| It is generally agreed that the use of tobacco in | | | | beneficial to our people. It need not be said that the |
| Europe, as a means of inebriation, originated in the | | | | question of intention, on the part of nature, is not much |
| introduction of the leaves of the plant into Spain from | | | | helped by the habitat of the production used; otherwise |
| America. There is every reason to suppose that the | | | | we might expect to find the northern races less |
| plant previously existed in Asia, if not from the earliest | | | | addicted to the use of this tropical weed than those of |
| times, though we have no very reliable authority for its | | | | the warmer regions. |
| having been used, at least to any great extent, for any | | | | We know that probably the contrary is the truth; but all |
| of the purposes to which we have devoted it. Various | | | | our efforts to draw any conclusion for or against the |
| old authors report, that the ancients of the extreme | | | | adaptation of a race to a production of a climate, are |
| East were acquainted with the burning of vegetable | | | | rendered futile by the teachings, not more of our |
| substances as a means of inhaling narcotic fumes, | | | | religion, than of naturalists, who insist for a central point |
| and, indeed, when we consider their love of incenses, | | | | of origin for all races, and a constitution suited to all |
| both as a luxury and an element of their religious cult, | | | | climates. The safest position to hold is that a bad habit |
| we need not be surprised at this; but we have no | | | | may be formed in any latitude, and supported by any |
| evidence that the smoking of tobacco was known in | | | | number of arguments, where the wish still holds its |
| the Old World before the introduction of the plant from | | | | mysterious power over the conclusions of what we |
| the New. | | | | call reason. |
| It was in 1492 that Columbus first beheld, at Cuba, the | | | | As regards the composition of tobacco, we have |
| custom of smoking cigars; but it was not until some | | | | endless experiments in that nearly new science, |
| years afterwards that a Spanish monk recognized the | | | | Organic Chemistry, which seems to try the patience of |
| plant in a province of St. Domingo, called Tabaca. This | | | | industry itself. There are some nine or ten different |
| is much more likely foundation for the name of the | | | | substances, which go to the formation of a tobacco |
| herb than that adopted by some, who assert that it | | | | leaf, and these seem to change in their proportions |
| originated in tabac, a tube used by the natives for | | | | according to the condition of the plant. Setting aside |
| smoking. That there was no particular aptitude in the | | | | starch, various acids, and salts, we come to what may |
| European taste for the use of this herb, seems evident | | | | be termed the essential element or principle called |
| from the very slow progress, which ensued even of | | | | Nicotina. These proportions of carbon, hydrogen, and |
| the knowledge of its qualities. | | | | azotes, really tell to the analyst nothing from which he |
| So late as 1560, when Jean Nicot, the French | | | | could predicate any thing certain as to the character |
| ambassador at the court of Portugal reported of it to | | | | of the compound. |
| his sovereign, scarcely any thing was known of the | | | | In this respect, all the formula of organic substances is |
| foreign vegetable, and in place of the men who | | | | nearly under the same mystery, a small difference in |
| accompanied Columbus having taken to any imitation | | | | the proportions producing the greatest difference in the |
| of the Cuban-natives when they returned to Europe, it | | | | combined results. But we can be under no mistake as |
| would rather seem that the adoption of the pipe is | | | | to the character of the element which is called |
| attributable to an Englishman, Raphelengi, who, having | | | | Nicotina-a colorless liquid alkaloid, with an acrid, burning |
| accustomed himself to it in Virginia, introduced the | | | | taste. It is one of the most intense of all poisons, |
| practice into England. | | | | approaching in ita activity the strongest preparation of |
| Sir Walter Raleigh does not seem to have used the | | | | prussic acid. |
| pipe until after the return of Sir Francis Drake in 1586, | | | | The other important element procured from the |
| so that nearly a hundred years expired before even | | | | analysis of tobacco, is an oil called nicotianin, supposed |
| the roots of the habit were fixed in the English people. | | | | to be "the juice of cursed hebanon" referred to in |
| Nor, probably, would the practice after this have | | | | Hamlet. As this oily substance is also a very intense |
| spread as rapidly as it did, if it had not been for the | | | | poison, differing essentially from the alkaloid, and indeed |
