70 OBSERVATIONS ON NICOTINE, ETC. 
testing in this manner various French and American tobac- 
cos : 
Lot, 
7.96 percent of the dried tobacco. 
Lot et Garonne, 
7.34 
u 
a 
66 
Nord, 
6.58 
a 
it 
66 
He et Vilaine, 
6.29 
u 
a 
66 
Pas de Calais, 
4.94 
a 
a 
66 
Alsatia, 
3.21 
a 
66 
Virginia, 
6.87 
it 
66 
Kentucky, 
6.09 
a 
a 
66 
Maryland, 
2.29 
it 
66 
66 
Havanna, less than 2.00 
tt 
66 
66 
It will be seen from this table that those tobaccos which 
contain the most nicotine are also the best suited for the 
manufacture of snuff. 
The above method of determining the amount of nicotine 
applied to snuff indicated as a mean 2.04 nicotine per cent, 
of the dried powder; whence it is concluded that about two- 
thirds of the nicotine contained in the mixed leaves destin- 
ed for the manufacture of snuff is destroyed by the fermen- 
tation. The ammonia exists in the snuff in the state of 
a salt ; the nicotine, partly in a free state, and partly as a 
neutral salt, or altogether in the state of a subsalt. It is to 
these two salts that snuff owes its property of exciting the 
mucous membrane of the nose. 
This memoir is the first part of an investigation on the 
composition of tobacco leaves and on the fermentation of 
tobacco, begun in the laboratory of the Manufacture des 
Tabacs; under the direction of Mr. Fremy. — C/iem. Gaz., 
from Comptes Rendas. 
