384 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd 8. NO 72., May 16. '57. 



If more by the Scriptures their Honors are mov'd, 

 The over much righteous are there disapprov'd. 

 Thus true to the Gospel, and kind as they're wise, 

 Let their mercy restore what their justice denies." 



MATHBMATICAI. BIBLrOGEAPHT. 



(l»'S. xi. 370, 371.) 



Herigone's Cvasvs MathematiciTomvs Sextvs 

 AC ViiTiMvs (sic) contains, I believe, the earliest 

 printed publication of Fermat's method of maxima 

 and minima and that of drawing tangents to curves. 

 See pp. 59. to 68. of the Supplementum Algebras. 



The volume in the British Museum comprises 

 under one paging the Euclid, Arithmetic, &c. 

 which were (it is said) published separately with 

 another title-page in the same year [or in 1639 ?]. 

 After a leaf of " Annotations," &c., the paging re- 

 commences with the Supplementum, Sfc, and is not 

 again interrupted, except by mispagings of pp. 228, 

 229, and 231. In the historical portion Herigone 

 occasionally cites his authorities (Laert., Papp., 

 Procl., Ptol., Plin., Suid.). He attributes re- 

 searches on " la generation des spirales, conchoi'des 

 et cissoides," to each of two authors named 

 Geminus with an interval of some seven centu- 

 ries between them (compare pages 213. and 223.). 



In the article " Mathematics " (Pen. Cf/cl., vol. 

 XV. p. 14.), it is stated that Bossut's Histoire was 

 translated by Bonnycastle. The facts seem to be 

 these : L'Abbe Bossut furnished the Discours 

 Preliminaire with which the first volume (Paris, 

 1784) of the Encyclopedie Methodique opens, and 

 republished it (Par. 1802) as an Essai, &c., the 

 translation of which (Lond. 1803) by T. O. 

 Churchill, under the name of Bonnycastle, has a 

 list of mathematicians at the end. This list Bos- 

 sut added to his Histoire (Paris, 1810) which has 

 not (?) been translated. See " N. & Q.," vol. x. 

 pp. 3. 47. 190. 



At p. 19. of De Morgan's References (the 

 paging is that of a separate copy, which I esteem 

 it a privilege to possess, and to which I have re- 

 ferred at p. 3. of vol. X. of " N. & Q.,") an " Ab- 

 stract of the Writings of Alexander Anderson " is 

 attributed to Davies. It appears, from a state- 

 ment of my late friend, Mr. T. S. Davies (Phil. 

 Mag., Jan. 1843, p. 31), that the paper in ques- 

 tion was written by the late Dr. Gregory. 



Diogenes Laertius (de Vita et Moribus Philoso- 

 phorum Libri X., Lugduni, apud Haered. Seb. 

 Gryphii, 1599) in his account (lib. v.) of Theo- 

 phrastus Eresius mentions a work, de indiuisibili- 

 bus Lineis (see p. 202. lines 24, 5), so that Theo- 

 phrastus's authorship of the tract is an assertion 

 which does not rest entirely upon the testimony of 

 Simplicius (compare Pott's Eucl., In trod. p. vii.) 



The historical works of Theophrastus comprised 

 one book de Historla (Diog. Laert. p. 204. 1. 13.), 

 four books, Historicorum Geometricorum (pp. 204, 



205), one Arithmeticarum Historini'um Argumentum 

 (p. 205. 11. 12. 13.), and six Aslrologicce Historice 

 (p. 205. 1. 12.). 



James Cockle, M.A., F.R.A.S., &c. 

 76. Cambridge Terrace, Hyde Park. 



EARLY MENTION OF TOBACCO, 



(2°'> S. iii. 207. 311.) 



I think, with Mr. Bates, that the smoking of 

 tobacco must have been known in this country as 

 early as 1560-70. In the former year M. Nicotin, 

 then ambassador in Portugal, sent into France a 

 kind of tobacco which took its name from him. 

 "And your Nicotian is good too!" says Captain 

 Bobadil in his well-known panegyric, which is 

 certainly not more high-flown than that of M. 

 Nicotin himself, who, in his Dictionary, calls it — 

 " une espece d'herbe, de vertu admirable pour 

 guerlr toutes navrures, playes, ulceres, chancres, 

 dartes, et autres tels accidents au corps humain." 

 (Whalley's notes.) About the same time (?) the 

 Pope's ambassador in Portugal, the Cardinal Santa- 

 Croce, introduced tobacco into Italy, where it was 

 called by his name. Bayle quotes some verses of 

 Castor Duranti, which record this circumstance, 

 and celebrate the " weed" as an universal remedy. 

 They conclude : — 



" Ut proavi Sanctse lignum Crucis ante tulere 

 Omnis Christiadum quo nunc respublica gaudet, 

 Et Sanctae Crucis illustris Doraus ipsa vocatur 

 Corporis atque aniraai nostras studiosa salutis." 



Illustrious house ! indeed, whose members have 

 so benefited the souls and bodies of their fellow- 

 countrymen, by bringing them the holy wood of 

 the true cross, and then — tobacco ! 



When Nicotian was introduced into France in 

 1560, it may be inferred that other kinds of to- 

 bacco were known and used in that country, and 

 that the practice of smoking was of some years' 

 standing in Portugal. If such were the case, I 

 think it can hardly have been unknown in Eng- 

 land soon after 1560, or even before, though not 

 generally used for a score of years afterwards. 

 Smoking was evidently at its height, as a fashion, 

 and every "complete gentleman" was an adept in 

 the art, when Ben Jonson wrote his Every Man 

 in His Humour (1598), and Every Man out of 

 His Humour (1599) ; as we may conclude from 

 the frequent allusions to the subject in both these 

 comedies, but more especially the latter. There 

 were three professors of the art of " drinking to- 

 bacco," as we find from the bill set up in St. Paul's 

 by Shift, or Signior WhifF, as he tells us he was 

 called from "his most rare gift in tobacco," wherein 

 he offers his services to provincial gallants who 

 are — 



" Affected to entertain the most gentleman -like use of 

 tobacco ; as, first, to give it the most excellent perfume ; 



