The other day (Dec. 7, 1878), I ascended in the Tyrol, a
mountain of 5,000 feet, inducting a walk of six or seven miles to it,
and as many back, in company with some friends. I did it easily,
and felt no subsequent fatigue. I would like to see an old smoker of
eighty-six do 'that." There can be no doubt that excessive smoking is
one of the causes of the early deaths of literary men, though not the
greatest The opponents of tobacco have tried to make capital out of
the early death of Jules Noriac, who is reported to have died of
smoker's cancer; but it transpired that he lived very irregularly.
[Footnote: Considerable difference of opinion would appear to exist
among the "chroniqueurs" of the Parisian press as to the real nature
of the malady to which M. Jules Noriac, the witty, humorous, and
observant writer of "The Hundred and First Regiment," the essay on
"Human Stupidity," and numerous dramatic pieces of a more or less
ephemeral kind, has just fallen a victim. It has been generally
understood that M. Noriac died from a mysterious malady which has not
long since been recognised by French physicians as the "smoker's
cancer." It is alleged that the deceased man of letters suffered for
two whole years from the ravages of this dreadful and occult disease,
and that his countenance became so transformed through the wasting
action of the ailment that he could scarcely be recognised even by
his most intimate friends.
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