xt731z41rv72 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt731z41rv72/data/mets.xml Steinmetz, Andrew, 1816-1877. 1857  books b98-50-42629663 English R. Bentley, : London : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Tobacco. Tobacco: its history, cultivation, manufacture, and adulterations  : its use considered with reference to its influence on the human constitution / by Andrew Steinmetz. text Tobacco: its history, cultivation, manufacture, and adulterations  : its use considered with reference to its influence on the human constitution / by Andrew Steinmetz. 1857 2002 true xt731z41rv72 section xt731z41rv72 









































OuQr regio in ferris nostri non plena vaporis "


Gods would have reve/i'd at their feasts of Mirth
With this Spre distillation of the Earth-
The Marrow of the World, Starre of the West,
The Pearle whereby this lower Orbe is blest-
The Yoy of Mortals, U.mpire of all Strife,
Delight of Nature, Aithridate of Life-
The daintiest dish of a delicious Feast,
By taking wzAzich AMan differs from a Beast."



 -'111I"  j  !
4e ,,," -,/ I
     -                  
"!P A t -A 7U. II

 




         TO    BAC       00:



ITS HISTORY, CULTIVATION, MANUFACTURE,
          AND ADULTERATIONS.



 ITS USE CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO ITS INFLUENCE
           ON THE HUMAN CONSTITUTION.



                   BY

       ANDREW STEINMETZ, ESQ.,



    OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.












               LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
                  1857.

 





















  "A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to
the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume
thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoake of the pit
that is bottomlesse."-THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTIE PRINCE JAMEDS,
By THE GRACE OF GOD KONG OF GREAT BRITAIN. Anno Domini, 1616.


       Thy quiet spirit lulls the lab'ring brain,
        Lures back to thought the flights of vacant mirth,
      Consoles the Mourner, soothes the couch of Pain,
        And breathes Contentment round the hnmble hearth;
      While savage Warriors, soften'd by thy breath,
      Unbind the Captive hate had doom'd to death."
                                 THE REV. WALTER COTTON.


  "Bread or Tobacco may be neglected, but reason at first recommends
their trial, and custom makes them pleasant."-LocKE.



LONDON: PrRNTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
                   AND CIlARING CBOSS.

 








             PRE F ACE.




    "Have you not set mine honour at the stake,
    And baited it with all the unmuzzled thoughts
      That tyranmous heart can think"
                                  Twelfth Night, iii. 1.

IN the ' Times' paper of Friday, Feb. 9th inst.,
the following notice appeared in the column of
minor facts and memoranda:-

  "Is SMOKING INJURIOUS TO HEALTH -An interesting
discussion is now going on in 'The Lancet' upon the
effects of smoking. The use of tobacco has, during the
last half-century, greatly increased in England, and has
now become an almost universal practice. This question,
in which the leading members of the medical profession
are taking part, must not only greatly interest the public,
but may very materially affect the revenue of this country,
when it is known that the income derived from the con-
sumption of tobacco was last year upwards of 32,192,9431.
-the duty on which was more than 5,220,0001. This
return is independent of cigars, which was about 150,0001.
An able article on the tobacco question appears in 'The
Lancet' of the present week by Mr. Solly, F.R.S., of St.
Thomas's Hospital, which will be read with interest by all
inveterate smokers."



a 2

 

PREFACE.



  Having vigorously and robustly lived in this
category -an inveterate smoker-for the last
twenty years of my life, the question concerned
me nearly. That the tide of this " interesting
discussion" was running  against " inveterate
smokers, " indeed against the gentle weed, was
but too apparent from the notice. I had lately
read a ridiculous pamphlet, by a Mr. Lizars,
against tobacco.  Could that pamphlet have
originated the " discussion" I thought not;
for it had seemed to me, perhaps erroneously, to
belong to that class of publications by which
credulous men are entrapped into the hands of
those who pretend to know infallibly the cause
of their secret and other ailments, and ultimately
find themselves in a position which few like to
disclose for the benefit of the public. But per-
haps some " new discovery " had been made by
these men of the lancet  Perhaps this Mr.
Solly, populi contemnere voces solitus, has at last
been enabled to establish an overwhelming
BEWARE against the universe in the matter of
smoking!   .  .
  I procured the 'Lancet,' read Mr. Solly's



1V

 


PREFACE.



