Every handler of tapes and ribbons turns a hussar the moment 

 he sallies forth from behind the counter ; the easily applied moustache, 

 the fur cloak, and the cigar, furnish the hero; and England rejoices in her 

 Count Calico, and her General Gingham. The cigar speculation must 

 be ovei'thrown. 



