But while all this is greatly in favour of the moderate use of iced drinks, the purity of the source from which the ice is obtained is also a matter of the highest importance.  Ice is not ice when the water from which it is derived is impure.  There was an outbreak of sickness amongst the visitors at one of the large hotels at Rye Beach, a watering-place in America, one summer.  The symptoms were an alarming disturbance of the with severe pain, great feverishness, and depression of spirits.  It was found that the ice which occasioned this outbreak had been taken from a stagnant pond containing a large amount of decomposing matter.  A portion of it was carefully melted, and was found to contain a considerable quantity of decaying vegetable matter.  In the case of artificial ice, the question of purity is even more important.  The reason for this is that the water used in the manufacture of artificial ice is usually frozen solid, and whatever substances, consequently, are dissolved in the water remain in the ice itself.

TOBACCO

Five out of every six male adults smoke, whether it be cigarette, cigar, or pipe.  That is, in a gathering of, say, 600 men, 500 will be smokers and 100 non-smokers.  At least, this is the estimated proportion in the old country.  In Australia the ratio is about the same, but the average amount of tobacco used by every smoker is greater.  According to Mr. T. A. Coghlan in his wealth and progress of new south Wales, the annual consumption of tobacco in Australia for each inhabitant is 3 lbs. all but a fraction.  For the United Kingdom the corresponding amount is 1.41 lbs.; and for the United States of America, 4.40 lbs.  Italy, it would seem, consumes in the same way 1.34 lbs.; France, 2.05 lbs.; Germany, 3 lbs.; Austria, 3.77 lbs.; Turkey, 4.37 lbs.; while Holland reaches the excessive amount of 6.92 lbs.  Of the five colonies of Australia, namely, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and West Australia, the use of tobacco is greatest in the latter two; the figures for Queensland being 3.53 lbs., and for West Australia 4.11 lbs.

With regard to the effect of tobacco on the human system, it will perhaps be most convenient to make a division into the following three classes.  In the first place there are a certain number of people upon whom tobacco in any shape or form has an absolutely poisonous influence.  There must be some peculiar susceptibility of the system in their case which renders them especially vulnerable to its action.  On this account, therefore, they are better without tobacco at all, and any attempt to habituate themselves to it must be attended with prejudice to health.  Secondly, there are many other people who can only use tobacco in its very mildest forms.  They may be able to smoke a few cigarettes daily, perhaps only three or four; if they indulge in a cigar, it must