138 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



physiognomy is stamped "nnth a peculiarity which enables 

 a practised eye to recognise, to a certain extent, the old 

 stagers of the factory, for this look is confined to those 

 who have gone through all the works. M. Hurteaux 

 thinks that two years at least must elapse before it 

 appears : — it is then that the workman is acclimatised 

 completely. It is a slow intoxication, owing to the absorp- 

 tion of certain constituents of the tobacco. M. Boudet 

 did not find nicotin in the blood of these cachetic work- 

 men ; but their blood in inflammation is not buffy : they 

 are subject to passive congestions. It is rarely useful to 

 bleed them : it is moreover probable that they discharge a 

 part of the absorbed nicotin by their urine, which is 

 abundant, notwithstanding their habitual perspiration. In 

 fine, M. Stoltz, whilst engaged in the delivery of a work- 

 woman in the factory at Strasbourg, recognised the smell 

 of tobacco in the water of the amnios, without being 

 aware of the previous occupation of the woman. The 

 progress of the cachexia is shoA^^l by their becoming lean 

 and losing their strength, especiall}'- those engaged in the 

 more laborious departments. . . . We have no data as to 

 their longevity. My friend, le docteur Maurice Euef, 

 mentions, in a population of 123 individuals, 5 old men 

 above 72 years of age, 4 of whom have worked all their 

 lives in the factory at Strasbourg. The ameliorations 

 made in their condition consist in the ventilation of the 

 workshops, chimneys, the use of steam-engines, watering 

 the place with vinegar and water, as recommended by 

 Eamazzini and found useful by M. Hurteaux." * 



"Does the tobacco-factory preserve its inmates from 

 certain diseases, or cure them when ill ? The workmen, 

 when attacked with rheumatism, neuralgia, lumbago, lie 



Levy, ubi s'lpru. 



