3o8 The Soverane Herbe 



' The smoker,' says Dr. Scholer, ' ought to rinse 

 out his mouth, not only before every meal and before 

 going to bed at night, but several times during the 

 day. The best rinse is a glass of water in which a 

 teaspoonful of salt has been dissolved. It should be 

 used as a gargle at night, and care should be taken 

 that every cavity in the teeth is well washed with it. 

 The pipe's proper place is in the hand, and only 

 occasionally in the lips or teeth.' 



Smokers should follow the advice of Punch, and 



' Learn to smoke slow ; the other grace is 

 To keep your smoke from people's faces.' 



A cigar should be thrown away as soon as four- 

 fifths of it are smoked. The latter end of a cigar is 

 worse than the beginning of all others — in cauda 

 venenum. All the oils of the cigar are concentrated 

 in the last fifth ; smoking cigars to the bitter end 

 produces ' smoker's throat.' When the end is felt 

 to be softening and the taste becomes acrid and 

 bitter, a cigar should be laid down. 



Cigarettes should be smoked dry, as the damping 

 of the paper gives full play to the action of any 

 deleterious matter it may contain. Very few smokers 

 can smoke cigarettes thus. But it is this sucking at 

 the damp tobacco, and drawing the shreds into the 

 mouth, that constitute the danger of cigarette-smoking. 

 To prevent a cigarette sticking to the lips a good 

 plan is to run a burning wax vesta round the end, 

 thinly coating it with wax to form a mouthpiece. 

 This is tasteless, efficient, non-absorbent, and equal 

 to the amber-tipped cigarettes, which are prepared by 

 coating one end with spermaceti. 



