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This vile custome
An
exhibition by the College Library
for the symposium Respiratory Medicine
Exhibition prepared by John Dallas, Rare Books Librarian |
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 Richard
Hakluyt (1552-1616)
The
third and last volume of the voyages, navigations,
traffiques and discoveries of the English nation
London, 1600
Hakluyt's collection of voyages includes Captain Jacques Cartier's
account of his second journey to North America in 1535. Cartier described
how the indigenous people he met when he arrived at the island of
Montreal offered him tobacco. This was the
first recorded report of native Americans smoking tobacco for
its medicinal benefits. |
 Rembert
Dodoens (1517-1585)
De
stirpium historia commentariorum imagines
Antwerp, 1553
Dodoens was court physician to two emperors, and professor of medicine
at Leyden. His reputation, however, is based on his work in botany.
The above herbal contains the first printed illustration
of the tobacco plant. Dodoens named it Hyoscyamus luteus. |
 Nicolas
Monardes (ca. 1512-1588)
Medicinall
historie of things brought from the West Indies
London, 1580
Monardes was the first physician to write about the medicinal use
of tobacco. He described over sixty-five diseases which he claimed
it could cure. His treatise was so influential that it led to the
idea that tobacco could cure all diseases and conditions. It introduced
to Europe the words tabacco and nicotaine, and started a controversy
which was to be debated for the following two centuries as the medical
world was split over the benefits or harmful effects of the tobacco
plant. |
 John
Gerard (1545-1612)
The
herball or generall historie of plantes
London, 1633
Gerard was the best known of all the English herbalists. His garden
at Holborn contained over a thousand herbs, including many obtained
from the New World. He claimed that tobacco could cure conditions
such as migraine, toothache, gout, ulcers, asthma, and deafness.
He does advise, however, that although smoking the dried leaves in
a pipe may "palliate
or ease for a time", it would "never perform any cure absolutely". |
 Giles
Everard (16th century)
Panacea;
or the universal medicine,
being a discovery of the wonderfull vertues of tobacco
London, 1659
Everard's work was first published in Latin in 1587. He
added to Monardes' list of diseases to such an extent that tobacco
came to be regarded by many as the great universal medicine. Everard
even implied that it was such a cure-all that there would be less
need for physicians.
"It is no great friend to physicians, though it be a physical
plant; for the
very smoke of it is held to be a great antidote against all venome
and pestilential diseases." |
 Eleazar
Duncon the Elder (16th century)
Rules
for the preservation of health
London, 1606
Duncon was one of the first physicians to write about the harmful
effects of smoking tobacco. In his attack on quacks and unqualified
physicians he warned, "Doth not tabacco then threaten a short
life to the great takers of it?" He concluded with a special
warning that it was "so
hurtfull and dangerous to youth" that it might just as well
be known "by the name of youths-bane, as by the name of tabacco." |
 King
James VI & I (1566-1625)
A
counter-blaste to tobacco
Edinburgh, 1885 (Reprint of edition published at London in 1604)
The tobacco controversy became so heated that even the King became
involved. James denied that "this vile custome" had any
medical value whatsoever. By using logic, and the medical knowledge
of his time, King James challenged many of the claims that were being
made. "The filthy smoke", he wrote, "makes
a kitchin also oftentimes in the inward parts of men, soiling
and infecting them, with an unctious and oily kinde of soote, as
hath bene found in some great takers, that after their death were
opened."
He also referred to its addictiveness whereby the smoker "is
piece by piece allured" until he craves it like "a drunkard
will have as great a thirst to be drunk." The King concluded
with the view that it was "a custome lothesome to the eye, hateful
to the nose, harmfulle to the braine, dangerous to the lungs". |
 Johann
Neander (ca. 1596-1630)
Tabacologia
Leyden, 1622
Neander compiled his information mainly from sixteenth century herbals.
Although he recommended the medical use of tobacco in recipes, he
warned against its recreational abuse. It was, he said, "a plant
of God's own making, but the devil likewise involved; excesses ruined
both mind and body." His work also contains the
earliest known printed depictions of native Americans cultivating
and curing tobacco. |
 Tobias
Venner (1577-1660)
A
briefe and accurate treatise concerning the taking of tobacco
London, 1637
Venner's treatise on tobacco reveals the prevalence of tobacco smoking
as early as 1621. Venner criticises those who "cannot travel
without a tobacco-pipe at their mouth", as well as those who
smoke between the courses at meals. He also warns that "this
custome of taking the fume downe into the stomack and lungs" is
"very pernicious." The lungs will "consequently
become unapt for motion, to the great offence of the heart, and
ruine at length of the whole body." |
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