184 MEDICINAL AND POISONOUS PLANTS 



intoxicant — a practice which leads to most degrading effects 

 upon both mind and body. 



Tobacco consists of the dried leaves of the tobacco plant 

 (Fig. 173) which have been previously submitted to a process 

 of curing or fermentation. During this process is developed 

 a peculiar volatile substance to which the aroma of the to- 

 bacco is mainly due. The chief active constituent is the 



Fig. 173. — Tobacco {Nicotiana rustica, and N. Tabacum, Nightshade 

 Family, Solanacece). A, Turkish tobacco (A'^. rustica), flowering top. 

 B, flower, entire. C, same, cut vertically. D, Virginia tobacco {N. 

 Tabacum), flowering top. E, flower. F, pod, opening for discharge of 

 seeds. G, seed. H, same, cut vertically. ./, stigma, (v. Wettstein.) — 

 Turkish tobacco, an annual growing about 1 m. tall; leaves glutinous; 

 flowers yellowish or greenish; fruit dry. Native home, South Americd 

 and Mexico. — Virginia tobacco similar to the Turkish but growing 

 2 m. tall; flowers rose or purplish. Native home. South America. 



alkaloid, nicotine (C10H14N2), one of the most virulent of 

 poisons. A single drop of pure nicotine Avill kill a dog. 

 Smaller animals are killed by a whiff of its vapor. A child 

 of eight died from an application to the scalp of juice ex- 

 pressed from fresh tobacco leaves. Medicinally, tobacco is 

 used mainly for its quieting effect in certain nervous affec- 

 tions, but it is now rarely prescribed. No other plant, how- 

 ever, is so widely used as an indulgence. It is estimated that 



