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184 MEDICINAL AND POISONOUS PLANTS | 
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~intoxicant—a practice which leads to most degrading effects 
upon both mind and body. 
Tobacco consists of the dried leaves of the tobacco plant 
(Fig. 173) which have been previously submitted to a process 
of curing or fermentation. During this process is developed 
a peculiar volatile substance to which the aroma of the to- 
bacco is mainly due. The chief active constituent is the 
Fic. 173.—Tobaceo (Nicotiana rustica, and N. Tabacum, Nightshade 
Family, Solanacew). A, Turkish tobacco (N. rustica), flowering top. 
B, flower, entire. C, same, cut vertically. D, Virginia tobacco (N. 
Tabacum), flowering top. EE, flower. F, pod, opening for discharge of 
seeds. G, seed. H, same, cut vertically. J, stigma. (v. Wettstein.)— 
Turkish tobacco, an annual growing about 1 m. tall; leaves glutinous; 
flowers yellowish or greenish; fruit dry. Native home, South America 
and Mexico.—Virginia tobacco similar to the Turkish but growing 
2 m. tall; flowers rose or purplish. Native home, South America. 
alkaloid, nicotine (C,)H,,N,), one of the most virulent of 
poisons. <A single drop of pure nicotine will kill a dog. 
Smaller animals are killed by a whiff of its vapor. A child 
of eight died from an application to the scalp of juice ex- 
pressed from fresh tobacco leaves. Medicinally, tobacco is 
used mainly for its quieting effect in certain nervous affec- 
tions, but it is now rarely prescribed. No other plant, how- 
ever, 1s so widely used as an indulgence. It is estimated that 
