<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
<p class="center"><small>TOBACCO LORE</small></p>
<p><span class="smcap">Few</span>, perchance, of the millions
who gather comfort from the
"herb of fragrance" are aware
that it is to Don Hernandez de
Toledo we are indebted for the
introduction of tobacco into
Western Europe, which he first
brought to Spain and Portugal
in 1559. Jean Nicot was at
this time Ambassador at the
Court of Lisbon from Frances II,
and it was he who transmitted
or carried, either the seed or the
plant to Catherine de Medicis,
and who gave it the name <em>Nicotiana</em>.
Like other great personages
of the time, Catherine
encouraged the homage of travellers
and artists. It was considered
to be one of the wonders
of the New World, and reported
to possess most extraordinary
medicinal properties and virtues.
Thirty years later the Cardinal
Santa Croce, returning from his
nunciature in Spain and Portugal
to Italy, took with him
some tobacco leaves, and we
may form some idea of the
enthusiasm with which its production
was hailed, from a
perusal of the poetry which the
subject inspired, such as the
following:</p>
<div class="center">
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<div class="i6">Herb of immortal fame!</div>
<div class="i0">Which hither first with Santa Croce came,</div>
<div class="i0">When he, his time of nunciature expired,</div>
<div class="i0">Back from the Court of Portugal retired;</div>
<div class="i0">Even as his predecessor, great and good,</div>
<div class="i0">Brought home the cross.</div>
</div></div>
</div>
<p>The poet compares the exploit
of the cardinal with that of his
progenitor, who brought home
the wood of the true cross.</p>
<p>The first exact description of
the plant is that given by Gonzalo
Fernandez de Oviedo-y-Valdés,
Governor of St. Domingo,
in his <em>Historia General
de las Indias</em>, printed at Seville
in 1535. In this work, the leaf
is said to be smoked through a
branched tube of the shape of
the letter <big>Y</big>, which the natives
called <em>tobaco</em>.</p>
<p>After the introduction of
tobacco into England by Sir
Walter Raleigh on his return
from America, the custom of
smoking the leaf became very
general, and it truly seems to
have supplied a common want.
It was mostly sold by the apothecaries
in their dark little
shops, and here the gallants
would congregate to smoke their
pipes and gossip, while the real<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</SPAN></span>
Timidado, nicotine cane and
pudding, was cut off with a
silver knife on a maple block
and retailed to the customers.
The pipes used in the time of
Queen Elizabeth were chiefly made
of silver. The commoner
kinds consisted of a walnut
shell, in which a straw was inserted,
and the tobacco was
sold in the shops for its weight
in silver.</p>
<p>The celebrated <em>Counterblaste
to Tobacco</em>, by King James I,
describes smoking as "a custom
loathsome to the eye, hatefull
to the nose, harmfull 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." In
1604 this monarch endeavoured,
by means of heavy imposts, to
abolish its use in this country,
and in 1619 he commanded that
no planter in Virginia should
cultivate more than one hundred
pounds.</p>
<p>It is said, some spent as much
as £500 a year in the purchase
of tobacco in those days. In
1624 Pope Urban VIII published
a decree of excommunication
against all who took snuff in
the church. Ten years after
this, smoking was forbidden in
Russia under pain of having
the nose cut off; and in 1653
the Council of the Canton of
Appenzell cited smokers before
them, whom they punished,
ordering all innkeepers to inform
against such as were found smoking
in their houses. The police
regulations made in Berne in
1661 were divided according
to the Ten Commandments, in
which the prohibition of smoking
stands after the command
against adultery. This prohibition
was renewed in 1675,
and the tribunal instituted to
put it into execution—viz.,
Chambreau Tabac—continued to
the middle of the eighteenth
century. Pope Innocent XII,
in 1690, excommunicated all
those who were found taking
snuff or tobacco in the Church
of St. Peter at Rome; and even
so late as 1719 the Senate of
Strasburg prohibited the cultivation
of tobacco, from an apprehension
that it would diminish
the growth of corn. Amurath IV
published an edict which made
smoking tobacco a capital offence;
but, notwithstanding all
opposition, its fascinating power
has held its own.</p>
<p>It is believed that the tobacco
plant <em>Nicotiana Tabacum</em> is a
native of tropical America, and
it was found by the Spaniards
when they landed in Cuba in
1492. There seems little doubt
that the practice of smoking the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</SPAN></span>
leaf has been common among
the natives of South America
from time immemorial. It is
now cultivated all over the
world, but nowhere more abundantly
or with better results than
in the United States. Virginia
is perhaps most celebrated for
its culture. The young shoots
produced from seeds thickly
sown in beds, are transplanted
into the fields during the month
of May, and set in rows, with an
interval of three or four feet
between the plants. Through
the whole period of its growth,
the crop requires constant attention
till the harvest time, in the
month of August. The ripe
plants having been cut off above
their roots, are dried under
cover, and then stripped of their
leaves, which are tied in bundles
and packed in hogsheads. While
hung up in the drying-houses,
they undergo a curing process,
consisting of exposure to a considerable
degree of heat, through
which they become moist, after
which they are dried for packing.
