IN DEFENCE OF THE PIPE,

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 23, 28 January 1899, Page 10 (Supplement)

IN DEFENCE OF THE PIPE,

Mr. Haydn Brown, L.R.C.P., in an interesting little book, " The Secret of "Good Health and Good Life" (Bowden), has something to say on the subject of smoking. Why should men smoke? Mr. Haydn BroAvn thus makes ansAver: — "There are some good reasons. Many break off from a brain concentrating occupation for a smoke Avho would prohably enjoy no interval at all otherAvise. Such breaks are noc only advantageous, they are often positively necessary. Therefore, the practice that encourages and helps to obtain them is a distinctly beneficial one. Smoking helps the subject to rest." The more restless some temperaments are the more, according to this authority, Avill they derive advantage from smoking in moderation. " A pipe helps to smooth a troubled spirit and gives comfort to the Aveary." It is perhaps during old age that the habit of smoking is, according to Mr. Haydn Brown, of the greatest use : — "At a time Avhen hard work is impossible, Avhen concentration and lengthy application is a thing of the past, and when the hours have to be Avorn aAvay somehow or other, the long clay, the hookah, or the cigar helps to make life's evening more comfortable and better worth enduring. What would many an old man do without his half-dozen pipes a day and his daily paper? At no time of life is smoking of greater advantage than during old age." Pipes, it is added, are the best things to smoke.