" able article," and found it in substance a mere
reproduction of Mr. Lizars in his pamphlet; the
same old charges which, two hundred years ago,
were found frivolous and unsupported by fact.
       " Veterem ranag cecinre querelam! "

  I know not whether Mr. P. B. St. John be
still in the land of the living: if it be not con-
trary to his wishes I hope he is, were it only to
grin sardonically at the fulfilment of a prophecy
which he made some thirteen years ago, as the
"Old Smoker," vates sacer, in 'Bentley's Mis-
cellany.'
  " How many times," he exclaimed, " in the swamps of
the Far West have I escaped malaria, yellow fever, ague,
perhaps death, by the unsparing use of the weed! and yet,
doubtless, ere long some netw Father Mathew will open a
crusade against the article ! We opine, however, that the
vapourings of the anti-tobaccoites would turn out a bottle
of smoke." 

  Mr. Solly, F.R.S., has constituted himself the
Father Mathew of this crusade, and the field of
his operations is-the universe.
  Vain, unprofitable waste of words and nervous



 See 'Bentley's Miscellany,' March, 1844.



v

 

PREFACE.



energy, if it does not put money in the till of the
'Lancet'! He may reproduce the contents of
the hundred volumes which have been written
against tobacco; he can add nothing which was
not said before; the weed defies him, will bear
the brunt of his battle, will conquer him and reign
on for ages, until a superior to it shall take its
place as a social and moral modificator.
  Parliament may fearlessly proceed to cut down
the D Schedule of the income - tax without
dreading a diminution in the patriotic aid of
Nicotiana. And, if of two countries, with an
equal amount of population, the wealthiest and
most highly civilised will consume the greatest
weight of soap; if it be no exaggeration to say
that we may fairly judge of the commercial
prosperity of a country from the amount of sul-
phuric acid it consumes; we may most assuredly
add, that the consumption of tobacco will always
advance with the increase of population, in spite
of medical or any other hurnbug.t


   Liebig, ' Letters on Chemistry,' Letter III.
  t It appears that our population-increase of last Tear was
at the rate of a thousand a-day. The doctors in the 'Lancet'



VI

 



PREFACE.



vii



  " That most extraordinary plant tobacco," says Dr.
Paris, " notwithstanding its powers of fascination, has
suffered romantic vicissitudes in its fame and character.
It has been successively opposed and condemned by phy-
sicians-condemned and eulogised by priests and kings-
proscribed and protected by governments; whilst at length
this once insignificant production of a little island, or an
obscure district, has succeeded in diffusing itself through
every climate, and in subjecting the inhabitants of every
country to its dominion. The Arab cultivates it in the
burning desert-the Laplander and Esquimaux risk their
lives to procure a refreshment so delicious in their wintry
solitude-the seaman, grant him but this luxury, and he
will endure with cheerfulness every other privation, and
defy the fury of the raging elements; and in the higher
walks of civilised society, at the shrine of fashion, in the
palace, and in the cottage, the fascinating influence of this
singular plant commands an equal tribute of devotion and
attachment." 

   Were Dr. Paris alive I opine he would think
this movement of Mr. Solly and his confraternity

face this fact with a newspaper report of a great diminution
in the normal increase of the population of France, and
actually ascribe it to the use of tobacco! But sauce for a
goose is sauce for a gander, and our thousand a-day is a tole-
rably rich one, in spite of tobacco-juice. If the doctors and
others would like to get some wholsesome knowledge on the
important subject of population-increase, I beg to refer them
to Dr. Levy's ' Traite d'Hygiene Publique et Priv&e, ii. 736
et seq., just published at Paris. Many a smoker with a large
and increasing family would, perhaps, be glad if the fumes
of tobacco could diminish his superabundant energies.
    Pharmacologia, p. 81.

