646 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



after a brilliant oratorical display, " richer in arguments than in ob- 

 served facts," the society wisely concluded that " it was not necessary 

 to conclude anything." That is my position on this vexed question of 

 cigarette-paper. 



Larouse says that, although it is admitted as a principle that only 

 the cigar is in good taste in the street, the pipe is, in the privacy of 

 home, the relaxation of persons in the highest social classes as well as 

 of the masses. The observation is just. All great smokers use the 

 pipe. The poor smoke a modest clay pipe ; the rich a meerschaum set 

 with silver and amber, carved and engraved like a precious stone ; 

 poor and rich, consuming much tobacco, burn it in an incombustible 

 bowl with a tube attached ; whatever it may be, it is still a pipe, and, 

 if it costs more, it is no better than the cheaper one, but rather the 

 contrary. If all pipes were equally durable, they might be classed, 

 according to their merit, as follows : 1. Soft earthen pipe ; 2. Meer- 

 schaum ; 3. Hard earthen pipe, white or colored ; 4. Wooden pipe ; 

 5. Porcelain pipe ; 6. Metallic pipe. 



The white earthen pipe, porous and permeable to liquids, is put 

 first, because it is a good absorber of nicotine ; the metallic pipe is put 

 last, because it allows all the noxious products formed during the com- 

 bustion of the tobacco to reach the mouth of the smoker. The meer- 

 schaum, which immediately follows the clay pipe, deserves its place 

 only on condition that it is not too old. If it is seasoned, it is as bad 

 as a wooden or porcelain pipe. The seasoning, of which poets have 

 sung, may be full of charms for the amateur ; to the hygienist, it 

 simply indicates that the pipe has had its day, and is now saturated 

 with tobacco-juice ; and that it must be replaced by another one, or be 

 passed through the fire to purify it, as is done in the coffee-houses of 

 Holland. Every old pipe, browned with long use, leaves on the lips and 

 tongue an acrid and strong-smelling liquid which irritates the tissues 

 and corrodes the mucous secretions. When it has reached this condi- 

 tion, the finest meerschaum is no better than the meanest scorch-throat. 

 Independently of the substance, the form of the pipe has an influence on 

 the proportion of noxious ingredients which tobacco-smoke contains, 

 Turkish and Indian pipes, in which tobacco is burned slowly, discharg- 

 ing its smoke through a liquid, arrest a large proportion of the poison- 

 ous ingredients. The bowl of the German pipe retains the greater part 

 of the oily products ; the Dutch and English clay pipes retain less. The 

 metallic pipes of Thibet, becoming heated, carry to the mouth not only 

 brown liquids saturated with nicotine, but also a smoke hot enough to 

 burn the tongue. The pipe should, then, be long, and, in order that 

 the smoker may become convinced of this, I submit to him these lines 

 by Dr. Buisson, taken from his article on " The Lips," in the " Dic- 

 tionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales " : "It is not with- 

 out reason that the popular tongue has energetically described by 

 the name hrHle-gueule (scorch-throat) the pipe with a short stem. 



