18 tobacco: its use and abuse. 



ence of air and water. The discovery, if true, may fre« 

 the weed from the charge of possessing a double poison; 

 but the consequence is all the same to the foreign con- 

 sumer, who never sees the leaf in its green state. 



6. It has been said that the smoke of tobacco, as 

 analysed by Zeise and others, contains nothing of the 

 deadly alkaloid, and tobacco smokers have pleaded for 

 less detrimental effects from the pipe or cigar than from 

 the quid; but Ifear their concliision is not very tenable, 

 for the detrimental oil, as we in fact see from the pipe 

 itself, is largely increased by the continued roasting and 

 burning. We know, too, that the old pipe is a favorite 

 with the epicures; the more oil by which it is blackened 

 the better becomes the instrument, till it attains perfec- 

 tion as a mass of clay soaked with poison, and dried, 

 and soaked and dried a hundred times, so that the en- 

 tire matter is imbued with the absorption. See Dr 

 Waller Lewis's recommendation to the gentlemen of 

 the London Post-Office, at page 137. The chewer takes 

 less of the oil, but more of the alkaloid; the smoker 

 less of the alkaloid, but more of the oil; the compari- 

 son is simply a balance of evils, which is odioitif to either 

 set of debauchees, and some get quit of the invidious 

 comparison by taking the drug in both forms — a refuge 

 from scientific doubt compensating for the greater amount 

 of destruction to health and comfort. But if we are to 

 believe Dr. Merries, the nicotianin is not destitute of a 

 portion of the alkaloid; and as we know that the in- 

 haled smoke is largely infected with the oil of an old 

 pipe, the smoker has less to say for his habit than the 

 chewer will concede; and I fairly admit, that it doe« 



