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differing much in their properties. The Nicotiana Tabacum properly so called from being the most active and powerful of the genus, and distinguished in the preceding description from its congenors and its varieties, has been examined with minute precision as regards its operation on the mind and on the body-in its botanical, commercial, political, chemical, and medical history. In the former part of these remarks a detail was given of its discovery and first importa tion into the old world; its sudden and extensive spread among the European states; its influence upon the mind by its soothing and insidious qualities and its agency in the delusive arts of the Pagan priesthood.* Having now also passed

smooth, acute, sessile: the flowers are rather larger than in Var. 1, and of a brighter purple colour.

VAR. (3.) N. angustifolia. Mill. dict. n. 3. fig. t. 185, f. 1. Nar row-leaved Virginian Tobacco.

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Syn. (1.) N. major angustifolium. Bauh. pin. 169. Besl. eyst. Mor. hist. 429. 2. f. 2. (2.) N. s. Tabacum fol. angustiora. Bauh. hist. 3. 629. (3) Tabacum angustifolium. Camerar. (4) Tabacum alterum minus. Dalech. (5) Tabacum s. herba sancta minor. Lobel. adv. 251. (6) Tobacco angustifolium. Park. parad. 363. Raii. hist. 714. (7) Petum angustifolium. Class. exot. 309. (8) Sanasancta Indorum. Ger. 285. 2. emac. 357. 2. This 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 on the top, and end in very acute points, sitting close to the stalks; and are very glutinous. The flowers grow in loose bunches at the top of the stalks; they have long tubes, and are of a bright purple or red colour. They appear at the same time with var. 2, and ripen their seeds I am indebted for much information to the elaborate edition of Millar by Professor Martyn, who has so much improved the original work, that in justice it now should be called Martyn's rather than Miller's Dictionary.

in the autumn.

* The natural simplicity, and the air of unaffected truth, with which the modes of incantation employed by the priests of the aborigines of America are described in an old translation of Monardes, B. L. 1580, may afford some apology for inserting the account here. "One of the mervelles of this hearbe (Tobacco) and that which bringeth most admiration, is, the maner howe the Priestes of the Indians did use it, which was in this manner: when there was amongst the Indians any manner of businesse, of great importance, in which the chief Gentlemen called Casiques, or any of the principall people of the countrie, had necessitie to consult with their Priestes, in any businesse of importance: then they went and propounded the matter to their chiefe Prieste, forthwith in their presence, he tooke certayne leaves of the Tobaco, and cast them into the fire, and did receive the smoke of them into his mouth, and at his nose with a cane, and in taking of it, hee fell downe upon the

ground,

through the scientific part of its botanical history, it remains to notice shortly its culture, and commercial importance; the discovery of its constituent materials by chemical analysis, and to point out its medical properties and its effects, whether curative or deleterious, on animal bodies.

In two points the cultivation of Tobacco has been an object of great solicitude to mankind. On its first introduction into Europe, the morning of science had scarcely broke on that long night of barbarian ignorance, which involved in intellectual darkness the greater portion of this division of the earth. The wonders told by travellers who had just returned from America, and especially of the pro perties of this plant, aided by its apparent effects, operated strongly on the feelings and expectations of the uninformed population of Europe. Tobacco was sought every where; and as soon as its seed could be procured, it was grown in every place. When this inducement to its cultivation subsided, as it must when experience made it better known, another sprang up. Its promise to produce great wealth + both

ground, as a dead man, and remayning so, according to the quantitie of the smoke he had taken. When the hearbe had done his woorke, he did revive and awake, and gave them their answeares, according to his visions, and illusions which he saw, whiles hee was rapte in the same manner, and he did interprete them, as to him seemed best, or as the Divell had counselled him, giving them continually doubtfull answeares, in such sorte that howsoever it fell out, they might saye that it was the same, which was declared, and the answeare that he made."

