Ohio History Journal

NICOTIANA:

AN ETHNOLOGIC, HISTORIC AND LITERARY

NOVELTY1

 

BY HENRY CLYDE SHETRONE

 

The complete story of man, his institutions, activities and

habits, cannot be compiled solely from documentary evidence.

Man's physical origin, and the spinning of the threads which were

to determine the pattern of his behavior, antedate by ages his

realization of the importance of intentional records. Such pur-

poseful records, moreover, constituting what is popularly known

as history, supply only the latter chapters of the story of mankind;

the earlier chapters must be written, if at all, on the evidence of

unintentional records, through the methods of archaeology. The

investigations of the historian, and the archaeologist or pre-

historian, taken together, constitute history in its broader defini-

tion. The efforts of these two classes of specialists are inter-

dependent and, for best results, inseparable. To illustrate: The

ancient mounds and habitation sites of Ohio have produced strik-

ing material evidences of the prehistoric use of tobacco. The

numerous tobacco pipes, constituting the bulk of the evidence,

would defy identification had not the custom of smoking persisted

into modern times. But for the comparisons and analogies made

possible by the survival of the trait, these specimens would have

remained as unintelligible objects, to be classified and catalogued

merely as "ceremonial" or "problematical."

As a part of the task of evaluating these evidences from the

Ohio mounds, your speaker has made a somewhat detailed study

of the use of tobacco in historic times. The substance of this

paper is a brief resume of that study. It may prove of interest

to you, and will serve to illustrate something of archaeological

method in contributing to the story of mankind.

1Delivered at the Annual Meeting, American Anthropological Association, 1933.

(81)

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Introduction.

The discovery of America was an outstanding event of the

Christian era. Not only did Columbus' achievement double the

size of the habitable world, but it enlarged the terrestrial stage to

accommodate the greatly augmented cast in the expanding human

drama. A veritable New World indeed this Western Hemisphere

was to become; nor were the aforementioned major contributions

to be America's only gifts to the world. From her inexhaustible

cornucopia were to be poured into the lap of mankind undreamed-

of gifts from her vast mineral resources, from her varied fauna

and from her rich flora. For the present purpose we are interested

only in the last named, and with but a single item thereof. It

would be superfluous to enumerate the many valuable food and

medicinal plants for which the world is indebted to America: corn,

the king of cereals; quinine, one of the few known medicinal

specifics; tobacco -- which brings us without further ado to the

subject of this paper.

Las Casas, chronicler of Columbus' memorable first voyage,

records that when the admiral first set foot on the western world,

October 12, 1492, the friendly natives of San Salvador presented

him with certain "dry leaves" which, for some reason not apparent,

they appeared to hold in great esteem. A day or two later, con-

tinues the "Apostle to the Indies," messengers sent ashore on the

island of Cuba found

men with half-burned wood in their hands and certain herbs to take their

smokes, which are some dry herbs put in a certain leaf . . . and having

lighted one part of it, by the other they suck, absorb or receive that smoke

inside with the breath, by which they become benumbed and almost drunk,

and so it is said they do not feel fatigue.

Such is the naive account of the first contact of Europeans

with tobacco.

Thus, in this tropical setting, was begun the romance of "My

Lady Nicotine," of "the Fragrant Herb"--if you feel that way

about it; otherwise, of "the Filthy Weed": for from the time

of its discovery to this very day the issue has not been decided.

Thus entered into human economy this ambulatory weed which,

within the short space of three centuries was to amble over the

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NICOTIANA                        83

 

face of the earth; to outdo the proverbially ubiquitous Chinaman,

English sparrow and dandelion; to be recognized as an outstand-

ing example, ethnologically, of the diffusion or spread of a human

trait; to enjoy a commercial development second to but few in

the world; to constitute itself a major social and moral issue, and

to assume an important place in literature. Tobacco has done all

these: it has permeated the whole fabric of human culture and, as

one writer has expressed it, it has become "a universal necessity

without which mankind is unwilling to live." Go into any part of

the world and say "tobacco;" you will be understood.

The literature on tobacco is as extensive as the subject is

complex and important, which is equivalent to saying that this

paper can hope to do nothing more than invite your attention to

its infinite variety.

 

The Botany of Tobacco.

