=Tobacco.=--It is often asked why cigarettes are so much more injurious to the health than pipes and cigars. The nature of the paper of cigarettes and various other absurd reasons have been assigned. The true reason is that the cigarette smoker usually _inhales_ the tobacco smoke. Cigar smoke, if drawn into the lungs, would usually be coughed up at once. Cigarette smoke is weaker--it is so weak that the smoker is not content simply to absorb the nicotine through the mucous membrane of the mouth; he draws it into the lungs. The very mildness of the smoke leads to inhalation. Hence, as the _surface_ of the lungs is a _hundred times greater_ than the surface of the mouth, and _its lining much thinner_, cigarette smoking is far more injurious than cigar smoking. The poison accumulates in the bowl of a pipe; hence an old pipe is very injurious. The irritation of tobacco smoke often sets up a chronic dry catarrh of the air passages; rarely it causes cancer of lips or tongue. Sir Henry Thompson says: “The only persons who enjoy smoking and find it tranquillizing at times are those who smoke in great moderation. Men who are rarely seen without a cigar between the lips, have long ceased to enjoy smoking. They are confirmed in a habit, and are merely miserable when the cigar is absent.” They do not smoke for pleasure, but to escape misery which wiser men escape by avoiding tobacco altogether. [Illustration: FIG. 85. FIG. 86. FIG. 85.--FLATTENED CHEST and waist organs sunken from wearing tight clothing since the age of fourteen. Such women often walk with bodies bent forward to hide the prominent abdomen. FIG. 86.--A NATURAL WOMAN.]