 

viii                PREFACE.

a " rash fierce blaze " of honesty indeed! For
the time is unfortunate for medical opinion. At
the late great trial at the Old Bailey medical
opinion cut a very sorry figure. The public was
astounded to hear one doctor swear his belief that
the death was caused by "epileptic convulsions
with tetanic complications ;" another, that it was
the natural result of " angina pectoris ," a third,
yea and a fourth, that they did not know the cause
of the death ! Is this a way to convince the public
mind that medical opinion may be respectfully
received and gratefully complied with  . . .
   Mr. Solly has flagrantly transgressed the
bounds of propriety. I cannot refrain from here
quoting, with much disgust, two items of his in-
comprehensible excitement.   He says,-

  " I may be told that a certain exalted personage, whose
kindness of disposition is only equalled by his moral and
physical courage in the discharge of all his duties, smokes
habitually without detriment. I can only say, God grant
that it may not shorten his valuable ljfe and impair his
nervous system."

  Again, even still more painful to read-
  " I once knew a young clergyman who could only write
his sermons under the stimulus of tobacco, and there is no

 

PREFACE.



question that these discourses were brilliant, eloquent, and
most interesting to listen to; but the end of that man is
not yet come."

  This may be merely bad taste, senile weak-
ness, blatant imbecility; but it is nevertheless
very unkind to try and frighten a man, especially
when a doctor is the ogre. I know not who the
  certain exalted personage " happens to be, but
the mawkish sentimentalism, the twaddle of this
insidious prophet, must meet with its merited con-
tempt from the exalted personage, since he can
point to the late Duke of Sussex, who was an
inveterate smoker to the last, and died comfort-
ably in a good old age. And with regard to the
still more Spurgeonite "turn or burn" warning
given to the clergyman, the latter may think of
the celebrated Dr. Parr-not the doctor of the
life-pills-but the liberal-minded clergyman who
died in 1825, beyond the scriptural age, namely,
in his seventy-eighth year, of whom his medical
friend and biographer says, that he "had fallen
ripe and in due season ;" and this friend, Dr.
John Johnston, F.R.S., and Fellow of the
Royal College of Physicians of London, re-



ix

 


PREFACE.



marks as follows on Dr. Parr's habit of smok-
ing ..-
  " Mr. Roderick now laments that he ever introduced the
pipe, from the excess in which Parr indulged in tobacco.
 . .I am not convinced that this habit was productive of
bad consequence to his health, though it was often incon-
venient to his friends. Tobacco has been called the
anodyne of poverty, and the opium of the Western world.
To Parr, whose nerves were extremely irritable, and sensi-
bility immoderate, perhaps it was a necessary anodyne.
It calmed his spirits; it assisted his private ruminations;
it was his companion in anxiety; it was his helpmate in
composition. Have not all seen him darkening the air
with its clouds, when his mind was labouring with
thought" 

  Now, Dr. Parr must have been rather more
than an inveterate smoker. Wolf states that
Dr. Parr used frequently to smoke as much as
twenty pipes of an evening: " er soll es manch-
mall an einem Abend, bis zu 20 pfeifen gebracht
baben." Dr. Johnston says that five pipes would
be nearer the mark; but the worthy old divine is
represented in his -portrait with an uncommonly
big clay-pipe in his band-one of those pipes
yclept aldermen, from their ventral capacity; and



 Memoirs of Dr. Parr, p. 815.



X

 

PREFACE.



every smoker knows how soon a pound of tobacco
vanishes into thin air when he tunes his thoughts
on such a capacious avena, however sweet it may
be ex magno tollere acervo.
   Moreover, Mr. Solly accredits the assumption
of his friend Mr. Lizars, in holding forth the
dread of impending mania to the unfortunate
smoker!
  This is a solemn matter. Let these men, and
the whole confraternity now scribbling in the
'Lancet,' beware of the terrible responsibilities they
incur in thus suddenly and with set purpose doing
their utmost to frighten the nation-to involve it
in terrors like that of a "nocturnal fear" and
" a noon-day devil "-from which no man can flee
in his utter bewilderment ! It is sometimes a
fearful thing to impart even an idea to certain
minds-nay, any unusual exhibition may often
involve serious mental results to a spectator.
Esquirol assures us that " a lady, being present
at a phantasmagoria, instantly imagined herself
surrounded with goblins; a young man, assisting
at an experiment, believes himself in subjection
to the electric-action which causes his imaginary



xi

 

Xmi                PREFACE.