Botanically, tobacco belongs to the Solonaceae or nightshade

family, along with such valued food-plants as the potato, tomato

and eggplant. The genus is Nicotiana, comprising some 50 species

and numerous varieties, practically all of which are indigenous to

America. In Nicotiana we find some of our most prized garden

flowers, as N. alata and N. sylvestris which, with their hybrids,

are the sweet-scented evening-blooming Nicotianas familiar in

moonlit gardens.

Nicotiana rustica was extensively used, both cultivated and

wild, by the natives of eastern North America and for a time by

the English colonists for domestic use and for export to Europe.

West of the Mississippi N. attenuata and a half dozen others were

utilized; but by far the most important species was N. tabacum,

native in the Antilles, northern South America and Mexico. This

type was early introduced into Virginia where it displaced the

native rustica and in time came to be the source of practically all

commercial tobacco.

The story of tobacco, in this limited consideration, may be

approached from (I) its use by the American aborigines in his-

toric times; (2) exploitation by peoples other than the native

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Americans in both the Old World and the New; and (3) use by

the American aborigines in prehistoric times. This arrangement,

in defiance of time sequence, is intended to make more intelligible

the prehistoric by first presenting the more familiar historic phe-

nomena.

Tobacco and the American Indian.

The historic evidences of the use of tobacco by the native

Americans, as may be surmised, consist principally of recorded

observations of living tribes by explorers, historians and ethnolo-

gists. From the time of Columbus, European explorers, as they

gradually came to know the western world, found that in prac-

tically every part of the hemisphere the natives were using tobacco

in one form or another. The plant, growing wild or responding

to cultivation throughout the tropical and temperate regions of

both continents, was carried even beyond its climatic limitations

in trade and barter. While used as snuff and for chewing in lim-

ited areas, it was principally smoked; as cigars in the Antilles and

northern South America; as cigarettes in Central America and

Mexico; and in tobacco pipes in the greater part of North

America.

In citing the earliest record of European observation of

tobacco and its use, we noted that the procedure was unintelligible

to the observers. While personal gratification from the narcotic

effect of tobacco has usually been accepted as the basic incentive

for aboriginal use, such appears not to have been its primary or

even its most important objective. Quoting from another of the

early chroniclers, Benzoni, we learn that "in La Espana and other

islands, when their doctors wanted to cure a sick man, they went

to the place where they were to administer the smoke, and when

the patient was thoroughly intoxicated by it the cure was mostly

effected." At any rate, the quotation serves to illustrate an im-

portant use of tobacco by the American aborigines -- its employ-

ment as a medicinal agency. Numerous references to the supposed

medical virtues of tobacco and its use as a specific cure for almost

every human ill by the American Indians (and, as we shall see

presently, by Europeans) could be cited.

A third and very important factor in the use of Nicotiana by

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NICOTIANA                        85

 

the aborigines was its ceremonial employment. In important

councils and in the making of treaties, the smoking of tobacco

was indispensable. No important undertaking could be launched,

no journey begun, no peace effected, without the tobacco cere-

monial. The chroniclers of De Soto record that the great ex-

plorer was received by the Indians as though he and his men were

deities and that tobacco was burned as incense to celebrate their

advent among the tribesmen. In the ceremonial use of tobacco,

the pipe-bowl was regarded as a miniature altar on which the

leaves were burned as incense, either to the gods or to important

personages. It is not strange therefore that so important a cere-

monial object should become identified with another of equal im-

portance -- the calumet.

The calumet originally consisted of two symbolic reeds, with

colored patterns, one representing the male procreative power and

signifying the fatherhood of nature, and the other the female re-

productive power or the motherhood of nature. The combining

of these represented what has been termed the most profoundly

sacred possession of the American tribesmen. Since the adorn-

ments on the calumet shafts were symbolic representations of their

dominant deities, the combination came to be a "veritable executive

council of the gods."

The calumet, popularly known as the peace pipe, was a talis-

man for averting evil and for insuring good; for assuring favor-

able weather and providing rain in time of drought; as a protec-

tion and passport to travelers and emissaries; in the conciliation

of enemies; in binding contracts and treaties and in perfecting

alliances; and in concluding peace negotiations. The veneration

accorded the calumet is illustrated in the instance of the sacred

palladium pipe of the Arapaho, which has been so zealously

guarded for generations that only a single white man ever has

seen it. The Arapaho believe that they have possessed this pipe

from the beginning of the world.

