A LECTURE OJSF TOBACCO. 47 



toxicants ; the effects are different. The Mohammedans, 

 who are great smokers, are prohibited from taking wine, 

 and may prefer the dreamy influence of the weed. On 

 the other hand, pubhcans ahvays sell tobacco ; which, if 

 they thought that smoking hindered drinking, they would 

 not care to do. The pipe and pot go together. I wish 

 that the Three Cups ^ would stand on their own merits 

 and discard the pipe. 



Drinkers are often ignorant as to what they drink, so 

 are smokers as to what they smoke. There is a remark- 

 able difference in the properties of different kinds of to- 

 bacco, as has been proved by analysts. The dried leaves 

 from various districts in France yielded from 4.64 to 7.96 

 per cent of nicotine ; while in the Havana leaf there was 

 only 2 per cent ; the Virginia weed contains three times 

 as much as that of Maryland.^ But of course those who 

 ask for a Havana cannot be sure of what they may get. It 

 has been lately stated that an immense quantity of cheap 

 European tobacco is shipped to Cuba, to be made up and 

 exported as Havana cigars. The Act of Parliament 

 against the adulteration of tobacco informs us of various 

 noxious articles used by unscrupulous manufacturers. 

 Some, however, are comparatively innocent, such as 

 sawdust, peat, and seaweed ; so that the workman's bad 

 tobacco may not be as poisonous as his neighbor's best 

 Virginia. When I was in Baltimore I went into the great 

 tobacco- warehouses. A pig was wandering about — she 

 seemed quite at home there ; the leaves were being pulled 



1 A Temperance coffee-house for the sale of tea, coffee, and 

 cocoa (three cups), &c. 



■'-' See Watt's " Dictionary of Chemistr>-," v. 45, quoted in" The 

 Tobacco Question," p. 6. 



