86 



DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS. 



the natives the usual mode employed in smoking the plant 

 was by means of hollow canes, and pipes made of wood and 



decorated with copper 

 and green stoues. To 

 deprive it of its acidity, 

 some of the natives 

 were wont to pass the 

 smoke through bulbs 

 containing water, in 

 which aromatic and me- 

 dicinal herbs had been 

 infused." 



Neander ascribes this 

 invention to the Per- 

 sians ; but Magnenus 

 rather attributes it to the 

 Dutch and English, to 

 the latter of whom at- 

 taches the credit of 

 having invented the clay 

 pipes of modern times. 

 Some writers have con- 

 cluded that the plant 

 served as a narcotic in 

 some parts of Asia. 

 Liebaut thinks it was 

 known in Europe* 

 many years before the 

 discovery of the New World, and asserts that the plant 

 had been found in the Ardennes. Magnenus, however, 

 claims its origin as transatlantic and affirms as his belief that 

 the winds had doubtless carried the seeds from one continent 

 to the other. Pallos says that among the Chinese, and 

 among the Mongol tribes who had the most intercourse with 

 them, the custom of smoking is so general, so frequent, and 

 has become so indispensable a luxury; the tobacco purse 

 affixed to their belt so necessary an article of dress; the form 

 of the pipes, from which the Dutch seem to have taken the 



OLD ENGRAVING OP TOBACCO. 



*Jnmes the First also Inclines to this belief, declaring tobacco to be "a common herb 

 "Which (though under divert) names) grows almost everywhere." 



