An essay on tobacco : comprising a brief history of that plant, and a view of its effects on the human constitution, when employed as an article of luxury : delivered as a lecture before the New-York Anti-Tobacco Society / by J. Smyth Rogers.

  • Rogers, J. Smyth (John Smyth), 1794-1851.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on tobacco : comprising a brief history of that plant, and a view of its effects on the human constitution, when employed as an article of luxury : delivered as a lecture before the New-York Anti-Tobacco Society / by J. Smyth Rogers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Suppose now, that another inhabitant of that country should assert, that in the course of his wanderings, he had fallen in with a race of men, among whom a favorite pursuit was agriculture; but that instead of devoting their time and money to the cultivation of grain, and other esculent fruits of the earth, their chief occupation was to raise a plant which possess- ed neither beauty to delight the eye, nor fra- grance to gratify the sense of smell, which was so bitter and nauseous as to be intolerable to every person who should taste it for the first time: a plant which possessed no medicinal powers sufficiently striking to render it worthy attention; and which could by no method of preparation be converted into an article of diet. That after this plant had attained maturity, it was gathered and distributed among the peo- ple, some of whom delighted, notwithstanding its taste, to keep a portion of it constantly in their mouths; others found pleasure in pow- dering some of the leaves, and at frequent in- tervals thrusting it up their nostrils: others again employed whole hours in burning por- tions of it, and blowing its smoke from their