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Tobacco: The Nasty Weed - Page 3

© Audrey Stallsmith

Snuff, mixed with lard, was sometimes applied to children's chests to treat croup.

Although Gerard recommended occasional medicinal use of tobacco, he easily recognized the addictive nature of the plant. He spoke of some who "drink it (as it is termed) for wantonnesse, or rather custome, and cannot forbeare it. . .which kinde of taking is unwholesome and very dangerous."

The herbalist was not the only person of his time to have reservations about tobacco. In his "Counterblaste," King James of England described smoking as "a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." He then increased the import tax on tobacco by four thousand percent!

In 1601, Samuel Rowlands wrote, "But this same poyson, steeped Indian weede/ In head, harte, lunges do the soote and cobwebs breede. . ." In 1617, Dr. William Vaughn exaggerated a bit when he penned, "Tobacco, that outlandish weede,/ It spends the braine and spoiles the seede:/ It dulls the spirite, it dims the sight,/ It robs a woman of her right."

Despite occasional overstatements, it is obvious that people have always had a pretty good idea that tobacco was a drug and bad for them. If not, why were cigarettes so often referred to as "coffin nails?" So the outrage directed at tobacco companies these days seems a bit ridiculous--and a large abdicating of personal responsibility.

I'll close with the last verse of the ballad quoted above, to which I have taken the liberty of adding a line!
The ashes, that are left behind
May serve to put thee still in mind
That unto dust return thou must:
(And earlier than most if you)
Thus think, then drink Tobacco.

Note: Nicotiana tabacum photo is by Hugh Wilson, couresty of the Texas Vascular Plant Image Library at: http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/ftc/dft/l... Nicotiana trigonophylla photo is by Mimi Kamp and, along with the tobacco sketch, is courtesy of the SW School of Botanical Medicine at: http://chili.rt66.com/hrbmoore/HOMEPAGE/... . Other photos are by author, all rights reserved, and may not be copied or reproduced without permission.

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