3.86 to 11.28 grains of nicotina. The action of nicotina on the human frame is that of an acrid, narcotic poison, causing giddiness and vomiting, and, in doses of a few grains, death.

"The properties of the latter, nicotianin, are as follow: It is a concrete oily substance, having the smell of tobacco, and a bitter taste. It is volatile; the dilute acids and water do not dissolve it, but it is soluble in liquor potassæ and ether. In swallowing nicotianin, the same sensation is produced on the tongue and fauces as by tobacco. A grain administered internally, quickly caused giddiness, nausea, and retching. It also produces sneezing when applied to the nose. Six pounds of tobacco leaves furnish about eleven grains of nicotianin. It is also known as 'concrete oil of tobacco,' and 'tobacco camphor.'

"Both these active principles and constituents have been shown, by Zeise and Melsens, to be present in the smoke of tobacco: they are, therefore, undoubtedly not destroyed by the combustion of the tobacco, whether used in the form of cut tobacco or cigars; but in the act of smoking they are inhaled, and thus drawn into the mouth, fauces, lungs, and even the stomach, especially when the saliva, impregnated with the tobacco smoke, is swallowed. Further, that these active constituents are actually absorbed, and make their way into the system, is proved from the sickness, giddiness, and death-like faintness experienced by those who are unaccustomed to smoking; that they are absorbed to some degree, if not to the same extent, in the case of habitual smokers of tobacco, is unquestionable the difference in the effects experienced

being due to the circumstance of the system becoming more inured to its use, and therefore less susceptible of its influence."

63. In a moral and physical point of view, the importance of the inquiry cannot be over-estimated. The strongest proof of this, is attested by the fact, that, during last year, not less than twenty-eight million lbs. (28,000,000) of tobacco were consumed in Great Britain, exclusive of the large portion smuggled, which cannot be estimated.

64. A vast load of responsibility is devolved upon the members of the medical profession, who are, if not the sole, by far the most competent section of the community to pronounce a judgment on, and solve so important an inquiry. So far as the discussion has progressed, the three following deductions have been indisputably established by unquestionable medical testimony:

1st. That excessive smoking, long persisted in, is injurious to man in the highest degree-physically, mentally, and morally.

2dly. That the commencement of smoking in early life, and indulgence in the practice early in the day, cannot be too strongly condemned, as leading to most pernicious effects on the constitution.

3dly. That smoking, even in what is called a moderate degree, is, to say the very least of it, indirectly injurious, more especially to the young; because it is not denied, it acts as an inducement to drinking- thus becoming the source of intemperance, and all its accompanying evils. It is notorious that the practices are, almost without exception, inseparably associated. The remark

has become a maxim: "Smoking induces drinking drinking jaundice, and jaundice death."

65. If insurance companies would act upon Mr. Solly's test the peculiar morbid condition of the palate and fauces as proving inveterate smoking—and raise the annual premiums to smokers in whom such appearances were detected, as on hazardous insurances, the practice of smoking might receive that great and salutary check, from motives of self-interest, which admonition and warning, as to the evils resulting from the noxious weed, have failed to effect: and the detection, by Mr. Ericacen, of the mixture of so many deleterious and poisonous ingredients in the manufacture of snuff, it is to be expected, may, in like manner, operate upon the selfish feelings of the snuffer, and powerfully tend to root out his disgusting habit.

CHAPTER III.

COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTRACTS.

66. In his valuable work on the "Nature and Treatment of Stomach and Urinary Diseases," Dr. Prout, at pages 24 and 25, observes: "There is an article much used in various ways, though not as an aliment, the deleterious effects of which on the assimilating organs, &c., require to be briefly noticed, viz., tobacco. Although confessedly one of the most virulent poisons in nature, yet such is the fascinating influence of this noxious weed, that mankind resort to it in every mode they can devise, to ensure its stupefying and pernicious agency. Tobacco disorders the assimilating functions in general, but particularly as I believe, the assimilation of the saccharine principle. I have never, indeed, been able to trace the development of oxalic acid to the use of tobacco; but that some analogous and equally poisonous principle (probably of an acid nature,) is generated in certain individuals by its abuse, is evident from their cachectic looks, and from the dark and often greenishyellow tint of their blood. The severe and peculiar dyspeptic symptoms sometimes produced by inveterate snuff-taking are well known; and I have more than once seen such cases terminate fatally with malignant disease of the stomach and liver. Great smokers, also, espe

cially those who employ short pipes and cigars, are said to be liable to cancerous affections of the lips. But it happens with tobacco, as with deleterious articles of diet, the strong and healthy suffer comparatively little, while the weak and predisposed to disease fall victims to its poisonous operation. Surely, if the dictates of reason were allowed to prevail, an article so injurious to the health, and so offensive in all its forms and modes of employment, would speedily be banished from common use."

67. Professor Petit-Radel is said to have died of cancer of the pylorus, consequent on smoking tobacco.

68. Bouissiron states that he has seen many smokers perish of atrophy.

69. Pereira, in his valuable work on Chemistry and Materia Medica, page 1426, states, that "Nicotina is an energetic poison, almost equalling in activity hydrocyanic acid."

70. In the Dictionnaire des Sciènces Medicalés for 1821, two brothers are said to have smoked until they died of apoplexy- the one after smoking seventeen pipes, the other eighteen pipes. Fourcroy cites several instances of the destructive effects of tobacco in his translation of Ramazzani. The little daughter of a tobacco merchant died in frightful convulsions, from having slept in a chamber where a great quantity of tobacco had been rasped. An intoxicated soldier swallowed his saliva impregnated with tobacco, awoke in strong convulsions, and nearly became insane. I have strong suspicions that such a melancholy event as the latter must have occurred frequently.