Nicotiana Part 5

"T. P."

"P. S.--Don't forget the pig-tail."

Treating of the milder virtues of tobacco, who ever knew a smoker--one of your twenty years' standing,--ill tempered; or a veteran snuff-taker, who did not occasionally give utterance to witty sayings?--the thing were against reason. In conclusion, what can we say more for thee, omnipotent, prolific herb! than in the inspired lines of thy true admirer Byron?

Sublime tobacco, which from east to west, Cheers the tar's labours or the Turkman's rest; Which on the moslems' ottomans divides His hours, and rivals opium and his brides: Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand, Though not less lov'd, in Wapping or the Strand.

Divine in hookas; glorious in a pipe, When tipped with amber, mellow, rich and ripe; Like other charmers, wooing thy caress, More dazzling fair and glaring in full dress; Yet thy true lovers more admire, by far, Thy naked beauties--give me a cigar?

THE MEDICAL QUALITIES OF TOBACCO.

Of the properties attributable to the plant in the _Materia Medica_, a variety of opinions prevail, and have done, indeed, since its first appearance in the civilized portion of the globe. It certainly cannot but strike the reader as a fact to be very greatly lamented, that science should be so unfixed, even in this much boasted-of-enlightened aera, that some medical men should be found to ascribe every bad and pernicious quality to the use of tobacco; and others, equally celebrated for their professional knowledge, recommend it as a panacea for many ills.

Reflection makes this still more dreadful, when we consider these are the men to whose abilities we are frequently compelled to look up, for the preservation of our healths and lives. It would be well, indeed, if this lamentable difference of opinion among the facult existed only in reference to our present subject.

We shall now, however, proceed to note some of the ideas of the learned that have been expressed concerning the qualities of the herb, in pharmacy, and quote our first specimen in the following poem, by the famous Dr. Thorious, who most sagely recommends it as an antidote for every evil under the sun.

A LATIN POEM,

By Raphael Thorious.

(_Translated into English by the Rev. W. Bewick._)

The herb which borrows Santa Croce's name, Sore eyes relieves and healeth wounds; the same Discusses the kings evil, and removes Cancers and boils; a remedy it proves For burns and scalds, repels the nauseous itch, And straight recovers from convulsive fits; It cleanses, dries, binds up, and maketh warm; The head-ach, tooth-ach, cholic, like a charm It easeth soon; an ancient cough relieves, And to the reyns and milt and stomach gives Quick riddance from the pains which each endures, Next the dire wounds of poison'd arrows cures; All bruises heals, and when the gum once sore, It makes them sound and healthy as before: Sleep it procures, our anxious sorrows lays, And with new flesh the naked bone arrays; No herb hath greater pow'r to rectify All the disorders in the breast that lie; Or in the lungs. Herb of immortal fame, Which hither first by Santa Croce came; When he (his time of nunclature expir'd) Back from the court of Portugal retir'd, Even as his predecessors, great and good.

All Christendom now with its presence blesses, And still the ill.u.s.trious family possesses The name of Santa Croce, rightly given, Since they in all respects resemble heaven: Procure as much as mortal men can do, The welfare of our souls and bodies too.

_Dr. Cullen_ observes, that tobacco is generally recognized for its narcotic powers, as well as being a very considerable stimulant, with respect to the whole system, but more especially the stomach and intestines, and acts even in small doses as an emetic and purgative.

The editors of the Edinburgh Dispensary also remark, that of late, tobacco under the form of a vinous or watery infusion, given in small quant.i.ties, so as to produce little effect by its action on the stomach, has been found a very useful and powerful diuretic.

_Dr. Fowler_ published some cases of dropsy and dysury, in which its application was attended with the best effects, and this has been confirmed by the practice of others. Beaten into a mash with vinegar or brandy, it has sometimes proved highly serviceable for removing hard tumours of the _hypochondres_. Two cases of cure are published in the 'Edinburgh Essays.'

Considerable reliance has also been placed upon it, by some of the most eminent pract.i.tioners, as an injection by the a.n.u.s of the smoke, in cases of obstinate constipation, threatening _Ileus_, of _incarcerated hernia_, of spasmodic asthma, and of persons apparently dead from drowning or other causes.

_Dr. Strother_ speaks of its being beneficial in smoking, to persons having defluxions on the lungs. By long boiling in water, its deleterious power is said to be neutralized, and at length destroyed: an extract made by long decoction, is recommended by _Stubb_ and other German physicians, as the most efficient and safe aperient detergent, expectorant and diuretic.--_Lewis Mat. Med._

_Bates_ and _Fuller_ give many encomiums on its powers in asthmatic cases.

