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also supplied to certain public botanical gardens where 

 tobacco is required for the destruction of insect life, and 

 which would otherwise have to be purchased at the public 

 expense. If after meeting these demands a sufficient 

 quantity of tobacco was available, then troops ordered on 

 foreign service were furnished with a supply for use on the 

 voyage. Strange to say, even this small chance of obtain- 

 ing a little comfort for the men who are to fight our battles 

 in foreign lands under hardships which tax the strongest 

 powers of endurance has ceased. Troop-ships at the best 

 of times are none too comfortable, and anything that can 

 be done towards making those on board contented would 

 be a distinct gain to the Service. Both policy and humanity 

 indicate a little generous treatment of the men upon whose 

 prowess the existence of the Empire so largely depends. It 

 is hard to believe that criminal lunatics can have a better 

 claim to the indulgence than our soldiers. 



Referring to the antiseptic properties of tobacco, Dr. 

 Murray says that he is fully convinced from close observa- 

 tion, that though it does not produce ozone it is an 

 excellent disinfectant ; and he mentions instances of ladies 

 who, while attending upon their relatives laid up with a 

 fearful epidemic malady, recognised, as if by intuition, the 

 advantage of smoking. On one occasion a lady came into 

 the sick-room where he was seeing a confluent case of epi- 

 demic small-pox puffing a cigar, and upon his remarking it 

 she pointed to the patient with a triumphant air more eloquent 

 than words. Whereupon Dr. Murray with a touch of old- 

 fashioned chivalry says, ' I immediately bent to her as a 

 Master.' In the same gay vein he continues : ' I have 

 myself seen, and also been informed, that many ladies 

 during the current epidemic have given pronounced evi- 

 dence of their faith in the antiseptic virtues of tobacco by 



