East Indian, with half a dozen more rays in the 2d dorsal and anal, stronger teeth, more prominent dorsal spines, and rather darker colors; it is 8 inches to a foot long, of a light brown color, marbled with black, and the fins with black lines; the body is covered with a copious viscid secretion; the mouth very large, and the chin and cheeks with numerous fleshy appendages. It is found along the Atlantic coast from Maine to the gulf of Mexico and the West Indies, on the New England coast usually in ponds and lagoons connected with the sea, in muddy shoal water, or under eel grass and stones; it is sometimes taken in winter by the fishermen spearing eels through the ice; where it is abundant, as in some places along the New Jersey coast, it is a great pest from its taking the bait intended for more valuable fish; it lives a considerable time out of the water. It is fond of lurking in holes in the sand, watching for prey like a dog in a kennel, and snapping at any unwary fish coming within reach of its wide jaws; in the summer it may be seen guarding its eggs or young, the latter being found adhering to the under surface of stones by a disk at the end of the yolk sac, and afterward by the ventral fins. The disgusting appearance of this fish, its slimy body, goggle eyes, and immense mouth, have generally prevented the use of its flesh as food, though it is said to be delicate, palatable, and wholesome; it is a savage biter, and capable of inflicting severe wounds. The specific name, which was conferred by Linnæus, though he referred the fish to a wrong family, is derived from a character common to many other species, and only observable in dead and dried specimens; in these the bones of the upper surface of the skull present a transverse and longitudinal ridge united like the letter T (Gr. tau). Other species are found in the Indian and African seas, and some of larger size and with soft scales on the Brazilian coast. TOBACCO, the common name of several species of plants of the genus nicotiana, natural order solanaceœ, and also of the dried leaves of the plants. The order is remarkable for the number of genera belonging to it of plants possessing powerful narcotic poisonous properties, and at the same time of useful edible plants. Of the former kind may be named the belladonna or deadly nightshade, the stramonium or thorn apple, the hyoscyamus or henbane, &c.; and of the latter the tomato and the potato, which last also affords the poisonous substance solanine. The name tobacco is supposed to be derived from the Indian tabacos, given by the Caribs to the pipe in which they smoked the plant. Others derive it from Tabasco, a province of Mexico; others from the island of Tobago, one of the Caribbees; and others from Tobasco in the gulf of Florida. The name of the genus is derived from that of the French ambassador to Portugal, Jean Nicot, who brought some tobacco in 1560 from Lisbon to France. Several species of the plant are recognized by botanists, but most of the tobacco of

commerce is obtained from the nicotiana tabacum, the common Virginia or sweet-scented tobacco. The plant is an annual, growing 3 to 7 or 8 feet high, with an erect, round, hairy, viscid stem, and a large fibrous root. It bears numerous very large leaves of a pale green color, sessile, ovate lanceolate and pointed in form, which come out alternately from 2 to 3 inches apart. Those near the bottom are sometimes 2 feet long and 6 inches broad. The flowers grow in loose panicles at the extremities of the stalks, and the calyx is bell-shaped, and divided at its summit into 5 pointed segments. The tube of the corolla expands at the top into an oblong cup terminating in a 5-lobed, plaited, rose-colored border. The pistil consists of an oval germ, a slender style longer than the stamens, and a cleft stigma. The flowers are succeeded by capsules of 2 cells opening at the summit and containing numerous kidney-shaped seeds. The plant was unknown to the Europeans until the discovery of the American continent, when it was first noticed by sailors sent ashore by Columbus in Cuba. They found to their astonishment the natives puffing smoke from their mouths and noses, which they afterward learned was derived from the combustion of the dried leaves of this plant. The smoke was inhaled through a hollow cane, one end of which was introduced into the mouth, or in case of the cane being forked, the forked ends were inserted in the nostrils, and the other was applied to the burning leaves. As other portions of America were discovered, tobacco was very generally met with, and appears to have been used in various ways by all the tribes from the N. W. coast to Patagonia. Garcilasso speaks of the ancient Peruvians as using it only for medicinal