TOBACCO, herb originally from warmer countries, ammoniac, acrid, caustic, narcotic, and poisonous, it has however, artificially and over the course of the past century, due to the weirdness of fashion and habit, become the most cultivated and highly sought after plant, as well as the fascination of nearly everyone who consumes it, be it through the nose in the form of powder; smoked with a pipe; chewed; or by other means.

In Europe tobacco has been known only since the discovery of America by the Spanish; in France it has been known only since the year 1560. It is said that Hernández of Toledo was one of the first to have sent the plant back to Spain and Portugal. Authors have given it the Latin names nicotiana, petunum, tabacum , etc. Continental Americans call the plant pétun , and those of the islands call it yolt .

The French have also successively given it different names. They first called it nicotiane, after Jean Nicot, ambassador of François II to Sebastian, king of Portugal in 1559, 1560, and 1561; and minister known by the learned for a range of works, primarily for his French-Latin dictionary, in-folio, a text that our language could not do without. [1] He sent this plant from Portugal to France, with seed to germinate it, which he presented as a gift to Catherine de’ Medici, for whom it was named the queen's herb . [2] This princess was however never successful in getting it called médicée . Tobacco was subsequently named herb of the grand prior , due namely to the grand prior of France from the House of Lorraine who used it a lot; then the herb of the holy cross and the herb of tournabon , named after two cardinals, of whom the first was papal nuncio to France and the other to Portugal; though in the end, it was shortened to simply tabac , following the example of the Spanish, who called the tool they used to shape their pétun, tobaco.

Its roots are annual; its calyx is either long, tubular, and divided into five long acute sections; or this calyx is short, thick and divided into five obtuse sections. It has a monopetal flower, funnel-shaped, divided into five acute, deep segments, spreading outward from the center; it has five stamens: its fruit is membranous, oblong, plump, and divided by a partition into two cells.

There are four primary species of tobacco , 1. nicotiana major, latifolia , C. B. P. in French grand tabac and grand pétun , 2. nicotiana major, angusti folia , I. R. B . C. B. P., 3. nicotiana minor , C. B. P., and 4. minor, foliis rugosioribus . [3]  [4]  [5]

The first of these species grows a stem to a height of five or six feet, thick as the thumb, round, villous, and filled with white marrow. Its leaves are very broad, thick, flaccid, of a dirty green, approximately one foot long, lacking a stem, villous, somewhat pointed, veiny, viscid to the touch, with a bitter, burning taste. Its flowers grow at the top of the stem; they are a pale red, divided by the edges into five segments , resembling long hollow tubes. Its seminal vessels are long, pointed at the tip, split into two cavities, and are filled with a great number of small brown seeds. Its roots are fibrous, white, and very bitter tasting. The entire plant has a rather nauseating smell. This species’ size diminishes considerably in drying, or as they say in the islands, à la pente ; [6] this shrinking causes the English to think less of this species than of the second. On the other hand, it is the species that is preferred for cultivation in Germany, near Hanover and Strasbourg, because it is less delicate.

The second species differs from the previous one, in that its leaves are much narrower, pointier, and attached to the stalk by stems that are rather long; its smell is less strong; its smoke is milder and more agreeable to smokers. This species is much cultivated in Brazil, Cuba, Virginia, and in other parts of America, where the English have colonies.

The third species comes from the French colonies in the West Indies, and it thrives in our climate.

The fourth species, petit tabac anglais , [7] is shorter and smaller than the previous ones. Its round, villous stems are found at a height of two to three feet. Its lower leaves are quite broad, oval-shaped, blunt at the tip, and sticky to the touch; they are smaller than the leaves of other species of tobacco ; those that grow on the stems are also much smaller than the lower ones, and are arranged in a staggered fashion. Its flowers are hollow and funnel-shaped; its leaves are divided into five segments around the edge; they are a yellowish green, and are situated in a villous calyx. This tobacco has larger seed than the first; this seed is formed in the seminal vessels; it is planted in gardens and flowers in July and in August.

All four of the nicotianas of which we have just spoken are cultivated in botanical gardens out of curiosity, but tobacco is cultivated for consumption in large quantities in several places in America, especially in the Antilles, Virginia, Havana, Brazil, near the city of Comana, and it is the last that is called Verina's Tobacco .

Tobacco also grows throughout Persia, particularly in Elam, Hamedan, in the Carmania Desert, and toward the interior of Persia; this last is the best. It is not known if this plant is native to the country, or if it was transported there. It is generally believed that it was brought there from Egypt, and not from the East Indies.

Some tobacco comes to us from the Levant, from the coasts of Greece and the archipelago, in leaves that are bound together. It is also highly cultivated in Germany and Holland. Before its cultivation was prohibited in France, it was very common here, and thrived especially well, particularly in Aquitaine, near Bordeaux and Clérac, in Béarn near Pau; in Normandy, in the area around Léry; and in Artois, near St. Paul.

One cannot help but be surprised that the powder and smoke of a poisonous plant have become the subject of a delicate sensation that is almost universal: this habit-turned-passion, quickly excited great interest in perfecting the cultivation and production of this commodity that was so sought after; nicotiana now represents, because of a widely shared taste, a very extensive branch of European and American commerce.

Scarcely was it known in the gardens of collectors, when various doctors and lovers of novelty used it internally and externally, to treat a variety of illnesses. They applied it via distilled water and in oil, by infusion or distillation; they prepared syrups and ointments from it, which still exist today.

