"Various Plants, when chewed, or taken internally, are observed to excite false and delusory Representations and Ideas of Objects. Thus Dioscorides, in Cap. de Solano Maniaco, seu Furioso, tells us, that a Dram of the Root of this Plant, drank in Wine, produces false, tho' not unpleasant Representations; that double the Quantity produces an Alienation of Mind, which lasts for three Days; and that four Times the Quantity proves mortal. It is also reported, that if a Person, when he is going to sleep, eats Aniseeds, they excite pleasant and agreeable Dreams; whereas, the eating of Horse-Raddish procures those of a turbulent and ungrateful Kind.
"Garcias ab Orta informs us, that the Juice of a certain Plant called Bangue, mixed with some other Juices, produces Alienation of Mind, excites Dreams, and frees the Mind from all Anxiety and Uneasiness: The like Effects are brought about by Opium, which is much used by the East-Indians, and concerning which Garcias has treated very largely.
"The Indians also, when fatigued by carrying Burdens, or by any other violent Exercise, smoak Tobacco, by which Means they become as it were stupid, and fall asleep; but when they awake, they find themselves refreshed, and their Strength repaired. The Ethiopians brought thither as Slaves, following the Example of the Natives, smoak Tobacco too frequently, for which their Masters chastise them severely, and burn their Tobacco, in order to deprive them of an Opportunity of using it, which, however, they continue to do secretly and in private.
"Tobacco is also used by the Indians in order to allay Hunger and Thirst; for they calcine some Shells of River-Snails, and by Trituration reduce them to a fine Powder, of which, and Tobacco Leaves, they take equal Parts, and chew them together till they are reduced to a Kind of Mass, which they form into Pills, larger than a Pea: These they dry in a Shade, and preserve for Use. When they intend to travel through Desarts, where they expect neither Meat nor Drink, they take a sufficient Quantity of these Pills along with them, put one between their Under-Lip and Teeth, and constantly suck the Liquor from it; so that when one is consumed, they supply its Place with another, and thus they perform a three, and sometimes a four Days Jour-ney; during which Time, they say, they neither feel the Effects of Hunger nor Thirst: The Reason of this probably is, that as they continually suck these Pills, they draw the pituitous Humours from the Brain, which being swallowed, moisten the Stomach, and allay its natural Heat, but are at last consumed by it for Want of other Aliments. Instances of a similar Nature may be observed in many Animals, which, during the whole Winter, confine themselves to their Holes without any Food; because the natural Heat of the Stomach is employed in digesting and consuming the Fat which they had gathered in the Winter."
These are all the Virtues and Qualities of Tobacco known to Monardus: But, besides this, Zacutus, in Observat. Lib. 1. de Medic. Princip. Histor. informs us, that he had often found the Juice of Tobacco effectual for the Cure of an Alopecia or Falling off of the Hairs: Nor is this to be wondered at, since, as the Medicine indicated ought to bear an Analogy to the indicating Symptoms, as Tobacco is hot and dry, resolvent, cleansing, and somewhat astringent; and as all these Qualities are, according to Galen, indicated in an Alopecia, Zacutus might succeed in the Cure of it by means of Tobacco. I remember two Girls, who being indisposed, had a Lixivium, in which dry Tobacco Leaves were macerated, prescribed for taking the Scales off their Heads; but the one was seized with a gentle Vertigo, and the other thought she perceived herself, as it were, drunk. But I mention these Accidents for the Sake of young Practitioners, without any Design to discourage them from applying Tobacco and its Preparations to other Parts of the Body; for the celebrated Hartmann seems to have thought the Essence of the green Leaves of Tobacco, obtained by Infusion in Malmsey Wine, a Specific for the Cure of the Palsey; and after a Sweat has been procured, orders the paralytic Limbs to be long rubbed with it; by which Means, he says, he has often seen them happily restored.
Though Tobacco is a valuable Herb, yet 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.