NARCOTIC PLANTS 295 



bodily comfort are the benefits enjoyed by the 

 smoker of tobacco. The nicotine, he claims, is 

 dissipated in the burning of the tobacco, but he 

 concedes that other poisons are developed in the 

 smoke. The damage to the heart and other organs 

 of some smokers is traceable directly to the nar- 

 cotic of tobacco. Nerves of other people are worn 

 to a state of prostration. Because the effects of 

 tobacco are not alike in different people, the user 

 of the "weed" is very likely to blame the bread 

 he eats, as soon as the pipe he smokes, for ill health. 

 All agree that the moderate smoker is far better 

 off than the immoderate one. And there are no 

 two sides to the question of the injury boys suffer 

 from the use of tobacco. 



Chewing tobacco and snuff-taking were habits 

 learned by the early Spanish explorers from 

 Indians in the West Indies and South America. 

 Snuff is a compound of powdered tobacco, which is 

 inhaled, a pinch at a time, for the "titillating joy" 

 it gives the lining membrane of the nose. The 

 snuff-taking of the aristocrats of the eighteenth 

 century was a dainty performance. Snuff-dip- 

 ping as practised now by the "cracker" of the 

 South is disgusting. And the sources of the ma- 

 terial out of which cheap snuff is made are un- 

 speakable. Chewing tobacco is a habit no one 



