ITS ADULTERATION. 7 



Bran, Sawdust, Malt-rootlets, Barley-meal, Oatmeal, 

 Bean-meal, Pea-meal, Potato-starch, and Chicory leaves 

 steeped in tar-oil." To which may be added the leaves 

 of the cabbage and lettuce in the manufacture of cheap 

 cigars.* 



A parliamentary return was made between the years 

 1852 — 4, of persons who had rendered themselves 

 liable to prosecutions for infringement of the tobacco 

 laws, from which it appeared that the cases of adul- 

 teration were numerous, and the materials used named 

 therein add a few more to the above list : they con- 

 sisted of sugar, alum, lime, flour of meal, rhubarb 

 leaves, saltpetre, fuller's earth, starch, malt commings, 

 chromate of lead, peat moss, treacle, common burdock 

 leaves, common salt, endive leaves, lampblack, gum, 

 red dye, and black dye, composed of vegetable red, 

 iron, and liquorice. 



It is not intended in this volume to renew the much 

 vexed and always unsatisfied question — " Is tobacco 

 injurious ? " 



"Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? " 



— has been asked in many similar cases : in this one 



* A few years ago a cigar manufacturer resisted successfully an attempt 

 at enforcing the legal penalty for the unlawful fabrication of cheap 

 " Havannah Cigars," from tobacco which had paid no duty, as he was 

 enabled to show in his own defence that he never made use of the tobacco 

 leaf at all. Such cigars as are retailed at a penny, and leave a large profi; 

 for vendor and maker, must necessarily be constructed of less expensive 

 material than tobacco leaves. They are sometimes steeped in infusion of 

 strong tobacco water, to give them a little external flavour of a true kind. 



