Chapter 21

It is not certainly known whether tobacco grew spontaneously in Virginia, or whether it came originally from some more southern region of America. At all events, the English who first visited Virginia certainly found it there, and Harriot is of opinion, that it was of spontaneous growth. Mr. Jefferson thinks it was a native of a more southern climate, and was handed along the continent from one nation of savages to another.[31] Dr. Robertson informs us, that it was not till the year 1616 that its cultivation was commenced in Virginia.[32] However this may be, the gallant and unfortunate Sir Walter Ralegh has the credit of bringing it into fashion in England.[33] It is well known that the colony planted in Virginia by Sir Walter, suffered many calamities, and we are told, that Ralph Lane,[34] one of the survivers who was carried back to England by Sir Francis Drake, was the person who first made tobacco known in Great Britain. This was in the 28th year of Queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1585.[35] Sir Walter himself is said to have been very fond of smoking, and many humorous stories have been recorded concerning it, particularly of a wager he made with Queen Elizabeth, that he would determine exactly the weight of the smoke which went off in a pipe of tobacco. This he did by first weighing the tobacco which was to be smoked, and then carefully preserving and weighing the ashes, and the queen paid the wager cheerfully, being satisfied that what was wanting to the prime weight must have been evaporated in smoke. Every one remembers the story of the alarm of one of Sir Walter's servants, who, coming into a room and beholding his master enveloped in smoke, supposed him to be on fire.

To the devout and genuine worshippers of this weed, it may be satisfactory to know, that a tobacco-box and some pipes, belonging formerly to Sir Walter, are still in existence, and all smokers who may feel so disposed may perform a pilgrimage to them when they visit England, they being in the museum of Mr. Ralph Thoresby of Leeds, Yorkshire.[36] We shall conclude our remarks upon Sir Walter, by a poetical tribute to his memory, which is both apposite and eloquent.

"Immortal Ralegh! were potatoes not, Could grateful Ireland e'er forget thy claim?[37] 'Were all thy proud historic deeds forgot,' Which blend thy memory with Eliza's fame; Could England's annals in oblivion rot, Tobacco would enshrine and consecrate thy name."

We cannot forbear to make a quotation concerning the Virginia colony, at a more flourishing subsequent period, which, as it records a historical fact, cannot fail to be interesting, while at the same time it is sufficiently comic. "The adventurers," says Malte-Brun, "who increased from year to year, were reduced, in consequence of the scarcity of females, to import wives by order, as they imported merchandise. It is recorded, that ninety girls, 'young and uncorrupt,' came to the Virginia market in 1620, and sixty in 1621; all of whom found a ready sale. The price of each at first was one hundred pounds of tobacco, but afterwards rose to one hundred and fifty. What the prime cost was in England is not stated."[38]

In whatever manner tobacco found its way into Europe, it met with a very hostile reception from several crowned heads. Elizabeth published an edict against its use. James imposed severe prohibitory duties, and Charles, his successor, continued them.

"In 1590," says Dr. Thomson, "Shah Abbas prohibited the use of tobacco in Persia, by a penal law; but so firmly had the luxury rooted itself in the minds of his subjects, that many of the inhabitants of the cities fled to the mountains, where they hid themselves, rather than forego the pleasure of smoking. In 1624, Pope Urban VIII. anathematized all snuff-takers, who committed the heinous sin of taking a pinch in any church; and so late as 1690, Innocent XII. excommunicated all who indulged in the same vice in Saint Peter's church at Rome. In 1625, Amurath IV. prohibited smoking as an unnatural and irreligious custom, under pain of death. In Constantinople, where the custom is now universal, smoking was thought to be so ridiculous and hurtful, that any Turk, who was caught in the act, was conducted in ridicule through the streets, with a pipe transfixed through his nose. In Russia, where the peasantry now smoke all day long, the Grand Duke of Moscow prohibited the entrance of tobacco into his dominions, under the penalty of the _knaut_ for the first offence, and death for the second; and the Muscovite who was found snuffing, was condemned to have his nostrils split. The Chambre au Tabac for punishing smokers, was instituted in 1634, and not abolished till the middle of the eighteenth century. Even in Switzerland, war was waged against the American herb: to smoke, in Berne, ranked as a crime next to adultery; and in 1653, all smokers were cited before the Council at Apenzel, and severely punished."[39]