"In like sort the reste of the Indians for their pastime doe take the smoke of the Tobaco, too make themselves drunke withall, and to see the visions, and things that represent unto them that wherein they doe delight and other times they take it to know their businesse, and successe, because conformable to that, which they have seen beyng drunke therewith, even so they judge of their businesse. And as the Devill is a deceaver, and hathe the knowledge of the vertue of hearbes, so hedid shew the vertue of this hearbe, that by the means thereof, they might see their imaginations and visions." Fol. 39.

* As all the species of Nicotiana, the Rustica, and Paniculata excepted, are too tender to be raised from seeds, without the assistance of artificial heat, it is probable the N. Tabacum was not generally grown in the fields and gardens of Europe. The N. rustica (common or English Tobacco) the favorite of Sir Walter Raleigh, most likely was the plant that invaded Europe, and threatened to dislodge the natural and useful possessors of the soil.

The first commerce in Tobacco seems to have commenced about 1585, and as it proceeded, the demand for it in Europe became so urgent, that at the beginning of 1600, it was essential for the existence of the American colonies to restrain the cultivation, which by the

hope

to individuals and to states, gave it a second triumph and the financier now became as anxious to promote its increase as the physician, who hailed it as an universal panacea had formerly been.

The culture of this plant as adopted in Europe, in a commercial view has now no importance. To science, however, it still affords no small portion of interest; and the philosophical botanist who desires to compare the species with each other, and fully to comprehend the generic characters, will not be displeased with the note* below, which describes from

hope of gain had extended so as to threaten the exclusion of grain of all kinds. For a detail of the progress of the culture and commerce of Tobacco from 1584 to 1748, Anderson's elaborate History of Commerce may be consulted; and to that excellent work I refer with confidence in its correctness.

* The seeds of the tender species of the Tobacco plant, viz. N. tabacum, N. fruticosa, N. urens, N. glutinosa, and N. pusilla, must be sown on a moderate hot-bed in March, and when the plants come up fit to remove, they should be transplanted into a new hot-bed of moderate warmth, about four inches asunder each way, observing to water and shade them until they have taken root; after which let them have air in proportion to the warmth of the season, otherwise they will draw up very weak, and be thereby less capable of enduring the open air water them frequently, but while they are very young it should not be given to them in great quantities; though when they are pretty strong, they will require to have it often, and in plenty.

In this bed the plants should remain until the middle of May, by which time, if they have succeeded well, they will touch each other: therefore they should be inured to bear the air gradually; after which they must be taken up carefully, preserving a large ball of earth to each root, and planted into a rich light soil, in rows four feet asunder, and the plants three feet distant in the rows, observing to water them until they have taken root; after which they will require no further care (but only to keep them clean from weeds) until the plants begin to shew their flower-stems; at which time cut off the tops of them, that their leaves may be the better nourished, whereby they will be rendered larger, and of a thicker substance. In August they will be full grown, when they should be cut for use; for if they are permitted to stand longer, their under leaves will begin to decay. This is to be understood of such plants as are propagated for use, but those which are designed for ornament should be planted in the borders of the pleasure-garden, and per mitted to grow their full height, when they will continue flowering from July till the frost puts a stop to them.

The N. urens, glutinosa, and pusilla, being somewhat more tender than the N. tabacum, when removed from the hot-bed in which they were sown, and when they have obtained a good share of strength, should be transplanted into separate pots, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed to bring them forward. About the middle of June some of the

plants

the best source, the judicious methods that the most rational gardeners of the present time employ. The growing of Tobacco in America has the same interest which the cultiva

plants may be shaken out of the pots, and planted in beds of rich earth; but it will be proper to keep one or two plants in pots, to be placed in the stove, in the case the season should prove bad, that they may ripen their seeds.

The N. rustica, and paniculata being very hardy, may be propagated by sowing their seeds in March upon a bed of light earth, whence they may be transplanted into any part of the garden, and will thrive with MARTYN'S MILLER.

out farther care.

* In America_Tobacco is cultivated with great care and attention; but the mode of management varies, as we see in England a different kind of agriculture pursued in the different counties. In 1724 the Rev. Hugh Jones, of James-town in Virginia, thus describes the culture of Tobacco. "When a tract of land is seated," says he, "they clear it by felling the trees about a yard from the ground, lest they should shoot again. What wood they have occasion for they carry off, and burn the rest, or let it lie and rot upon the ground.

