MEDICAL USE OF TOBACCO. 317 



by our cut of a section of the receptacle for the snuff, 

 with the muller or grinder ready for use. 



The excise regulations were formerly 

 as stringent on the snuff as on the 

 tobacco manufacturer. He was obliged 

 to place his snuffs in a storeroom 

 which was locked up by the excise 

 officer, nor could he dare to touch his 

 snuff, until such time as the officer came 

 to open the store, and give him out his 

 own property. 



Such are the modes by which tobacco is prepared 

 for the luxurious use of the modern civilised world. 

 Its medical uses are few, although as we have seen, 

 they were originally its chief recommendation. Of 

 its curative virtues we have already given vouchers 

 from the older books of the faculty. At the commence- 

 ment of the present century, the Perth Encyclopedia 

 tells us, tobacco was sometimes used externally in un- 

 guents for destroying cutaneous insects, cleansing old 

 ulcers, &c. Beaten into a mash with vinegar, it has 

 sometimes proved serviceable for removing hard 

 tumours of the hypochondres. Dr. Page in the 18th vol. 

 of the Edinburgh Medical Journal, tells of the cure of an 

 inflammation of the substance of the lungs, which had 

 proved obstinate, in spite of the abstraction of ninety- 

 five pounds of blood, and the application of vesicato- 

 ries ; and which was effected by the injection into the 

 rectum, of an infusion of a drachm of the leaf to twelve 

 ounces of water. 



