the dried leaves of various species of plants of the genus *Nicotiana*, so named from Nicot, a French ambassador, who introduced tobacco into France about the year 1560. The tobacco with which we are best acquainted is obtained from *Nicotiana tabacum*, a species which furnishes all the American tobacco, of which there are varieties, slightly differing from each other through differences of soil and culture. The Persian tobacco is obtained from a distinct species, *N. persica*; and the Syrian from another, *N. rustica*. The whole genus possesses stimulating and narcotic qualities, and belongs to the extensive order *Solanaceae*, or Nightshades; which, although it contains among its genera the wholesome potato and tomato, must yet rank as a suspicious and dangerous assemblage of plants. The deadly nightshade, the henbane, and the thorn-apple, belong to this order, and are powerful narcotic poisons. Others of equal virulence exist in less known species, especially in *Alocanthera venenata*, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, which is used to envenom weapons and to destroy wild beasts. Even the potato (*Solanum tuberosum*) is possessed of narcotic properties, which are only rendered harmless by cooking. *Nicotine*, the active principle of tobacco, is poisonous in an isolated form; hence it has been argued that the use of tobacco must be generally injurious. This has not been confirmed, however, by the usage of mankind, among whom the practice of smoking tobacco is widely and increasingly prevalent; and it appears that the excess only of its use is dangerous to health, causing a tendency to paralysis.
The word tobacco has been the subject of much inquiry, and is not very satisfactorily accounted for. Some derive it from Tabago or Tabacco, one of the lesser Antilles; others from Tabasco, an island in the bay of Campeachy; others, again, from the circumstance that the herb is wrapped up for use in a dry leaf, which forms a sheath or envelope, and that this kind of sheath is always called tabaco by the Caribbeans. Whatever may be the derivation of the name, there can be no doubt about the origin of the plant itself. When Columbus, in 1492, discovered the New World, he found in the island now known as Cuba many persons of both sexes who had in their mouths a roll of leaves, of which they were inhaling the smoke. These were the leaves of tobacco, a plant growing wild on the heights of that island, and which at that time does not appear to have been the object of care or cultivation. A century later we find its culture attended to. In 1586 it was cultivated in Virginia, and soon afterwards in the West India Islands and in India, as well as in Europe, where it had been previously known by report or by the specimens brought by travellers.
A large proportion of the European consumption of tobacco is supplied by Virginia and other parts of the United States of America; and the importance of the plant in a commercial sense will appear from the fact, that only one article of foreign production, namely, sugar, yields a greater sum to our revenue than tobacco. A general description of the plant and of its culture will sufficiently apply to various parts of the earth, the cultivation varying but little with the locality.
Common tobacco is a handsome annual plant, having much the appearance of the sunflower during its early growth. A strong erect stem rises to the height of 6 or 7 feet, sending out from its sides large light-green leaves, the lower ones perhaps 20 inches long and broad in proportion, gradually decreasing as they ascend. The flowers grow in clusters at the top, and are handsome, of a yellowish-white outside, and a delicate red within. They are monopetalous, and somewhat resemble our garden *petunias*, which belong to the same order. They are succeeded by kidney-shaped brown capsules, containing each about a thousand seeds. These seeds are sown in March or April in prepared nursery beds or patches, where the soil is rich and dry, and conveniently situated for watering. The least frost kills the young plants, therefore it is usual to protect the seedbeds with straw, fern, or matting over hoops. A border of white mustard-seed is often sown round the beds to attract the fly, which prefers mustard to tobacco. In about a month the young plants are 4 or 5 inches high, and ready for removal. The ground to which they are transplanted has been previously laid out in a succession of long narrow mounds like asparagus-beds, with intervals between them, which serve for drainage, and also for the cultivator to walk on between the rows. Moist weather is chosen, and the transplantation, if carefully done and to a richly-manured ground, scarcely causes any check in the growth of the tobacco plants. They are taken up carefully with a small spade or trowel, and placed in a slanting position in a basket (the earth being left about their roots), and thus carried from the seed-bed to the planting-ground. There they are inserted