The leaves of the three plants lately noticed—namely, thorn-apple or stramonium, belladonna, and henbane—are made up in the form of cigarettes; and the first of these also as cigars, to be smoked by asthmatic persons, for their soothing and sedative effects. These are all made and consumed extensively on the continent, and may be procured in many parts of London. They have also been recommended to those _not_ asthmatical, as pleasant, harmless, and containing all the narcotising influences of a good cigar. They may be considered as truly narcotic substitutes for tobacco; but at the present rate at which they are sold, although not subject to either customs or excise, there is but little fear of their interfering prejudicially with the sale of the genuine article. In face of the facts already detailed, a good amount of courage seems necessary to make the attempt, lest they should prove cumulative in their action. Dr. Christison says, when writing of these narcotics, “The action of such poisons is not always, however, entirely thrown away; they still produce some immediate effect; and further, by being frequently taken, they may slowly bring on certain diseases, or engender a predisposition to disease. A very singular exception to this rule prevails in the instance of tobacco, which, under the influence of habit, may be smoked daily to a considerable amount, and, so far as appears, without any cumulative effect on the constitution, like that of opium-eating or drinking spirits.” It does not appear that hitherto the leaves of the purple foxglove (_Digitalis purpurea_) have been used in the same form, or for any other than purely medicinal purposes; but it possesses narcotic powers equal to the others, and, in excess, produces equally fatal results, such as delirium, convulsions, and insensibility. A fatal case which occurred in 1826 became the ground of a criminal trial, in which death took place in twenty-two hours, having been preceded by convulsions and insensibility. An enumeration of the various other narcotics which enter into combination with other substances in the production of beverages, such as the hop and its substitutes, forming no part of the plan of this work, would be uninteresting without further details. Nor would a list of such narcotics as are used merely in _materia medica_ answer any useful end. Fuller particulars would only convert this into a toxicological treatise, interesting to none but medical students, for whom ample information is provided in the libraries to which they have access. CHAPTER XXV. THE EXILE OF SIBERIA. “Vilibus ancipites fungi ponentur amicis; Boletus domino.”——JUVENAL.