22 2 The Soverane Herbe 



devil. Comparisons of popular pleasures to Hades 

 are distinctly unfortunate. The acceptance by the 

 ardent smoker of the seventeenth century of the 

 truth of James's comparison could not but place con- 

 signment to the nether regions in a light totally 

 opposed to the orthodox teachings of theology. 



In 1610 Edmund Gardiner published ' The Trial 

 of Tobacco, wherein his worth is most worthily 

 expressed : as in the name, nature, and qualities of 

 the same hearb ; his special use in all Physicke, with 

 the right and true use of taking it, as well for the 

 seasons and times, as also the complexions, dispo- 

 sitions, and constitutions of such bodies and persons 

 as are fittest ; and to whom it is most profitable to take 

 it.' The title is a true index to the book. Similar was 

 the quarto ' Tabacologia ' of Dr. Neander of Bremen, 

 published at Leyden in 1622. Medical condemna- 

 tions of tobacco poured from the press in a fast and 

 furious stream. The names of their authors are now 

 as forgotten as the falsity of their prophesies is 

 proved. As examples of their statements may be 

 given Pauli's declaration that tobacco-smoke blackened 

 the brain ; Borrhy's ' fact ' that the brain of a con- 

 firmed smoker became so dried up that on his death 

 his skull was found to contain nothing but a clot of 

 black matter. 



The opposition of doctors, and to some extent of 

 moralists also, was directed against the non-medical 

 use of tobacco. Physicians claimed it as a drug, only 

 to be dispensed by them and used on their recom- 

 mendation, pecuniary considerations skilfully being 

 veiled under professional anxiety for the public health. 