| persecution to which it was almost immediately | | | | it is supposed to be capable of acting on different vital |
| exposed. If it is true, as has been said, that a few | | | | organs. We have thus in tobacco two poisons-rather a |
| opposing volumes will fix the roots of a heresy, we | | | | remarkable fact in organic chemistry, where we find, |
| need scarcely wonder at the triumph of tobacco, | | | | generally, only one very active principle at the base of |
| against the use of which more than a hundred | | | | any particular production in the vegetable kingdom. It is |
| fulminating volumes issued from the press within a few | | | | indeed asserted by Landerer, that there is none of this |
| years. | | | | deadly oil in the fresh leaves of tobacco; and Mr. |
| These observations suggest a reference to the | | | | Pereira remarks, that the substance must be |
| question, how far tobacco was intended for the use of | | | | developed in the drying of the leaves under the |
| man? The practice of the Cuban savages is seized by | | | | influence of air and water. The discovery; if true; may |
| one party as a proof of a final cause, insomuch as | | | | free the weed from the charge of possessing a |
| savages are supposed to follow the first dictates of | | | | double poison; but the consequence is all the same to |
| nature; and then comes the other party, who point to | | | | the foreign consumer; who never sees the leaf in its |
| the tardy adoption of nature's gift by a civilized people | | | | green state. |
| as a clear proof that the weed was not intended for | | | | It has been said that the smoke of tobacco, as |
| the uses to which it is applied. It is utterly vain to | | | | analyzed by Zeise and others, contains nothing of the |
| discuss questions of this kind. We have no elements | | | | deadly alkaloid; and tobacco smokers have pleaded |
| for a proper judgment. Perhaps, for aught we know, | | | | for less detrimental effects from the pipe or cigar than |
| the American savages were some thousands of | | | | from the quid, but I fear their conclusion is not very |
| years in coming to the habit-at least we have no | | | | tenable; for the detrimental oil, as we in fact see from |
| reason to suppose that it could be a very primitive | | | | the pipe itself, is largely increased by the continued |
| adoption. | | | | roasting and burning. We know; too, that the old pipe is |
| Whether, indeed, man's custom, in most cases, is a | | | | a favorite with the epicures; the more oil by which it is |
| proof of itself of nature's intention, must always be a | | | | blackened the better becomes the instrument; till it |
| puzzle; but as we know that many very bad things | | | | attains perfection as a mass of clay soaked with |
| are greatly more natural to human beings than we | | | | poison; and dried, and soaked and dried a hundred |
| would wish them to be, we have just as good a right | | | | times; so that the entire matter is imbued with the |
| to say for those to whom good tendencies are | | | | absorption. |
| delightful from the beginning, that nature intended they | | | | On man, the physiological effects have been very |
| should do their best to eradicate what is hurtful, and | | | | minutely observed. I cannot do better than give the |
| reclaim their fellow creatures from the indulgences of | | | | words of Mr.Pereira: "In small doses, tobacco causes a |
| vice. The true practical question must, in short, always | | | | sensation of heat in the throat and sometimes a |
| be what is beneficial and what is hurtful, according to | | | | feeling of warmth at the stomach. These effects are, |
| the results of our experience. | | | | however, less obvious when the remedy is taken in a |
| The botany of our subject presents us with seven or | | | | liquid form, and largely diluted. By repetition, it usually |
| eight different species of the plant, all affecting, more | | | | operates as a diuretic, and less frequently as a |
| or less, the warm latitudes. Virginia seems, of all | | | | laxative. |
| regions, the best suited to its culture, and yields in great | | | | Accompanying these effects are often nausea, and a |
| quantity the common or Virginian tobacco (Nicotiana | | | | peculiar feeling, usually described as giddiness, scarcely |
| tabacum). A more hardy kind (N. rustica,) may be | | | | according with the ordinary acceptation of this form. |
| cultivated in such latitudes as that of Scotland. This is | | | | As dropsical swellings sometimes disappear under the |
| the species, which has been found in Europe, Asia, and | | | | operation of these doses, it has been inferred that the |
| Africa; and were it not for the restriction imposed by | | | | remedy promotes the operation of the absorbents. It |
| statute, we would produce it on rich soils in greater | | | | occasionally acts as an anodyne, or more rarely |
| quantities than would be convenient for our treasury, or | | | | promotes sleep. |