We shall see hereafter what a host of enemies tobacco found also among medical writers. We speak here particularly of the moderns; for many of the older physicians extolled its healing virtues to the skies, and they were giants in knowledge; but as an old author says, "Pigmei gigantum humeris impositi plusquam ipsi gigantes vident." Indeed it must be admitted, as a very powerful argument against the efficacy of tobacco as a medicine, that the physicians of our day have in many cases abandoned its use, and in others adopted some less dangerous succedaneum.

It may not be unamusing to the curious reader to know in what manner this subject is handled by King James. The "Counterblaste" commences by denouncing tobacco, because "the vile and stinking custome comes from the wilde, godlesse, and slavish Indians," by whom it was used as an antidote against the most dreadful of all diseases. Its use was introduced "neither by a king, great conqueror, nor learned Doctor of Physicke, but by some Indians who were brought over;" they died, but the "savage custome" survived. King James contents himself by examining only four of the principal grounds or arguments upon which tobacco is used, two founded "on the theoricke of a deceivable appearance of reason," and two "upon the mistaken practicke of generall experience." Thus, "1. An aphorisme in the Physickes that the brains of all men being naturally cold and wet, all dry and hote things should be good for them." Ergo, this "stinking suffumigation."--2. The argument grounded on a show of reason, is "that this filthy smoke, as well through the heat and strength thereof, as by a natural force and quality, is able and fit to purge both the head and stomach of rhewmes and distillations, as experience teacheth by the spitting and avoiding fleame immediately after the taking of it."--3. That "the whole people would not have taken so general a good liking thereof, if they had not by experience found it very soveraigne and good for them."--4. That "by the taking of tobacco, divers and very many doe finde themselves cured of divers diseases; as on the other hand no man ever received harme thereby." The King after having, as he trusts, sufficiently answered "the most principal arguments" that are used in defence of this "vile custome," proceeds "to speake of the sinnes and vanities committed in the filthy abuse thereof." And 1. As being a sinneful and shameful lust.--2. As a branch of drunkennesse.--3. As disabling both persons and goods. His majesty concludes the "Counterblaste" by calling the smoking of tobacco "a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmeful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the blacke and stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse."[40]

Let it not be supposed that tobacco has been without friends, wise, learned, and distinguished; but space forces us to pretermit the mention of many who have ascribed to it as many virtues as were ever ascribed to the grand elixir of Alchemy. We shall content ourselves with two or three miscellaneous testimonies.--Thus Acosta tells us it is a plant, "which hath in it rare virtues, as amongst others it serves for a counterpoison--for the Creator hath imparted his virtues at his pleasure, not willing that any thing should grow idle."[41] Lord Bacon speaks of its "cheering and comforting the spirits," and that it relieves in lassitude.[42] Again he says, "doubtless it contributes to alleviate fatigues and discharge the body of weariness. 'T is also commonly said to open the passages, and draw off humours; but its virtues may be more justly attributed to its _condensing_ the spirits."[43] "It is a good companion," says Howell, "to one that converseth with dead men, for if one hath bin poring long upon a book, or is toiled with the pen, or stupified with study, it quickeneth him, and dispels those clouds that usually oreset the brain. The smoke of it is one of the wholesomest sents that is against all contagious airs, for it oremasters all other smells; as _King James_ they say found true, when being once a hunting, a showr of rain drave him into a pigsty for shelter, where he caused a pipe full to be taken of purpose."[44] It were easy to multiply quotations both in prose and verse, but it is to the latter, most especially, that we must look for the most glowing ascriptions--to poetry which has ever delighted.[45]

"To sing the praises of that glorious weed-- Dear to mankind, whate'er his race, his creed, Condition, colour, dwelling, or degree! From Zembla's snows to parched Arabia's sands, Loved by all lips, and common to all hands! Hail sole cosmopolite, tobacco, hail! Shag, long-cut, short-cut, pig-tail, quid, or roll, Dark Negrohead, or Orinooka pale, In every form congenial to the soul."

