178 Review. 



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" The great Linnaeus has, beside his celebrated 

 artificial classification, given us a natural one. In 

 his natural arrangement he has placed Tobacco in the 

 class Luricla; which signifies pale, ghastly, livid, dis- 

 mal, and fatal. To the same ominous class belong 

 Foxglove, Henbane, Deadly-nightshade, and another 

 poisonous plant, bearing the tremendous name of 

 Atropa, one of the Furies. Let us examine one of 

 them, viz. Tobacco, its qualities, and its effects on 

 the human constitution. 



" When Tobacco is for the first time taken into 

 the mouth, it creates nausea and extreme disgust. If 

 swallowed it excites violent convulsions of the sto- 

 mach and of the bowels, to eject the poison either 

 upward or downward. If it be not very speedily and 

 entirely ejected, it produces great anxiety, vertigo, 

 faintness, and prostration of all the senses ; and in 

 many instances death has followed. The oil of this 

 plant is one of the strongest of vegetable poisons, in- 

 somuch that we know of no animal, that can resist 

 its mortal effects. These are, without exaggeration, 

 some of the lurid qualities of our beloved tobacco. 

 Let us now see, if it can be agreeable to the laws of 

 the animal economy, or consonant to common sense, 

 that a plant, with such qualities, can act otherwise 

 than detrimental to the tender constitutions of young; 

 persons. 



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