sword. Before he died, he stained the wall with his huge ex- 
pectorations of chim6; and I could feel as only beautiful the way, 
almost animal, virile, still filled with life and with violent blood, 
in which the old man yielded himself. I was then a young doc- 
tor recently graduated, with my eye glasses, my affected language 
and my bit of pedantry, and I felt myself very small before this 
old man—representative of a superior race, with a great deal of 
‘tabaco en la vejiga’ °—who was dying before our eyes. 
Parr II 
Part II of this paper deals with the appearance of 
chimo_ in the Venezuelan Andes and its persistence to 
the present day. 
There are at least two theories to account for the 
presence in the remote past and the use today of chim6 
in this area. One of these theories is based on the asso- 
clation of chimo with coca and its techniques and the 
similarities in effect of the two narcotics. he other de- 
pends on the method of making chimo and tobacco con- 
centrate, and the similarities of these two tobacco 
products. 
Before these specific problems are considered, it may 
be helpful to review facts about narcotics in general and 
tobacco in particular. 
Tobacco (Nicotiana Tabacum) contains as its active 
principle the highly toxic alkaloid nicotine (6). 
Lewin (41) writes: ‘‘From the first beginning of our 
knowledge of man, we find him consuming substances 
of no nutritive value, but taken for the sole purpose of 
producing for a certain time a feeling of contentment, 
ease, and comfort. . . . These substances have formed a 
bond of union between men of opposite hemispheres, the 
uncivilized and the civilized.” 
According to Cooper (20): ‘‘Of the various aboriginal 
South American stimulants and narcotics, alcoholic 
beverages and tobacco have the widest distribution, being 
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