Before we proceed to consider the use of tobacco as a habit, which modern physicians are pleased to consider so pestiferous and baleful, let us attend for a few moments to what has been said concerning its culture and manufacture. Mr. Jefferson, in his Notes, says that its culture is productive of infinite wretchedness; that it is found easier to make 100 bushels of wheat than 1000 pounds of tobacco, and that they are worth more when made.[46] Davies, in his History of the Carriby Islands, after giving an account of the culture and preparation of tobacco, adds, "that if the people of Europe who are so fond of it, had themselves seen the poor servants and slaves who are employed about this painful work, exposed the greatest part of the day to the scorching heat of the sun, and spending one half of the night in reducing it to that posture wherein it is transported into Europe; no doubt they would have a greater esteem for, and think much more precious that herb which is procured with the sweat and labours of so many miserable creatures."[47]

Numerous medical writers, of the justest celebrity, have assured us, that endless and dreadful evils are the portion of all who are engaged in the manufacture of tobacco; that the workmen are in general meagre, jaundiced, emaciated, asthmatic, subject to colic, diarrheas, to vertigo, violent headach, and muscular twitchings, to narcotism, and to various diseases of the breast and lungs.[48] They have also declared that some of these evils have befallen families from the fact alone of being in the neighbourhood of a tobacco manufactory.[49] Ramazzini says that even the horses employed in the tobacco mills are most powerfully affected by the particles of the tobacco. Now if these things be true, when we call to mind the countless multitudes employed in this "dreadful trade," what a throng of evils present themselves upon the very threshold of our subject.[50] In this view of the case, one could not pass such a manufactory without an involuntary shudder, regarding it as a charnel house, or rather as a Pandora's box, to those wretched beings who are doomed to work or dwell within its pestilential precincts.[51] But in spite of the various and respectable testimony which has been produced by writers opposed to the use of tobacco, we cannot help regarding their statements as exceedingly exaggerated. We have not space to enter into a more minute examination of this portion of our subject, but to such of our readers as may feel desirous of prosecuting the inquiry, we take great pleasure in recommending a very able memoir by Messieurs Parent-Duchatelet and D'Arcet,[52] in which the whole subject of the effects of tobacco upon the persons connected with its manufacture, is most satisfactorily discussed, and the opinions and assertions of those who have gone so far as to declare that it was even necessary to the public health that the manufactories of tobacco should be removed out of large towns because of their great insalubrity, shown to be either without any just grounds, or the results of prejudice and ignorance.

The fecundity of this plant is marvellous. Linnaeus has calculated that a single plant of tobacco contains 40,320 grains, and says that if each seed came to perfection, the plants of tobacco in vegetation in the course of four years, would be more than sufficient to cover the whole surface of the earth. We are elsewhere informed that these seeds preserve their germinative properties for six years and even longer. "Sir Thomas Browne observes," says Mather, "that of the seeds of tobacco, a thousand make not one grain, (though Otto de Guericke, as I remember, says, fifty-two cyphers with one figure would give the number of those which would fill the space between us and the stars,) a plant which has extended its empire over the whole world, and has a larger dominion than any of all the vegetable kingdom."[53] Our readers may very easily amuse themselves by making calculations on the immense consumption and value of this plant. The following account from a French medical writer,[54] will be sufficient. On a rough calculation, the tobacco sold yearly in France amounts to 40,000,000 pounds weight, which at three francs per pound, the ordinary price, will make the enormous annual sum of 120,000,000 francs. One-fourth of the French population use tobacco, so that of 8,000,000 of human beings, each individual consumes annually, in the various forms of snuffing, chewing, and smoking, about six pounds. This quantity may seem too great for some persons, but it should be remembered that there are many who use a dozen or twenty pounds in the course of the year.