purposes in the form of snuff. The Aztecs in Mexico, according to Bernal Diaz, used pipes of a varnished and richly gilt wood, and mingled with the intoxicating tobacco the liquidambar and various aromatic herbs. They are also spoken of by Sahagun in his "History of New Spain" as using the leaves rolled into cigars, which they ignited and smoked in tubes of tortoise shell or silver. The use of the pulverized dried leaf or snuff was noticed by Roman Pane, a friar who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. The natives, he found, took it as a purgative medicine, snuffing it up through hollow canes. Thus all the modes in which the plant is now used appear to have been in common practice with the ancient American races. Its use is traced back to still more remote periods in the pipes found in the ancient mounds and other monuments of unknown races, that inhabited this continent before the Indian tribes. (See PIPE, TOBACCO.) The history and uses of the plant are further noticed in the article CIGAR.-Among the many species and varieties of the tobacco plant, several are worthy of special mention. The plant which yields the "large-leaved" or "Orinoco tobacco" is probably merely a variety of the N. tabacum,

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though it has been named by Miller N. latissima, and by Sprengel N. macrophylla; the large Havana cigars are supposed to be made of its leaves. The N. rustica, or common green tobacco," is the species most cultivated in Europe and some parts of Asia and Africa, where also it grows wild, and is said to be that originally introduced into Europe from America. It furnishes the tobacco of Salonica, and the Turkish tobacco grown on the coasts of the Mediterranean, which is so highly valued in India. In England it is cultivated in gardens, and is used by gardeners to destroy insects. Its leaves are petiolate, ovate, and quite entire. The celebrated Shiraz or Persian tobacco is produced by the N. Persica (Lindl.). The small Havana cigars are said to be made of the leaves of N. repanda (Willd.). The N. fructicosa is supposed to be a native of China, and to have been cultivated there in ancient times. The N. quadrivalvis (Pursh) affords tobacco of excellent quality to the Indians of the Missouri and Cumberland rivers; the dried flowers are preferred to the leaves. The N. nana and the N. multivalvis are also plants of the extreme western territories. The calyx of the latter, which is very fetid, is preferred to any other part.-The varieties of tobacco known in commerce are designated by the names of the districts where they are produced. The principal varieties of the United States are the Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Ohio. The first is the strongest kind of tobacco, its leaves of a deep brown and tough, and is better adapted for chewing, for snuff, and for smoking in pipes, than for cigars. The other varieties are generally of a paler color, and of various degrees of strength. The tobacco raised in Connecticut and Massachusetts is alluded to in the article CIGAR, as used for the outer covering of cigars, and the same article names the varieties best adapted for these. The Levant tobaccos are mild and pleasant, and highly valued. The Turkish variety, of which the Latakia is most celebrated, is exported in broad and separate leaves of a bright yellow color. Manila tobacco, grown in Luzon, is dark-colored, and is largely used in the manufacture of cheroots, as cigars are terined in the East. Of the analyses that have been made of tobacco, the following are the most important. The first by Vauquelin is given in the Annales de chimie, vol. lxxi. p. 139, and presents the following ingredients: an acrid volatile principle (nicotine); albumen; red matter, soluble in alcohol and water; acetic acid; supermalate of lime; chlorophyl; nitrate of potash and chloride of potassium; sal ammoniac; and water. The next is the analysis of the tobacco leaf by Dr. Conwell, of Philadelphia, given in the "American Journal of Science," vol. xvii. p. 369: gum; mucilage, soluble in both water and alcohol; tannin; gallic acid; chlorophyl; green pulverulent matter, soluble in boiling water; yellow oil having the odor, taste, and poisonous properties of tobacco; pale yellow

