06 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



flowers. The king looking at them with indignation, exclaimed, Cursed be the 

 drug which cannot be distinguished from horse dung. 



The fanatics who first colonized New England, and who wished to make mere 

 animated statues of their fellow creatures, could not resist the opportunity of 

 putting a restraint upon this innocent enjoyment. They therefore ordered " that 

 no man shall take any tobacco publicly in the street, highway, or in any barn- 

 yards, or upon training days, or in any open places," under the penalty of six- 

 pence for each offence. I might fill pages with similar relations, and with 

 accounts of attacks made upon this favorite weed, but I forbear. 



I have used tobacco for more than sixty years without perceiving any ill effects 

 produced by it. I was once induced to abandon it for about six months, but 

 this disuse brought on numerous and painful ulcers of the tongue, which promptly 

 vanished on resuming its use. 



I have never observed it to have any exciting effects on the body or mind, but 

 on the contrary, its action appears to be entirely soothing and sedative. Let a 

 person overwhelmed with fatigue of body and mind set himself down in an easy 

 posture, light his segar or pipe, and cease to think ; by the time his fumale is 

 burnt out, he will find himself entirely relieved from his fatigue, with mind re- 

 freshed, and body strengthened. Drs. Pereira and Christison, say they have 

 never known any well ascertained ill effects having been produced by the ha- 

 bitual practice of smoking. 



The great variety of tobacco met with in commerce, differing in color, in fla- 

 vor, and in strength, does not depend upon a difference in species or variety, but 

 almost entirely on the soil in which it has grown, in the method of curing it, 

 and the adulterations which it undergoes in passing through the hands of unscru- 

 pulous dealers. Thus manured land never produces the plant of the first qua- 

 lity ; for this purpose, a virgin soil, very rich and strong, with but little calca- 

 reous matter is required. This, however, will not endure for a longer space 

 than six years : it gradually deteriorates, until at last it is entirely worn out, 

 and cannot be brought back to its original state by the application of manure. 

 This always renders it disagreeably strong, and highly impregnated with nitre. 

 Calcareous soils produce these same effects, and thus the tobacco of our West- 

 ern States is inferior to the Virginian, and may easily be known by a saline 

 taste. If tobacco be cured without the use of artificial heat, its fine flavor is 

 better preserved, and its color more uniform. Again, if dried with little ex- 

 posure to the air, it becomes of a bright yellow color. The best tobacco for 

 smoking comes to us from the tropics, possessed of a peculiar flavor and per- 

 fume ; this was once the case with all the segars brought from Cuba. At present, 

 those that are introduced into the United States from that island are adulte- 

 rated with tobacco of an inferior kind ; they are not at all like those brought 

 fifty years ago. Either the plant has deteriorated by mixing with other species, 

 or is so adulterated by a mixture with the common tobacco of our country, that 

 the true flavor is entirely lost. Vessels loaded with tobacco, the produce of our 

 own soil, are constantly leaving our shores for the port of Havanna. Besides, 

 large quantities of an inferior quality produced from imported seed are now 

 sent from New England, and either used there or brought back and sold here 

 as genuine Havanna. The last good tobacco that I have smoked was made by 

 myself in Georgia, about thirty years ago. This possessed the delightful per- 

 fume peculiar to the best raised within the tropics ; it was at the same time 

 very mild and burnt freely. There is, however, much imagination in the judg- 

 ment which we form of tobacco. 



I might here point out the method by which deleterious substances are mixed 

 with tobacco, and how the leaves of various other plants are substituted for it. 

 Some of the most extensively used manufactured tobacco has poisonous drugs 

 mixed with it, which increase its action on the system, particularly on the brain, 

 in such a degree as to become really dangerous. Those persons, therefore, who 

 use it for a masticatory, would do well to employ no other than the pure leaves 



[March, 



