A Treatise on Tobacco, Tea, Coffee, and Chocolate. Simon Paulli
the Abuse of it, which we shall afterwards consider, is intolerable, and highly noxious. Besides, Monardus, Ægidius Everartus, in 1587, at Antwerp, published a beautiful Commentary upon the Virtues and Uses of Tobacco: And when the same Work was reprinted at Utrecht in 1644, various Treatises concerning Tobacco were added to it; such as the Misocapnus, or a Treatise on the Abuse of Tobacco, taken from the Works of King James the Sixth of England; Tobacologia Johannis Neandri. Epistolæ ac Judicia clarissimorum aliquot Medicorum; and the Hymnus Tabaci Raphaelis Thorii. After these Authors appeared Chrysostomus Magnenus, Professor of Medicine in the University of Padua, who in 1648, published very learned Exercitations concerning Tobacco. Not only from the Authors already mentioned, but also from Andreas Cæsalpinus; Dalechampius's Historia generalis Plantarum; Lobelii Adversaria, Clusius in his Notæ ad Monardum; Dodonæus; Tabernamontanus; Nardi Antonii Recchi Res Medicæ Novæ Hispaniæ, cum Terentii Lyncei Notis, we learn what is the native Soil of Tobacco, and how the knowledge of it was introduced into Europe after the Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and Americus Vesputius. Some of these Authors have also described its Virtues and Use, whilst others of them have treated very fully concerning the Abuse of it. Following the Example of these great Men, I shall proceed, without any Partiality, and with that Freedom which is always peculiar to Truth. This is certainly a difficult Attempt, considering the Opposition and Prejudice with which I have to grapple. But before I proceed, I shall take Notice of the Error of Libavius, who, according to Magnenus in Exercitat. 1. Par. 1. asserts, that Tobacco was a Native of Europe, since it was found in the almost inaccessible Places of the Hercynian Forest: But adds this Author, Who denies that Seeds are dispersed, and carried every where by the Winds? But it is by no means probable, that the Seeds of Tobacco, which, comparatively speaking, are as small as the Atoms of Democritus, could, by a Whirlwind, be conveyed to the Hercynian Forest in Germany, from France, Italy, or Spain, much less from America. This is a Plant of a particular specific Kind, and the Native of America: Neither does any Historian mention such a Whirlwind for the Dispersion of its Seeds. It is true, Mount Ætna in Sicily, and Mount Hecla in Iceland, by their sulphureous Eruptions, throw the Ashes to a vast Distance: But it does not to me seem probable, that the Air should ever be in such a gyratory Motion, as to convey Seeds from one Quarter of the World to another, or from one Country to another, though it is not to be denied but they may be carried from a Plain to a rising Ground, or from one Garden to another adjacent to it.
Those Authors, who have called Tobacco Herba rixosa, the Strife-producing Herb, and Herba insana, the Plant which excites Madness, seem not to have been very much in the wrong; for what is more frequent than for People of all Denominations to spend the whole of the Day smoaking Tobacco in Ale-Houses and Taverns? Nay, so fond are young and old Men of Tobacco, that the Father forgets the Interests of the Son, and the Son those of the Father for its Sake. Thus some Men use large Quantities of Tobacco, whilst, perhaps, their Families are starving at Home: Whereas some Children spend upon Tobacco what their industrious Parents had, with Toil and Care, amassed for their Use. Nay, such is the Madness of some Europeans, that they will, for a Trifle, dispose of their Goods, in order to gratify themselves with Tobacco.