without injury to the fibres of their roots; one or two of their lower leaves are pinched off, and the rich new mould is brought well up about their stems. If great heat should follow the season of their removal, a few will wither and die; these must be replaced by other plants, left in the seed-bed for that purpose. The plants are set at about 16 inches apart, and the rows are at the same distance from each other, two rows being as much as one of these long narrow beds will accommodate. The plants are carefully weeded and attended to, and the soil is frequently stirred with narrow hoes until the period when they show symptoms of flowering. This may be when they are only 3 feet high, or not until they have reached their proper height of 6 or 8 feet; but the flowers must not be allowed to form, except in the case of a few plants left purposely for seed. To obtain fine and strong leaves on the plant is the great object of the cultivator, and a fine tobacco plant ought to have from eight to twelve large succulent leaves. Some cultivators diminish the number of leaves, under the idea that the remaining ones will afford the strongest tobacco. Suckers or shoots near the root are carefully removed, and everything is done to concentrate the strength of the plant in the leaves. Every leaf injured by insects is removed, and the crop is watched until the leaves have a yellowish tint and begin to droop, when they are fit to be gathered. This is usually in September, so that the plants, from the time of their insertion on the mounds, have occupied the ground four months, during which time they have been subject to many vicissitudes, from the attacks of insects, and from a disease called firing, caused by the long continuance of very wet or very dry weather, when the leaves perish in spots. Also in climates not intertropical, they have been in imminent danger from frosts, one white frost being sufficient to spoil a whole crop, and cause it to rot. Tobacco is one of the most exhausting crops that can be grown upon any soil, on account of the very large proportion of mineral constituents which it carries off, the proportion of ash amounting to as much as 21 per cent. of the dry leaf. Nitric acid is among the mineral constituents, often exceeding 2 per cent. of the dry leaf; while the salts of potash amount to more than one-third of the saline residue.
The gathering of the crop consists of cutting down the stems close to the surface of the soil, or even a little underneath it, leaving them to dry during the heat of the day, with frequent turnings, and then housing them before night, that the dew may not injure them. If the stalks are very thick, they are split down the middle to facilitate the drying. If the plants are very full of juice, they are sometimes taken out again the next day for further drying; but in most cases they are left, covered with matting, for two or three days in the shed to sweat, after which they are removed to curing-houses, or buildings erected for the pur- pose, with arrangements for admitting a thorough draught of air and keeping out the rain. Here the plants are dried in the way which the planter finds most convenient. In some cases the leaves are stripped off, and strung up in rows from the roof downwards; in others the whole plant is hung on pegs placed in rows at regular distances. The temperature of the curing-house must be kept tolerably equable, and for this purpose, if there is too much moisture, artificial heat is applied. In about a month the tobacco is sufficiently dried, and said to be in case. Moist or foggy weather is then chosen for its removal, otherwise the leaves might crumble in the handling. They are now usually sorted (though in some cases this is done later), that is, the lower or ground leaves, which are usually soiled and torn, are placed in one heap; the small upper leaves are placed in another heap; and the middle large leaves, which form the really valuable portion of the crop, are placed in a third. This done, the leaves are made up in small bundles called hands, and placed on hurdles or wooden platforms and covered up, to undergo a second sweating or fermentation. This lasts from a week to a fortnight, and requires great care that it be not allowed to go too far, and on the other hand, that it be not checked too soon, for in either case the quality of the tobacco would be impaired. In some cases the making of the leaves into bundles follows the fermentation; decayed stalks are stripped off, and the bundles being again dried, are packed in casks for exportation, being compressed several times during the packing by inserting a round board, and applying by lever or screw a pressure equal to several tons weight. Several casks are in the course of packing at the same time, so that some are under compression while others are being filled. The hogsheads used in Virginia are 48 inches long, and from 30 to 32 inches diameter at the ends. Each contains from 950 to 1000 or even 1200 lb. of tobacco.
