St Nicotine of the Peace Pipe

by Edward Vincent Heward

We’ll cure ye all; Physick ye need not want,

Here, ’tis i’ th’ gummy inside of a plant.

—1670.

Though differences of temperament may not allow everyone the mild indulgence of the pipe, all are interested in learning that in the leaves of the Indian’s weed dwells a friendly genius ready to protect us from the virulent attacks of the myriad host of invisible life which floats around us, in some cases infecting the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. This assurance comes to us from the bacteriologist, whose experiments conducted under the microscope, demonstrate that contact with the smoke of tobacco destroys the vitality of microbes. Especially comforting is it to know this at the season of the year when the air lies heavily upon the land.

Here, then, we come upon ground interesting alike to the smoker and the non-smoker, for both will agree that it is infinitely better to let the weed spread its wings on the blast and breathe in the face of the foe than to go unprotected through unwholesome air laden, it may be, with noxious germs.

It is also gratifying to learn that our forefathers, in whose wisdom all right-minded people, of course, fondly believe, were not wholly wrong in their estimate of the manifold virtues of their beloved herb. With the largeness of faith which belongs equally to the infancy of research and the springtime of life, they believed with the implicit faith of childhood in its all-healing powers. And the learned in the secrets of Nature proclaimed to suffering humanity that out of the heart of the New World had come a remedy for all the ills that flesh is heir to. But if facts grew too strong for faith to grapple with, and overthrew their Dagon, this one consolation remains to testify to their just appreciation of the weed, namely, that it can, and does, destroy contagious germs.

Early in the seventeenth century, physicians at home and abroad had observed a connection between the use of tobacco and freedom from the dread pestilence which at times swept over the land. Doctors Gardiner and Lewis, Thorius and Diemerbroeck, Hoffman and Willis have left records of their experience of cases where tobacco proved to be efficacious, administered either in fume or liquor, lotions or unguents. No doubt their treatment was somewhat crude, and their concoctions (marvels of simplicity) were not always successful, and, needless to say, that modern therapeutics takes no account of their remedies. But their discovery that tobacco was destructive of insect life on animals as well as on vegetables, that it cleansed old wounds and sores and suffered them to heal ‘comfortably,’ surely redeems them from a multitude of sins committed in the name of tobacco.

Glancing back to the early records of its advent in Europe we come upon Liebault in 1570 discoursing pleasantly on the marvellous virtues of the herb, and learn of him that it owes its introduction into the fashionable world to Jean Nicot. He says, ‘Although it be not long since it hath been known in France, notwithstanding, deserveth palm and price, and among all other medicinable herbs it deserveth to stand in the front rank, by reason of its singular virtues, and, as it were, almost to be held in admiration, as hereafter you shall understand.… The herb is called Nicotiane, of the name of him that gave the first intelligence thereof into this realm—as many other plants have taken their name from certain Greeks and Romans, who, having been in strange countries for service of their commonweals, have brought into their countries many plants which were before unknown. Some have called it the Queen’s herb, because it was first sent to her, as hereafter shall be declared by the gentleman that was the first inventor of it, and since has by her been given to divers people for to sow, whereby it might be planted in the land. Others have named it the Grand Prior’s herb, for that he caused it to multiply in France, more than any other, and for the great reverence that he bears to his herb, because of the divine effects therein contained. Notwithstanding, it is better to name it Nicotiane, the name of him that sent it into France, first, to the end that he may have the honour thereof, according to his desert, for that he hath enriched our country with so singular an herb.’

Jean Nicot, Lord of Villemain, and Master of the Requests of the French King’s household, was sent as ambassador to the Portuguese Court in 1559, remaining there until 1561. On the occasion of his visiting the state prisons of Lisbon, the keeper, being a gentleman, as Liebault states, presented him with specimens of a strange herb, which had just arrived in Port from Florida, shipped by a Flemish merchant. Nicot’s curiosity was aroused and he took an early opportunity of purchasing from the merchant a quantity of the prepared leaves, and some seeds of the plant. Learning from him what use the Indians made of the weed, and their manner of smoking it, he began to experiment, first upon himself (as all good practitioners should do) and liking it, he caused some of the seeds to be sown in his garden, where to his great joy they grew and multiplied exceedingly. There can hardly be a doubt that Nicot had been told by the merchant that the Indians expressed a juice from the leaves with which they cured the wounds received in battle, and that he had made this known to his domestics. For Liebault says that the Lord Ambassador was one day advertised of a young man of kin to his page who had made assay of the herb, bruised and in liquor, upon an ulcer he had upon his cheek near unto the nose, coming of a Noli me tangere, which began to take root already at the gristle of the nose, wherewith he found himself marvellously eased. Whereupon Nicot caused the said young man to be brought before him, and after a minute inspection he ordered the sufferer to continue the treatment eight or ten days longer. Nicot now hurried off to the King of Portugal’s physician and informed him of the case, and together they watched the progress of the cure. By the end of ten days the physician was enabled to certify that the Noli me tangere was ‘utterly extinguished’ and the face ‘comfortably healed.’ Shortly afterwards Nicot’s cook almost cut off his thumb with a great chopping knife, and he too, flew to the new remedy for relief, and after five or six dressings was likewise comfortably healed. A captain presented his son to the Lord Ambassador and besought him to exert his healing art upon the boy, who was grievously afflicted with the King’s evil. And unto him was assay made of the liquor of the herb, and again its curative powers were asserted in the complete removal of the disease. Next came a gentleman from the fields, craving the Lord Ambassador to cure him of a wound in his leg, which for a space of two years had tortured him and rendered the limb useless. Nicot, filled with generous enthusiasm, readily acceded to his appeal, and lotions and unguents were prepared for him, with instructions how to apply them. In ten days’ time he again presented himself, and with overflowing gratitude declared that the ulcer had disappeared, and that he had now perfect use of his leg. Many other similar Noli me tangere cases and their comfortable cure are recorded by Liebault and Monardes. News of the potent influence of the weed, now commonly called the Ambassador’s herb, over bodily infirmity spread with amazing rapidity, and out of every nook and corner of the kingdom there flocked to the Ambassador sufferers of all sorts and conditions, praying to be healed of their Noli me tangere. Nicot’s garden was now a centre of attraction for fashionable loungers: his house had already become an infirmary; and great was the rejoicing when the maimed, the sick, and the wounded threw away their crutches, sound of body and full of faith. From the recital whereof it plainly appears that though names may change, poor humanity remains pretty much what it was in the beginning, and none wax so fat in fame or fortune as those who minister to its weaknesses.