COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTRACTS. 59 



tlie first f(;rmentation which the leaf undergoes in pre- 

 paring it for the manufacturer of snuff, and again during 

 the second fermentation, after it is ground, a large pro- 

 portion of the nicotin escapes, or is decomposed. The 

 ammonia produced during these fermentations is partly 

 the result of this decomposition. Further, the artificial 

 drying or roasting to which tobacco is exposed in fitting 

 it for the dry snuffs, expels a portion of the natural vola- 

 tile oil, as well as an additional portion of the natural 

 volatile alkali or nicotin. Manufactured snuff, therefore, 

 as it is drawn up into the nose, and especially dried snuff, 

 is much less rich in actiye ingredients than the natural 

 leaf Even the rappees, though generally made from 

 the strongest Virginian and European tobaccoes, con- 

 taining five or six per cent, of nicotin, retain only two 

 per cent, when fully manufactured." 



76. The following extracts are from King James's 

 "Counterblast to Tobacco," pp. 213-222 — a work from 

 its rarity inaccessible to the general reader, and which 

 may be considered not uninteresting by many, consider- 

 ing the character of the royal author, and the early 

 period at which his remarks were published, nearly two 

 centuries and a half ago : 



"In my opinion," says the royal commentator, "there 

 cannot be a more base and yet more hurtful corruption 

 in a country, than is the vile use (or rather abuse) of 

 taking tobacco in this kingdom, which hath moved me 

 shortly to discover the abuses thereof in the following 

 little pamphlet." In the Counterblast to Tobacco, he 

 remarks : " That the manifold abuses of this vile custom 

 of Tobacco-taking may the better be espied, it is fit^ 