If we contemplate man in connexion with tobacco as a necessary, the juxtaposition cannot fail to strike us as exceedingly ludicrous. From the earliest ages of philosophy, it has been a favourite employment of the wise to propose such definitions of man as should fully distinguish him from the rest of animated nature, and yet no definition of ancient times will, we are satisfied, appear so excellently discriminative as one which grows out of our present subject, and which denominates him the only tobacco loving animal, for (to pass over the tobacco-worm) the only creature known beside man, whose nature does not abhor tobacco, is, as Dr. Rush informs us, the solitary rock goat of Africa, one of the wildest and most filthy of animals. "Were it possible," says he, "for a being who had resided on our globe, to visit the inhabitants of a planet where reason governed, and to tell them that a vile weed was in general use among the inhabitants of the globe it had left, which afforded no nourishment; that this weed was cultivated with immense care, that it was an important article of commerce, that the want of it produced real misery, that its taste was extremely nauseous, that it was unfriendly to health and morals, and that its use was attended with a considerable loss of time and property, the account would be thought incredible."[55] It is idle to speak of tobacco, as being "extremely nauseous," that it is the "meanest and most paltry of all gratifications," &c. Had not man discovered in it a delight and comfort which was to be derived from few other sources, the habitual use of tobacco would long since have been neglected. To say man uses tobacco for no other reason but its offensiveness, is a solecism; scarcely would it be more absurd to adopt the habitual use of castor oil as a cordial, or assafoetida as a perfume. On this subject Mr. Chamberet[56] has a very interesting passage, which, as it is so well expressed by the author, we take the liberty of offering to our readers in his own language.

"Observons," says he, "que l'homme, en vertu de son organization a sans cesse besoin de sentir, que presque toujours il est malheureux, soit par les fleaux que la nature lui envoie, soit par les tristes resultats de ses passions aveugles, de ses erreurs de ses prejuges, de son ignorance, &c. Le tabac exercant sur nos organes une impression vive et forte, susceptible d'etre renouvelee frequemment et a volonte, on s'est livre avec d'autant plus d'ardeur a l'usage d'un semblable stimulant qu'on y a trouve a la fois le moyen de satisfaire le besoin imperieux de sentir, qui caracterise la nature humaine, et celui d'etre distrait momentanement des sensations penibles ou douloureuses qui assiegent sans cesse notre espece, que le tabac aide ainsi a supporter l'accablant fardeau de la vie. Avec le tabac, le sauvage endure plus courageusement la faim, la soif, et toutes les vicissitudes atmospheriques, l'esclave endure plus patiemment la servitude, &c. Parmi les hommes qui se disent civilises, son recours est souvent invoque contre l'ennui, la tristesse; il soulage quelquefois momentanement les tourmens de l'ambition decues de ses esperances, et concourt a consoler, dans certains cas les malheureuses victimes de l'injustice."

Dr. Walsh says that tobacco used with coffee, after the Turkish fashion, "is singularly grateful to the taste, and refreshing to the spirits; counteracting the effects of fatigue and cold, and appeasing the cravings of hunger, as I have often experienced. Hearne, I think, in his journey to the mouth of the Coppermine river, mentions his experience of similar effects of tobacco. He had been frequently wandering without food for five or six days, in the most inclement weather, and supported it all, he says, in good health and spirits, by smoking tobacco, &c."[57] Willis, as quoted by Mons. Merat, recommends the use of tobacco in armies, as able to supply the necessaries of life to a great extent, and also as an excellent preventive against various diseases.[58] And Dr. Rush relates that he was informed by Colonel Burr, that the greatest complaints of dissatisfaction and suffering which he heard among the soldiers who accompanied General Arnold in his march from Boston to Quebec through the wilderness, in the year 1775, were from the want of tobacco. This was the more remarkable, as they were so destitute of provisions as to be obliged to kill and eat their dogs.[59]