An outstanding historic example of the use of the calumet

ceremony was the smoking of the peace pipe at the Treaty of

Greenville, Ohio, in 1795. On this occasion General "Mad

Anthony" Wayne, representing white authority, united with

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ninety-odd chiefs of the Indian tribes in smoking the pipe of

peace, thus effectiing a virtual seal to this important American

cession. Through the Treaty of Greenville, thus affirmed, the vast

Northwest Territory from which subsequently were carved the

states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, was

transferred effectively from Indian to white control.

Tobacco Goes Abroad.

In our pursuit of the use of tobacco by peoples other than

the natives of America, we must repair for the moment to Europe.

The years immediately preceding and attending the discovery of

America had brought striking changes in Europe. The revival of

learning and the progress in science had paved the way for Colum-

bus' achievement and for the train of accomplishment which fol-

lowed. The psychology of Europeans at this period was particu-

larly significant. With the broadening of the world horizon

through the discovery, exploration and colonization of America,

Europeans appear to have become acutely conscious of physical

limitations; impatient of the discomforts and deprivations which

are the common lot of humans in any stage of culture but par-

ticularly in that attending the time and the peoples under consid-

eration; cognizant of the three supposed greatest obstacles to hu-

man happiness--poverty, disease and death. Seeking for release

from these evils, as humans always have done, they saw in the

New World a fairyland in which their fondest hopes and as-

pirations might be realized. Shortly the conquistadores were

plundering the empires of the Inca and the Aztec, and adven-

turers of the type of Coronado were seeking the fabled Seven

Cities of Cibola, in search of treasure; Ponce de Leon was

seeking the Fountain of Perpetual Youth, and everyone was

hoping for the discovery in the new-found continents of specific

cures for all human ailments. That this last-named quest was as

ardently pursued as the mythical quest of the Golden Fleece

becomes apparent when one scans the records of the time; that

it centered mainly in the plant Nicotiana (tobacco) is evident

from the same source. The spirit of credulity which character-

ized everything pertaining to America was most marked in con-

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NICOTIANA                              87

 

nection with tobacco; and if one is impressed with the virtues

attributed to the weed by its original possessors, he is bound

to conclude that beside the European the American Indian was

greatly lacking in imagination.

As indicative of this credulous attitude, to cite only one of

many similar enthusiastic early tributes, we quote from Thomas

Hariot's A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of

Virginia, 1588:

There is an herbe which is sowed aparte by itselfe, & is called by the

inhabitants Uppowoc. ... The Spaniardes generally call it tobacco. The

leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder; they use to take the

fume or smoke thereof, by sucking it through pipes, made of claie, into

their stomacke and heade; from whence it purgeth superflouous fleame and

other gross humors, openeth all the pores and passages of the body from

obstructions; but also if any be, so that they have not beene of too long

continuance, in short time breaketh them; hereby their bodies are notably

preserved in health, know not many greevous diseases wherewithal wee in

England are often afflicted. ... We ourselves during the time we were

there used to suck it after their maner, as also since our returne, and have

found manie rare and wonderful experiments of the vertues thereof; of

which the relations would require a volume by it selfe; the use of it by so

manie 'of late, men and women of great calling as else, and some learned

Phisitions also, is sufficient witness.

It should be explained in passing that even thus early there

were individuals who failed to share and who stoutly refuted these

fanciful beliefs.

The Atlantic countries of Europe -- Spain, Portugal, France

and England -- each received tobacco directly from America, since

all of them were concerned in discovery and exploration, and from

them the plant spread to other parts of the Old World. Columbus

doubtless carried the plant with him on his return from one or

another of his voyages, although the earliest record for Spain is

that of Monardes who in 1571 says that it was first grown as a

garden flower "rather than that its marvellous medicinal virtues

were taken into consideration. Now we use it to a greater extent

for the sake of its virtues than for its beauty; and those certainly

are such to evoke admiration." Tobacco found its way to Portugal

sometime prior to 1558, in which year appeared the first account

of its presence in that country.

While Andre Thevet brought tabacum, the superior species

of Nicotiana, into France from Brazil about 1556, popular credit

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for its introduction was reserved for another. Jean Nicot became

acquainted with the plant in Portugal, where he was serving as

ambassador from France, cultivated it in his gardens, and in 1561

presented a box of powdered tobacco (enter snuff) to Catherine

de Medici. The Queen Mother used the powder successfully for

the cure of headache and, true to her name, administered it freely

to the royal household. So gratifying were the results that Nicot

was hailed as a royal benefactor and, although his belated contri-

bution was the inferior rustica, he was rewarded by having his

name perpetuated in Nicotiana.