King James the Sixth of England tells us, "that, among the Americans, a Servant addicted to the Smoaking of Tobacco, can hardly find a Purchaser; so odious is that Custom to the Authors of it themselves." We Europeans, however, are so infatuated and hood-winked, as yearly to sail to America, spare no Expences, and expose ourselves not only to Storms and Tempests, but also to Sickness and Death, for the Sake of Tobacco; and it is certain, that our Men, on their Return from America, spread through all Europe the Neapolitan Disease, which, as Fiorovanta thinks, was endemial to the Americans, on Account of their eating human Flesh. This, to use the Phrase of Agrippa, de Vanitat. Scientiarum, Cap. 84. is to purchase Death at a great Price. The Indians and Barbarians have such an Aversion to the Abuse of Tobacco, that they severely chastise the Ethiopians and Slaves for it, and burn their Tobacco; probably, because they suspect that it renders them valetudinary, and disables them to work; in which Situation they are a Burthen upon their Masters. According to Viganenus, in Lib. de Ritibus Moribusq; Turcarum; and Johannes Chrysostomus Magnenus, in Exercitat. de Tabac. Exercit. 6. §. 10. Amureth, the 4th Emperor of the Turks, by an Edict, prohibited the Use of Tobacco, under Pain of Death, lest, by the Abuse of it, his Subjects should become effeminate, feeble, and barren. According to Adamus Olearius, in Lib. 3. Cap. 6. the Emperor of Muscovy, in 1634, by an Edict prohibited the Importation of Tobacco and Snuff into his Territories, under the Penalty of being beat with Rods, and having the Nostrils slit in Case of Disobedience: And the same Author says, he saw some who had these Marks of Infamy inflicted upon them. In Lib. 5. Cap. 31. he also tells us, that Schach Abas, the Persian Monarch, prohibited all Use of Tobacco in that Army, which he raised against Tameran Chan under the Penalty of the Offender's having his Nose and Lips cut off; nay, he was so rigid, or rather cruel in his Discipline, that when a certain Persian, ignorant of the Edict, came into his Camp with some Tobacco to sell, he ordered both him and his Commodities to be thrown into one Funeral Pile and burnt.
These, and other similar Examples, might perhaps have a lucky Influence on some Europeans, unless the Custom of using Tobacco had become so prevalent and universal, that James the Sixth said he believed "that a whole Wood in England would hardly afford Trees enough for hanging the Dealers in Tobacco." Hoffman, in Lib. 2. de Medicam Officinal. Cap. 3. informs us, "that this Prince, in the University of Oxford, disputed publickly against the Use of Tobacco, giving Instances of Persons who used it, who were afflicted with incurable Disorders of the Breast, Deliriums, Watchings, and Convulsions; and after whose Death, the Lungs were found black and parched, just as if they had been indurated in Smoak." The same Hoffman informs us, that he was told by some Soldiers who had resided in Holland, "that upon dissecting the Heads of some Snuff-takers, who had been executed, they observed, that the whole internal Part of what Anatomists call the Patera of the Brain, was black with Snuff." He was also told by Patricius Noræus, "that in the last Bohemian War, he saw all the Heads of the English Soldiers, who were killed, in the same Condition." Nardus Antonius Recchus, in Lib. 5. Rer. Medicar. Nov. Hisp. observes, "that those who use Tobacco too frequently, become ill coloured, have a squalid, sordid Tongue, a Palpitation of the Throat, and a preter-natural Heat of the Liver, and fall into Cachexies and Dropsies, by which they are at last cut off." Thus they suffer for their Folly in gratifying themselves in so preposterous a Manner.
But without expatiating farther upon Things so obvious, let it suffice to have warned the Reader of his Danger, by the foregoing Observations. That Smoaking is more prejudicial and injurious than Snuffing, I think may be justly asserted, if we consider the Instances which Anatomists give us of the Effects produced by each, which we shall hereafter do: I must, however, here observe, that we cannot enough admire the Zeal of James the Sixth of England, for the Good of his Subjects; since, in the last Words of his Misocapnus, he expostulates with them in the following pathetic and affectionate Manner: "At last, therefore, O Citizens, if you have any Sense of Shame, or Dread of Infamy, left in your Bosoms, lay aside the Use of Tobacco, a Custom attended with Ignominy, received through Error, and established by Stupidity. By its Means the Wrath of Heaven is excited against us, the Health of our Bodies impaired, our Substance wasted, and the Dignity of our Nation not only diminished at Home, but also despised Abroad; for Tobacco is a Substance loathsome to the Sight, disagreeable to the Smell, noxious to the Brain, injurious to the Lungs, and, by its Clouds of black Smoak, nearly resembling the horrid Steams of Hell."
If any Champion for the Interests of Tobacco, deaf to my salutary Instructions, should ask me whether I would have the Pope, the Emperor, and all the Kings, Electors, Princes, and Dukes in Europe, prohibit and discharge the Use of Tobacco? I answer, that such a Revolution is really to be wished for, on Account of the Abuses of Tobacco before enumerated. But, before I proceed to give a fuller Answer, I would have the Person who asks this Question, attentively listen to the following sublime and truly noble Sentiments of Seneca, in Lib. de Vita Beata, Cap. 1. "Nothing,