In almost every civilized country tobacco is heavily taxed. In the United States there is not only a heavy import duty, but an internal revenue in addition. In Austria, France, Italy, Japan, and Spain the manufacture and sale is in the hands of the government. The consumption of tobacco varies greatly. In the Netherlands it averages about seven pounds a year to each individual; in the United States it is more than four pounds; in central Europe, three pounds; in Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, and Italy, it is less than two pounds. =Opium.=--The opium of commerce is the hardened juice obtained from the seed capsules of several species of the poppy-plant. A variety having a large capsule (_Papaver somniferum_) is most commonly cultivated for the commercial production of the substance. Half-a-dozen times during the season the capsules are scratched or cut; the juice exuding when hard is picked or scraped off and pressed into cakes. Opium is not only a narcotic poison, but it has the property of lessening the pain of disease, and this is its chief use in medicine. In Mohammedan countries where the use of alcoholic liquors is forbidden as a religious custom, opium is used as a substitute. In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt the production of opium is an important industry connected with social and religious life. In British India it is a political factor, being extensively cultivated as a government monopoly to be sold to the Chinese, who are probably the chief consumers of it. The Indian Government derives a revenue sometimes reaching twenty million dollars from this source. The best quality of opium is marketed at Smyrna, and most of this is purchased by the United States. A considerable amount of Chinese opium is imported for the use of the Chinese, and a larger amount is probably smuggled over the Canadian and Mexican borders. Laudanum is an alcoholic tincture, and morphine an extractive of opium; both are used as medicine. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION Consult a good physiology and learn the effects of coffee, tea, tobacco, and opium. Where and what are the following: Mocha, Java, Maracaibo, Yokohama, Amoy, Canton, Oaxaca, Hodeida, Rio Janeiro, Santos, Havana; how is each connected commercially with this chapter? From the map, Fig. 1, trace the route of a cargo of tea overland from China to Great Britain. Consult an English history or a cyclopaedia and learn about the opium war. FOR STUDY AND REFERENCE Obtain samples of the following, preserving them for study and inspection in closely stoppered vials: Mocha, Java, Rio, and Sumatra coffees; green, black, and gunpowder tea. Soak a tea-leaf a few minutes in warm water; unroll the leaf and attach it to a white card, for study. Obtain samples of gum opium, laudanum, and morphine; note the odor of the first two and the taste of the last. Remember that they are poisonous. Unroll a cheap cigarette and note the character of the tobacco in it, using a magnifying glass. CHAPTER XI