_Boyle_ a.s.serts the juice and the plant to be very excellent in curing ulcers and mortifications, although its operation, in this respect, is stated by numerous other authorities, to be deleterious in the extreme. As regarding, indeed, many of the virtues attributed to its use by Lewis and others, in decoctions and poultices, candour obliges us to declare, though with great deference to those opinions which have been expressed by the most eminent of the medical profession, that we cannot consider it of any particular efficacy. We shall, therefore, forbear tiring our readers with recipes of the different forms in which it is prescribed for many illnesses.

Taken as snuff, tobacco is generally allowed to be a mild and inoffensive stimulant, which, indeed, in many cases, is prescribed as a most effectual errhine for clearing the nostrils and head. When taken, however, as it frequently is, in excessive quant.i.ties, its consequences become often visible, and tumours and secretions in the nose are said to be the result.

It is likewise said by some, when taken immoderately, to greatly tend to weaken the sight and bring on apoplexy.

_Revenus_ and _Chenst_ likewise wrote against the habit of smoking; but like more modern writers, among whom may be named _Dr. Adam Clarke_, with little or no effect; for it may be set down as a fact, proved in many other instances, as well as this ill.u.s.trates,--that where a people have the facilities of judging for themselves, they invariably will do so. In this case, practice and precept peculiarly go together.

Of the medical qualities of tobacco, as an antidote against contagion, its inestimable efficacy was never better proved, than in the period of the plagues[17] that have at times visited England.

_Dr. Willis_ says, in his very able treatise, that its power in repelling the infectious air during the plague of 1665 was truly astonishing; so much so, that the shops of the tobacconists remained quite uninfected.

It is also very favourably mentioned by _Richard Barker_, a physician, at the period of the pestilence, who gives it in the following recipe against the plague: "Carry about with you a leaf of tobacco rolled up in tiffiny or lawn, so dipt in vinegar. Smell often to it, and sometimes clap it to the temples for some few minutes of time. For those that smoke tobacco, let them use it with one-fourth part of flower of sulphur, and seven or eight drops of oil of amber for one pipe."

Among very many celebrated physicians, who have also recorded and recommended the use of tobacco against the poisonous influence of the plague, may be mentioned _Gideon Hovey_, M.D.,[18] _Dr. Fowler_,[19] and _Diemerbroek_, a distinguished Dutch medical pract.i.tioner; besides numerous pamphlets that have been published on the subject of the plague.

One account, published in 1663 by W. Kemp, professing to recommend the best means to the public to avoid the infection, mentions tobacco in a way, that reminds us somewhat of its warm panegyrist, Dr. Thorious, and is too facetious to be here omitted. The following is the literal transcript:--

"The American silver weed[20] or tobacco, is an excellent defence against bad air, being smoked in a pipe, either by itself or with nutmeg shred, and rew seeds mixed with it; especially if it be nosed, for it cleanseth the air and choaketh and suppresseth and disperseth any venemous vapour; it hath both singular and contrary effects; it is good to warm one being cold, and will cool one being hot. All ages, all s.e.xes and const.i.tutions, young and old, men and women, the sanguine, the choleric, the melancholy, the phlegmatic, take it without any manifest inconvenience; it giveth thirst, and yet will make one more able and fit to drink; it chokes hunger, and yet will give one a good stomach; it is agreeable with mirth or sadness, with feasting and with fasting; it will make one rest that wants sleep, and will keep one waking that is drowsy; it hath an offensive smell, and is more desirable than any perfume to others; that it is a most excellent preservative, both experience and reason teach; it corrects the air by fumigation, and avoids corrupt humours by salivation; for when one takes it by chewing it in the leaf, or smoking it in the pipe, the humours are brought and drawn from all parts of the body to the stomach, and from thence rising up to the mouth of the TOBACCONIST, as to the helm of a sublunatory, are voided and spitted out."

Of the poisonous qualities of tobacco, we are informed that a drop or two of the chemical oil of tobacco, being put upon the tongue of a cat or dog, produces violent convulsions, and death itself, in the s.p.a.ce of a few minutes; yet, the same oil used on lint, applied to the teeth, has been found of the utmost service in the tooth-ach.[21]

A very common opinion prevails among those who do not smoke, that it is bad for the teeth: a belief founded upon any thing but experience, and resulting generally from prejudice. For preserving the gums and the enamel of the teeth, in a healthy and sound state, few remedies can operate better than the smoke of tobacco. In the first instance, it renders nugatory the corruptive power of the juices that invariably set into the interstices of the teeth, and unless brushed away, remain after meals; and, in the second place, it destroys the effluvia arising at times from the breath that, in some const.i.tutions, so quickly brings about a corrosion of the outer surface or enamel. The benefits that have resulted from smoking, in cases of the tooth-ache, have been too commonly experienced to admit of doubt. In a pamphlet that was published some thirty years ago, detailing the adventures of the Pretender; an anecdote is related of its excellence. While taking refuge in the mansion of Lady Kingsland, in the Highlands of Scotland, from his enemies, after having had recourse to many things, he smoked a pipe to free himself from this 'curse o' achs;' and after a short time, received the wished-for relief.

