| Description Of Item | Press cutting of page 5 from the London Evening Standard, published on 28 December 1872. Reports on an article by the ‘Eastern correspondent’ of the New York Mail, from its re-publication in the British Medical Journal. The betel nut is a fruit from the areca palm, which easily grows in India. The article explains that chewing this nut is more detrimental even than chewing tobacco, a habit which can be stopped, albeit only with a serious effort as often ‘an apology is found for continuing a practice that is positively destroying the foundations of health’. Chewing betel nuts, however, is an addiction the author deems impossible to stop, and thus it ruins ‘teeth, gums, digestion’ and ultimately leads to death.
From the collection of Thomas Laycock. |