BRITISH INDIA.

786 minute trace of the metal in all the papers. There is in this. Copper is often found in the asli of paper, and in this case its presence is accounted for. Each cigarette had a metallic label upon it, and the metal which had been used was the ordinary copper alloy. The fine powder of imitation gold is easily disseminated, and probably the trace of copper found in the paper, even when the label had been cut off, was due to this source. The presence of copper is of no real significance, for its quantity is very small and the metal is not volatile; but the force of prejudice is strong, and we should advise manufacturers to avoid in future the use of this material. As to the absurd suggestion of chlorine being present in the paper, it is only necessary to say that not a trace was we examined. contained in any of the It only remains to be said that the cement used in closing the cigarettes was in every case starch, as was shown by the iodine test. To this no possible objection can be made. Having disposed by the unerring method of analysis of all other charges against Egyptian cigarettes, we must consider the very important allegation that the throat irritation so often complained of is due to the admixture of the Salouk tobacco of Smyrna. Analysis does not help us here, but we have made careful inquiries from persons of experience, and have convinced ourselves that our Cairo correspondent has given a correct account of the Egyptian cigarette industry. It is admitted. on all hands that the Smyrna leaf, or, at any rate, the tobacco known is not only cheaper, but is more pungent as Salouk, and irritating to the throat than genuine Turkish tobacco. The flavour of Salouk is peculiar, and to some is agreeable; critical cigarette smokers detect it at once. But it seems evident that continued use of it is attended with risk, and that the slightest sign of throat irritation should warn smoker to change his cigarette, if not to abandon it. There appears to be nothing akin to adulteration in the Egyptian cigarettes of the best makers. All is a question of the selection, or, as wine merchants would call it, the blending of the tobaccos. The alleged addition of opium is not only most improbable, in view of the very high price of the drug, but is disproved by chemical analysis. Summing up the results of our investigation, we report as follows. The Egyptian cigarettes which we have examined No foreign substance, and are made from genuine tobacco.

and perhaps the worst feature of the official review is the easy optimism with which it records facts of serious and unpleasant easily import. Thus we find a marked increase of crime explained with apparent satisfaction on the ground that "the courts have not the same prestige as formerly among the common people; and an exaggerated belief in the power of pleaders to The bulk secure acquittal of offenders appears to prevail. of the criminal work is now done by native magistrates, though fully capable, seem, in many cases, to err who, in too great readiness to acquit or to pass inadequate sentences." If these criticisms are well founded, they ought to serve as the ground of a serious effort to remedy what is assuredly a grievous defect and serious weakness of the administration, instead of being put forward as affording a samples satisfactory alternative to the explanation that there is an increase of criminality on the part of the people. Equally unsatisfactory, as it seems to us, is the official optimism in view of the very high rate of mortality which prevails in Indian gaols. In Madras and in the North-west Provinces and Oudh the statistics of criminal mortality show, what we are accustomed to in England, a lower death-rate prevailing in prisons than among the general population. Not only does the careful regimen of prison life conduce to this result, but the absence of infants and the paucity of the numbers of persons extremely old exercise a powerful influence in the same direction; while in sophisticating the numerical more influential still record is the humane practice of releasing from custody prisoners whose health has given way in confineAll these influences act, as we presume, upon ment. the Indian convict community; but, with the exception of the two Provinces which we have just named, all exhibit the strange phenomenon of a death-rate among the exceeding, and in most instances the occupants of the prisons largely exceeding, that of the general population. Thus in Lower Burmah the prison death-rate is as high as 61 per 1000, while that of the general population does not exceed 15. the other 28; and in the Central In Assam the one is Provinces a prison deatft-rate of 65 is recorded, with a general death-rate of 33. It is of course easy to suggest speculative explanations, as that the registration of death among the general population is very ineificient and incomplete. That may be so, but it is at least plain that in the cases which we have named the prison death-rate is abnormally high. It particularly no opium or "unclassified alkaloid" (whatever would be much more satisfactory to learn that the authothat may mean), is added. The paper and the cement are rities in India, sensible of the importance of improving upon pure, the only possible objection being the trace of copper these very unsatisfactory figures, were resolutely taking in we found in the ash, which is probably due to the metallic hand the improvement of the sanitation of their prisons, lettering. Some proportion of Smyrna tobacco is commonly rather than that they are resourceful in the simple art of incorporated with the Turkish, which is always used. If throwing discredit on the figures which they have produced. this Smyrna or Salouk tobacco is present in excessivequanIn the practice of vaccination some progress, if slow, tities, the throats of some persons, if not of all, will be appears to be annually made. The Indian populations have affected injuriously. It is probably safer to avoid it. Doubt- a sufficiently constant and near acquaintance with smallless there are smokers who enjoy the Salouk flavour, as pox to value prophylactic measures, which some more enthere are coffee drinkers who like an admixture of chicory lightened, or at least more privileged, communities do not. The smoker must select his cigarette for himself ; and Little by little the use of this preventive is spreading over we trust that in this case, as in so many others, the the vast continent, and although we may feel impatience forewarned will be forearmed. Let it be remembered that its progress is but slow, we may hope that eventually that tobacco, to say nothing of opium, is not grown in it will make the fell disease against which it is employed Egypt. The Egyptian manufacturers select and blend as scarce and as harmless in India as in England. their leaves, and, to judge from the popularity of the cigarettes, they do so with great skill. In future they will probably be more careful in the use of Salouk, as every OUR ARMY. motive urges them to retain and extend their trade. Physicians will do good service by watching the effects THE general annual return of the army for 1887 shows upon their patients of cigarette smoking. If they find that the change from Egyptian to Turkish or English cigarettes the average strength of all ranks, including colonial removes unpleasant throat symptoms, there will soon be a to have been 209,574 : of these, 106,767 were corps, definite condemnation of Salouk tobacco. employed at home and 102,807 abroad. The average strength of non-commissioned officers and men was, exclusive of colonial corps, 199,420 ; of these 1909 died BRITISH INDIA. and 2566 were discharged as invalids, being respecThere THE statistical abstract and the annual report on the tively in the ratio of 9-57 and 12-87 per 1000. were during the year 10,668 men, or 53 per 1000, transferred Moral and Material Progress of India do not convey to to the First Class of the Army Reserve. The number of their readers the impression that the administration of recruits enlisted during the year was 58,645, of whom 18,001 India has been particularly successful in the year 1886-7. were " rejected prior to attestation," presumably on medical The period has indeed been marked by disturbances in inspection, being 307 per 1000; and 2003, or 34 per 1000, after Burmah and its neighbourhood, for which the Government attestation, probably for military reasons. Of the whole 31,234 joined the army, or 533 per 1000 number, cannot be held primarily responsible, but in parts remote enlisted. only Of those who joined, 12,575, or two-fifths of the from this centre of disturbance come reports of what cannot whole, were between eighteen and nineteen years of age, be regarded as satisfactory results of our administration, and 20,048, or nearly two-thirds, were under twenty, being

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