346 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



poisons, dropsy, agues, complaints of the 

 head, breast, lungs, &c— even hunger and 

 the gout, were all to be relieved by this 

 vegetable. " Tobacco,'* says Lord Bacon, 

 " comforteth the spirits, and dischargeth 

 weariness ; which it worketh, partly by open- 

 ing, but chiefly by the opiate virtue, which 

 condenseth the spirits." 



This narcotic herb has not wanted the 

 poet's praise: Phillips, when he sang the 

 Gifts of Pomona, " in Miltonian verse," said, 



" The Indian weed, unknown to ancient times, 

 Nature's choice gift, whose acrimonious fume 

 Extracts superfluous juices, and refines 

 The blood distemper'd from its noxious salts; 

 Friend to the spirits, which with vapours bland 

 It gently mitigates, companion fit 

 Of pleasantry, and wine; not to the bards 

 Unfriendly, when they to the vocal shell 

 Warble melodious their well-labour'd song." 



Cider, book i. 



Of late years it has been spoken of by the 

 generality of medical writers in such a man- 

 ner as has almost occasioned its dismissal 

 from modern practice ; at least from inter- 

 nal use: but this circumstance has not de- 

 terred Dr. Fowler, a physician of eminence 

 in Staffordshire, from commencing an in- 

 quiry into its medical effects. He has pub- 



