46 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



utterly repulsive to the natural sense came to pos- 

 sess the power of playing the tyrant with human 

 appetites. It is a still greater puzzle, however, to 

 understand how tens of thousands of people, of all 

 classes, ages, and conditions, are able to masticate, 

 smoke, and snuff the substance of the plant, and not 

 suffer the most serious inroads upon the health. It 

 is obvious that all cannot use tobaeco without much 

 physical disturbance. Upon the writer, its use in 

 any form, even in small quantities, is followed by 

 the usual alarming effects of the narcotic poisons. 



There is evidently design in the marvellous ad- 

 justment of the chemical atoms which give to the 

 tobacco leaf its singular properties. It is unlike any- 

 thing else which the vegetable kingdom is capable of 

 producing. Mankind cannot be persuaded to roll up 

 leaves of any other plant and smoke them, as they 

 do tobacco. Neither chemists nor physicians are 

 able to point out any very useful purpose to which 

 the plant can be applied. The former may go to it 

 for a supply of the peculiar alkaloidal principle, 

 nicotine, but this substance is only useful in destroy- 

 ing troublesome insects and animals. A cheaper 

 and equally potent poison is found in the nux vomica, 

 strychnine. In medicine it serves^ no useful end 

 not obtainable through other agents. It must be 

 admitted that there are many vegetable produc- 

 tions which, so far as our knowledge extends, are 



