Narcotics and Stimulants.

Some curious statistics as to the consumption of narcotics and stimulants by the world in general are given in a late report of Mr. Jez Killebrew, the Commissoner of Agriculture in Tennessee. Paraguay tea, it is computed, is used by 10,000,000 human beings, cocoa by 10,000,000, chicory by 40,000,000, cocoa by 50,000,000, and coffee by 100.000,000. The consumers of betel are set down at 100,000,000, those of hashish at 300,000,000, and those of opium in one or another form at 400,000,000. These fingures are, however, eclipsed by the proportions of the demand for Chinese tea, which is said to be used by half a billion; while the consumers of tobacco are not only still more widely distributed, but present the astonishing aggregate of 800,000,000. According to a careful estimate prepared for this report, tobacco is more generally used than any other single article consumed by man. The United States in 1860 produced more than 430,000,000 lbs. of tobacco, but ten years afterwards the yield of the plantations had dwindled to about 260,000,000. The report does not state the exact quantity grown in any subsequent year; but it seems that the export alone in 1875 reached about 220,000,000 lbs., valued at more than 25.000,000 dols. According to the United States Bureau of Statistics, leaf tobacco valued at nearly 29,000.000 dols. was sent out of the country in the year ending 30th June, 1877. These figures would make tobacco rank sixth in the list of exported staples from the United States, cotton, breadstuffs, petroleum, and the precious metals alone exceeding it in importance. In 1875 the best customer of the United States for tobacco was Germany, who notwithstanding the large quantity grown in Prussia, took 50.000,000 lbs., while Great Britain, which produces none, took only 54,000,000.