The cultivation of tobacco may be carried on in most of the warm and temperate climates of the earth; but in no place is the quality and flavour of the product superior to that of Cuba, the island in which it was originally discovered. The best Havana tobacco-farms are comprised within a district 27 leagues long and only 7 broad, on the south-west of that island. This district is sheltered on the north by mountains, and is bounded on the south and west by the ocean. The specimens of cigars manufactured by a Spanish firm from the finest tobacco of that district, were pronounced by the jury at our Great Exhibition to be "the best it is possible to produce;" and they were said to fetch L30 per 1000 even in the Havana. Variations in size, form, and colour, and sometimes in the flavour, may all exist in the product of the same crop of tobacco; for, as we have already noticed, the leaves vary in quality and strength according to their age and position on the stem.
The American varieties of tobacco are numerous, though all of one species. There is the strong Virginian leaf, of which ships' tobacco is manufactured. There is also the fine Virginia leaf, prepared for chewing; the delicately-flavoured Ohio leaf; the Mason county leaf, which to some extent furnishes shag tobacco; and the Cavendish tobaccos, so largely manufactured in the United States from the finest qualities of leaf, and formed into cakes, sometimes with the addition of molasses, for chewing. This is the purpose for which these kinds of tobacco are principally used in America; but in England, where the custom of chewing tobacco is happily less prevalent, they are valued for their fine flavour in smoking. Canada produces very fair leaf-tobacco for cigars, about equal to second-class Virginia leaf. The best C'naaster or hanaster of England is made from Varinas, a South American tobacco. Maryland leaf is used for the common c'naster of the north of Europe.
Tobacco is largely cultivated throughout the northern and western provinces of India, in fact, no plant of European introduction seems to be in such general request; its consumption is almost universal in the islands of India, where a sufficient crop is raised to supply the wants of the inhabitants, and to leave a surplus for exportation. The tobacco imported from British India into this country is, however, of the rankest and commonest kind. Fine tobacco is grown in Java, but the seed has first to be raised in the cooler mountain districts, and the seedlings afterwards conveyed to the lowlands, to perfect the plants. If the seeds were sown in the hotter districts, the plants would speedily degenerate. The flavour of the Indian leaf is weaker than that of the American; but this is attributed not so much to difference of climate and cultivation as to want of skill in the curing.
A fine quality of tobacco is grown in Manilla, one of the Philippine Islands. The three principal districts of the island which have become celebrated for tobacco are Visayas, Ygarotes, and Cagayan. Spain supplied to the Great Exhibition some beautiful specimens of Manilla leaf from these districts, and Manilla cheroots.
The tobacco of Persia has long been held in renown, but, like other eastern tobacco, it is too mild to be generally pleasing to English taste. One of the most celebrated sorts is a mild perfumed tobacco called "Aburika, or Father of Perfumes." Shiraz tobacco is esteemed in the East for its delicate flavour and aromatic quality. Damascus tobacco is also of fine quality, and is strong. Turkey produces some fine tobaccos; that of Latakia is the most celebrated, but we have very little information respecting the growth of these or other kinds of Asiatic tobacco.
The African continent is represented by Algiers and the Cape of Good Hope. The former of these is becoming the great tobacco mart of France. The Havana, the Syrian, and the Manilla varieties are there cultivated both by Arabs and colonists, and the crops are fine and well-grown. The curing is well accomplished, and the making-up of the cigars is often excellent; yet they are deficient in flavour and strength as compared with the tobaccos of the western world. The cigars of the Cape of Good Hope are, for the most part, clumsily made, and without proper selection of the leaf; yet the flavour is tolerably good, and it is probable that the manufacture will improve and flourish.
Among the tobacco manufacturers of Europe, the Spanish and Portuguese stand high. The superiority of the Spanish department, in this respect, was conspicuous at the time of the Great Exhibition, as already alluded to in our notice of the products of Havana and Manilla. The tobacco and snuffs of Portugal were also deservedly admired. There are extensive tobacco-fields on the banks of the Rhine, cultivated by small proprietors, and employing upwards of 20,000 hands. The agricultural society of Baden has greatly encouraged the cultivation of tobacco, and for some years both culture and curing have been so successful that a large demand for German tobacco has sprung up, and it is exported in vast quantities, in the leaf, to England, Belgium, Spain, and, in bad seasons, even to the Havana itself. Tobacco is grown in Russia, and the cigars and cigarillas are of good quality and very mild. Hungary yields fine and delicately flavoured tobacco. The climate of England is too variable for the successful cultivation of tobacco. A specimen of English-grown tobacco, raised on a light soil in Cambridgeshire, was shown as a curiosity at the Great Exhibition; but it was deficient in flavour. As manufacturers of tobacco and cigars, however, the British nation holds an important place. Owing to the high duty on tobacco, the British importer examines his tobacco in the bonding warehouses of the London Docks, and removes
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1 From Canasta, a Spanish word signifying a basket, in which it was imported. Tobacco, any portions which have become damaged during the voyage, or were originally defective. These are burned in a furnace, familiarly known as the Queen's tobacco-pipe, and the sound portion is that on which alone duty is paid.