Sir John Hawkins is credited with bringing N. rustica from

Virginia to England in 1565, while Sir Francis Drake appears to

have brought tabacum from the West Indies in 1573. Sir Walter

Raleigh, credited with the introduction of tobacco and smoking

into England, apparently did neither. He must be accredited how-

ever with bestowing upon tobacco-smoking the stamp of gentility,

and with according fashionable approval to a custom which has

continued to be a marked trait of the English people. Whether or

not we may believe the cherished anecdote in which Raleigh's

servant, believing his master's head to be on fire, valiantly doused

him with a tankard of ale, it is at least suggestive of the halo of

fragrant tobacco smoke with which his admirers have wreathed

his martyred brow. Had tobacco been known to classic Greece

and Rome it doubtless would have been accorded a Bacchus or at

least a Gambrinus; lacking this distinction, it comes near to find-

ing its patron saint in Sir Walter. To the day of his execution

(1618) he remained a staunch devotee of the weed and just before

going to the scaffold, according to the Duke of Westminster, he

"took a pipe of tobacco . . . to settle his spirits."

The enduring association of Sir Walter's name with tobacco,

as well as the highly charged atmosphere attending him and his

contemporaries in its use, are vividly mirrored in this quotation

from John Bain, Jr.'s Tobacco in Song and Story:

Sir Walter's name will always, among the English-speaking races, be

linked with that of tobacco. Raleigh it was who, in the sixteenth century

found tobacco on the plantations of Virginia, and introduced it into England

and Ireland along with the potato. He planted both upon his estate at

Gongall, Ireland, the home presented to him by the auburn-haired, falcon-

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NICOTIANA                             89

 

faced Elizabeth, England's one great queen, for services rendered upon the

Spanish Main and in the New World.

Columbus was the first European to discover tobacco. When he and

his companions saw the Indians smoking it and blowing the smoke through

their nostrils, they were as much surprised as they had been at the first

sight of land. But they were no more surprised than Ben Jonson, Beau-

mont, Selden, Fletcher, and Shakespeare when, one stormy night, Sir Walter

Raleigh walked into the Mermaid tavern and, throwing pipes and tobacco

upon the table, invited all hands to smoke. Shakespeare thought that it

was anticipating things a little to smoke in this world, and that Bacon should

have the monopoly of it; while Ben Jonson--"rare Ben," the roundest and

fattest and gruffest of men--after the first pipe-ful or two, growled: "To-

bacco, I do assert, wthout fear of contradiction from the Avon skylark, is

the most soothing, sovereign and precious weed that ever our dear old

Mother Earth tendered to the use of man  Let him who would contradict

that most mild assertion, look to his undertaker. Sir Walter, your health 1"

Then Sir Walter was happy in the consciousness of having given something

to civilized man second only to food.

Presumably any license which the author of the above may

have taken with historical fact is neutralized by the literary ex-

cellence of his product.

Thus briefly we glimpse the introduction of tobacco into

Europe and gain some idea of its reception and use. With the

observation that by the year 1700 it had spread from these centers

of distribution to practically all parts of the world, we may return

for a moment to America, the homeland of Nicotiana.

Tobacco and the Colonists.

Prior to the successful settlement by English colonists, with

whom we now concern ourselves, tobacco, as we have seen, had

crossed the Atlantic and had gained a foothold in western Europe.

Therefore, it is not strange that the first export to England from

the colony of Virginia should be tobacco. Following the settlement

of Jamestown, 1607, the all-important enterprise naturally was the

securing of wealth. After sending a ship-load of mica-bearing

sand to England, only to find it worthless, the colonists decided

that gold must be secured, if at all, in a less direct manner. And

so they turned to tobacco. The beginning of tobacco cultivation on

a commercial scale is popularly accredited to John Rolfe, husband

of Pocahontas. He is supposed to have cultivated the plant on a

considerable scale as early as 1612 and, encouraged by his success

and the natural adaptability of tobacco to the soil of Virginia,

others soon followed his lead. By 1618 tobacco had become a

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staple crop and the principal currency of the Colony. In that year

20,000 pounds of tobacco were exported to England, where it was

immediately in great demand. The colonists were prosperous and

the future seemed bright -- but for one thing; there was a dearth

of the fair sex; and there were too many lonesome bachelors.

