COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTRACTS. 95 



111. In the Lancet for 28th February, 1857, Mr. Hig- 

 ginbottom, of Nottingham, says : 



"After fifty years of most extensive and varied prac- 

 tice in my profession, I have come to the decision, that 

 smoking is a main cause of ruining our young men, 

 pauperizing the working-men, and rendering compara- 

 tively useless the best efforts of ministers of religion." 

 The proverbial drunkenness of our countrymen can 

 only be arrested by laying the axe at the root of its 

 superinducing cause, the thirst-creating power of to- 

 bacco. ' Penury and crime,' says a medical temperance 

 reformer, ' are brought on by drinking, to supply moist- 

 ure to the system, after it has been drained by spitting 

 away the flourishing saliva. Hence drunkenness in the 

 masses." 



112. Extract from an article by J. Pidduck, M. D., in 

 the Lancet of 14th February, 1856 : — 



"As physician to ti dispensary in St. Giles's during 

 sixteen years, I had extensive opportunities of observing 

 the effects of tobacco upon the health of a very large 

 number of habitual smokers. The extraordinary fact is 

 this : that leeches were killed instantly by the blood of 

 the smokers, so suddenly that they dropped off dead 

 immediately they were applied ; and that fleas and bugs, 

 whose bites on the children were as thick as measles, 

 rarely if ever attacked the smoking parent. It may be 

 said : ^ But why may not this poisonous effect upon 

 leeches, fleas, and bugs, be owing to gin, and not to- 

 bacco V The answer to this objection is, that the Arabs 

 and Bedouins, who drink neither wine nor strong drink, 

 are protected from the onslaught of the insects, which 



