8o TOBACCO AND ITS EFFECTS. 



oily nature, produced when the tobacco is distilled alone 

 in a retort, and to a certain extent also when it is burned 

 in a pipe ; it is acrid and disagreeable in taste, and has 

 narcotic and poisonous properties. One drop applied to 

 the tongue of a cat caused convulsions, followed by 

 death in ten minutes. 



There are various adulterations of tobacco, especially 

 in countries where high duties hold out a temptation to 

 fraud. The leaves of other plants, dried and flavored 

 with tobacco-extract, are frequently found in manufactured 

 tobacco; paper and hay are sometimes used, but the 

 more common adulterants are said to be the leaves of 

 rhubarb, dock, burdock, cabbage, &c. "It is not sur- 

 prising, therefore, to meet with manufactured tobaccos 

 possessing a thousand different flavors, for which the 

 chemistry of the leaf can in no way account." 



" Extensively as tobacco is used, it is remarkable how 

 very few persons can state distinctly the effects which it 

 produces upon them, — why they began and for what 

 reason they continue the indulgence. If the reader be a 

 user of tobacco, let him ask himself these questions, and 

 he will probably be surprised to note how unsatisfactory 

 the answers he receives will be. Indeed, few have cared 

 to analyze their sensations while under its influence,— or, if 

 they have analyzed them, have cared to tell truly what 

 kind of enjoyment it is which they seek in its use." 



Turning to another branch of the subject, and examin- 

 ing more fully the physiological effects of tobacco, we 

 find that physiologists are not agreed in regard to the 

 peculiar mode of its action. The nerves are considered 

 by some as being probably the principal medium, but the 

 cases on record where death has been produced by the 



