156 TOBACCO-PIPES, CIGARS, ETC. 



further investigation. The former considers, and with 

 reason, that the reference to classic authorities, such 

 as Herodotus, Strabo, and Pliny, to prove the antiquity 

 of tobacco-smoking, " is nothing more than a proof of 

 the antiquity of the process of applying the fumes or 

 steam of certain plants for medicinal purposes.* So 

 far, however, is this ancient process from indicating a 

 mode of inhaling herbs in any sense equivalent to the 

 American luxury by which it may be supposed to be 

 superseded, that it is by no means banished, even now, 

 from the practice of ancient female herbalists and 

 domestic mediciners, whom I have known recommend 

 the inhalation of the fumes of various plants, not by 

 means of a tobacco-pipe, but through the spout of a 

 tea-pot ! " 



There is also good proof that much of this plant - 

 smoking has been introduced since the use of tobacco 

 has made it a necessity with the poor, who have been 

 driven to the usage by economic reasons ; in the same 

 way as herb-tea has been employed, when the genuine 

 leaf has been too expensive. 



The wild assertions of some Eastern travellers we 

 have already alluded to in p. 43 and its foot-note. Dr. 

 Cleland, in his Essay on Tobacco, has disposed of some 

 others,! coming from writers "of so comparatively 



* Dioscorides says the Greeks smoked the fume of dried leaves of colts- 

 foot through a funnel for difficulty of breathing ; and Pliny notes that the 

 Romans inhaled the same '"through a reed, for relief of old coughs." 



t This, one of the best works devoted to the history of tobacco, was 

 published in 4to, at Glasgow, 1840. 



