To the Editor:—
Roland T. Smith, MD, wondered whatever became of Cubebs, and William Carlyon, PhD, supplied a part of the answer. He directed inquiries to "a number of manufacturers and distributors of tobacco-substitute products" but he forgot to ask me.Cubebs is a perfectly good word, right out of Webster's dictionary and the USP as late as the tenth edition of 1926, in which its last glory as a medicine ended. Earlier pharmacopeias listed a cubeb troche containing tolu, licorice, acacia, and the powdered almost ripe fruit of the Java pepper, not to mention a fluid extract and some other tasties.You don't kill off a good thing like the cubeb cigarette so easily. The Blosser Cigarette Company, Daytona, Fla, manufactures a "Blosser's Cigarette" which I believe to be the immediate and direct descendant of the Cubeb. You will recall that the tobacco cigarette in the k century was