tortures; a lady hears people talk of magnetism,
and she attributes her restless nights, her suffer-
ings, to the mesmerists!"   I refer these doctors
to the same author for a summary respecting
these "dominant ideas "  idees dominantes-flung
suddenly upon the minds of nations, and again I
tell them to beware lest they actually produce
psychologically what has never been produced
physically by the sole and proper use of tobacco.
  One word more on this tobacco-phohia of the
doctors. Do they really expect to persuade the
public to believe that they, the doctors, feel inte-
rested in the continued health of nations  If we
paid them, like the Chinese, for keeping us well,
the case would be altered: but our health would
be their starvation! And, if the immense majority
of our habitual ailments originate in corroding
cares and anxiety, the use of the soothing weed
is clearly the very arch-enemy of the doctors:-

   The passions of the mind," says Dr. Elliotson, " are a
frightful source of disease,-much more so than is com-
monly imagined. An immense number of cases of disease



 Esquirol, 'Des Maladies Mentales,' i. 43.

 


                    PREFACE.                   xiii

of the heart, and disease within the abdomen, as well as
of the brain itself, arise, I am certain, from unpleasant
passions of the mind." 

  To meet this state of life's necessary evils
Mr. Solly favours us with a question. He asks-
  " Would it not be far more manly, far nobler, far
more in accordance with the precepts of Christianity, if,
instead of smoking away our griefs, and stifling in the
pipe our angry passions, we met our difficulties with a
manly front, and conquered our evil tempers by the
force of our better nature Are not all troubles sent,"
&c.

  Unquestionably, Mr. Solly!       But remember
the words of Job :-

  " Should a wise man utter vain knowledge and fill his
belly with the east wind Should he reason with un-
profitable talk  or with speeches wherewith he can do no
good "-Job xv. 2.

  It took you ten years, as you say in your first
letter, before you gave up smoking, and found
yourself "more manly, nobler, and more           in
accordance with the precepts of Christianity."
Perhaps all of us will thus, in time, rise to your



 Practice of Medicine, p. 36.

 


PREFACE.



grand eminence, aided by those wise reflections
suggested by Nicotiana in our griefs and troubles
-a consummation most devoutly to be wished;
and we congratulate you, Mr. Solly, on the
thought of having already attained it.
  I am quite sure that Dean Swift or Hamlet
would " smell a rat " on this occasion in the dark
chamber of the medical mind.
  "I declare my conscientious opinion," says Dr. James
Johnson, " founded on long observation and reflection, that,
if there were not a single physician, surgeon, apothecary,
man-midwife, chemist, druggist, or drug on the face of the
earth, there would be less sickness and less mortality than
now prevail." 
  Perhaps this opinion may be shared by others
in and out of the profession; whilst, if I frankly
admit my misgivings of the medical body in
general, I cannot but feel and express high es-
teem of many amongst them, who in all times
have deserved well of mankind by their labours.
Instructed at an early age for the healing art, I
learnt to venerate the function-as high as any


 Quoted from 'Medical Confessions of Medical Murder,'
published by the "British College of Health," the dissenting
branch of the Faculty.



Xiv

 

PREFACE.



allotted to man. Since then I have been always
familiar with the leading authors on their time-
honoured shelves; but I cannot, for that very
reason, close my eyes and obscure my under-
standing to the rampant fact of medical fallacies,
medical mistakes, medical obtuseness, and, I may
add, medical special pleading, and worse, with
which we have all become painfully acquainted.
  In this matter of tobacco I behold a frivolous
discussion arising from a very trivial cause-the
expression of an opinion against smoking by Mr.
Solly, in one of his lectures delivered to his pupils.
This was sharply noticed and commented on by
some anonymous writer- then others replied, as
usual-swelling crescendo the subject upon the
public ear with " Is smohinq injurious "-then
" The tobacco question "-and at last " The GREAT
tobacco question "-with ' Lancet '-editions rave-
nously exhausted, out of print, at a premium,
&C. &c. &c.
  Should the following pages tend to impart sound
knowledge of the subject, my pleasant labour,
though severely hurried to meet the case, is
freely tendered ; and it will be some " returns "



TV

 




PREFACE.



of consolation to the weed of the world's admira-
tion, that she has been defended by one whom she
has befriended-that the doctors have been de-
tected by one whom she has disinfected-and,
finally, that it is no dishonour to dote upon her-

   " For 'tis a cause that bath no mean dependence
   Upon our joint and several dignities."

