PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 629 



sive motions, torpor, paralysis, and death. If a man were to 

 smoke sixteen segars at a sitting, he would never rise. Chewing 

 is less injurious to the constitution than smoking, and snuffing 

 less still ; but it is apt to produce dyspeptic symptoms. Great 

 smokers are sometimes afflicted with cancer in the mouth. If 

 men were reasonable beings, they M^ould soon banish an article 

 80 exceedingly offensive as tobacco, in all its known modes of 

 use. 



Physiologically speaking, the use of tobacco separates whole 

 regions from each other. The States of New York and New 

 England, taken as a whole, appear to ignore the use of tobacco, 

 and would most willingly suppress its use even through legisla- 

 tive enactments, if they could. The Southern and Western 

 States indulge in it universally, as all those who visit them find 

 out to their cost. The Yankees object to its use because it in- 

 duces thirst and leads to drinking ; and the inhabitants of New 

 York, on moral grounds, believing that it provokes alcoholic de- 

 sires, temporary annihilation of thought, and the consequent 

 evils. 



The chemical ingredients of tobacco which produce such va- 

 ried effects upon different constitutions, are in number three — 



1st. An empyreumatic oil. 



2d. A volatile oil. 



3d. A volatile alkali. 



The volatile oil possesses a bitter taste, and when applied to 

 the nasal organ, produces immediate sneezing, and when taken 

 internally, causes nausea, &c. Still, there are only two grains 

 of this substance in a pound of tobacco leaves. 



The volatile alkali is colorless, heavier than water, and is 

 called nicotine. It possesses narcotic and poisonous qualities, 

 little inferior to prussic acid, a single drop being sufficient to 

 cause a dog to die immediately ; and if a drop is evaporated in 

 a large room, it will be difficult for a person to breathe in it. 



The proportion of this matter in a leaf of tobacco is email, 

 being only from three to six per cent. You may all recollect 

 reading the trial of Count Bocarme, at Mons, in 1851, who was 

 condemned to be executed for poisoning his brother-in-law with 

 nicotine. 



The empyreumatic oil is acrid to the taste and poisonous. One 

 single drop applied to the tongue of a dog, will produce convul- 