And so, in 1619, "ninety agreeable persons, young and incorrupt,"

came over from England, at a cost of 120 pounds of tobacco each,

to relieve this lamentable situation. When, two years later, "60

more maids, of virtuous education, young and handsome," re-

sponded to the call, the price, whether because of increased pros-

perity or that the first representation had given such good satis-

faction, had risen to 150 pounds each. This romantic episode has

been dramatically re-enacted by the demure "casket maidens" in

the comic opera "Naughty Marietta." Tobacco soon spread to

Maryland, where it was almost equally successful.

Stimulated by the ready demand and high prices "back home"

in England, tobacco soon became practically the only agricultural

crop in a large area. The result was perhaps inevitable. The sup-

ply soon met and passed the demand and this, with unfavorable

embargoes in England, brought the colonists at times to the verge

of bankruptcy. Nevertheless tobacco continued for two centuries

the staple agricultural product of the South, bringing to the region

wealth and influence and only sharing place with another plant--

cotton -- at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Although the tobacco output of the Connecticut Valley at the

present time is most important, cultivation of the plant in the New

England colonies up to 1825 was negligible. From the nuclear

area corresponding to Virginia and Maryland cultivation of

tobacco is now successfully carried on in the Carolinas, northern

Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, southern Ohio (the noted

white Burley having been originated in Brown County in 1864)

and in portions of Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, New York and

Pennsylvania.

Tobacco Commercially Considered.

The commercial and industrial growth of the tobacco in-

dustry, from the meager 20,000 pounds exported from Virginia

in 1618, when expressed in figures, almost staggers the imagina-

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NICOTIANA                        91

 

tion. We cannot dwell upon the multiple details of this gargan-

tuan development, fascinating though it is; we may, however, offer

the following for your consideration: Using the latest statistics

readily at hand, which as a rule are much below the peak years

immediately following the great war, we have: The United States

in 1931, on 2,037,000 acres of land, produced 1,493,900,000

pounds. In this production, its conversion into the finished

product and sale thereof, there was invested $2,075,000,000.

Annual volume of business for manufactured tobacco products in

this country, based upon retail prices, was approximately $1,500,-

000,000. Expressed in terms of your favorite form of using the

weed, we find for 1930: cigars, slightly more than 7,000,000,000;

cigarettes, slightly under 120,000,000,000; chewing and smoking

tobacco, approximately 334,000,000 pounds; and snuff, about

42,000,000 pounds. Above 1,000,000 persons are dependent upon

the industry for livelihood. From sales of tobacco products the

Federal Government receives annual revenues of approximately

$490,000,000.

In catering to the demand of over 30,000,000 tobacco users

in this country, the above figures are augmented by the related

industries. For matches alone smokers spend above $20,000,000.

The industry requires annually 50,000,000 pounds of sugar;

650,000 tons of coal; 40,000,000 yards of cloth; 35,000,000 pounds

of tinfoil, and corresponding quantities of lumber, nails, tin and --

the latest gadget to date -- cellophane. Railroads handle above

2,000,000 tons of tobacco freightage. Advertising alone is a major

industry, engaging the attention of printers, painters, photograph-

ers, engravers, newspapers and periodicals. In this spectacular

phase of the industry the services of the cleverest artists are

utilized in appealing to public sanction and approval, while the

skill of the writer of advertising copy is employed in devising

catch phrases designed to attract public fancy, such as: "Treat

yourself to the best;" "We thank you, Miss America;" "Nature

in the raw is seldom mild;" "They satisfy;" "Not a cough in a

carload;" and "Her Hero." Some of you are old enough to

remember another: "He's just found his Mail-pouch"!

All of us are familiar with the now rapidly disappearing

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tobacconists' wooden Indian; perhaps some of you may not know

that an even earlier device employed by English tobacconists in

the Eighteenth century displayed a Dutchman, a Scotchman and a

sailor, with the words:

"We three are engaged in one cause,

I snuffs, I smokes, and I chaws 1"

Still thinking of the commercial, we might find a wealth of

romance in the agricultural processes of tobacco raising; the nu-

merous varieties, each suited to a distinct purpose; curing and

preparation of the plant prior to manufacture; the intricate, almost

human machinery employed in manufacturing the finished prod-

ucts; the tobacco monopolies and attendant litigation; strikes and

night-rider episodes; the economic aspect; but the list is too long.