                        ANDREW STEINMETZ.



London, Feb. 16, 1857.



XV1

 






            TO B AC C O:

ITS HISTORY, CULTIVATION, MANUFACTURE,
           AND ADULTERATIONS.


              INTRODUCTION.

THE late Mr. Johnston, in his admirable work
' The Chemistry of Life,' traced the instinctive
advances of man through three successive stages
in ministering to his natural wants and cravings:
First, his provision of bread and beef; secondly,
fermented or alcoholic liquors, "to assuage the
cares of his mind, and to banish uneasy reflec-
tions ;" thirdly, " he strives to multiply his
enjoyments, intellectual and anirmal, and, for
the time, to exalt them" by the use of nar-
cotics.
  It is evident that this is merely the popular
view of the subject with regard to alcoholic
liquors and narcotics. As enlightened science
has demonstrated a much more important func-

 

TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY.



tion in the use of alcoholic liquors in the animal
system, perhaps the time will come when the
use of narcotics also will be rationally explained.
The substances which are adapted to the forma-
tion of blood renew the organised tissues of the
body; whilst another class of substances, in the
normal state of health, serve to support the pro-
cess of respiration. "The former may be called
the plastic elements of nutrition; the latter,
elements of respiration."  Amongst the latter
Liebig classes wine, beer, and spirits. "In all
chronic diseases death is produced by the chemical
action of the atmosphere. When those substances
are wanting whose function in the organism is
to support the process of respiration-namely,
fat, starch, gum, sugar of all kinds, wine, beer,
spirits ;-when the diseased organs are incapable
of performing their proper function of producing
these substances ;-when they have lost the power
of transforming the food into that shape in which
it may, by entering into combination with the
oxygen of the air, protect the system from its in-
filuence-then the substance of the organs them-
selves, the fat of the body, the substance of the



2

 

INTRODUCTION.



muscles, the nerves, and the brain, are unavoid-
ably consumed. The true cause of death in
these cases is the respiratory process, that is, the
action of the atmosphere.... The flame is extin-
guished because the oil is consumed; and it is
the oxygen of the air which has consumed it." 
In effect, life is but the battle of the animal or-
ganism with oxygen: death is the victory of the
latter; and it now appears that the forces with
which nature enables us to fight this everlasting
enemy are merely fat, starch, gum, the various
kinds of sugar, mine, beer, and spirits!  Respi-
ration is but the natural broad-sword encounter
of animality with oxygen-stroke for stroke it
gives and takes, and every respiration proclaims
a victory in the well-appointed system.
  If it be then conclusively proved that alcoholic
liquors are amongst the necessaries of life, after
having been so long considered merely adapta-
tions to assuage the cares of the mind and banish
uneasy reflections, may we not confidently expect

 See Liebig's admirable 'Letters on Chemistry,' first
series, Letters x. and vii. If the reader has not read the
work he had better do so without delay.
                                   B 2



3

 

TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY.



that the appointed function of tobacco, as fami-
liarly used by universal man, will some day be
as rationally explained and established  Every
country or tribe of human beings has had from
time immemorial its own peculiar narcotic, either
aboriginal or imported. The universal instinct
of the human race has led, somehow or other, to
the universal supply of this want or craving.
Tobacco in North America and the islands; the
thorn-apple, coca, tobacco, and hemp in South
America; hops and tobacco in Europe; hemp
in Africa; amanita, betel-nut, and tobacco in
Asia-nay, Mr. Johnston has mapped out the
universe, according to its latitude and longitude,
exhibiting the various narcotics in vogue amongst
its civilised or savage inhabitants. ' A Map of
the Distribution of Narcotics over the Globe!'
Such is the title; and we may ask how it came
to pass that the human instincts discovered the
uses to which those products of the earth might
be applied- tried them, and, finding them good,
have ever classed them effectually amongst the



 Johnston's ' Chemistry of Life,' No. vii.