The chief supplies, in Great Britain, of unmanufactured or leaf-tobacco are from the United States of America, and they are known by the names of the states where they are grown; such as Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio. Tobacco was formerly imported from America in the form of carrots, made by depriving the leaves of their mid-ribs, placing them together in large handfuls, and binding them tightly round with woody fibre or strong grass; but of late years this method has been abandoned. A certain quantity of Havana and Cuba tobacco is received from the island of Cuba; St Domingo tobacco from the island of that name; while Columbia furnishes the varieties known as Columbian, Cumana, and Varinas. There is also Brazilian tobacco, and small importations from Porto Rico, Turkey, the East Indies, &c. Amersfoort, or Dutch tobacco, is imported from Holland. The leaf-tobacco of the United States is chiefly used for cut or roll tobacco, and also for snuff. The other growths are occasionally used for these purposes; but they are chiefly in demand for the manufacture of cigars and cheroots. Manufactured tobacco is also imported into this country in the form of cigars from Havana, cheroots from Manilla of the East Indies, negro-head and Cavendish from the United States. In the manufacture of tobacco and snuff in the United Kingdom, the raw or leaf-tobacco is converted into various forms, such as tobacco-stalks, consisting of the stalk or mid-rib separated from the leaf; tobacco-stalk flour, consisting of the stalk ground to a fine dry powder; returns of tobacco, consisting of small portions of broken leaf, and of the dust and siftings produced in the various processes. The stalks, the flour, and the returns are converted into snuff. The terms cut and shag refer to all those kinds of tobacco which are produced by cutting the leaf into small pieces or shreds, varying from 16 to 100 cuts in the inch, and distinguished as thumb-cut, broad-cut, &c.; but the popular term shag refers to the shaggy appearance of the product. The manufactured varieties known as roll, twist, pigtail, negro-head, and cavendish, are formed by twisting or spinning the leaf, and afterwards pressing it into rolls, loops, or sticks. The terms carrot, blackleaf, and lug, refer to forms of the compressed leaf; not much in use in this country. Cigars and cheroots are also manufactured in Great Britain. Rupree snuffs are all those varieties of snuff which are prepared by grinding the tobacco to powder in a moist state. In Scotch, Irish, and Welsh snuffs the tobacco is dried by heat preparatory to grinding. Brown Scotch snuff is Scotch snuff moistened after having been ground.
