WAS NAPOLEON A NONSMOKER?

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1733, 25 April 1913, Page 6

WAS NAPOLEON A NONSMOKER?

It has long been accepted as a historical fact that the First Consul was a great smoker; but. in the "Journal des Debats" reference is made by 31. Augustin Filon to some memoirs of Napoleoi) compiled by General Bertrand which arc as yet' unpublished.' whence it seems equally certain that Napoleon was not only not a smoker, but a tobacco-hater. The memoirs of Bertrand, Napoleon's secretary, were transcribed by his daughter Hortensp, afterwards Madame Amcdee Shaycr; and from •these, as reported by word of mouth by the Abbe .Saliquot. conies M. Filon's story that Napoleon hated tobacco. Once osiy he tried to smoke, but seareelv had he put the amber mouthpiece of a hookah in his mouth than ho thrust it- away in horror and disgust with the words: "Tako away (hat filth." Napoleon then' taxed tobacco.

Nor did—if we may Micro the same source—Napoleon ever take smiff, although we find it categorically asserted in most histories, j He did worse, however, for ho pretended to. • He used to take, in order to alleviate a disorder of the stomach, a mixture of liquorice and black sugar. This he kept in his waistcoat pocket, whence he would take a'niece and lift it to his nose with the gesture of the ordinary <muff-taker, and then quickly nut it. into his mouth. " This is a somewhat startling variation from our customary pictures of Napoleon, who is' generally portrayed as an habilual =nufl'-takcr; and M. Vilon himself deposes to having seen on the margins of an "Orlando Furioso," which was in (lie library at tongwood, in St. Helena, and is now at Farnborongh, the yellow marks of the Imperial thumb, a lliumbi yellowed by incessant smoking. Ru( even', this, a* i< pointed out. is md conclusive against (lie umi-smolriug evidence. f"i' {lie thumb might as well have been slained by (he mixture oT liquorice. Whatever be llieiv ullinuile truth. (hennusiiiciliing ami lwn-smilMuJtLiiu theories iuo delightful,