SiGERSON — On the Atmosphere. 
27 
that puerperal fever may be occasioned by the attendance of a physi- 
cian fresh from the dissecting room. Doctors, consequently, take the 
precaution of changing their clothes. But if it can be so caused, they 
should likewise take care to cleanse their lungs with a sufficiency of 
fresh air. Dissecting halls should also be disinfected daily — an opera- 
tion that might be performed by the attendant sprinkling the floor 
with a disinfecting fluid before he sweeps it. 
Tohacco-smoJcers' Atmosphere (Plate X.). — In order to get the micro- 
scope to bear upon smoke — to investigate the smoker' s atmosphere — I was 
compelled to fashion a flat glass tube, through which I drew the smoke. 
There was a rapid deposit of the hot products of distillation, in oily 
globules, on the glass; yet, in spite of this, and in spite of using 
merely a small habitual cigarette, I became excessively sick, and had 
to lie out in the open air. Ey careful management, however, I at 
length got a thin layer of smoke into focus, and there beheld the 
globules moving and twirling about like a host of monads. These 
globules, consisting of nicotine and other pyrogenous oils, were to be 
found, not only in the smoke drawn in, but also in that emitted ; but 
very little was detected in the saliva. Some, no doubt, had been 
deposited on the walls of the mouth, as was seen on the glass ; but 
the moistened walls may not have retained so much. When the 
smoke enters the lungs, vastly more globules are retained; and hence 
the sickness of the beginners, who do not know the art of smoking ; 
hence my own sickness, when in experiment I was forced to inhale 
the smoke. 
These globules of nicotine, floating about to form the smoker's 
atmosphere, are not necessarily inhaled by him, unless the smoke be 
dense, as in a close room ; but often they may be inhaled by his non- 
smoking companion. Hence, the nausea of the latter. Drifting about 
in the atmosphere, the globules deposit themselves on the clothes and 
curtains, and communicate to them an intense smell of tobacco. How- 
ever, if, whilst floating about in the air of cities, they are caught by 
amateur investigators, another fate is, perhaps, reserved for them. 
They may be regarded as germs ; and as they will resist the iodine 
test for amyloids, and are evidently organic, the supposition might be 
considered proved absolutely, and thus a passing smoker may delight 
the panspermists with myriads of germs. 
Finally, I take the Tea Tasters' air (Plate X.). Tea tasters are men 
who, in the establishments of large wholesale tea merchants, are engaged 
to select and set apart teas, by taste. Their constitutions are impaired, 
their lives abridged by this perilous occupation, but their salaries are 
high in proportion to the risk. Why is this business so dangerous? 
When the teas are drawn, and poured in a range of cups, the tea 
taster proceeds to his work. To estimate their quality, he must not 
be soon after a meal, or his taste will be vitiated. If he be fasting, 
so much the better — if he can endure it. He takes the cups in suc- 
cession, and placing each to his lips takes, not a sip, but a whiff of 
tea — a sip with a sudden swift inhalation. By that means, a fine 
