78 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



which a single drop has been evaporated. The proportion 

 of this substance contained in the dry leaf of tobacco varies 

 from 2 to 8 per cent. The reader niay recollect the great 

 sensation produced in 1851 by the trial of the Conite de 

 Bocarme, at Mons, and his subsequent execution, for 

 poisoning his brother-in-law with nicotin. 



" So far as experiments have been made, the tobaccos 

 of Havannah and Maryland contain 2 per cent. ; that of 

 Kentucky 6 ; that of Virginia nearly 7 ; and that of 

 France from 6 to 8 per cent. In smoking a hundred grains 

 of tobacco, therefore — say a quarter of an ounce — there 

 may be drawn into the mouth two grains or more of one 

 of the most subtle of all known poisons. For as it boils 

 at 482° F., and rises into vapour at a temperature below 

 that of burning tobacco, this poisonous substance is con- 

 stantly present in the smoke. From the smoke of a 

 hundred grains of slowly-burning Virginia tobacco Melsens 

 extracted as much as three-quarters of a grain of nicotin ; 

 and the proportion will vary with the variety of tobacco, 

 the rapidity of the burning, the form and length of the 

 pipe, the material of which it is made, and with many 

 other circumstances. 



" But besides the two volatile substances which exist 

 ready formed in the tobacco-leaf, another substance of an 

 oily nature is produced when tobacco is distilled alone in 

 a retort, or is burned, as we do it, in a tobacco-pipe. This 

 oil resembles one which is obtained in a similar way from 

 the leaf of the poisonous foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). It 

 is acrid and disagreeable to the taste, narcotic and poison- 

 ous. One drop applied to the tongue of a cat brought on 

 convulsions, and in two minutes occasioned death. The 

 Hottentots are said to kill snakes by putting a di'op of it 

 on their tongues. Under its influence the reptiles die 

 as instantaneously as if killed by an electric shock. It 