They recommended it in the form of powder, or smoked, chewed, or taken in the nose, in order to clear the brain, they claimed, of any excess phlegm. They lauded the application of warm leaves for edematous tumors, painful joints, paralysis, boils, and the bites of venomous animals; they recommended these same leaves be ground up with vinegar, or incorporated with oils to make ointments, and applied externally for maladies of the skin; they also prescribed the smoke, applied to the womb for fits of hysteria; they praised the smoke, sap, and oil of this herb, as odontological remedies; they prescribed the syrup for chronic coughs, asthma, and other maladies of the chest. In short they inundated the public with works praising this plant; some of these were written by Monardes, Everhartus, Neander, etc. [8]

However, many other doctors, enlightened and guided by a more learned theory and practice, thought very differently about tobacco ’s properties in the curing of disease; they judged with reason that there was virtually no instance where its use should be prescribed. Its pungency, causticity, and narcotic quality are the first proof of this. Its nauseating taste is a sign of its emetic and cathartic tendencies; this flavor that is rather burning and sharp, greatly affects the throat, and also shows its purgative and very irritating tendency. However, while nicotiana exhibits all of these qualities, its foul smell indicates that it works through a sort of stupefaction of the animal mind, much like jimsonweed, although we cannot explain how the plant might simultaneously possess a stimulating and soporific tendency; perhaps its narcotic quality depends on its oily and subtle vapor, these properties also being the reason for the odor of the plant.

Only the habitual use of its powder causes an agreeable titillation of the nerves of the pituitary membrane. At first it activates convulsive movements, then a milder sensation, and finally, in order to arouse the tickle, this powder must be finer and more penetrating. This is what the retailers have tried to do to sell their tobacco to people who have used it for a long time: they hang it in lavatories in order to make it more acrid, piquant, and stronger; and it must be admitted that the analogy is well-founded. Others put it in amber to saturate it all at once with an ammoniac odor, capable of affecting the organ used for smell.

Tobacco smoke becomes pleasing in the long-term by the same mechanism; but this habit is more harmful than useful. It deprives the stomach of the salivary juices that are the most necessary for digestion; therefore smokers are obliged to drink much more to compensate for this, and it is for this reason that tobacco supplements the modest rations of unfortunate soldiers in the camps.

Those who have been advised to employ tobacco as a remedy, in small cones in the nostrils, and to leave it in while they slept, have experienced soon after the bad effect of this herb; because its oily, fine parts, descending into the throat and trachea, cause on awakening, dry coughs and violent vomiting.

As for the exterior application of tobacco leaves, there are much better remedies for all maladies, for which the effectiveness of this treatment is praised. Its fumigation is very rarely suitable for fits of hysteria.

Tobacco oil often makes toothache worse; when it clears it up, it is only after having burned the nerve by its causticity. If a few people have soothed their toothaches through smoking nicotiana , they are people who inhaled the smoke, who are inebriated from it. Physicians, who are familiar with the delicate tissue of the lungs, will never be persuaded that the syrup of an acrid and caustic plant might be recommendable for maladies of the chest.

The decoction made from the leaves of tobacco is an emetic, which is hardly permissible for use, be it in this manner, or as a remedy, with the exception of the most pressing of cases, such as apoplexy and lethargy.

The distilled oil of this plant is such a powerful emetic, that it sometimes causes vomiting, in putting for just a moment the nose near the vial in which it is kept. A few drops of this oil injected into a wound has fatal consequences, as has been proven by Harderus and Redi in experiments on a variety of animals. [9]

If some collection of academic writings contains any ridiculous observations praising tobacco , they are surely the memoirs of natural history collectors; though one is no more satisfied by those one finds in the majority of authors against the usage of this plant. A text by Pauli, for example, assures us that smoked tobacco turns the skull entirely black. A text by Borrhy, in a letter to Batholin, tells him about a certain person who had so scorched his brain by dint of consuming tobacco , that after his death all that was found in his skull was a black membranous lump. [10] It is true that at the time of all of these writings, tobacco had started a civil war among the doctors, for or against its usage, and that they employed the true and false without scruple, in order to bring triumph to their party. King James himself became involved in the quarrel; but if his reign was only incompetence, his erudition was mere pedantry.

1. Jaucourt is here referring to the dictionary titled Thresor de la langue françoyse tant ancienne que moderne. The genus was named after Nicot posthumously. Arthur C. Gibson, “The Filthy Weed,” Writeups and Illustrations of Economically Important Plants, (accessed January 26, 2010).

2. Some literature claims that André de Thévet first imported tobacco seeds to France in 1556, and that Nicot actually first introduced tobacco to England. Ibid.

3. According to Björn Aldén, “C.B.P.” stands for Caspar Bauhin and Pinax from his text Pinax theatri botanici. Björn Aldén, email to Tomas Lagerström, August 31, 2009.

4. See Caspar Bauhin, Pinax theatri botanici (Missouri Botanical Garden Library), 169-70, (accessed December 29, 2009).

5. According to Charlotte Tancin, because “I.R.B.” is italicized, it likely denotes a citation of the 1671 edition of Bauhin’s text, “published impensis Joannis Regis in Basel”. Charlotte Tancin, email to translator, January 27, 2010.

6. The expression à la pente was a way to describe the hanging of tobacco. See "Pente," in Dictionnaires d'autrefois, (accessed October 30, 2009).

7. This is approximately translated as “Little English Tobacco”.

8. Nicolas Monardes (1512-1588), Giles Everard (16th century), and Johann Neander (1596-1630) all wrote works praising the medicinal uses of tobacco. “This vile custome,” Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, (accessed December 29, 2009).

9. Jaucourt is likely referring to Francesco Redi and Johann Jacob Harder.

10. See Andrew Steinmetz, The smoker's guide, philosopher and friend: What to smoke - what to smoke with - and the whole “What's what” of tobacco, historical, botanical, manufactural, anecdotal, social, medical, &c (London: Hardwicke & Bogue, 1876), 9, (accessed December 29, 2009).