The first operation in the manufacture of tobacco, after the hogsheads or bales have been unpacked, is to separate the tobacco leaves by shaking, rubbing, and pulling them apart. If the mid-rib had not been removed before the tobacco was packed, that operation is now performed. The leaves are sorted into different baskets or boxes according to their quality, for, although apparently identical when packed, the leaves undergo different changes during the voyage, or by remaining in a state of compression for a considerable time. The largest and strongest leaves are set aside as robes or covers for pigtail, and the rest are spread out on a floor, and sprinkled with water in order to make them supple and cut easily into shreds. And here we may remark, that the English manufacturer is allowed the use of water only for moistening the tobacco; but, on the continent of Europe, solutions of salt, &c., known as sauce, are employed. The chief ingredient is common salt, or rather sea-salt, which is more deliquescent than common salt; but sal-ammoniac, sugar, and other ingredients, are used in the preparation of fancy tobaccos. Common salt is sometimes dissolved in liquorice-juice in which some figs have been boiled; bruised aniseed is added, and then the solution is saturated with salt; a little spirits of wine completes the sauce. We do not pretend to explain the action of these preparations, in which a great deal of mystery and very little chemistry seems to be involved. The English manufacturer is allowed the use of certain salts in the preparation of snuff; and the fame of his house often depends on their judicious application. There is, of course, much temptation to mix cheaper materials with an article so heavily taxed as tobacco, and some idea may be formed of the ingredients which at some time or other have been used as adulterants by the following quotation from one of the clauses of the Act 5 and 6 Vict., which prohibits manufacturers, under a penalty of L200, from having in their possession "any sugar, treacle, molasses, or honey, or any comings or roots of malt, or any ground or unground roasted grain, ground or unground chicory, lime, sand (not being tobacco sand), umber, ochre, or other earth, sea-weed, ground or powdered wood, moss, or weeds, or any leaves, or any herbs or plants (not being tobacco leaves or plants), respectively, nor any substance, or material, syrup, liquid, or preparation, matter or thing, to be used, or capable of being used as a substitute for, or to increase the weight of tobacco or snuff." That the fear of this large penalty does not deter some manufacturers from using illegal materials is evident from the various publications on the subject, among which we may mention Tobacco and its Adulterations, by Henry P. Prescott, of the Inland Revenue Department, London, 1858; written "for the purpose of assisting officers of the government, and others interested in the subject, in acquiring a knowledge of the characters of unmanufactured and manufactured tobacco, and of enabling them to detect its impurities." Among the substances used for adulteration, he enumerates the following:—Leaves of rhubarb, dock, burdock, coltsfoot, beech, plantain, oak, and elm; peat-earth, bran, saw-dust, malt-rootlets, barley-meal, oat-meal, bean-meal, pea-meal, potato-starch, and chicory leaves steeped in tar-oil. We need scarcely say, that the microscope is the chief means for detecting these sources of adulteration.
For the manufacture of cut tobacco, the damped leaves are laid straight, pressed into cakes by means of a screw, or hydraulic press, and are then placed in a cutting machine in which a knife is arranged as in a chaff-cutting machine, only, working by steam power: it has a rapid chopping motion, and after each ascent of the knife the cake of tobacco is pushed forward through a small space, and the descending knife cuts off the portion thus protruded. The cut tobacco is combed out by hand, shaken, and rolled so as to make the fibres curl, and at the same time is exposed to the action of steam. It is next spread out to cool, after which it is fit for use. What is called bird's eye tobacco is formed by retaining in the leaf a portion of the mid-rib, transverse sections of which give an "eyed" appearance to the tobacco.
The tobacco of the United States is in general too strong for the manufacture of cigars, that of the West Indies, Havana, and Europe being employed. The mid-rib is removed, the perfect are separated from the imperfect leaves, the former being cut to shape for making wrappers, while the latter are rolled up for the insides, covered spirally first with a rude wrapper and then with the perfect one. One end is cut square and the other is brought to a point where the leaf is secured by a little paste instead of the curl or twist formerly in use. The workman is expected to make cigars of the same quality, of the same weight and dimensions. Cheroots are portions of elongated cones, and are preferred by some smokers on account of the freer dissipation of the oil, and consequently less heat in the mouth than in the case of cigars, where the oil is apt to accumu- Tobacco late near the contracted part. The cigars are laid out on canvas trays to dry, either with or without artificial heat, according to circumstances.
In the manufacture of pig-tail, Virginian tobacco is usually employed. The leaves being sorted, a man, assisted by two boys, works at a bench, at one end of which is a wheel, turned by one of the boys, for the purpose of keeping in the twist given to the leaf by the workman. The man begins by rolling up the leaves by means of a flat board which he wears on his hand, and attaching the end of the cord thus formed to a hook on the wheel, the boy turns the wheel, while the man continues making fresh cord, the other boy supplying him with tobacco leaves, which he pitches one within the other on the table, so that he has in a very few minutes a cord of tobacco extending the whole length of the table, or about 20 feet. When this 20 feet is finished, the man rolls it on the cylindrical wheel, but brings the end forward again over the hook, so as to continue the cord by the addition of another 20 feet. This process is repeated until the wheel is full. The "hall of work," as the wheel-full is called, weighs about 40 lbs. This is then made up into smaller balls, called, according to the shape given to them, casks, cakes, negro-heads or hanks, and rolls, the various coils being kept in shape by bands of bast or by wooden pegs, and a little oil being used to prevent the coils from sticking together. The bundles thus formed are put into a press and kept there from two to six weeks, when a slow fermentation takes place, which modifies the character of the tobacco. This kind of tobacco is used for chewing, and sometimes for cutting up for smoking.
