644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



with me that it would have been good for him if he had never lit a 

 cigar ; for he suffers now if he can not smoke a half-dozen of them in 

 the course of the day. The habit of smoking creates a factitious want 

 that is, perhaps, more imperative than real wants, and which is a con- 

 stant trouble to those who feel it. When I have a pressing engage- 

 ment after dinner, I cut my meal short so as to have time to smoke a 

 cigar ; and there is to me nothing to suggest doubt in the story re- 

 lated by Philibert Audebrand of Father Schoene, director of Louis Phi- 

 lippe's park of Monceaux, who loved two things — ^his plants and his 

 pipe. From morning till night he lived in the garden, and from morn- 

 ing till night he carried a short pipe in his mouth, which he would not 

 take out for any one. " It may pass before me," said Louis Philippe 

 to him one day " but to smoke so in the presence of the queen and 

 the princesses ! " " Sire," replied Schoene, " it is stronger than I am. 

 If your majesty is not satisfied with my service, I shall have to present 

 my account ; I shall probably die with vexation over the matter, but 

 it will be with my pipe between my teeth." 



Do not enroll yourselves, then, beardless readers, in the battalions 

 of Nicotia. Initiation into her mysteries has painful accompaniments, 

 and her fervent worship brings troubles of another character. To- 

 bacco is smoked in cigars, cigarettes, and pipes. Placed in contact 

 with the mouth, the cigar, which can not escape some chewing, colors 

 the saliva and charges it with the toxic principles of the tobacco — ele- 

 ments, principally nicotine, that should be carefully rejected. A per- 

 son smoking only a simple light cigar may, perhaps, see the end of it 

 without spitting, but, if he consumes any number of them, he must 

 spit frequently. This exercise is less indispensable when a cigar-holder 

 is used, and the adoption of such a mouth-piece is recommended by hy- 

 giene as a means of avoiding the direct contact of the mouth with the 

 tobacco, and considerably diminishing the inconveniences of smoking. 

 Cigar-holders are made of amber, shell, glass, bone, cherry, birch, lilac, 

 jasmin, maple, and cane. Holders made from the last wood are the 

 best, because they are generally longer than the others, whereby the 

 smoke may become cooled, and because, being very cheap, they can 

 be frequently renewed. Other inconveniences, involving questions of 

 cleanliness, are avoided by the use of the cigar-holder. Too many 

 hands touch the tobacco while it is being manufactured into a cigar 

 for one to be able^ to say it has not been soiled, and cases of its 

 having been the vehicle for conveying contagious disease are not 

 unknown. 



Havana cigars are th-e- best, but how to get them ? The coat does 

 not make the monk, nor does the label make a real Havana. We read 

 in the " Journal d'Hygi^ne " that cigars are bought at very cheap prices 

 at various places in Europe, and then shipped to Havana, where they 

 are boxed and labeled and sent back to Europe. According to M. 

 Cardon, the matter is arranged more expeditiously at Hamburg and 



