116 TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY. 



The fashionable meerschaum absorbs this tarry 

 oil, which gradually imparts to it a beautiful colour 

 of mahogany or rosewood ; but after a time, 

 when saturated, the fluid will ooze through the 

 pores of the clay and soil the fingers. China, 

 wood, bronze and other metals, are used in the 

 construction of pipes, whilst our common clay has 

 been fashioned into every imaginable device to 

 suit the fancy. Numerous contrivances have 

 been vaunted as perfectly adapted to convey only 

 the purest vapour of the weed to the timid olfac- 

 tory ; but I am compelled to say that they only 

 differ in complication and cost from the simple 

 suerofestion of nature to the savaGje. 



Before treatins; of the effects of snuffin2j and 

 chewing on the human system, it will be neces- 

 sary to state the other constituents of tobacco, 

 as established by the chemist. It must be re- 

 membered, however, that the somewhat extensive 

 catalogue is confined to a very infinitesimal pro- 

 portion of the given quantity ; whilst pure water 

 constitutes by far the greater part of the whole 

 — as it does in the mass of all animals and in 

 plants. In 100 parts of dry tobacco, about 88 