Various Forms of Use.

Perhaps however we may deviate from our course long

enough to inject brief general comment on the various forms of

tobacco using, merely for the sake of their human interest. Pipe-

smoking, as we have seen, was indigenous in North America.

Transplanted to England it had become by the beginning of the

seventeenth century, the hallmark of the English gentleman, and

professors of the art found lucrative employment in teaching the

fine points of smoking. Used at first under the guise of a med-

icinal agent, the real motive, personal gratification, began to be

recognized by 1660, when we find Winstanley saying: "Tobacco

itself is by few taken now as medicinal, it is grown a good fellow,

and fallen from a Physician to a Complement. He's no good fel-

low that's without burnt pipes, tobacco and his tinderbox."

Spain is credited with introducing the cigar into Europe from

Spanish America. Other countries of the Old World however

were slow to accept the practice of cigar-smoking, and it did not

become general until the beginning of the nineteenth century. In

America the cigar is of rather recent popularity, although its

humbler representative, the stogie, taking its name from Conestoga

County, Pennsylvania, for a long time has been an American

institution.

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NICOTIANA                         93

 

The cigarette, like the cigar, probably was first used in Europe

by the Spaniards. It did not become generally important however

until after the Crimean War, during which event, as in the World

War, it played a spectacular part. It was introduced into England,

where it soon became popular, by British officers returning from

the Crimea, where they had learned its use from their French and

Turkish allies. The beginning of cigarette smoking in the United

States lies within the memory of most of us here assembled. Who

does not recall the "Sweet Caporal," with its surreptitiously en-

closed "art photos" of pulchritudinous females? Who has not

"rolled his own" from Bull Durham?

A word as to snuff: The use of tobacco in this form, far

commoner than is generally supposed, may be traced to France.

We have noticed that Nicot presented a box of powdered tobacco

to Catherine de Medici, who used it as snuff for various ailments,

with gratifying results. It was the great plague of 1665, however,

which popularized snuff and which was mainly responsible for

growth of the chewing of tobacco. Although both methods of use

were known prior to that time, they owe their increased popularity

and diffusion over Europe and America to their supposed prophy-

lactic properties as regards the so-called plague. Snuff-taking,

under the reign of Queen Anne became so popular in England as

to suggest the designation of "the age of snuff." Snuff-taking

practically displaced pipe-smoking, and the snuff-box became the

badge of gentility of the eighteenth century, for women as for

men.

That tobacco, either smoked, or as snuff, was the principal

reliance in the prevention and cure of the plague, is evidenced in

the literature of the times. Pepys in his Diary, 1665, records that

he himself "was forced to buy some roll-tobacco to smell and

chaw, which took away my apprehension" (of the plague). Med-

ical observation tended to show that the pestilence never invaded

the premises of the tobacconist, the tanner or the shoemaker.

Thomas Hearne recorded that all the boys at Eton were obliged

to smoke in the school every morning and that one boy at least

received the severest whipping of his life for refusing to smoke.

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Social Aspects of Tobacco.

We turn briefly to another chapter of the story of tobacco --

a chapter which combines rather illogically the moral and medical

aspects of the plant. In the very first recorded observation regard-

ing tobacco, previously referred to, we find Father Las Casas

remonstrating with the Indians of Cuba for what he considered

on first sight to be a reprehensible habit, and their response that

they were unable to abstain from its use. Even during the period

when Europe was becoming acquainted with tobacco, with the

extravagant beliefs prevailing as to its curative powers, when it

was hailed in many quarters as a panacea for all human ills, there

were those who dared to denounce the use of the weed as a base

and even a filthy habit. In England, particularly, the controversy

as to the merits and demerits of Nicotiana was fierce and long-

continued. In his Joyful Newes Oute of the Newe Founde

Worlde, 1577, Frampton gave to the English people the first de-

tailed account of tobacco, citing the long list of diseases which

presumably could be cured by the herb. Practitioners of the time

readily enthused over the prospective panacea, studied the prop-

erties of the plant in great detail, and recommended it as an in-

fallible cure and as a preventative of practically every human ill.