The active principles of the plant reside in the alkaloid nicotine or nicotia, and the nicotianine. The former was first separated in a pure state by Messrs. Henry and Boutron, that obtained by the other chemists being an aqueous solution of the alkaline principle in connection with ammonia. (See NICOTIA.) The strongest Virginia and Kentucky tobaccos contain from 6 to 7 per cent. of it, while some of the milder kinds used for cigars contain only about 2 per cent. Nicotianine is the concrete volatile oil of tobacco, or tobacco camphor, obtained by distillation. Six pounds of the leaves yield only about 11 grains of the oil. It is a fatty substance, having the smell of tobacco smoke and a bitter taste. It is volatilized by heat, and is insoluble in water and dilute acids, but dissolves in alcohol, ether, and solution of potash. An empyreumatic oil obtained when the distillation is conducted at a temperature above 212° contains nicotia, and is a most virulent poison. It is of a dark brown color, an acrid taste, and a smell like that of old tobacco pipes. This oil, which cannot be distinguished from that of foxglove, has been detected in tobacco smoke together with nicotianine, nicotia, salts of ammonia, and other volatile products. The ash of tobacco leaves amounts to about to of the entire weight, and consists chiefly of carbonates of lime and magnesia, chloride of potassium, and sulphate of potash.-The medicinal effects of tobacco upon the system are very marked, whether it is taken internally or applied externally. In small quantities, taken by either of the methods in which it is commonly used, as smoking, chewing, or snuffing the pulverized dry leaf, it acts as a sedative narcotic, calming mental and bodily restlessness, and producing a state of languor or repose most agreeable to those accustomed to its use. In larger quantities, or with those unaccustomed to it, it causes giddiness, faintness, nausea, vomiting, and purging, with great debility. As the nausea continues with severe retching, the skin becomes cold and clammy, the muscles relaxed, the pulse feeble, and fainting and sometimes convulsions ensue, terminating in death. Its power of causing relaxation of the muscular

system is greater than that of digitalis, and has been taken advantage of in surgical treatment, as by Dr. Physick in a case of obstinate and long continued dislocation of the jaw, the desired effect being produced by smoking, to which the patient was unaccustomed. It is also applied in the form of infusions and cataplasms to relieve various spasmodic affections, and its use generally in medicine is in external applications, the nausea it occasions almost wholly preventing its exhibition internally. It is recommended in articular gout, rheumatism, and neuralgia; and the toothache is often relieved by smoking a cigar. In various cutaneous affections, as tinea capitis, psora, &c., it has proved highly beneficial. The application of the infusion, or even of the leaves, or of powdered tobacco, to surfaces deprived of the cuticle, is not without danger, and has sometimes been attended with fatal effects; these have even followed the inhalation of the smoke. The powerfully nauseating effects of tobacco suggest its use as an emetic; it is however rarely resorted to for this purpose, though in extreme cases, as of sudden poisoning, it might be found serviceable, where no other emetic is at hand. Entirely different opinions have been entertained by the most respectable medical authorities as to the effects of tobacco upon the system, whether beneficial or hurtful, as it is commonly used; and ever since the early introduction of tobacco many have earnestly condemned it for its supposed universally injurious qualities. Its use nevertheless has been constantly increasing, and multitudes among all nations depend upon it daily, suffering extremely if deprived of it for a time. Its universal distribution throughout almost all climates and countries, taken in connection with the strong passion soon acquired for its use, would seem to imply that the plant exercises some important influence upon the human system; still it is not apparent what benefit is conferred upon generations of recent times, which those were deprived of that were ignorant of its use. It does not appear to affect in any way the duration of human life, except occasionally when used to great excess. To some persons the use of tobacco is repugnant, and by such it is naturally condemned and avoided.-Tobacco is successfully cultivated throughout a wide range of latitude. Excellent varieties are produced in the equatorial regions, and in the United States its limits are not quite reached at the borders of Canada; in all the states it is cultivated to some extent. In England, as already mentioned, it is cultivated in gardens, and there is no question but it would be an important crop, if it were not for the severe restrictions imposed upon its growth for manufacturing purposes. It has been even raised in Scotland during the interruptions by foreign wars of the trade with the colonies. The plant requires a deep, rich, mellow soil or sandy loam, and thrives best on the south side of gentle slopes and places protected by woods or shrubbery.

