FOLIA TABACI. 467 



virtues. Of the latter he gives a long account, noticing also the 

 methods of smoking and chewing the herb prevalent among the 

 Indians. He also supjilies a small woodcut representing the plant, 

 which he states to have white flowers, red in the centre. 



Jacques Gohory/ who cultivated the plant in Paris at least as early 

 as 1572, describes its flowers as shaded with red, and enumerates 

 various medicinal preparations made from it. 



In the Maison Rustique of Charles Estienne, edition of 1583, the 

 author gives a "Discours sicr la Xicotiaiie oit Petnm masch" in which 

 he claims for the plant the first place among medicinal herbs, on 

 account of its singular and almost divine virtues. 



The cultivation of tobacco in England, except on a very small scale 

 in a physic garden, has been prohibited by law^ since 16G0. 



Description — Amongst the various species of Nicotiana cultivated 

 for the manufacturing of smoking tobacco and snufl", X. Tahdcum is bj"" 

 far the most frequent, and is almost the only one named in the pharma- 

 copoeias as medicinal. Its simple stem, bearing at the summit a 

 panicle of tubular pink flowers, and growing to the height of a man, 

 has oblong, lanceolate simple leaves, with the margin entire. The 

 lower leaves, more broadly lanceolate, and about 2 feet long by 6 

 inches wide, are shortly stalked. The stem-leaves are semi-amplexi- 

 caul, and decurrent at the base. Cultivation sometimes produces 

 cordate-ovate forms of leaf, or a margin more or less uneven, or nearly 

 revolute. 



All the herbaceous parts of the plant are clothed with long soft 

 hairs, made up of broad, ribbon-like, striated cells, the points of which 

 exude a glutinous liquid. Small sessile glands are situated here and 

 there on the surface of the leaf ^ The lateral veins proceed from the 

 thick midrib in straight lines, at angles of 40^ to 75°, gently curving 

 upwards only near the edge. In drying, the leaves become brittle and 

 as thin as paper, and always acquire a brown colour. Even by the 

 most careful treatment of a single leaf, it is not possible to preserve 

 the green hue. 



The smell of the fresh plant is narcotic; its taste bitter and nauseous. 

 The characteristic odour of dried tobacco is developed during the 

 process of curing. 



Chemical Composition — The active principle of tobacco, first 

 isolated in 1828 by Posselt and Reimann, is a volatile, highly poisonous 

 alkaloid termed Nicotine, C'"H"N^. It is easily extracted from tobacco 

 by means of alcohol or water, as a malate, from which the alkaloid can 

 be separated by shaking it with caustic lye and ether. The ether is 

 then expelled by warming the liquid, which finally has to be mixed 

 with slaked lime and distilled in a stream of hydrogen, when the 

 nicotine begins to come over at about 200° C. 



Nicotine is a colourless oily liquid, of sp. gr. 1027 at 15° C, 

 deviating the plane of polarization to the left; it boils at 247° and 



' Instruction mr Vherbe Petum ditte en Tabah% Frankfurt, 1854. — We have not 



France Vherbe de la Royne ou MMicie . . . consulted Fairholt, Tobacco, its Histori/, 



Paris, 1572. Loncl. 1859. 



''12 Car. 11. c. 34; 15 Car. II. c. 7. — 3 j^Iicj-oscopic structure of tobacco leaves. 



For further information on the history of See Pocklington, Pharni. Journal, v. (1874) 



tobacco, see Tiedemann, Geschichte rfe.s 301. 