4

 


INTRODUCTION.



5



necessaries of life   Shall we seek and ulti-
mately find an explanation in the undoubted
existence of countless millions of microscopic
anirnalculke which surround and penetrate us on
all sides-agents of disease, whose more visible
congeners we so easily exterminate for a time by
the aid of fuming narcotics, especially tobacco 
And shall we not be able ultimately to prove
that such narcotism is a prophylactic against
numberless miasmata perpetually coming into
existence in the universal economy of nature,


   No insect except the house-fly survives the fumes of
tobacco; and the exemption of the fly is a very striking fact,
worthy of consideration as to the subject of the text. The
fly itself is a prophylactic to man; an aerial scavenger, in-
cessantly urging through his delicate organs (which he fills
with copious draughts of water) every vestige of decompos-
iDg matter, and, by the incessant rapidity of his beautiful
gyrations, agitating and thus renewing the stagnant atmos-
phere of ill-ventilated apartments. Kill him by thousands,
and thousands take his place; for nature is more provident
of your welfare than you are yourself; nay, the very annoy-
ance he gives you provokes circulation in the blood, rendered
languid by the impure air which you breathe. He tells you,
on the part of nature, by his increased multitudes, that
pestilence is around you, or upon you. His importunity is
unquestionably the best "medical advice" you can take as
to putting your house within the riles of health. And it
was destined that tobacco-smoke should not interfere with
his important function!

 


TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY.



whose mighty advance takes but a small, though
adequate, cognizance of mere animal suffering
in her great inscrutable developments   For
my own part, I cannot believe that so universal
a habit-tending, as is proved, to increase with
the increase of populations-has been and is a
mere whim or fancy of self-indulging man; but
rather is one of those mysterious means by
which we are compelled, in spite of ourselves, or
with free-will and pleasure, to subserve the great
behests of Providence. Possibly indeed the de-
tractors of tobacco may have been saved from
many a malady by the conjoint indulgence of a
world of smokers. The very strength of the pro-
pensity assumes, it seems, considerable import-
ance in the solution of the problem. Where
nature gives a strong tendency, there must be a
strong reason in the cause-and still more when
she superadds a pleasure, like all other pleasures
of which we are conscious but can g;ive no ac-
count, after enjoyment, which is the peculiarity
of the smoker's pleasure-a point worthy of
philosophic consideration.



6

 

HISTORICAL.



                   PART I.

               H IS TO RIC AL.

DOUBTS have been advanced, and plausibly
supported, as to the alleged fact that the smoking
of tobacco was peculiar to the aborigines of
America. The plant, in its numerous varieties,
is known in every region of the globe, from the
equator to the sixtieth degree of latitude. It is
certain, however, that its use in Europe was bor-
rowed from the savage of America; and the
history of tobacco, in its adoption by civilised
man as a luxury, is as interesting to philosophical
contemplation as is the history of any of his re-
ligious or social extravagances. It has triumph-
antly resisted the ridicule of the mob, the ex-
communicating anathemas of the popedom, and
the penalties of kings-mutilation and death.
Never was there a more striking illustration of
the poet's text, Gens hiutnana ruit per vetitum
nefas. It seemed as though certain privileged



7

 

TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY.



thinkers, concluding that it was the " fire stolen
from the ethereal mansion," ascribed to its fur-
tive introduction all manner of ills that flesh is
heir to-macies et nova febrium colors; nay, the
very image of death by premature decay loomed
in the quivering smoke of the pipe, and horribly
grinned in its ashes - leti corripuit gradum!
Considering, the dreadful evils which civilised
man inflicted upon the man of nature all over
America, perhaps it was by a sort of retribution
that this " perilous stuff" was permitted to be
sent by Hernandez de Toledo into Spain and Por-
tugal in 1559-if persecution, pains, and penal-
ties be the instruments of Providence in the
hands of man; but if millions after millions of
the human race then for the first time quaffed a
pleasure unfelt before-a passing solace to the
mind's unrest-a thrill of comfort, contentment,
and submission, whilst calmly inhaling its mys-
terious cloud amidst the stern realities of life-
and meanwhile a prophylactic against the for-
midable distempers so often decimating Europe
-then certainly was good returned to us for
evil wantonly inflicted.



