268 TOBACCO. 



remarks that there is no difficulty in escaping detection, 

 if the paper be specially prepared for the purpose out 

 of suitable raw materials. It has long been known that 

 cigar paper soaked in a solution of soluble glass gives 

 forth no smell of paper on being burnt. 



Patent No. 210,538, issued from the United States 

 Patent Office, December 3, 1878, states the ingredients 

 of a " substitute " to be — spikenard, red clover, hyssop, 

 hops, slippery-elm bark, tarred rope, pennyroyal, mullein 

 leaves, kinnikinic, wild cherry bark, and ginseng. This 

 is an ingenious combination intended to approach in 

 effect, appearance, and aroma, tobacco ; and in so far 

 it might be said to be a success: as mullein leaves are 

 reputed to be feebly narcotic, hops are known to possess 

 anodyne properties, clover and hyssop are pectoral in 

 effect, and slippery -elm febrifuge. Ginseng is aromatic 

 and pungent, and has a great reputation among the 

 Chinese as a stimulant and restorative. The tarred rope, 

 we presume, is intended to add to the pyrognostic value 

 of the mixture. The great point in selecting material for 

 the fabrication of a mixture of this description is to get 

 leaves containing a fair percentage of nitrate of potass, as 

 does tobacco ; on this depends its pyrognostic value, 

 and that, next to aroma, is everything. 



" Tobacco, like those who smoke it, is credited with 

 many sins of which it is guiltless. The ' loss of health ' 

 so often laid at its door is probably due in many instances 

 not to tobacco itself, but to some villainous compound 

 bearing its name. A story told by the principal of the 

 laboratory of the Inland Eevenue Department in his 

 report for the past year shows how easily this may 



