ANTI-TOBACCO. 



whoever they were, and other prehistoric races, as is 

 demonstrated by their remains and monuments. When 

 Columbus, in 1492, discovered America, or the adjacent 

 islands, he found the natives puffing tobacco-smoke from 

 their mouths and nostrils, and inhaling snuft' through 

 hollow canes. The depravity of chewing appears to have 

 been reserved to the refinement of a later age, and a 

 people boasting of its superior intelligence and civiliza- 

 tion. Probably the sailors of the great discoverer carried 

 home the habit to Southern Europe. While Sir "W^alter 

 Raleigh, at a later period, has the questionable honor of 

 introducing it into England. 



Commerce in Tobacco. 



Thus getting a foothold in Europe, the spread and ex- 

 tent of the growth and employment of tobacco, as a luxury 

 and as an article of trade, have gone on with astonishing 

 rapidity. King Tobacco rivals the other royal powers of 

 cotton, corn, wheat, hemp, and sugar, as one of the lead- 

 ing products of the earth, and one of the main staples of 

 trade and commerce. 



Six hundred thousand acres in the United States are 

 devoted to the cultivation of tobacco. The " Pall Mall 

 Gazette," of June 16, 187 1, reports the increase of the con- 

 sumption in the United Kingdom of Great Britain, from 

 1841 to 1878, to be 25,642,469 pounds weight, or an in- 

 crease of from thirteen and three fourths ounces to one 

 pound and seven ounces to each person of the popula- 

 tion. The " Dublin University Magazine " estimates the 

 tobacco bill of Great Britain at ;^ 14,000,000 sterling, or 

 ;? 70,000,000. 



