40 TOBACCO IN EUROPE. 



tine, the scientific name for the essential oil the 

 tobacco-plant contains. * Italy received the gift direct 

 from the hands of Cardinal Prosper Santa Croce, who 

 also obtained it in Portugal, and in honour of him it 

 was christened Erba Santa Croce. An envoy from 

 France, who had probably obtained some of the plants 

 that Nicot introduced, brought them to another part of 

 Italy where it was called Tornabona from his name. 

 But the Spanish name, tabaco, given to it by Her- 

 nandez ultimately triumphed over all, and became 

 (with slight variations) that universally recognised over 

 the world. f 



It was to the supposed sanitary effects of tobacco 

 that its honorable introduction to Europe was due. 

 Queens and Cardinals bowed to the dictum of physi- 

 cians, who seemed to look upon the plant as a divine 

 remedy for most diseases, and so speedily propounded 

 cures for all that "flesh is heir to" from various 

 applications of it, that it also was christened Herba 

 Panacea and Herba Santa; and the "tabaco of Trini- 

 dado" is termed Sana sancta Inclorum in Gerard's 



* The author of the Flora Domestica (1823, p. 365) says:— "The 

 French have many names for it ; as, le tabac, nicotiane, petum, herbe du 

 Grand Prieur, herbe a la Heine, Medicee (from the Queen's family name), 

 buglosse antarctique, panacee antarctique (southern all-heal), herbe sainte, 

 herbe sacree (holy herb), herbe propre a tous maux (herb fit for all 

 diseases), jusquiame de Perou (Peruvian henbane), herbe de Tourbanon, 

 herbe de St. Croix, herbe de l'ambassadeur." 



f The Spaniards still use the name in its old purity of spelling ; the 

 Portuguese and Italians add an additional letter and term it tabacco ; we 

 alter the first vowel improperly and call it tobacco ; the Poles term it 

 tabaha ; the Danes and Swedes shorten it to tobdk ; the Germans, Dutch, 

 and Russians spell it tabak, a close approach to the French tabac. 