According to the best practice in the middle states, the seed, amounting to a gill for every 10 square yards, is mixed with about a quart of plaster or sifted ashes and sown regularly in well prepared beds. This may be done in the winter, but the best time is from the 10th to the 20th of March. The greatest care is taken to prevent the growth of weeds, and to root them out by hand while the plants are young. It is recommended, every week after the plants are up, to scatter over them broadcast a compost of ashes, plaster, soot, salt, and pulverized sulphur, with the view of invigorating them and preventing the ravages of the fly. In April, when the plants are of good size for transplanting, they are removed to other beds prepared with great care, and marked off by a small plough in furrows crossing each other at right angles, at distances of 2 to 3 feet apart. In each of these the workman makes a hole with a finger of the right hand, and introduces the root of one of the plants. In 3 or 4 days the surface is lightly hoed, the weeds removed, and a little plaster and ashes is added to each plant; and in a week afterward a small plough is run twice through the rows. After this the "tobacco cultivator" or shovel is run through once in a week or 10 days to keep the ground open and free from weeds; and when the plants are too large for this process, the ground is once well hoed over and levelled. As soon as the blossoms are fairly formed, the tops are cut off down to the leaves that are 6 inches long, or still lower if the season is late. A number of the best plants should be reserved for seed, 100 being sufficient for a crop of 40,000 lbs. In two weeks after "topping" the plants are fit for cutting, though they may stand longer without injury. Until the leaves are cut and housed, the crop still requires great care to protect it from frost, to remove suckers that sprout from the base of each leaf, and to destroy worms which would otherwise devour the plants. The bottom or "ground leaves" are cut off and taken in before they become dry. The killing of the worms is a work of great labor, it being necessary to examine each plant, going over the whole field as far as practicable every morning and evening in order to break the eggs and kill such worms as may be found. A previous brood or "glut" of worms appears in the early part of the season, and to destroy these flocks of turkeys are let into the field, which devour the worms with great avidity, and kill many more than they can eat, seemingly enjoying the sport. When the leaves begin to turn yellow, the stalks are cut off close to the ground, where they are left for a short time to "fall" or wither before they are taken to the tobacco house. Here they are hung upon pegs or spears run through the stalks and left to dry. Sometimes the stalks are split with a knife from the top to within a few inches of the bottom before they are cut down for housing, when they are hung upon sticks which are suspended upon the joists of the tobacco house

12 or 15 inches apart. After the leaves have turned yellow, the drying is sometimes hastened by fires upon the floor of the house; but the process is better effected by the admission of plenty of air in dry weather in roomy houses provided with windows and doors, by the closing of which rain and dampness are excluded. When the tobacco is well dried and cured, the leaves are stripped from the stalk in mild damp weather, the leafstalks then becoming soft and pliant. The stripping, when systematically performed, employs several persons called "cullers" in succession. The first pulls off the defective bottom and worm-eaten leaves, and throws the plant to the next, who strips off all the bright leaves, and passes it to the third, who removes the rest, which are known as the "dull" leaves; and each as he accumulates leaves enough ties them in bundles of ¦ or ¦ of a pound in each, using one of the leaves as a wrapping for each bundle, and tucking the end in the middle of the bundle in order to confine it. The next operation is what is called "bulking" the tobacco, which is the final drying applied to each of the sorted kinds separately. The bundles are laid up in piles, generally between two logs laid parallel to each other and about 30 inches apart, the space between being filled with sticks to keep the bundles from the dampness of the ground. Upon these the bundles are smoothly laid with care crosswise, the buts outside and the tops lapping over each other in the middle. When raised to a convenient height, the bulk is covered with a few sticks to keep it in place. If found to heat from incipient fermentation, the bundles are to be taken down and laid again more loosely than before; and it may be necessary