284 CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



strength, and often becomes mouldy. The prepared tobacco, 

 as formerly almost universally smoked by the Chinese, was 

 called ^ 1^ 'j@ (Chin-ssH-yen), and was manufactured by 

 tightly packing the leaves with yellow ochre between, and 

 cutting into fine threads with planes. Tobacco is considered 

 by the Chinese to be antimalarial, and to increase this effect, 

 arsenic is sometimes mixed with the leaves before cutting. 

 The deleterious effects of tobacco are fully recognised by the 

 Chinese, f^ Difi ^^ jJl (Hao-fei-sun-hsiieh), "wasting the lungs 

 and injuring the blood," are the unequivocal terms in which 

 they describe its evil effects. Another author uses |^ ^'(^^ (Sun- 

 hsin), "injuring the heart," which certainly describes the 

 effect well known to Western observers. It is also said to ^ § 

 (Sun-jung), "injure the features," referring to the sallowne.ss 

 and dry skin produced in excessive smokers. In addition to its 

 use as a prophylactic to malaria, its decoction or oil is used to 

 destroy insects, in parasitic skin diseases, and the prepared 

 tobacco is used to staunch the flow of blood in wounds in the 

 same way as " fine cut" is sometimes used in the rural districts 

 of America. "^M'^ (Hu-huang-lien) with tea, or the Chinese 

 black sugar, are regarded as antidotes to the poison of tobacco. 



The flower stalk of the tobacco plant, 'i@ ^ (Yen-ken), is 

 considered to be more poisonous than the leaves. It is said to 

 be used for stupefying fish. For this purpose it is chopped 

 fine and bruised together with green walnpt hulls and thrown 

 into the pond, when the large fish will be stupefied by it, the 

 small ones will be killed, as will also all shrimps, turtles, 

 ■<sl?ell-fish, and other animal life found in the pond ; and the 

 author goes on to say that although it thus shows itself to be 

 deadly poisonous, yet men prepare it for smoking ! The 

 powdered tobacco leaf is recommended as an insufflation in 

 nasal catarrh (DH t^, Nao-lou). This disease is said to be pro- 

 duced in some people who smoke what is known as ^ ij!^ jtQ 

 (Lan-hua-yen), which is made by adding Eupatormm seeds to 

 the tobacco, in order to give it fragrance. The expressed juice 

 of the fresh leaves is combined with pine resin, and the vapor 

 inhaled to benefit the blood vessels in defective circulation. 

 The bruised leaves are also applied in snake bite, and the 

 dried leaves sometimes put into beds, or burned under the bed, 



