Of course I was both [surprised] and [discomfited] and asked his physician, Dr. Douglas, if the General were in truth not progressing as well as I had supposed. He intimated that the reports were rather rose-colored and that this affection was no doubt a cancer.
I am an excessive [smoker] and I said to the General that some of the rest of us must take warning by his case, but [Dr. Douglas] spoke up and said that this result must not be attributed altogether to smoking. He said it was probable that it had its [origin] in excessive [smoking,] but that that was not the certain reason of its manifesting itself at this time: that more than likely the real reason was the General’s distress of mind and year-long depression of spirit, arising from the failure of the Grant and Ward firm. [Mark Twain, Autobiography, 2010. p. 82]
Mark Twain recalls an incident from 1885 [though I am not quite clear about the exact month, there seems to be a little muddle over dates]. Took the tobacco industry quite some time to admit what seems to have been rather common knowledge back then, hu?
