478 NICOTIANA TABACUM. 
the smell, hurteth the stomach, destroyeth the 
concoction, disturbeth the humours and spirits, 
corrupteth the breath, induceth a trembling: of 
the limbs, exsiccateth the winde pipe, lungs and 
liver, annoyeth the milt, scorcheth the heart and 
eauseth the blood to be adusted. In a word, it 
overthroweth the spirits, perverteth the under- 
standing, and confoundeth the senses with sudden 
astonishment and stupiditie of the whole body.” 
_ A poetical phillippic, called “Tobacco batter- 
red,” was published in the reign of King James 
by Joshua Sylvester, in which he compares 'Tobac- 
eo to gunpowder, and pipes to guns ; making the 
mischief of the two equal. But the most cele- 
brated of all inyectives against Tobaceo was the 
* Counterblast” of King James I. | That) weak 
monarch gave vent to his prejudices against this 
herb in a publication, in which he professes to 
disprove all the alleged grounds for the toleration 
of Tobacco, and warns his subjects in a most 
earnest manner not to sin against God, and harm 
their own persons and goods, and render them- 
selves scorned and contemned by strangers, who 
should come among thems. by persevering in a 
custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, 
and baneful to the brain? 