to hang them up in the house to become properly dried or "conditioned" for packing. When so dry that the bundles crack under pressure, advantage must be taken of the first damp weather, when the leaves become somewhat pliable, to pile them closely in larger and higher bulks under considerable pressure, in which condition they may safely remain for any time before packing in hogsheads. The legal dimensions of the tobacco hogshead in Maryland are 40 inches across the head and 52 inches deep, and the capacity is 800 lbs.; that of the hogshead of Virginia, Missouri, and Kentucky is 1,200 lbs., and of Ohio 750 lbs. The bundles are laid in uniformly in "courses" or layers, and are closely packed down by a man inside, who presses them with his knees and occasionally stamps upon them, with caution however not to break the bundles. Mechanical power is also applied at intervals, and continued several hours at a time, to compress the tobacco in the hogsheads. The filling of these completes the preparation of the leaf tobacco for the market. The production to the acre is usually from 600 to 700 lbs. According to the U. S. census returns for 1850, the product in Virginia averaged in that year 660 lbs; in Maryland, 650 lbs.; in Kentucky, 575 lbs.; in

Ohio, 730 lbs.; in Tennessee, 750 lbs.; in Missouri, 775 lbs. The total number of acres in cultivation throughout the country was 400,000, which at an average of 600 lbs. to the acre would produce 240,000,000 lbs. The gross value of the product for that year was estimated at $13,982,686.—The tobacco packed in hogsheads is ready for transportation either to Europe or to the factories in the states in which it is converted into cigars, or into the forms of cut and roll tobacco for chewing and smoking in pipes, or into snuff. Of the European consumption of tobacco it is estimated that about are furnished by the United States; and of that consumed in France from to are from this country. This product is in request for chewing tobacco and snuff, while the milder sorts obtained from Cuba and from the interior countries of Europe are preferred for smoking. In many of the European countries the manufacture of tobacco is a very important business. In France the manufacture employs about 15,000 persons, who produce annually about 60,000,000 lbs. of manufactured articles of tobacco. The net profit realized by the state amounted in 1859 to 178,752,541 francs. In Holland the first class factories, of which the larger number are at Rotterdam and Amsterdam, are said to employ above a million of persons, the principal market for the products being in Germany. Large amounts are exported to Great Britain, notwithstanding the article is subject to a duty of 72 cts. per lb. and 5 per cent. additional, and there also gives employment to great numbers of operatives. Only 13 ports in England, 3 in Scotland, and 10 in Ireland are allowed to receive tobacco, and it must be brought by vessels of at least 120 tons. The casks as they are received are conveyed to the bonding warehouses, where every one is opened and its contents are examined. By taking out the head and loosening some of the staves, the whole hogshead is removed from the tobacco, and any injured portions are cut away by a powerful instrument, and the remainder is weighed and repacked. The duty is levied only on this portion, and the damaged is immediately consumed in a furnace on the premises. Taken to the factory, the bundles are dug out in masses with iron instruments, and being moistened with water (to which the French add its weight of sea salt, first dissolved in licorice juice in which a few figs have been boiled, together with bruised anise seeds, &c.), the bundles are easily separated from each other, and also the leaves. If the stalks have not been previously removed, this is now done by women or boys, who fold the leaf along the middle and strip out the midrib by a small instrument. The leaves may then be sorted according to their different qualities, the same plant affording leaves of different colors and flavors; and it is only by attention to this that certain manufacturers retain the reputation they have acquired for their peculiar products. To form