In the manufacture of snuff, tobacco of all kinds may be used, and a second fermentation is induced in it by the addition of moisture or some kind of sauce, as already noticed; the time during which the fermentation is carried on may be several weeks, but this depends on the kind of snuff required. For moist snuffs, which are represented by rappée, the tobacco is ground by edge runners or stones mounted on a horizontal axis, and moving by their edges, like a wheel, in their beds. After the snuff has been sifted, it is stored for from three to six months, and for the choicer kinds for some years, when it is fit for use. The dry snuffs are prepared by fermenting the material, drying it by the aid of artificial heat, and grinding it in an iron mortar, by means of a weighted pestle. A large number of these mortars and pestles are arranged side by side and are worked by power. There are many snuff-mills on the river Wandle in Surrey, employed in grinding up the material sent by different tobacconists. The large number of different kinds of snuff are prepared by grinding together tobaccos of different growths, and by varying the nature of the sauce. The following recipe is from Joubert's Nouveau Manuel du Fabricant de Tabac, Paris, 1844. For the preparation of the fancy snuff known as Morocco,—take 40 parts of genuine St Omer (South American) tobacco, 40 parts of St Omer (European), 20 parts of fermented Virginian stalks in powder; the whole to be ground and sifted. Then take 2½ lbs. of rose-leaves, to be cut and mixed with powdered Virginian stalks, add 2½ lbs. of rosewood in fine powder; moisten with salt water, and incorporate the whole well together. Then work it up with 1 lb. of cream of tartar, 2 lbs. of salt of tartar, and 4 lbs. of table salt. This snuff is highly scented, and must be preserved in lead.
We do not attach much importance to these recipes, since the great change wrought in the tobacco is induced by fermentation. When snuff is manufactured on a large scale, as at the imperial tobacco works in Paris, we see how important this process really becomes. According to Pelouze and Fremy (Traité de Chimie, tome iv.), the tobacco leaves are moistened with about one-fifth of their weight of salt and water (sp. gr. 1·089), made up into blocks, and piled, in large rectangular heaps, in quantities of 40 or 50 tons. The temperature gradually rises to 140°, and sometimes reaches 170°; but the heat must be regulated, or parts of the mass would become black as if charred. The heaps are made up in spring and autumn, and the fermentation is continued for five or six months, when the temperature remains stationary or begins to decline. The heap is then opened, and the tobacco is ground, by which means a pale brown dryish powder is obtained. This is mixed with about ⅛th of its weight of a solution of common salt, and is passed through a sieve, that the powder may be uniformly moistened. It is then packed in large open chests in quantities of from 25 to 60 tons, where it remains for nine or ten months, and undergoes another fermentation, the temperature rising in the centre of the mass to 120° or 130°. During this process the snuff acquires its dark colour, and develops its aroma. But it is not uniform in quality throughout, and is removed to a second chest, in such a way as thoroughly to mix all the different parts together, and, after the lapse of two months, it is again turned over, and the process is sometimes repeated a third time. When the snuff is ripe, the contents of the various chests are mixed together in a large room capable of holding 350 tons of snuff, where it is left for about six weeks, and the whole mass being uniform in quality is sifted into barrels for the market. The whole process of manufacture occupies from eighteen to twenty months. During these repeated fermentations about two-thirds of the nicotine is destroyed. This is a volatile base, the active principle of the tobacco plant in which it occurs in combination with malic and citric acids. It is also contained in the smoke of the burning leaves. It is a liquid, colourless, oily liquid, with an irritating and powerful odour of tobacco: it is very inflammable, burning with a smoky flame: it is very soluble in water, alcohol, and ether, and also in the fixed oils: it is extremely poisonous, a single drop being sufficient to kill a large dog. The proportion of nicotine varies greatly in different varieties of tobacco; French tobacco contains 7 or 8 per cent., Virginia 6 or 7 per cent., and Maryland and Havana not more than 2 per