"The land between the logs and stumps they hoe up, planting tobacco there in the spring, enclosing it with a slight fence of cleft rails. This will last for tobacco some years if the land be good, as it is where fine timber or grape vines grow.

"Land, when hired, is forced to bear tobacco by penning their cattle upon it; but cow-penned tobacco tastes strong, and that planted in wet marshy land is called non-burning tobacco, which smokes in the pipe like leather, unless it be of a good age.

"When land is tired of tobacco it will bear Indian corn or English wheat, or any other European grain or seed, with wonderful increase. "Tobacco and India corn are planted in hills, as hops, and secured by worm fences, which are made of rails supporting one another very firmly in a particular manner.

"Tobacco requires a great deal of skill and trouble in the right management of it. They raise the plants in beds as we do cabbage plants, which they transplant and replant upon occasion after a shower of rain, which they call a season. When it is grown up they top it, or nip off the head, succour it, or cut off the ground leaves, weed it, hill it, and, when ripe, they cut it down about six or eight leaves on a stalk, which they carry into airy tobacco houses; after it is withered a little in the sun, there it is hung to dry on sticks, as paper at the paper mills; when it is in proper case (as they call it) and the air neither too moist, nor too dry, they strike it, or take it down, then cover it up in bulk, or a great heap, where it lies till they have leisure or occasion to stem it (that is, to pull the leaves from the stalk), or strip it (that is, to take out the great fibres), and tie it up in hands, or straight lay it, and so by degrees prize or press it with proper engines into great hogsheads, containing from about six to eleven hundred pounds; four of which hogs.

heads

tion of wheat has in this country. It affords subsistence to multitudes. A failure in the crop of Tobacco is a national evil: because its produce gives revenue to the state, and wealth to the merchant; to the farmer competency, and to the labourer employment.

A circumstance which accompanies the cultivation of Tobacco in America, if the principle of it were not seen in Europe through the medium of similar facts, would be thought so wonderful as almost to forbid belief. This powerful soporific plant, which in a few grains only enervates the strongest man, and pushed a little further extinguishes the vital principle, is eaten with avidity, and is indeed the principal food of the larva of a delicate fly.*

heads make a tun, by dimensions, not by weight; then it is ready for sale or shipping.

"There are two sorts of tobacco, viz. Oroonoco, the stronger, and sweet-scented, the milder; the first with a sharper leaf like a fox's ear, and the other rounder and with finer fibres: but each of these are varied into several sorts, much as apples and pears are; and I have been informed by the Indian traders, that the inland Indians have sorts of tobacco much different from any planted or used by the Europeans." A German author describes, about 1794, the Virginian mode of culture and cure, which seems exercised with a ridiculous precision. In the voyages of Pere le Bat there are many particulars of the first methods of managing the tobacco plant; and in the American Museum for 1787 and 1789, an account will be found of the raising and curing of tobacco in Maryland, and of the method of cultivating that plant in Virginia where it borders on that country, as practised by Judge Parker. The great obstacles to the successful culture of tobacco in Ame, rica, are the fly and the worm.

* It will be gratifying to me, and probably acceptable to most of the Readers of the Medical Journal, to have described by some of its numerous correspondents, the species of insects which feed upon the Tobacco plant-pointing out their station and name in the Syst. Nat. Lin. the peculiarities of their natural history; the effects they produce upon other animals when eaten or applied to the skin, if any such are known; the common or popular appellations by which they are distinguished; whether they are considered as poisonous; if their fluids manifest the properties of the plant upon which they feed, or whether the acrid, principle of that plant is so changed by digestion and assimilation, as to lose its original properties. If the insects which feed upon Tỏ, bacco should be found to acquire the properties of that plant, whether these properties may not have undergone a change in some particular which may render their acrid and soporific principles more valuable medicines, cannot be determined without an experimental inquiry. There are analogies in insect life, and in the other orders of the animal kingdom, which make it probable that the flies or larvæ which feed on (No. 144.)

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