MORE ABOUT THE MONGOLS
246
persuade themselves they get any good from it. They have simply followed the multitude in a practice which is
pleasant, but useless.
They have gone
into the
habit gradually, and in an entire absence of thought about its being useful or not. 4.
Tobacco
The
harmful.
is
Chinese,
most of
smoking, expectorate freely. Apart altogether from the repulsive dirtiness of this spitting abomination, comes the serious question, Does not in
them,
the parting with
saliva
to
such an extent as
common among smokers have an the health
?
injurious effect
is
on
Point this out to a Chinaman, and he at
once admits, more earnestly than a foreigner even, saliva is a precious element in the bodily
that
economy, and that in spitting it out he is throwing away one of the constituents of life. This is true
smoking how injurious it must be to the juvenile smokers who abound in China It must be remembered, too, that in Chinese smoking we have to deal not merely with moderate smoking, but with smoking to excess. There are in all cases of
;
!
moderate smokers tion of
in
China, but a very great propor-
smokers here put no restraint upon themselves,
and are resorting to
From
it
continually.
morning till always near at hand, and early
late at night the pipe is
in wonderfully frequent tobacco talk about a pipe after meals, &c, but your regular Chinese smoker does not
use.
Apologists for