ANTI-TOBACCO. II 



In the chief tobacco-raising countries — England, Ger- 

 many, Holland, the United States, and France — more 

 money is devoted to this luxury than pays the bread bill. 



According to a calculation made by the American Con- 

 sul at Havana, and embodied in a report to the Secretary 

 of State, it is computed that in the island of Cuba alone 

 1,460,000,000 of cigars, or ten a day for each person of 

 the population, are annually consumed by the inhabitants 

 and residents of that island. 



Chemical Properties. 



There are about forty species or varieties of tobacco, 

 belonging to the genus Nicotia?ia, in the order Solanaccea, 

 Chemically analyzed, tobacco contains no less than three 

 distinct and active poisons, nicotine, nicotianine, and em- 

 pyreumatic oil, besides certain minute portions of alkaloids 

 and acids. 



I. Nicotine, or nicotia, is a colorless, or nearly colorless, 

 fluid, when extracted from tobacco, having an exceedingly 

 acrid, burning taste, even when largely diluted, and very 

 irritating to the nostrils. The "United States Dispensa- 

 tory," the great authority with physicians and druggists of 

 all schools of practice, says : " Nicotine, in its action on the 

 animal system, is one of the most virulent poisons known. 

 A drop of it, in the state of concentrated solution, was suf- 

 ficient to destroy a dog, and small birds perished at the 

 approach of a tube containing it. In man it is said to de- 

 stroy life, in poisonous doses, in from two to five minutes." 

 The " New American Cyclopedia" says : " Its vapor is so 

 irritating that it is difficult to breathe in a room in which a 

 single drop has been evaporated." Dr. Drysdale, Fellow 