8

 

HISTORICAL.



  King James I., " the Most High and Mightie
Prince "--the British Solomon, as his courtiers
called him-Maistre Jacques, as he was dubbed
by Henry IV.-was amongst the first to denounce
the use of tobacco. A characteristic quotation
from his ' (Counterblaste, or Misocapnus,' has been
given on the back of the title-page. This royal
philippic, lusus regius, has been and is the favourite
theme for reproduction by those amongst the
moderns who feel a sort of vocation to denounce
the " weed;" but if they do not seek merely to
advertise their professional avocations, they should
remember that the moral opinions of James I.
can have no weight with any man who is ac-
quainted with the history of that royal pheno-
menon, who was himself "'a slave to vices which
could not fail to make him an object of disgust "
equal to that which he felt at the " stinking fume "
of tobacco ; and that better evidence than mere
assertion must be produced in a court where the
majority of mankind may or will be defendants.
  We may gather, however, from the king's tes-

   Raumer, ii. p. 200 et seq., giving contemporary vouchers;
also Winwood's ' Memorials,' ii.



9

 


10           TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY.

timony, the eagerness with which the herb was
adopted on all sides. He asks-

  "Is it not a great vanity that a man cannot heartily
welcome his friend now, but straight they must be in
hand with tobacco  no, it is become in place of a cure
[remedy] a point of good fellowship; and he that will
refuse to take a pipe of tobacco amongst his fellowes
(though by his own election he would rather feel the
savour of a sinke) is accounted peevish, and no good
company, even as they do with tippling in the cold eastern
countries. Yea, the mistress cannot in a more mannerly
kind entertain her servant than by giving him out of her
fair hand a pipe of tobacco.
  "Moreover, which is a great iniquity, and against all
humanity, the husband shall not be ashamed to reduce
thereby his delicate, wholesome, and clean-complexioned
wife to that extremity, that either she must also corrupt
her sweet breath therewith, or else resolve to live in a
perpetual stinking torment."

  Certainly this description of the prevalence of
the custom, if true, proves that the practice was
more general at that time-thirty years after its
introduction-than it is at the present day, though
far more costly, for the king states that " some of
the gentry bestow three and some four hundred
pounds a yeere upon this precious stinke "-repre-
senting a much greater value of the present
money.

 


HISTORICAL.



  Accordingr to Aubrey, the pipe was handed from
man to man round the table: tobacco " was sold
then for its wayte in silver. I have heard some
of our old yeomen neighbours say that, when they
went to Maifnesbury or Chippenham, they culled
their biggest shillings to lay in the scales against
the tobacco."
  In Mr. Solly's letter, published in the Lancet,
he repeats an absurd opinion put forth by a Mr.
Lizars, in his very slovenly and ill-written philip-
pic against tobacco. " I believe," says the doctor,
"if the habit of smoking in England advances as
it has done during the last ten or twelve years,
that the English character will lose that combina-
tion of energy and solidity which has hitherto
distinguished it, and that England will sink in the
scale of nations." Now, since it is quite evident
from the doctor's letter that he knows nothing
respecting the physiology of smoking-all his
long tirade being merely a tissue of opinions
without facts to support them-the announce-
ment is simply ridiculous, instead of being worthy
of deep consideration, as it would have been had
his whole letter not forcibly suggested the con-



11

 

TOBACCO: ITS HISTORY.



viction that it was the product of effete senility.
Still the striking fact to which the historian can
appeal would have fronted him at once; for, when
we call to mind what was achieved by the men of
England, at that time general smokers, by the
king's testimony, so soon after the latter went to
his long account, we may reasonably suppose that
the men of England were not deficient in " energy
and solidity." Again, the habit has been ever
since constantly increasing, especially in the
Navy, amongst the regular defenders of Eng-
land; and whatever was grandly done in the last
war was not prevented by the practice of smoking
and chewing; and our latest defenders abroad
may be safely pronounced to have, if possible,
surpassed their predecessors in " energy and so-
liditv." Alma, Inkermann, Balaklava, the Re-
dan, and the endurance of that never-to-be-for-
gotten Crimean winter and the infernal trenches,
should shame any man out of the very t