o60 FOREIGN CORRESFONDENCE. 



FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE. 



Paris, Octobei- 27, 1877. 

 Since the commencement of the present century, one-fifth nearly — 18 

 per cent, of the death-rate of Paris, is represented by consumption. It is 

 the most cruel of diseases, devourinii; the j^oung and productive part of the 

 nation, like a Cretan Minotaur. Di". Lagneau, one of the highest authori- 

 ties on phthisical maladies, attributes consumption to impure air and in- 

 sufficient bodilj^ exercise. It is a disease rather of race than of the indi- 

 vidual ; it is ubiquitous, not peculiar to any climate, still less to any condi- 

 tion ; it is the associate of misery, as well as of wealth. Dr. Lagneau does 

 not find a remedy for this scourge in change of climate or of scene ; on the 

 co.ntrary, he is not averse to thinking, that the prevailing taste for cosmo- 

 politanism, for " peregrinomania," as Gi-uy-Patin designated the modern 

 rage for going to and fro, is no stranger to an aggravation of an aggrava- 

 tion of the endemic. The sudden changing of officials, from the north to 

 the south of France, and vice versa, contributes to the production of con- 

 sumption In Paris, the native is less subject to consumption than the im- 

 migrant part of the population ; and more males perish b}' that disease than 

 females. There are persons who flock to the shores of the Mediterranean 

 to be cured of phthisis; but the climate does not prevent the ordinary in- 

 habitants from paying their quota to the universal disease. Elevated re- 

 gions, as the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Andes, the plateau of Mexico, Iceland 

 and Norway, possess a certain immunity against consumption ; but cold is 

 not the preventive agent, since the disease exists in Christiansand, and is 

 no stranger to G-reenland. In the north of France the exemptions of young 

 men from military service, on account of lung disease, is greater than in 

 the southern part of the countr3^ Misery and inefficient food do not ac- 

 count for the cause of'consumption. In the department of the Nord, where 

 the highest wages and best living are enjoyed, the death rate for pulmona- 

 ry complaints is higher than in the department of the Morbihan, where 

 salaries are lowest, and nourishment the worst in all France. If the dis- 

 ease strikes the extremes of social life, as the doctor maintains, nearly 

 equally, there can be no doubt that insufficient sustenance must be a pre- 

 ponderating influence, if not in the production, at least in the development 

 of the germ of the terrible affection. Less controversial are the doctor's 

 recommendations to prevent consumption; these are summarily : the con- 

 stant changing of air in apartments; good bodily exercise; moderation in 

 living; avoidance of idle habits, and of a too sedentary life. Jewelers, 

 lace-makers, tailors, and shoe makers, arc most subject to phthisis, as also 

 soldiers leading a barrack instead of a camp life; confinement is here the 

 predisposing agency. On the other hand, millers, wool-combers, barbers, 



