TOBACCO IN RELATION TO HEALTH 49 



of consumption may only mean that the man who, in 1841, 

 smoked only one pipe a day, in 1891 found himself so 

 much better off that he could afford to smoke two. 



Here, however, we come upon an important factor which, 

 in calculating the weight of tobacco actually consumed, 

 must be taken into account. Dr. Samuel Smiles, in the 

 course of his investigations into the subject, discovered that 

 in the process of manufacturing the leaf into the tobacco of 

 commerce, water was added to the extent of 33 per cent, of 

 the whole. The Statistical Ofifice of the Customs has 

 courteously furnished the writer of these lines with the 

 further information that ' Raw tobacco when imported 

 contains naturally 13 per cent, of moisture, but when it is 

 cut up for sale, the total moisture must not exceed 33 per 

 cent.' * 



In estimating the weight of the weed actually consumed, 

 it will be necessary to make an addition of 20 per cent, to 

 the weight of the m.anufactured leaf imported. Since 1891 

 there has been a gradual increase in the quantity imported. 

 In the financial year 1904-5 the total of all kinds amounted 

 to 107,862,489 lbs. Of this 83,374,670 lbs. was retained 

 for Home use, giving 1.95 lbs. per head of the population, 

 and yielding a revenue to the national exchequer of 

 ;^i3, 184,767. 



As to the cost to the nation of this enormous quantity of 

 tobacco, the official returns state that the declared value in 

 1895 was, for manufactured ^1,256,313, and for un 

 manufactured ^25097,603, together ;^3,353,9i6. It is 

 clear, however, that these figures can have little or no 

 significance from the consumer's standpoint. Besides the 



* In 1904 the maximum limit of moisture was fixed at 32 per 

 cent. The moisture naturally present in the kinds now 

 imported averages 14 per cent. 



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