cent., which is the proportion in ordinary snuff. The change that takes place during the fermentation of snuff is thus described by Professor Miller (Elements of Chemistry, Part iii., 1857):—"A small portion of this base appears to exist in snuff, in the uncombined form; but the greater part of the portion still remaining is left in the form of acetate; a certain amount of acetic acid having become developed during the fermentation. A portion of the decomposed nicotia becomes converted into carbonate of ammonia, which is partially retained by the snuff: and the gradual volatilization of this salt appears to favour the conversion of nicotia into vapour, and thus to occasion the pungent odour for which snuff is valued. The proportion of citric and malic acids becomes diminished during the fermentation, so that ordinary snuff has an alkaline reaction. A certain quantity of a peculiar essential oil appears also to be developed during the operation; and to the variable proportion of this oil much of the difference in the flavour of the different varieties of snuff is owing. The quantity of nitrate of potash which fresh tobacco contains passes over unaltered into the snuff."
its various forms, is subject to very heavy excise duties, and is a considerable source of revenue. In the year ending 31st December 1857, and the two following years, the quantities of stemmed tobacco imported into the United Kingdom amounted to 14,258,767 lbs., 14,760,874 lbs., and 16,236,871 lbs. Of unstemmed tobacco, 18,339,721 lbs., 19,090,037 lbs., and 18,256,203 lbs.; while of manufactured tobacco and snuff there were only 252,877 lbs., 259,940 lbs., and 298,187 lbs. respectively. The customs duty on all raw tobacco is 8s. and an extra 5 per cent., or 3s. 1½d. per lb. Snuff pays a duty of 6s. 3½d. per lb.; cigars and manufactured tobacco, 9s. 4½d. per lb. In the three years above named, the total receipts of customs duties on tobacco amounted to L5,253,431, L5,454,214, L5,573,463, respectively. The value of raw tobacco varies from 4d. to 12d. per lb.; choice cigar tobacco will fetch a much higher price. The great demand, however, in this country is for shag tobacco; and some idea may be formed of the demand for tobacco and cigars from the fact, that one of the leading London houses, from which much of the information contained in this article is derived, manufactures 2000 lb. of cut tobacco per day, and only 60 lb. of cigars. In fact, it is stated that as much as three-fourths of the consumption of tobacco in this country is for shag, or common roll, and the common kinds of snuff. There has of late years been a falling-off in the demand for snuff—at least the snuff-millers complain of a falling-off in their business, and an increase in the consumption of cigars. But the consumption of tobacco in Great Britain, however large it may appear from the above figures, is small compared with that of Germany and the north of Europe, where the duty is low, and smaller still compared with the consumption of the United States of America. The manufactories of snuff are principally in London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Leeds, also in Glasgow and Edinburgh; but it must be remarked, that what is called Scotch snuff is largely consumed chiefly by women of the lower classes; and that there is no demand for it in Scotland, where rappée is the favourite snuff. The manufactories of Dublin and Cork produce large quantities of high-dried snuff, which is much esteemed in Ireland.
A great deal has been written as to the effect of tobacco on the human frame, and although medical opinion has frequently been expressed against its use, and we have seen that nicotine is a powerful poison; yet there is the strong fact, that wherever tobacco has been introduced it has been consumed with avidity, and its use among whole nations has amounted to a passion. Nor do we find that advancing civilisation checks the use of this poisonous weed; but, on the contrary, the demand for it seems to increase as society advances, as is indeed proved by the returns already given. Doubtless, there are persons of weak digestion to whom tobacco in any form must be injurious; but there are others to whom its moderate use may be as agreeable and refreshing as tea and coffee are to most persons. In cases of this kind one's own experience is better than dogmatic rules, especially when we find so many contradictory opinions on the subject among medical men. One thing, however, is certain, that moderation must be useful, and total abstinence can do no harm.