The early history of tobacco / [Charles Singer].

  • Singer, Charles, 1876-1960.
Date:
1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The early history of tobacco / [Charles Singer]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    there smoked through the nose, and the poor barbarians thus sustained by it are enabled to go for four days without food. I blush to read such absurdities, for there is no man under the sun who has seen Petun in Florida or within a thousand leagues thereof [sic]. In fine, the savages with whom I have long had intercourse only use the herb for the purposes I have described above, and which you may see portrayed in the accompanying picture ’ (fig. 5). Thevet’s error in denying that the Indians attribute any medicinal or staying qualities to tobacco is amply demonstrated by his own writing and by other authors. Thus, in a little handbook for seamen published in England in 1598,* tobacco juice for erysipelas is advised on Indian authority, and its use for skin lesions was retained until the 18th century, and probably until recent times. Similar evidence is yielded not only by Oviedo but by another very early writer who devoted much study to the medicinal properties of the plant, Nicolao Monardes, whose work ran into several editions and was translated into various languages, including English. Monardes, in his publication of 1571, is the first to figvire the tobacco plant.f This book contains a curious passage which has been quaintly translated by a contemporary English writer. After having told how Indians and negroes inhale tobacco and smoke, he says that they ‘ doe remaine lightened without any wearinesse for to labour again: and thei dooe this with so greate pleasure, that although thei bee not wearie, yet thei are very desirous for to dooe it; and the thinges come to so much effecte, that their maisters doeth chasten theim for it, and do burn the Tabaco because thei should not use it.’ Another writer of similar date is the fertile author who under the pen sign I. G. P. (Jacques Gohorry, Parisien) * ‘ The cures of the Diseased in remote regions. Preventing Mortalitie indicent in Forraine Attempts of the English Nation,’ by G(eorge) W(ateson), London, 1598. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. See C. Singer, ‘Annals of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,’ vol. vi, p. 87, 1912. + See the first item at the head of this article. An attractive English translation appeared as ‘Joyful Newes out of the newfounde worldc, wherein is declared the rare and slnguler vertues of diverse and sundric Hearbes, Trees, Oyles, Plantes and Stones with their application as well for Physicke as Chirurgerie. . . . Also the portraiture of the saied Hearbes, very aptly discribed. Englished by Jhon Frampton, Marchaunt.’ London, 12mo, 1.577. The quotation from Monardes is taken from this translation.