TOBACCO LORE
FEW, 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 _Nicotiana_. 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:
Herb of immortal fame!
Which hither first with Santa Croce came,
When he, his time of nunciature expired,
Back from the Court of Portugal retired;
Even as his predecessor, great and good,
Brought home the cross.
The poet compares the exploit of the cardinal with that of his
progenitor, who brought home the wood of the true cross.
The first exact description of the plant is that given by Gonzalo
Fernandez de Oviedo-y-Valdés, Governor of St. Domingo, in his _Historia
General de las Indias_, 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 [Y], which the natives called _tobaco_.
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 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.
The celebrated _Counterblaste to Tobacco_, 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.
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.
It is believed that the tobacco plant _Nicotiana Tabacum_ 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 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 _Nicotiana Persica_.
The active principle _Nicotine_ 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 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.
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.