In Persia and Turkey a form of
tobacco is sold under the name
of Tumbeki for use in the water-pipes
or narghileh, which is said
to be the product of the <em>Nicotiana
Persica</em>.</p>
<p>The active principle <em>Nicotine</em>
was first isolated in 1828, by
Posselt and Reimann, and is an
almost colourless, oily liquid of a
highly poisonous nature. It
soon becomes brown on exposure
to air or light. The amount
present in tobacco leaves varies
considerably, but it is usually
about six per cent. It has not
been met with in tobacco smoke,
according to Vohl, but the tobacco
oils contain minute proportion
of nicotine. One drop
of pure nicotine is sufficient to
kill a dog, while a very little
more will destroy life in a human
being. It is said to possess the
property of resisting decomposition
amid the decaying
tissues of the body, and was
detected by Orfila two or three
months after death. Vohl and
Eulenberg have made an interesting
investigation of tobacco
smoke. The smoke analysed
was from a tobacco containing
four per cent. of nicotine, but
none of the alkaloid was found
in the smoke. In the smoke of
cigars certain gases were given
off, and an oily body collected,
which, on distillation, yielded
aromatic acids. Distilled at a
temperature above boiling water,
tobacco gives an empyreumatic
oil of a poisonous nature. It
exactly resembles that which
collects in the stems of tobacco
pipes, and contains a small percentage
of nicotine. The actual
amount of nicotine absorbed<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</SPAN></span>
into the blood while smoking a
pipe is very minute, at least
fifty per cent. of the entire alkaloid
being destroyed by decomposition,
and escaping from the
bowl of the pipe. The habitual
inhalation of tobacco smoke is
undoubtedly harmful, but unless
the smoke be intentionally inhaled,
very little makes its
way into the lungs. A great
deal of misconception exists in
the mind of the average individual
as to the power of the
alkaloid of tobacco. The amount
of nicotine actually absorbed
from a fair-sized pipe is about
one-fortieth of a grain, in a cigar
rather less. Death has resulted
after smoking eighteen pipes,
and from twenty cigars smoked
continuously.</p>
<p>Tobacco is a powerful sedative
poison; used in large quantities
it causes vertigo, stupor,
faintness, and general depression
of the nervous system. It will
sometimes cause excessive nausea
and retching, with feebleness
of pulse, coolness of the
skin, and occasionally convulsions.
But there seems very
little known as to how these
symptoms are produced. Employed
to excess, it enfeebles
digestion, produces emaciation
and general debility, and is often
the beginning of serious nervous
disorders. Be this as it may,
the moderate smoking of tobacco
has, in most cases, even
beneficial results, and there
appears little doubt that it acts
as a solace and comfort to the
poor as well as the rich. It
soothes the restless, calms
mental and corporeal inquietude,
and produces a condition of
repose without a corresponding
reaction or after-effect. In
adults, especially those liable
to mental worry, and all brain
workers, its action is often a
boon, the only danger being in
overstepping the boundary of
moderation to excess. It is not
suitable to every constitution,
and those who can trace to it evil
effects should not continue its use.</p>
<hr class="ruler" />
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</SPAN></span></p>
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