Spenser, in his Fairy Queen, 1590, refers to "divine tobacco," and

at about the same time Lilly, court-poet to Queen Elizabeth wrote

"Gather me balme and cooling violets, And of our holy herb

Nicotian."

Even thus early, however, a dissenting voice is heard, as

when Raphael Holinshed, in 1586 wrote: "How doe men extoll

the use of Tobacco in my time, whereas in truth . . . it is not

found of so great efficacie as they write." By the close of the

fifteenth century both sides of the question were generally recog-

nized. In Ben Johnson's "Every Man in His Humor," printed in

1601, Bobadilla lauds tobacco to the skies, while Cob responds:

"I marvle what pleasure or felicitie they have in taking this

roguish Tabacco: its good for nothing but to choake a man and

fill him full of smoake and imbers." Commenting on someone who

had partaken of tobacco in excess, he remarks that "he voided a

bushel of soote yesterday, upward and downeward." In his

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NICOTIANA                        95

 

Gipsies Metamorphosis, Johnson calls tobacco "the Devil's own

weed." The controversy found its classical culmination however

in King James' noted Counterblaste to Tobacco, 1604, a scathing

invective in the form of a rather lengthy document, aimed to curb

the rapidly increasing use of tobacco in England. He refutes the

supposed medicinal virtues of the plant, condemns it as a bestial

habit and exhorts his subjects to abjure the loathsome custom.

With foresight which appears somewhat familiar even in our own

day, the king in a measure exempted the nobility and the "better

sort" who might care to continue its use "with Moderation to

preserve their Healthe." The king, as one writer has put it, "most

Quixotically broke his lance against one of the great appetites of

man." The Counterblaste, it may be assumed, was accorded any-

thing but a popular reception.

These references, from the many available, are sufficient to

illustrate the early attitude toward tobacco morally and medicinally.

Coming to our own country and dealing with recent times,

the moral and medical aspects of the subject submit more readily

to separate consideration. As to the moral issue, those of us in

middle life and past readily remember the social attitude toward

tobacco, say in the 1880's. Adult males could be perfectly com-

fortable with pipe and cigar and, in certain strata even chewing

tobacco was accepted as respectable, though somewhat untidy.

Smoking by women however was entirely incompatible with re-

spectability; while the use of cigarettes was taboo to all classes

assuming to anything approximating social standing. Women who

essayed to smoke cigarettes -- well, they knew, or the world knew,

just what they were; while the attitude toward males indulging

in this form of using the weed was summed up in the opprobrious

epithet "next thing, he'll be smoking cigarettes !"

During this time there continued, of course, much of the op-

position to the use of tobacco that characterized the preceding

epoch, due in great part presumably to the existing double stand-

ard. The good ladies, excluded from the use of the weed and by

nature given to reform, looked upon tobacco as a nuisance at best.

Your speaker's mind reverts to a rural school in the early 'eighties.

It was Friday afternoon, given over to "speaking." Prompted by

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96    OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

an aunt of the crusader type, he stepped to the platform and

recited:

Tobacco is a filthy weed

Nicodemus sowed the seed;

It empties your pockets and soils your clothes

And makes a smokepipe out of your nose.

I do not know the author of these classic lines; nor why the

blame should devolve upon Nicodemus, erstwhile blameless of any

major crime. Perhaps the name was intended to signify "Old

Nick;" at any rate, the lines are symbolic of the attitude of women

and of some men of the time.

But all this has changed. Slowly, at first, but with the social

revolution attending and following the World War tobacco has

achieved place as the one specific commodity alike to all peoples

regardless of race, religion, culture status, sex and, almost, age.

And the cigarette--again the thanks or the blame goes to the

great war--is preeminently in evidence.

Tobacco and Health.

In attempting to discover the truth as regards the effect of

tobacco on the human body, an interesting situation develops. Re-

ducing the proposition to the simple form, "Is smoking harmful?"

the reply may be either "yes" or "no," or anything else. The

reason for this seems to be that most of us are so close to the

subject that we cannot see the problem for the smoke. We go

about in fact under a veritable smoke screen.

In view of the bulky literature on tobacco, one might expect

to find therein satisfactory information on any phase of the sub-

ject. This however proves not to be true in the matter of the

physiological and hygienic effect on the human mind and body.

Available literature falls into several classes. The subject in its

commercial, industrial and statistical aspects is fully covered.

