191 NICOTIANA TABACUM 



oils, alcohol, and ether ; and by exposure to air and light it quickly 

 assumes a brown colour. 



By distillation with water, tobacco leaves yield a concrete 

 volatile oil, which has been termed Nicotianin or Tobacco 6V//yW, 

 which is tasteless, crystalline, and with a tobacco-like smell. The 

 other constituents of tobacco leaves are albumin , resin, gum, and 

 from 16 to 27 per cent, of inorganic matters. As in the process 

 of smoking, the albuminous, resinous, and gummy principles of 

 the leaves, as well as the cellulose of the thick midrib, produce 

 unpleasant products, the manufacturer endeavours to get rid of 

 these by taking out the midrib, and by subsequent preparation to 

 destroy as far as possible these constituents, and cause the 

 development of aromatic ferment-oils. 



Medical Properties and Uses. The alkaloid nicotia is a most 

 energetic poison. As a medicine, tobacco leaf owes its value to 

 its powerfully sedative and antispasmodic properties. In over 

 doses it acts as an aero-narcotic poison. It especially affects the 

 action of the heart ; and on account -of the dangerous depression 

 sometimes produced by its administration, it is, as a general 

 rule, but little employed as an internal remedy. It has been 

 given, however, in tetanus, dropsical affections, spasmodic asthma, 

 spasmodic colic, retention of urine ; and as a means of inducing 

 muscular relaxation, and thus assisting in the reduction of strangu- 

 lated hernia, and dislocations ; but in the latter conditions its use 

 has been now superseded by that of chloroform. Topically, it has 

 been employed in a variety of skin diseases, &c. ; and in the form 

 of snuff it has been prescribed as an errhine in head affections, and 

 to arouse the respiratory functions in poisoning by opium and 

 hydrocyanic acid ; also in the form of smoke, in asthma, spasmodic 

 coughs, nervous irritability, and sleeplessness. In prescribing 

 tobacco, it should be ascertained whether the patient is in the 

 habit of smoking, snuff- taking, &c., as a dose which might scarcely 

 affect one person, might seriously affect another ; for, like opium, 

 a tolerance of tobacco is established by its use. 



The enormous consumption of tobacco is, of course, not as a 

 medicine, but in the various modes of smoking, snuffing, and 