Tobacco possesses narcotic powers in common with many other substances, of which neither time nor space will permit us to make mention. Narcotics, when used to a due extent, become poisons, and hence tobacco holds a very high rank in toxicology. A thousand experiments, as well as accidents, show that it is a most deadly poison.[60] It has also been called a counterpoison, but those who have asserted this have been contradicted by numerous writers. Dr. Rush affirms that repeated experience in Philadelphia has proved, that it is equally ineffectual in preserving those who use it from the influenza and yellow fever. In the plague, it was said to be useful, but what has been advanced on this subject is now shown to be without much foundation. Still it may be said of tobacco, that though it does not contain any specific antidote to contagion, or possess antiseptic properties, it may nevertheless, as a powerful narcotic, by diminishing the sensibility of the system, render it less liable to contagion. It also moderates anxiety and fear, which we are told quicken the activity of contagion. "Thus," says Cullen, "the antiloimic powers of tobacco are upon the same footing with wine, brandy, and opium."[61]

Dr. Fowler has written a treatise upon the effects of tobacco in the cure of dropsies and dysuries. The Doctor seemed determined to discover virtue in this plant, because he tells us in his preface, that he was nowise discouraged in his inquiries into the medicinal effects of tobacco, although the generality of writers on the materia medica have spoken of it with great caution and reserve, and for the most part have declared it either _obsolete_, or so _uncertain_, _violent_, and _deleterious_ in its effects, as to render its exhibition _unadvisable_. Dr. Cullen says that he employed tobacco in various cases of dropsy, but with very little success.[62] Even those who advocate the medicinal use of tobacco, admit that it is one of those violent remedies, which nothing but the most skilful management can render beneficial; such as arsenic, prussic acid, and many other deadly poisons, which, if cautiously and properly administered, become excellent medicines. Thus the liniment of tobacco, which has formerly been called one of the best in the dispensatory, is said, in a case mentioned by Mr. Murray, to have caused the deaths of three children, who expired within twenty-four hours in convulsions, in consequence of its application for scald head. Innumerable instances are given of its deleterious effects, even when used medicinally, and with the greatest caution. In some cases it has entirely failed to give the anticipated relief, and in others been followed by the most deplorable consequences. We believe, however, that eminent practitioners still continue to employ it, and find it serviceable in some diseases. We have indeed heard it remarked, by a distinguished physician, that much of the medicinal effect which might otherwise be derived from tobacco, is often lost by the habitual use of the article, which renders the system less sensible to its influence.

As a vulnerary, tobacco was used by the Indians, and physicians say that it promotes the cicatrization and healing of inveterate ulcers. It has been used in most cutaneous disorders, and its smoke has been considered useful in rheumatisms, gout, chronic pains, &c.; but in all these cases its virtue has also been denied, or it has been asserted that many other medicines possess more certain efficacy. As an emetic it is considered dangerous, being extremely violent, and succeeded by too much distress and sickness. That it has been found useful in destroying insects, and in preserving old clothes laid by against the inroads of vermin, there can be no doubt; but on the mosquito and fly, two pests to whose cruel torments we are most exposed, it will be within the painful remembrance of many of our readers, that no quantity of tobacco smoke appears to have the least effect.

Even though we admitted and could prove tobacco to be a useful medicine, still this fact would afford no argument in favour of its habitual use in a state of health. On the contrary, it would be the very reason for its non-use; for the habitual use will in time weaken and destroy its medicinal powers. Many, after finding or fancying relief from its occasional, have fallen into its habitual use, and the remedy has thus virtually proved worse than the disease. Besides, by this course, persons take away the hope of future benefit from the application, in case of a recurrence of their disorder.