In The Smoke Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue VI, 8 August 1896, Page 171

In The Smoke Room

SMOKING BY BOYS. THAT the essential principle of tobacco, that which gives it all its value to the smoker, is a virulent poison, is universally admitted. It is agreed also that its primary effect is upon the brain and spinal cord, with paralysing tendency. Even Beard, who defends the moderate use of tobacco, admits that its effects are disastrous on some classes of persons. It withers some, he says, while fattening others; causes in some dyspepsia and constipation, while upon others it has a contrary effect. It is soothing to some, but induces in others all the horrors of extreme nervousness. He adds that among the brain-working class of our population the proportion of those who can use tobacco with impunity is yearly diminishing, as a nervous tendency more and more prevails among us.

Now whatever may be urged in favour of moderate smoking later in life, all intelligent persons who have given the subject attention unite in condemning the use of tobacco by the young.

Young persons do not know whether or not they belong to the class most liable to be injured by tobacco. No one denies the danger of its excessive use, and the young have neither the intelligence nor the self-control to resist the tendency of smoking to grow into an uncontrollable habit. Further, the brain and nervous system of youth are specially susceptible to the baneful influence of the poisonous principle of tobacco. That commanding medical authority, the London Lancet, says : ‘lt is time that the attention of all responsible persons should be seriously directed to the prevalence and increase of tobacco-smoking among boys. Stunted growth, impaired digestion, palpitation and other evidences of nervous exhaustion and irritability have again and again impressed the lesson of abstinence, which has hitherto been far too little regarded.’ It cites a case which lately came before the coroner for Liverpool,—death from a fatty change in the heart due mainly to smoking cigarettes and cigar ends—and adds : 1 This of course is an extreme example. It is, however, only a strongly coloured illustration of effects on health which are daily realized in thousands of instances. Not even in manhood is the pipe or cigar invariably safe. Much less can it be so regarded when it ministers to the unbounded whims and cravings of heedless urchins.’

Mr Cecil Rhodes is credited with being a womanhater. It is said that when he met with his serious accident while out riding, his first words on recovering consciousness were : —‘ Let no devil of a woman be sent for!’ No one dared disobey him. The consequences were, rather than submit to be bandaged, he three times ordered the surgeon’s handiwork to be undone, so that he has to endure the inconvenience of an unset shoulder blade for the rest of his life, because he would not submit to a woman nursing him.

‘Sweden,’ says a native of that country who has just been visiting it, ‘ is building railroad, telegraph and telephone lines everywhere. Every farmer who has roo acres or more of land has a long distance telephone. It is the most magnificent telephone system I ever saw, and is very cheap. News of great import is flashed over these wires from the urban to the rural districts, and the average citizen is better posted on the current events of the day than in probably any other country in the world.’

When one is told that, according to Dr. Preller, the total energy of the avalanche which occurred September nth near the famous Gemmi pass, in the Alps, was 4,400,000,000 meter-tons, it gives a vague and indefinite idea, as in such huge figures a few ciphers more or less have little influence on the mind, but by reducing to every day quantities, such as we deal with, a better idea of the statement may be obtained The above amount of energy, which was expended in about one minute, is estimated to be sufficient to light about 90,000 lamps five hours per day for one whole year. The survey of the volcano Popocalepeti, Mexico, for the purpose of determining the best location for an aerial cable railway to the summit has just been completed. It has been determined to start the line from the ranch of Tlamacus, and it will be connected with the Interoceanic Railroad at the base, so that the business of shipping sulphur can be cheaply accomplished. This new railway will be a great attraction to tourists, who will now be able to make the ascent to the summit, 18,000 feet above the sea, and also descend to the crater.

where the process of extracting sulphur is being carried out.

The medical profession in France, says a Paris correspondent of the London Economist, is not satisfied with the protection against the competition of foreigners obtained in 1892. In that year a law was passed declaring that doctors, dentists, and midwives holding foreign diplomas could not exercise their profession in France unless they had obtained an identical French diploma, but the law had not a retroactive effect, and the members of those professions already established in France were not disturbed. It was admitted that the measure had been demanded by French doctors as a protection against the intrusion of foreigners. A petition is now being signed by the students in the schools of medicine and surgery, asking that foreigners, even with a French diploma, should not be permitted to exercise their profession in France unless they have become naturalised and have performed military service.

* Have you observed,’ inquired Satan casually, ‘ that there is a look of intenser agony upon the countenances of the burning shades than there used to be?’ ‘Oh, yes,’ answered Lucifer, rolling a fresh cigarette. ‘ That is the bicycle face, you know. They assume it naturally the minute they begin to scorch.’ There was a natural sequence, from the order of which departure could not be taken.

The postal service in India extends so far north as Kolghur, a village of the Himalaya. Beyond this point a letter is sent by a native carrier, who carries the missive for days in the split end of a stick, and delivers it at the end of his journey as clean as when he received it. These runners are so honest that money is entrusted to them, which they will carry for days, along wild mountain tracks, where they could never be traced, and then deliver.it into the right hands. These runners are always spinning, as are also the other men of the mountains. With a bundle of loose, short wool in the breast of their blouses, and a small stick for a distaff, they spin yarn as they go and come, or while waiting for hours at their employer’s door.