HISTORICAL. 15 



of St. Peter at Rome. Even so late as 1719 

 the Senate of Strasburg prohibited the cultivation 

 of tobacco, from an apprehension that it would 

 diminish the growth of corn. Amurath IV., 

 king of Per^ia, published an edict which made the 

 smoking of tobacco a capital offence : this was 

 founded on an opinion that it rendered the people 

 infertile ! The reader will agree with Dr. Paris 

 that tobacco " furnishes, in its most romantic his- 

 tory, a striking illustration of the triumph of 

 popular opinion over a series of legislative enact- 

 ments, which had no other origin than that of 

 ignorance and prejudice," * 



Sterne's proverbial dictum — " they manage 

 things better in France" — was certainly ex- 

 emplified in the matter of tobacco. The king 

 of France, or rather the shrewd Richelieu, took 

 a different view of the growing propensity. No 

 law was passed against tobacco, but a duty was 

 imposed upon it, extremely small at first, and 

 this lasted to the year 1673; but in 1674, the 

 habit of snuffing and smoking becoming more 



* Medical Jurisprudence, ii. 415, 



