154 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 40. 



Achilles mid the Tortoise. — Where is the pa- 

 radox of " Achilles and the Tortoise" to be found? 

 Leibnitz is said to have given it solution in some 

 part of his works. 



There is also a geometrical treatment of the 

 subject by Gregoire de S. Vincent. Will some 

 reading man oblige me with information or re- 

 ference concerning it. iSiiirris. 



Dominicals. — I am desirous of obtaining in- 

 formation on a subject of much interest to Exeter. 



An ancient payment is made to the rectors of 

 each parish within the city of Exeter, called " Do- 

 minicals," amounting to \d. per week from every 

 householder within the parish. Payments of a 

 similar nature are made in London, Canterbury, 

 and I believe Worcester. Can any of your nu- 

 merous readers state the origin of Dominicals, and 

 give any information respecting them. W. 11. C. 



Yorkshire Dales. — A Pedestrian would be 

 much obliged by being informed if there is any 

 map, guide, or description published, that woukl 

 serve "as a hand-book to the Dales in the West 

 Riding of Yorkshire, between. Lancashire and 

 Westmoreland. 



aacpiics. 



TOBACCO IN THE £AST. 



In the EdinhurghCahinet Library, \o\. iii. p. 383., 

 art. "China," it is stated that three species of 

 tobacco have been found in India and in China,^ 

 under circumstances which can leave no doubt of 

 their being native plants. 



Dr. Bigelow (^American Botany, 4to., vol. ii. 

 p. 17L) tells us that Nicot. fructicosa is said to 

 have been cultivated in the East prior to the dis- 

 covery of America. Linnajus sets down the same 

 as a native of China and the Cape of Good Hojie. 

 Sir G. Staunton says that there is no traditional 

 account of the introduction of tobacco into China ; 

 nor is there any account of its introduction into 

 India*; though, according to Barrow, the time 

 when the cotton plant was introduced into the 

 southern provinces of China is noted in their 

 annals. Bell of Anterniony, who was in China in 

 1721, says, — 



" It is reported the Chinese have had the use of 

 tobacco for many ages," &c. — Travels, vol. ii. p. 73., 

 Lond. ed. 4to. 1763." 



Ledyard says, the Tartars have smoked from 

 remote antiquity (Travels, 326). Du Ilalde 

 speaks of tobacco as one of the natural productions 

 of Formosa, whence it was largely imported by the 

 Chinese (p. 173. Lond. ed. 8vo. 1741). 



The prevalence of the practice of smoking at an 



* There is no positive notice of its introduction into 

 Turkey, Persia, or Russia? 



early period among the Chinese is appealed to by 

 Pallas as one evidence that in Asia, and especially 

 in China, the use of tobacco for smoking is more 

 ancient than the discovery of the New World. 

 (See Asiat. Jourii., vol. xxii. p. 137.) 



The Koreans say they received tobacco from 

 Japan, as also instructions for its cultivation, about 

 the latter end of the sixteenth century. (Authority, 

 I think, Hamel's Travels, Pink. Coll., vii. 532.) 

 Loureiro states that in Cochin China tobacco is 

 indigenous, and has its proper vernacular name. 



Java is said to have possessed it before 1496. 

 Dr. Kuschenberg says, — 



" We are informed the Portuguese met with it on 

 their first visit to Java." — Voy. of U. S. S. Peacock, 

 vol. ii. p. 456, Lond. ed. 8vo. 1838. 



Crauford dates its introduction into Java, 1601, 

 but admits that the natives had traditions of having 

 possessed it long before. {Indian Archipelago, 

 vol. i. pp. 104. 409, 410. 8vo.) Rumphius, in 

 the latter part of the seventeenth century, found 

 it universal even where the Portuguese and 

 Spaniards had never been. 



Savary, in his Parfait iVie^ocjan?, states that the 

 Persians have used tobacco 400 years, and pro- 

 bably received it from Egypt. (See Med. Chir. 

 7?euze!P, 1840, p. 335.) 



Olearius found it fully established in Persia, 

 1637, only about fifty years after its arrival in 

 England. (Lond. 1G62, in fol. p. 322.) Chardin 

 states, the Persians smoked long before the dis- 

 covery of America, and had cultivated tobacco 

 time immemorial. 



" Coffee without tohacco is meat without salt." — 

 Persian Proverb, Sale's Koran, Preliminary Discourse, 

 1G9. ed. Svo. 



In 1634 Olearius found the Russians so addicted 

 to tobacco that they would spend their money on 

 it rather than bread. (See edit, above quoted, 

 lib. iii. p. 83.) 



According to Prof. Lichtenstein, the Beetjua- 

 nen smoked and snuffed long before their inter- 

 course with Europeans. (Med. and Chir, Rev., 

 1840, p. 335.) 



Liebault, in his Maison Rustigue, asserts that he 

 found tobacco growing naturally in the forest of 

 Ardennes. Libavius says that it grows in the 

 Hyrcinian forest. (Ibid.) 



Dr. Cleland shows the three last to be false- 

 hoods (?). 



Ysbrants Ides found tobacco in general use 

 among the Ostiaks and other tribes passed in his 

 route to China, 1692. (Harris's Coll., fol. vol. ii. 

 pp. 925. and 926.) 



The story told of Amurath IV. punishing a 

 Turk for smoking seems to be a mistake, since 

 Amurath only began to reign 1622; whereas 

 Sandys relates the same story of a certain Morad 

 Bassa, probably Murat HI., who began to reign 



