June 30, 1882.] 



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 Vettrt. JTyman * Sone. 



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" In knowledee, that man only is 



state of transition No 



than fiiity of opinion." — Faraday. 



" There is no harm in making a mistake, but preat harm in 

 me a man who makes no mistakes, and I will show you i 

 nothing."— 7*V6i>. 



" God's Orthodoxy is Truth."— CTar7« Elngiley. 



THE LATE MR. DUXITAN. 



We shonld be obliged if "J. L. W." wonld forward his address 



to Mr. Litchfield, whose address is given at the foot of a letter 



respect inp the late Mr. Dunman on p. 28 of Kxowledge, No. 32. 



— Editoe. 



TOBACCO AXD COXSUMPTIOX. 

 [442] — The narration of a piece of personal eiperienco may not 

 form a wholly valueless contribution to the discussion of the con- 

 nection between smoking and an immunity from consumption. I 

 may thankfully say that the solitary complaint from which I ever 

 suffer is relaxed (or "gravelly") sore throat; and this only attacks 

 me if I am exposed to cold or wet. If, however, under such cir- 

 cumstances, I take a cigar, it acts as an absolute prophylactic, 

 apparently by drying up the mucous membrane. It is fair to add 

 that I often do not smoke for weeks at a time. It is quite possible 

 that, were I an habitual smoker, tlio very valuable effect of which 

 I have spoken might cease to accrue. As it is, to go out into the 

 rain without my cigar means an infallible sore throat ; to " light 

 np" as a preliminary step, assured freedom from it. W. N. 



[4-13]— The question of a possible connection between tobacco 

 and consnuiption has been raised by a correspondent. Does 

 tobacco smoking prevent or cure consumption ? This question is 

 one of mournful interest to many English families, and it is one 

 which we have some means of answering ; for although wo are, in 

 common with most civilised nations, a tobacco-loving people, it is 

 at present only the adult male portion that so indulges. If, then, 

 it has any influence over the disease, wo should expect to find tho 

 benefit so derived confined to men. Let us see what statistics have 

 to teach us on this point. 



Dr. Boudin gives tho following figures (" Traitc de Geogrnphio 

 et des Statistique Medicales," tome ii., p. 6-13, 1857) :— " In 

 England and Wales, in tho year 1838, 27,935 males and 31,000 

 females died of consumption; 1839, 28,1C6 males and 31,133 

 females ; (with the exception of London) 1812, 24,018 males and 

 28,098 females. 



Tho fifth annual report of the Kegistrar- General (p. 398) gives 

 the following death-rate by phthisis (consumption), in 18 H, in tho 

 twenty-fivo large towns, comprising 1,883,093 inhabitants, and in 

 seven counties having 1,700,431 inhabitants :— In tho towns, 1,279 

 males and 4,427 females ; in tho counties, 2,8S0 males and 3,510 

 females. The general death-rate from consumptive diseases was in | 



1848, 31,573 males and 32,502 females; in 185), 32,278 males an<J 

 33,746 females. " These figures," Mens. Boudin goes on to Bay> 

 " are far from indicating a predominance of consumptive affections 

 amongst women, if one remembers that in nearly all the European 

 countries the number of women exceeds that of men." 



Dr. P. C. A. Louis records (" Researches on I'hthinis," translated 

 by Dr. Walshe, p. 479. 1844), a series of 123 cases, analysed and 

 collected in wards containing 48 beds, equally divided between 

 individuals of both sexes, 70 of which were furnished by females, 

 and 57 by males. Dr. Louis in order to ascertain, if [wssible, tho 

 influence of sex on the mean duration of the disease, says (p. 377) : — 

 " I compared two series of individuals, one of them comprising 97 

 women, and tho other 113 men. I found that the mean duration 

 had been twenty months in the women and seventeen in the men — 

 a rather considerable difference, and one of the reverse kind from 

 tliat which might have been expected, inasmuch as phthisis being 

 more common in females than males, it might naturally have been 

 supposed that the sex most strongly predisposing to the disease 

 would also have hastened its progress." 



There is nothing in these figures, then, to show that men derive 

 any benefit in the way of preventing or retarding consumption by 

 the use of tobacco. And if we now turn to some other statistics, 

 we shall find that the belief that women are more subject to con- 

 sumption than men is not universal. 



Dr. A. B. Shepherd (Gulstonian lecture on the Xatnral History 

 of Pulmonary Consumption, 1877), gives a table of 849 cases of 

 ordinary phthisis (consumption) observed at the Victoria Park 

 Hospital. Of these, 465 were males and 38-1 females. .\t the 

 Lyons hospitals for this disease in 1873 were admitted 860 males 

 and 569 females, or a proportion of the former to the latter of three 

 to two. There is nothing very conclusive about these figures — the 

 preponderance of male cases over female is probably due to the 

 harder work and e.yposuro that is oftener the lot of men than 

 women — although this must to some extent be counterbalanced by 

 the baneful confinement of the female lower orders, from morning 

 to night, in squalid dens and poisoned alleys. But be that as it 

 may, there is nothing to show that tobacco has the slightest pre- 

 ventive or curative power over consumption. 



May the day soon arrive when medical science shall discover a 

 ctire for consumption. We have much to cause us to look con- 

 fidently fonvard into the future ; and although unwi.«c legislatioD, 

 the result of specious huraanitarianism, has checked the advancing 

 tide of knowledge in England, yet men like Pasteur in Emnce and 

 Koch in Germany, unhindered by a paternal Government, are 

 making discoveries that shall redound to their glorj- as long as the 

 heart has woes, as long as this world shall last. 



W. M. Be.\imont, M.R.C.S., Oxford. 



[444] — I have read with interest Mr. W. B. Wicken's letter (Xo. 

 411, p. 630) on Tobacco and Consumption, as also Mr. Prosser's 

 reply thereto (No. 418, p. 28, Vol. II). 



Smoking tobacco as a cure for consumption, I am afraid, will 

 never come to tho fore. Climate has, I hold, a great deal to do 

 with the prevalence or scarcity of this disease, for wo find that it is 

 most met with in moist temperate countries, like Great Britain, and 

 is comparatively scarce in countries which suffer tho extreme oJ 

 heat and cold. 



But another reason for the prevalence of consumption in this 

 country (and in others) is the habit that human beings have 

 acquired of breathing through their mouths, and not through their 

 nasal organs. Tho air wo breath through the mouth gin-s down to 

 the lungs unpurified, while that breathed through the nose is de- 

 prived of obnoxious matter (with which tho air is always more oi 

 less filled), that organ having the property of purifying the air 

 breathed, as well as others. Mr. Pressor, in his letter, gives an 

 example of this. He says that tobacco smoke has undoubtedly n 

 soothing effect, for when his laboratory is filled with acid fumes, ho 

 has no inclination to cough, as long as he uses his pipe. It is rot 

 tho soothing effect of the tobacco fumes that prevents his ini;lina- 

 tion to cough, but, while ho has tho pipe in his mouth, he necessarily 

 breathes through his nose, and the air is purified (so far at least) 

 before it reaches tho lungs, and causes no irritation. There arc 

 many races of Indians who still possess this natural prnctice, and 

 were it reacquired in this country, 1 do not doubt that consumption 

 and other diseases of the lungs would become coin|>!ir«tively things 

 of the past. W. Ul'ME. 



TURKISH TOBACCO. 



[415] — Your corre.spondent, in letter 418, is a little bit ont in 

 regard to tho tobacco used by tho Turks for tho hookah nargilch. 

 The tobacco used, and 1 have smoked much of it (yet cannot stand 

 half a pipe of the mildest tobacco used in England), is called 



