56 TOBACCO. 



country in 1505. Tlie first European cultivation of Tobacco 

 took place in Portugal in 1520. It was raised in France in 

 \u'l, and Catherine de Medici, having acijuired a taste for it, 

 the i)lant was for a tinu; c;dled lierbo de la reine. Its cultiva- 

 tion ra])id]y extendcxl to other parts of Europe and to Asia. 

 However, the world was not conquered by this iternicious vice 

 without a struggle. In many instances kings and others in 

 authority })laced every oljstacle in tlie way of its inti'oductioii 

 and i)ropagation, checking its culture by severe laws, and 

 iniposing [)enalties upon those; v.ho used the weed. l>y a law 

 of 1()()0 its production in Kngland was restricted to a verv 

 snuill (juantity for medicinal purposes; this law still remains 

 in force. The lirst settk-rs in A^irginia, (inding ready market 

 for Tobacco in the mother country, engaged in its cidtivation, 

 but in 1010, when there were only '551 persons in the colony, a 

 law was passed forbiihling tin; neglect of food crops in its 

 favor. In Switzerland all users of Tobacco were i)unished as 

 criminals. In Persia tli*; laws against Tobacco-using weie so 

 severe that thos«! who were sla\es to the liabit were ol)liged to 

 ilee to tilt; mountiiins. Pojie Iiniocent XI issued a bull 

 of excommunication against all who used Tobacco, in Kussia 

 the laws against Tobacco-using wen; very stringent. The pun- 

 ishment for the first offence was a severe whi])ping, cutting off 

 the nose for the second, and loss of life for the third. History 

 tells us of several persons wliost; noses were amputated in public 

 for the second offence. However, as the years rolled on, kings 

 and ruleis tliems(;lvcs became devotees of tlie weed, so their 

 opposition luis been withdi-awn. 



Tobacco is the dried and prepared leaves of nicotiana taba- 

 cum and other species of incotiana, a genus of the ni<dit- 

 shade family. Jean Nicot, a l-'rench ambassador to Portugal, 

 who sent seeds from Lis1x)n to Erance, gav(; his name to the 

 genus. The conunon name, Tol»acco, it is generally believed, 

 comes from Tobago, the island where the plant is supposed to 

 have been first discovered, or Tabacos, the native term in Sauto 



