In the great kingdom of living nature, man is the only animal that seeks
to poison or destroy his own instincts, to turn topsy-turvy the laws of
his being, and to make himself as unlike, as possible, that which he was
obviously designed to be.
No satisfactory solution of this extraordinary propensity has been
given, short of a reference to that--
"first disobedience and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our wo,
With loss of Eden."
While the myriads of sentient beings, spread over the earth, adhere,
with unyielding fidelity, to the laws of their several existences,
man exerts his superior intellect in attempting to outwit nature,
and to show that she has made an important mistake, in his own case.
Not satisfied with the symmetry and elegance of form given him by his
Creator, he transforms himself into a hideous monster, or copies upon
his own person, the proportions of some disgusting creature, far down
in the scale of animal being. Not content with loving one thing and
loathing another, he perseveres in his attempts to make bitter sweet,
and sweet bitter, till nothing but the shadow is left, of his primitive
relishes and aversions. This is strikingly exemplified in the habitual
use of the narcotic or poisonous vegetables.
_History._
Tobacco is generally regarded as having originated in America. Its name
appears to have been derived from _Tabaco_, a province of _Yucatan_, in
Mexico, from which place it is said to have been first sent to Spain;
or, as some assert, though with less probability, from an instrument
named _Tabaco_, employed in Hispaniola in smoking this article.
Cortez sent a specimen of it to the king of Spain in 1519. Sir Francis
Drake is said to have introduced it into England about the year 1560,
and, not far front the same time, John Nicot carried it to France; and
Italy is indebted to the Cardinal Santa Croce for its first appearance
in that country.
Traces of an ancient custom of smoking dried herbs having been observed,
it has been suggested that tobacco might have been in use in Asia, long
before the discovery of America. The fact, however, that this plant
retains, under slight modifications, the name of tobacco, in a large
number of Asiatic as well as European dialects, renders almost certain
the commonly received opinion, that it emanated from this country, and
from this single origin has found its way into every region of the
earth, where it is at present known. If this be the fact, the Western
hemisphere has relieved itself of a part of the obligation due to the
Eastern, for the discovery and diffusion of distilled spirit.
Early in the history of our country, the cultivation and use of
tobacco were by no means confined to central America. In Hawkins' voyage
of 1655, the use of this article in Florida is thus described: "The
Floridians, when they travele, have a kind of herbe dryed, which, with
a cane and an earthen cup in the end, with fire and the dryed herbes
put together, do sucke thorow the cane the smoke thereof, which smoke
satisfieth their hunger." Still earlier, viz. in 1535, Cartier found it
in Canada: "There groweth a certain kind of herbe, whereof in sommer,
they make great provision for all the yeere, making great account of it,
and onely men use it; and first they cause it to be dried in the sunne,
then weare it about their necks wrapped in a little beaste's skinne,
made like a little bagge, with a hollow peece of stone or wood like a
pipe; then when they please they make powder of it, and then put it in
one of the ends of said cornet or pipe, and laying a cole of fire upon
it, at the other end sucke so long, that they fill their bodies full of
smoke, till that it cometh out of their mouth and nostrils, even as out
of the tonnele of a chimney."
In Great Britain the progress of the custom of using tobacco was not
unobserved. The civil and ecclesiastical powers were marshalled against
it, and Popish anathemas and Royal edicts with the severest penalties,
not excepting death itself, were issued. In the reigns of Elizabeth, of
James and of his successor Charles, the use and importation of tobacco
were made subjects of legislation. In addition to his Royal authority,
the worthy and zealous king James threw the whole weight of his learning
and logic against it, in his famous 'Counterblaste to Tobacco.' He
speaks of it as being "a sinneful and shameful lust"--as "a branch of
drunkennesse"--as "disabling both persons and goods"--and in conclusion
declares it to be "a custome loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose,
harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black and
stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of
the pit that is bottomlesse."
In the English colonies of North America, it is no wonder that
legislation was resorted to, for the purpose of regulating the use of
this article, when it had become an object of so much value, as that
"one hundred and twenty pounds of good leaf tobacco" would purchase
for a Virginian planter a good and choice wife just imported from
England. In one of the provincial governments of New England, a law was
passed, forbidding any person "under _twenty-one_ years of age, or any
other, that hath not already accustomed himself to the use thereof, to
take any tobacko untill he hath brought a certificate under the hands
of some who are approved for knowledge and skill in phisick, that it
is useful for him, and also that hee hath received a lycense from the
Courte for the same. And for the regulating of those, who either by
their former taking it, have to their own apprehensions, made it
necessary to them, or uppon due advice are persuaded to the use
thereof,--
"_It is ordered_, that no man within this colonye, after the
publication hereof, shall take any tobacko publiquely in the
streett, high wayes or any barne yardes, or uppon training dayes,
in any open places, under the penalty of six-pence for each offence
against this order, in any the particulars thereof, to bee paid
without gainsaying, uppon conviction, by the testimony of one
witness, that is without just exception, before any one magistrate.
And the constables in the severall townes are required to make
presentment to each particular courte, of such as they doe
understand, and can evict to bee transgressors of this order."
In the old Massachusetts colony laws, is an act with a penalty for those,
who should "smoke tobacco within twenty poles of any house, or shall
take tobacco at any Inn or victualling house, except in a private room,
so as that neither the master nor any guest shall take offence thereat."
In the early records of Harvard University is a regulation ordering that
"no scholar shall take tobacco unless permitted by the President, with
the consent of his parents, on good reason first given by a physician,
and then only in a sober and private manner."
At a town-meeting in Portsmouth, N.H. in 1662, it was "ordered that
a cage be built, or some other means devised, at the discretion of the
Selectmen, to punish such as take tobacco on the Lord's day, in time
of publick service." But it does not appear that this measure had all
the effect intended, for, ten years afterwards, the town "voted that if
any person shall smoke tobacco in the meeting-house during religious
service, he shall pay a fine of five shillings for the use of the town."
But all these forces have been vanquished, and this one weed is the
conqueror. Regardless of collegial and town regulations, of provincial
laws, and of royal, parliamentary and papal power, tobacco has kept on
its way, till it has encircled the earth, and now holds in slavery a
larger number of human minds than any other herb.
_Effects of Tobacco upon Animal Life._
To the organs of smell and taste in their natural condition, it is one
of the most disgusting and loathsome of all the products of the
vegetable kingdom.[1]
[Footnote 1: This is proved by applying it to these organs in infancy,
among those children whose parents do not use tobacco. Caspar Hausser,
who was fed wholly on farinaceous food and water, from infancy to the
age of sixteen or seventeen years, was made sick to vomiting by walking
for a "considerable time by the side of a tobacco field."]
Dr. Franklin ascertained, that the oily material, which floats upon the
surface of water, upon a stream of tobacco smoke being passed into it,
is capable, when applied to the tongue of a cat, of destroying life in
a few minutes.
Mr. Brodie applied one drop of the empyreumatic oil of tobacco to the
tongue of a cat; it occasioned immediate convulsions and an accelerated
breathing. Five minutes after, the animal lay down on the side, and
presented, from time to time, slight convulsive movements. A quarter of
an hour after, it appeared recovered. The same quantity of the oil was
applied again, and the animal died in two minutes.
In December, 1833, aided by several gentlemen of the medical class, and
occasionally in the presence of other individuals, I made a number of
experiments upon cats and other animals, with the distilled oil of
tobacco.