BERRICH “SPRINGS, MICHIGAN
HERITAGE ROOM.
TOBACCO- POISONING.
NICOTIANA TABACUM.
\ HEMISTS, botanists, and physicians unite in pro-
nouncing tobacco to be one of the most deadly poisons
known. No other poison, with the exception of prus.
sic acid, will cause death so quickly, only three or four min-
utes being required for a fatal dos to produce its full effect.
It is botanically known as nicotiana tabacum, and belongs
to a class of plants known as the volanacee, which includes
the most poisonous of all species of plants, among which are
henbane and belladorina. There are more than forty differ-
ent varieties of the plant, all of which possess.the same gen-
eral properties, though varying in the degree of poisonous
character. :
Nicotine.—The active principle of tobacco, that is, that
to which its narcotic and poisonous properties are due, is
nicotine, a heavy, oily substance which may be separated
from the dried leaf of the plant by distillation or infusion.
The proportion of nicotine varies from two to eight per,
oo * cent, Kentucky and Virginia tobacco usually containing
gix or seven per cent. A pound of tobacco contains, on an
average, 380 grains of this deadly poison, of which one-
tenth of a grain will kill a dog in three minutes. A case
is on record in which a man was killed in thirty Seconds i
~ this poison.
A Pound of Tobacco will Kill 300 Men.—The poison
contained in a single pound of tobacco is sufficient to kill