cut tobacco, the leaves are made up into large cakes, which are cut into shreds or filaments by the action of machines similar in principle to straw-cutters, and worked sometimes by horse power and sometimes by steam. The machines can be regulated to make finer or coarser filaments as desired. In this condition the tobacco is ready to be converted into the various forms for chewing or smoking purposes. The dark-colored leaves, made still darker by the liquoring process, produce the coarse variety called shag, and the better sorts are converted by spinning processes into cords variously folded or twisted, and distinguished by different names. The term "negro head" is applied to coarse rolls of this tobacco weighing 6 or 8 lbs. each. The variety known as "pigtail" is also a spun tobacco, the cord being but little larger than a pipe stem, and the leaves being flavored previous to spinning by the application of a certain sauce or sweet saline liquor, which gives to them a peculiar color and flavor. This variety is often covered with what are called robes, made of the largest and strongest leaves after the removal of the midrib. In the United States a great deal of tobacco, intended chiefly for home consumption, after being cut up, is made into flat cakes, which are moistened with molasses and powerfully compressed. These cakes are about 5 inches long and 1 wide, and when closely packed in the strong oak boxes in which they are sent to market, they adhere together, forming a compact mass, from which the cakes are torn out only by the application of considerable force. This, known as plug or Cavendish tobacco, is in common use for chewing, and is smoked in pipes by those who are fond of tobacco of the strongest flavor.-The leaf stalks separated in the first manufacturing operation are preserved to be converted into snuff, and are used either alone or mixed with leaves. Some kinds of snuff are also made wholly from the leaves; and many varieties are formed from fanciful mixtures of tobaccos of different countries, with the addition of leaves of other plants, as of the rose, together with other ingredients, as rosewood dust, common salt, and various drugs. The tobacco is well dried previous to grinding, and this is sometimes carried so far as to give to the snuff the peculiar scorched flavor of the "high-dried" snuffs. The grinding is effected in mills of different sorts, one kind of which, much used for this and similar operations, is a form of the Chilian mill, described under that title; small mortars are also used, the pestles of which are kept rolling round by machinery. The subsequent sifting is also effected by machinery. Snuff is much more largely consumed in Great Britain than in the United States; but in the former country its use has considerably fallen off of late years, while that of cigars and of shag or cut tobacco is constantly increasing. The principal snuff factories are in London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Leeds in England; Glas

gow and Edinburgh in Scotland; and Dublin and Cork in Ireland. The last produce the high-dried snuff, which is much esteemed in Ireland. In Scotland the rappee snuff is preferred, the so called Scotch snuff being used by women chiefly of the lower classes.-Next to the United States the principal tobacco-producing countries of the world are some of the West India islands and of the states of Central and South America, as Cuba, Hayti, Brazil, Peru, &c.; in the East Indies, Manila, Java, China, &c. Asia Minor, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, the southern part of Russia, Holland, Belgium, all the states of Germany, many of the departments of France, Algeria, Corsica, and upper Savoy, are all somewhat noted for the culture of the plant. The total production of the world has been estimated as follows: Asia, 399,900,000 lbs.; Europe, 281,844,500; America, 248,280,500; Africa, 24,300,000; Australia, 714,000; making in all 995,039,000 lbs. The product and importations from the United States of some of the European countries are presented in the following table:

The French manufacturers give the following characters. to the tobaccos they employ: the Virginian, strong, very aromatic, and much esteemed for snuff; the Kentucky, strong, large-leaved, very choice; the Maryland, light, odoriferous, large-leaved, used exclusively for smoking in pipes; the Havana, unequalled for cigars; the Java, used for the same purpose, its odor like that of pepper; other tobaccos from the West Indies and Central and South America, used for cheap cigars. The tobaccos from the Levant are little esteemed. The Holland product has much strength, and is excellent for snuff mixed with weaker sorts. The Hungarian varieties are used for cigars and smoking tobaccos. Some of the French departments produce tobacco used exclusively for cigars, and other varieties used only for pipes. Some of the Algerian tobacco raised by the Arabs is equal to any obtained in America, but a large portion of the product from that country is of inferior quality.-TOBACCo TRADE. Tobacco, being an article of very general consumption, and yet not a necessity, has been selected by many of the European governments as a peculiarly appropriate commodity on which to raise a revenue. Some of these