86 TOBACCO : ITS HISTORY. 



will be remembered that King James calls it " a 

 cure ;" and Dr. Paris founds an opinion on one 

 of these names — " Henbane of Peru " — that the 

 oil of tobacco was " the juice of cursed hebenon" 

 by which the King of Denmark, in ' Hamlet/ 

 was poisoned in his orchard.* Under other more 



de la Beina, relishing with the gusto of a true amateur its 

 delicious flavour, and admiring its aptitude to catch and 

 retain fire, let him know, then, that cigar, so fiery and yet so 

 mild, has been— well, this cigar has been, like most others he 

 has ever smoked, rolled — yes, rolled, upon the hare thigh of one 

 of the country girls, called a guajira in Cuba." — Bentley's 

 Miscellany, April, 1844. Doubtless this hideously gross 

 canard has circulated amongst "fast young men;" — it is a 

 disgusting and self-evident absurdity. No one who knows 

 how a cigar is made can believe it. A flat surface is abso- 

 lutely necessary ; and, besides, no human being covild endure 

 the constant repetition of such rolling or friction on the 

 cuticle of the thigh. Moreover, the tobacco would act as a 

 poison, its oil being absorbed. 



* Pharmacol. 294. As the learned doctor seemed anxious 

 to claim this discovery as a curiosity, since he repeats it in 

 his ' Medical Jurisprudence,' perhaps his medical brethren, 

 when they quote it, should record the name of the inventor, 

 which is never done, however; but unfortunately for this 

 hypothesis, the tragedy of ' Hamlet ' was, according to Ma- 

 lone, "written in 1596, seven years before the accession of James 

 to the throne of England, whilst Dr. Paris accuses Shakspeare 

 of playing the courtier, in thus introducing the " cursed 

 hebenon" in accordance with the prejudices of King James. 

 According to Campbell, ' Hamlet' was written in 1600, three 

 years before the king's accession. This acquits Shakspeare 

 of "playing the courtier ;" indeed, the conjecture is scarcely 



