308 REVIEWS. [October, 



The quantity of poison in the potato-tubers must be small 

 indeed, or we should sometimes hear of slow poisoning by this 

 wholesome food. Some writers tell us that tea is a slow poison : 

 not so Nicotine. 



The varieties of the plant are given by Mr. Fairholt, accom- 

 panied with illustrations, and the different kinds of tobacco pre- 

 pared from them, and he states that the plant would grow freely 

 in Great Britain if Government would allow its cultivation, but 

 this is restricted by the Act of 19 Geo. III., which allows only 

 half a rood of land to be cultivated by any one person, for me- 

 dicinal purposes, or the destruction of insects. 



We have tried English-grown tobacco, but could never find 

 the aromatic flavour of that grown in foreign parts. It is culti- 

 vated in Germany to a large extent, but the choice smoker will 

 not choose it, and we have heard German cigars called by the 

 characteristic name of ' stinkers.^ 



Mr. Fairholt refers to Mr. Prescott's work on ' Tobacco and 

 its Adulterations,^ noticed in the ' Phytologist ' some months 

 since, which informs us that in manufactured tobacco there have 

 been discovered leaves of Rhubarb, Dock, Burdock, Coltsfoot, 

 Beech, Plantain, Oak, and Elm ; and cheap cigars are made of 

 the leaves of Cabbage and Lettuce. 



We may ask, if these cheap cigars, manufactured in millions 

 for the million, at a penny each, are made of cabbage- and let- 

 tuce-leaves, what damage can the lower classes suffer from 

 smoking ? Cabbages and lettuces are good to eat, and no rea- 

 son is given why they are not good to be smoked, although we 

 should be inclined to take them fresh and green for eating, and 

 not old and dry for smoking. It is clear they do not contain 

 Nicotine, although in the Lettuce we should expect to find 

 Narcotine. 



A few years ago, as Mr. Fairholt tells us, a cigar- manufac- 

 turer successfully defended an action for penalties by proving 

 that in making cigars he did not use tobacco at all. 



It might be worth while for some of these cheap manufac- 

 turers to consider whether, as tobacco belongs to the Solanaceous 

 Order of plants, the Solanum Dulcamara, S. nigra, and even the 

 Atropa Belladonna, which anciently had a place in this family, 

 or the Datura genus, might not be admitted into the adulterous 

 combination of leaves. The leaves of the Potato could also be 



