7i6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



upon piles of fagots at 8 p. m., and are to- 

 tally consumed by 6 a. m. The relations are 

 admitted early in the morning, and the ashes 

 are collected and placed in urns. The scale 

 of charges is 3s. 6(/., Is. 6d., 15s., and 20s., 

 the process in each case being the same, the 

 only difference being that the highest charge 

 insures a solitary chamber, while for the 

 lowest the corpse may be consumed in com- 

 pany with five others, each, of course, occu- 

 pying a separate stone platform." 



Chinese Cookery. — It appears, from the 

 Pall Mall Budget, that the great number of 

 strange dishes spoken of in books of travel 

 are seen only at official banquets, and do 

 not constitute the meals even of the wealthy 

 Chinese. These public dinners are usually 

 given in restaurants, which are built two or 

 three stories high, the kitchen and public 

 rooms being on the first floor, the private 

 rooms above. A correspondent of the Jour- 

 nal des Dcbats gives the following as the 

 bill of fare at a banquet given by a French 

 official of the Chinese Government to Chen 

 Pao-Chen, the Viceroy of the Two Kiangs : 

 " Four large ' classical ' or stock dishes — 

 swallows' -nest soup with pigeons' eggs, 

 sharks' fins with crabs, trepang {beche de 

 mer) with wild duck, duck with cabbage. 

 Dishes served in cups placed before each 

 guest — swallows' nests, sharks' fins, wild 

 cherries, vegetables, mushrooms with ducks' 

 feet, quails, pigeons in slices, dish of sun- 

 dries. Four medium-sized dishes — ham and 

 honey, pea-soup, vegetables, trepang. Four 

 large dessert dishes — pea-cheese with bam- 

 boo roots, bamboo roots, chicken, shell-fish ; 

 four dishes of dried fruits as ornaments, 

 four kinds of dry fruits, four kinds of fruits 

 in sirup, four kinds of fresh fruit ; four 

 dishes of Iiors d^cfuvre (two varieties in each 

 dish) — ham and chicken, fish and gizzard, 

 tripe and vermicelli, duck and pork chops. 

 Dishes set before each guest — almonds and 

 watermelon pips, pears and oranges. Sweet 

 and salt dishes served in cups set before 

 each guest — ^two kinds of salted cakes, ham- 

 broth, a broth composed of pork, chicken, 

 and crab boiled down, two sweet cakes, a 

 cup of lotus fruit, a cup of almond milk. 

 Roast and boiled meats — sucking pig, roast 

 duck, boiled chicken, boiled pork. Entre- 

 mets — a dish of cakes with broth, slices of 



pheasants. Last service — mutton broth, 

 almond jelly, white cabbage, pork and broth, 

 bowls of rice, cups of green tea." Notwith- 

 standing this elaborate " bill of fare," the 

 Chinese are generally an abstemious people. 

 A coolie will subsist upon eight shillings a 

 month, and live comfortably upon twice that 

 sum. Boiled rice is the staple article of 

 food. In the north of China wheat and ca- 

 nary seed, boiled and made into small i-olls, 

 are much used. Small cakes made of boiled 

 wheat, together with a little fish or some 

 vegetables, constitute an excellent dinner 

 for a Chinaman. Some light refreshment 

 is frequently taken between meals by the 

 well-to-do Chinaman — " the kuo tsa lead- 

 ing up to the morning, the kuo tsong to 

 the midday, and the tien chen to the even- 

 ing meal, while the chian ya and the kuo 

 yia are partaken of during the night by 

 those who can not get to sleep." 



A Defense of Opinm- smoking. — That 

 there is no cause without its advocate is 

 evident from the fact that Consul Gardner, 

 in a trade report for the past year, plausibly 

 defends the practice of opium -smoking. 

 We gather the following from the Pall Mall 

 Budget : About 12,000,000 pounds of opium 

 are yearly consumed in China. The smok- 

 ers are of thrfee classes — occasional smokers, 

 habitual moderate smokers, and excessive 

 habitual smokers. When a Chinaman is 

 said to smoke opium, the recognized mean- 

 ing is that he belongs to the third class, 

 just as with us when we say that a man 

 " drinks," excessive drinking is understood. 

 In smoking, only part of the drug is con- 

 sumed ; the ash when reprepared yields fifty 

 per cent of opium. This accounts for the 

 fact that the saloon-keepers sell opium at 

 what appears to be cost price ; the ash 

 yields the profit and pays for light, house- 

 rent, and attendance. It is estimated that 

 the immoderate smoker consumes not over 

 four pounds a year, and the average annual 

 consumption of all classes is half a pound. 

 If, as this implies, half the adult popula- 

 tion smoke, and opium-smoking is the evil it 

 is represented to be, why are there not visi- 

 ble inherited ill effects ? Consul 'Gardner, 

 in reply, says : " The length of the intestines 

 in man shows that a due admixture of ani- 

 mal and vegetable food is the diet best suited 



