STRONG DRINK AND TOBACCO SMOKE. 5 



immensely rapid iu its growtli, and appearing to rerjuirc 

 exactly the medium which is supplied by a saccharine 

 solution, such as that of malt or mixed grain, for its 

 continuous development. 



From these three plants, then, we get our " strong 

 drink," and it is a remarkable circumstance, that to use 

 them in the manufacture of our beer, as in brewinir, or 

 of our whisky, the distilled spirit, we have to begin 

 where Nature does — to grow the barley and yeast plants. 

 In generating barley to convert it into malt, or in adding 

 yeast to the brewer's worts to excite fermentation, we 

 but imitate the earliest 2:)rocesses of actual plant-growth, 

 though in Ijoth cases the operations are, at a certain 

 stage, suddenly arrested. The result of fermentation, as 

 is well known, is the production of the intoxicating 

 element of both beer and whisky — alcohol — which is 

 left mixed with saccharine matter, and hopped by the 

 brewer; or separated from it in its more concentrated 

 and purer state by the distiller. 



Such, then, are the l:tascs of our strong drink. I 

 fear that our tobacco will not always bear so satis- 

 factory an analysis. The reason of this is obvious. 

 The temptation to adulterate tobacco is very strong, 

 and will ever remain so whilst the tax on importation 

 bears such an enormous ratio to the value of the taxed 

 material, as that of a 3s. tax on tobacco leaves worth 

 from ijcl. to Is. per pound. Besides, not one person 

 in one hundred, or, it may safely be stated, in one 

 thousand, has the slightest acquaintance with the 