As another and concluding instance of the preservative power of tobacco upon the teeth, it is related in the life of the great Sir Isaac Newton, who was remarkable for the quant.i.ty of tobacco he smoked, that though he lived to a good old age, he never lost but ONE TOOTH.

BOTANICAL HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE TOBACCO PLANT.

Tobacco is a genus of the cla.s.s _pentandria_. Order _monogynia_; natural order of luridae (solaneae, _Juss._)--GENERIC CHARACTERS--Calyx; perianthium one-leafed, ovate, half five-cleft, permanent. Corolla: one-petalled funnel-form.--_Essential Character_--Corolla funnel-form, with a plaited border, stamina inclined; capsule two-valved and two-celled.

There are six kinds of tobacco peculiar to America: which we shall proceed to notice in their relative order.

1. Nicotiana Fruticosa, or shrubby tobacco: leaves lanceolate, subpetioled, embracing; flowers acute, stem frutescent. This rises with very branching stalks, about five feet high. Lower leaves a foot and a half long, broad at the base, where they half embrace the stalks, and about three inches broad in the middle, terminating in long acute points.

2. Nicotiana Alba, or white-flowered tobacco. This rises about five feet high: the stalk does not branch so much as that of the former. The leaves are large and oval, about fifteen inches long and two broad in the middle, but diminish gradually in size to the top of the stalk, and with their base half embrace it. The flowers grow in closer bunches than those of the former, and are white: they are succeeded by short oval obtuse seed-vessels. It flowers and perfects seeds about the same time with the former. It grows naturally in the woods of Tobago, whence the seeds were sent to Mr. Philip Miller by Mr. Robert Miller.

3. Nicotiana Tabac.u.m or Virginian tobacco: leaves lanceolate, ovate, sessile, decurrent, flowers acute. Virginian tobacco has a large, long annual root; an upright, strong, round, hairy stalk, branching towards the top; leaves numerous, large, pointed, entire, veined, viscid, pale green; flowers in loose cl.u.s.ters or panicles.

4. Nicotiana Latissima, the great broad-leaved or Oroonoko; formerly, as Mr. Miller says, sown in England, and generally taken for the common broad-leaved tobacco of Caspar Bauhin, and others, but is very different from it. The leaves are more than a foot and a half long, and a foot broad; their surfaces very rough and glutinous, and their bases half embrace the stalk. In a rich moist soil the stalks are more than ten feet high, and the upper part divides into small branches, which are terminated by loose bunches of flowers, standing erect: they have pretty long tubes, and are of a pale purplish colour. It flowers in July and August, and the seeds ripen in autumn. This is the sort which is commonly brought to the market in pots.

5. Nicotiana Tabac.u.m, broad-leaved, or sweet-scented. The stalks of this, which is the broad-leaved tobacco of Caspar Bauhin, seldom rise more than five or six feet high, and divide into more branches. The leaves are about ten inches long, and three and a half broad, smooth, acute, sessile; the flowers are rather larger, and of a brighter purple colour.

6. Nicotiana Angustifolia, or narrow-leaved Virginian tobacco; rises with an upright branching stalk, four or five feet high. The lower leaves are a foot long, and three or four inches broad: those on the stalks are much narrower, lessening to the top, and end in very acute points, sitting close to the stalks.

Besides these, it must be remarked, there are many other kinds of tobacco peculiar to different countries.

_Nicotiana undulata_, or New Holland tobacco: radical leaves obovate, obtuse, somewhat wavy; stem-leaves sharp-pointed. It came to Kew in 1800, and is perennial in the green-house, flowering all summer long. The settlers at Port Jackson are said to use this herb as tobacco.

_Nicotiana plumbaginifolia_, or lead-wort-leaved tobacco: radical leaves ovate, contracted at the base; stem-leaves lanceolate, clasping the stem; all undulated; corolla salver-shaped, acute. The native country of this species is unknown. It has been cultivated in some Italian gardens, and there were flowering specimens in May 1804, in the store of the late lady Amelia Hume.

_Nicotiana axillaris_, or axillary tobacco: leaves opposite, ovate, flat, nearly sessile; stalk axillary, solitary single-flowered; corolla obtuse; segments of the calyx deep, spatulate. Gathered by Commerson at Monte Video, and communicated by Thouin to the younger Linnaeus. Leaves rather above an inch long, and near an inch wide, downy, and apparently viscid, like the rest of the herbage. Fruits unknown.

_Nicotiana tristis_, or dull-purple tobacco: leaves lanceolate, wavy, clasping the stem; corolla salver-shaped, its tube not twice the length of the calyx, and scarcely longer than the obtuse limb. Gathered also by Commerson at Monte Video.