In The Smoke Room

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 1 May 1897, Page 537

In The Smoke Room

AT a debate on smoking among the members of the British Association many speakers denounced and others advocated the practice. Professor Huxley said : * For forty years of my life tobacco has been a deadly poison to me. (Loud cheers from the antitobacconists.) In my youth, as a medical student, I tried to smoke. In vain. At every fresh attempt my insidious foe stretched me prostrate on the floor. (Repeated cheers.) I entered the navy ; again I tried to smoke and again met with defeat. I hated tabacco. I could almost have lent my support to any institution that had for its object the putting of tobacco smokers to death. (Vociferous applause.) A few years ago I was in Brittany with some friends. We went to an inn. They began to smoke. They looked very happy, and outside it was very wet and dismal. I thought I would try a cigar. (Murmurs.) I did so. (Great expectations.) I smoked that cigar—it was delicious. (Groans.) From that that moment I was a changed man, and I now feel that smoking in moderation is a comfortable and laudable practice and is productive of good. (Dismay and confusion of the anti-tobacconists. Roars of laughter from the smokers.) There is no more barm in a pipe than there is in a cup of tea. You may poison yourself by drinking too much green tea and kill yourself by eating too many beefsteaks. For my own part I consider that tobacco, in moderation is a sweetener and equalizer of the temper.’ (Total rout of the anti-tobacconists and complete triumph of the smokers.) Recent experiments have disclosed the fact that olivegreen is the best colour for war vessels, all purposes considered. White is most readily distinguished of any of the colours by a search-light at night. In the daytime, however, a drab-painted ship is with difficulty seen on the horizon. It harmonises most naturally with the sky, while the olive-green harmonises with the water. Olive-green is as invisible as grey in the daytime, and much more so at night. This colour was first employed by the loyal ships of the Brazilian Navy in 1894. and it is understood to be the colour which our own Navy would adopt in time of war. The average rapidity of the pulse of an adult male is about 70 beats per minute. These beats are more frequent in children and women. However, it would not necessarily be an abnormal sign to find in some particucular individuals the habitual movement of the heart to be from 60 to 75 or from 75 to 80 per minute. As a rule the heart’s action is slower and more powerful in strong, muscular organizations and more rapid and feebler in those of slighter form. Presuming that the blood was thrown out of the heart at each pulsation in the proportion of 69 strokes per minute and at the assumed force of 9 feet, the mileage of the blood through the body might be taken at 207 yards per minute, 7 miles per hour, 168 miles per day, 61,320 miles per year or 5,150,880 miles in a lifetime of 84 years. The number of beats of the heart in the same long life would reach the grand total of 2,869,776.000. The English language of to-day is quite different in many respects from the English spoken only 100 years ago. On the other hand, the Dutch spoken by the Boers of South Africa does not differ greatly from the same language spoken 200 years ago, the Boers during that time having had very little intercourse with the mother country, and so their language remains almost fixed. French scientists and explorers have been discussing the question of the reforestation of the Sahara, and some of them entertain very hopeful views. M. Largeau thinks that the whole atmospheric conditions of the desert can be changed, and universal cultivation made possible, others not so sanguine, despair of the more arid plateaus but state confidently that in the depressed portions trees, such as the tamarisk, acacia, eucalyptus and poplar can be grown with success. The poplar proves to be the tree of all others most capable of resisting the influence of the desert. Under the shelter of the trees all kinds of vegetables and fruits can be grown. Alfred F. Calvert, one of London’s West Australian millionaires, was reputed to be worth £500,000 in carh a year ago. At that time a British and French syndicate offered him £1,000,000 for his gold mine holdings. The offer was refused, and a course of reckless extravagance was entered upon. Lately Mr Calvert has sold for £yo, ooo the properties that he refused £1 ,000,000 for a year ago.