Revelations about tobacco : a prize essay on the history of tobacco, and its physical action on the human body, through its various modes of employment / by Hampton Brewer.

  • Brewer, Hampton.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Revelations about tobacco : a prize essay on the history of tobacco, and its physical action on the human body, through its various modes of employment / by Hampton Brewer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    been cultivated from time immemorial by the natives of Oronoko ; still it does not appear to have been known to Eurojmans prior to the discovery of America by Columbus, who is stated to have found the chiefs of Cuba smoking cigars in 1492 ” {Irving's Histonj of the Life and Voyages of Columbus). Nevertheless, Dr. Pereira considers it not improbable, from the opinions of Pallas, Eumphius, and Lauzoni, that the Asiatics were acquainted with it long before that time; but on the other hand it is not at all probable that from this latter source it was introduced into Europe. From America it was brought into Spain and Portugal, and from the latter place, Joan Nicot sent the seeds or plants into France, about the year 1560. Twenty-six years after this date, in 1586, Sir Francis Drake brought it into England, and through the practice of smoking it by Sir Walter Ealeigh and other courtiers, the custom soon became common. Although tobacco is now grown in most parts of the world, it is from the United States of America that we get our chief supply: Virginia being the most celebrated for its culture.* In South Africa large portions of ground are occupied by it; and a relative of mine, who has lately i etui ned fiom that continent having lived there seventeen years, informs me that although the demand there is excessive, the supplies are quite equal to it. The amount imported is comparatively nil. Ho states that the Caffres grow a tobacco peculiar to their soil, the class of which he could never clearly make out. In Asia the growth of tobacco has spread over a large portion of the continent; and in Europe it has been raised with success in almost every country, especially Hungary, G-ermany, Flanders, and France. In England its cultivation is restricted to half a pole, no more being allowed to be grown m any Botanical garden, or elsewhere, for Excise reasons. * Dr. Joel Shew, an American writer, saysThere was one verv dncecTinto En^anr^r^lT11^60011®0^ °l th® times in wMch tobacco was intro? nlanfpri Of wgl- -d' In the 'beginning of the seventeenth century, the early p anters of Virginia were nearly or quite, all single men. They considered them As TremSyfor this ev^ ^denixi of th.e cTolon^ and tb“r habits became dissolute! r jemedy for tins evil, the company m London determined to transport a num that ctm^^M^ibTy be W|ves’ the very best means certainly should be made tbW« I? ' i V was(sAmgular enough that these young ladies told, < was according]fdii ™e,rcbandise- A carg° of these fair creatures,’ we are enthusiasm^?wht WaS receiyed witb greatest delight and make their consimmln^J ^ mJerchanfcs afc ho™ had taken care to obliged to find a lover wl n r° “ieVautd<? transaction, and each young lady was in exchange for her fair self gAV'° aU bundred and twenty pounds of tobacco lation as this would as a matter? / the expenSG8 of tbo voyage.’ Such a specula, woum, as a matter of course, prove abundantly successful.’’ B 2