TOBACCO AA^D ITS EFFECTS. 79 



draws so largely upon the resources, usually moderate in 

 American homes, on which the whole family depends, 

 from which must come whatever its members have of edu- 

 cation, recreation, &c., — in short all that gives form and 

 tone to character ; and more than this, " No man is so 

 rich that he has a right to spend money to his own or hris 

 fellow's undoing." 



If, moreover, it shall become apparent on analysis that 

 there is an actual food-value to tobacco, or if it prove 

 a health-producing agency, or even a valuable luxury, 

 the enormous tax above referred to will not appear so ap- 

 palling. And this suggests a reference to the chemical 

 constitution of tobacco. 



The constituents which chiefly give tobacco its peculiar 

 characteristics are : an alkaloid called Nicotina ; a substance 

 called Nicotianin or Tobacco-camphor, of which little is 

 known (but concerning which it has been noted that upon 

 the greater or less proportion of it depends the estimation 

 in which a given sample of tobacco is held, the choicest 

 tobaccos containing the largest percentage) ; and an 

 emp}Teumatic oil of complex constitution. The alkaloid, 

 nicotina, has the odor of tobacco, and possesses very 

 poisonous quahties ; in this respect it is equal to prussic 

 acid, a single drop being sufficient to kill a dog. "Its 

 vapor is so irritating that it is difficult to breathe in a room 

 where a single drop has been vaporized." Nicotina 

 taken internally in very minute quantity produces great 

 muscular depression, occasionally convulsions, and at last 

 paralysis and death. The proportion of this substance 

 contained in the dry leaf of tobacco varies from two to 

 seven per cent. Besides these tvvo volatile substances 

 existing in the leaf, ready formed, there is another of an 



