68 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



duced into Western Europe from the New 

 AVorld.* 



If I may give an opinion on the subject, I 

 incline to believe that all the world owes the use 

 of tobacco to the aborigines of America. Had 

 the practice been of anything like the high an- 

 tiquity (which it had in America) in those re- 

 mote countries of Asia, ancient travellers would 

 have signalised so singular a custom. The in- 

 defatigable primitive Jesuits penetrated early into 

 every nook of the eastern world that could possibly 

 give ultimately a see to a Papal bishop in parti- 

 bus infidelmm ; but in none of their voluminous 

 * Edifying and Curious Letters ' do they mention 

 the practice of smoking amongst the objects of 

 their wonderful zeal, amidst trials beyond the 

 endurance of common humanity. 



If the theory I have advanced in the Introduc- 

 tion be correct, there was ample reason why the 

 practice of smoking tobacco should be suggested 

 by Nature in America — a region of endless 

 morasses, swamps, forests of decaying vegetable 



Chemistry of Life, No. vii. 



