54 IV. JULY, 1913-- JANUARY, 1914 
That I should have to treat chronic nicotine poisoning 
out here I should never have believed. At first I 
could not tell what to think of acute constipation which 
was accompanied by nervous disturbances and only 
made worse by aperients, but while treating a black 
Government official who was suffering severely I came 
to see clearly, through observation and questioning, 
that the misuse of tobacco lay at the root of it. The 
man soon got well and the case was much talked of, 
as he had been a sufferer for years and had become 
almost incapable of work. From that time, whenever 
a case of severe constipation came to me, I asked at 
once : ‘‘ How many pipes a day do you smoke ? ” and 
I recognised in a few weeks what mischief nicotine 
produces here. It is among the women that cases of 
nicotine poisoning are most frequent. Joseph explained 
to me that the natives suffer much from insomnia, and 
then smoke all through the night in order to stupefy 
themselves. 
Tobacco comes here from America in the form of 
leaves, seven of which form a head {tete de tabac). It 
is a plant which is frightfully common and also fright- 
fully strong (much stronger than that which is smoked 
by white people), and it largely takes the place of small 
coins : e.g., one leaf, worth about a halfpenny, will buy 
two pineapples, and almost all temporary services are 
paid for by means of it. If you have to travel, you 
take for the purchase of food for the crew, not money, 
for that has no value in the forest, but a box of tobacco- 
leaves, and to prevent the men from helping themselves 
to its valuable contents you make it your seat. A 
pipe goes from mouth to mouth during the journey; 
and anybody who wants to travel fast and will promise 