There has been written a great deal in the nature of propaganda

intended to exploit the use and sale of tobacco and to counteract

the heavy output of literature of a reform-crusader type. Sample

titles of the last named sort, as "The Old Nic in Nicotine," "The

Brown God and His White Imps," "The Tobacco Skunk and His

Depredations," "The Burning Shame of America," are indicative

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NICOTIANA                        97

 

of the attack waged by religious and reform organizations and in-

dividuals. But when we come to seek for unbiased studies of

tobacco from the social, medical and moral standpoint, we are dis-

appointed to find that, while not altogether lacking, they are far

too few.

To supplement available information from this source, the

inquiring mind may resort to personal observation and inquiry.

This method adduces some very interesting and unexpected re-

sults.

Whatever of pleasant taste tobacco may have for its users lies

in its inherent aroma, while popularly at least its tendency to form

a habit and whatever injury it may entail is attributed to the chem-

ical nicotine. Actually it is a matter of dispute as to how injurious

this nicotine may be, since obviously a considerable percentage of

the nicotine content is consumed in smoking; besides, tobacco con-

tains a number of other chemicals, particularly certain alkaloids,

either inherently or as a product of combustion, which may or

may not be injurious to human health. While tobacco is classed

as a narcotic, an outstanding tendency of which is to quiet and

soothe, observation demonstrates that while tobacco may have such

an effect on individuals, it may also act as a stimulant or even

as a depressant.

Most smokers would resent the implication that they inhale

when smoking, but observation tends to show that all confirmed

smokers do inhale to a degree, since to produce the desired effect

the smoke must come in contact with the mucous membranes of

the mouth, nose, throat and respiratory passages. The amount of

inhaling naturally varies with the individual and the manner of

smoking. A heavy cigar or a pipe usually entails less, while the

cigarette--and this perhaps is the greatest objection to its use--

being small and mild, encourages deep and prolonged inhalation.

Many smokers, on being questioned, declare their belief that

tobacco is not injurious to them; some others frankly admit that

they would be better off without it. Closer questioning of the

first-named sometimes indicates that they are following a natural

inclination to make excuses for a habit which furnishes them

with enjoyment. Naturally, it is to the medical expert, to the

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98    OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

physician, that we turn for dependable information on the subject

in question. From this quarter we find, as might be expected, a

happy medium between the two extreme types of literature just

referred to and then, for the first time, we realize the salutary

results of the voicing of extreme views in any given controversy.

A casual summary of inquiry directed to physicians, sufficient

for the present purpose, leaves your speaker with these impres-

sions: Use of tobacco by juveniles or sub-adults may be recog-

nized as harmful and over-indulgence in the habit as injurious to

all, regardless of age. The average adult, in good health, usually

may smoke moderately without apparent injury and, in the instance

of persons of phlegmatic or stolid temperament and those inclined

to overweight, sometimes with apparent benefit. Tobacco appears

to stimulate an alkaline reaction and to be slightly laxative, with

some at least, and to these properties presumably are due any

beneficial effects which the occasional smoker may experience.

Individuals below normal as to health and particularly those of

impaired mental and nervous energy, physicians agree, may well

avoid the use of the weed. Summarized, then, insofar as human

health is concerned, we may assume that tobacco cannot safely be

used indiscriminately and immoderately; that the old adage,

"What's one man's meat is another's poison," is true in this in-

stance; and that each individual is a law unto himself.

Prehistoric Use of Tobacco.

Evidence of the prehistoric use of tobacco in America as a

matter of course is adduced mainly through archaeological ex-

plorations, supplemented by the historical comparisons previously

referred to.

Though the subject is most fascinating, time precludes in this

paper anything more than a very brief consideration of the pre-

historic. For our present purpose we need not go farther afield

than our own State of Ohio, than which no comparable area has

produced more definite evidence of the popularity of smoking

with its prehistoric inhabitants. Recognition of Ohio as the nu-

cleus of Mound-builder development and as the "Mound-builder

State" is due almost as much to the numerous artistically executed

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NICOTIANA                          99

 

tobacco pipes as to the hundreds of impressive tumuli from which

they were taken.

A prized possession of the British Museum is a "cache" of

more than 100 effigy pipes, discovered by Ohio's pioneer archaeol-

ogists, Messrs. Squier and Davis, in the Mound City group, near

Chillicothe, in 1847. Through publication of their explorations in

the first volume of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge,

these pipes have become the classic of American archaeology,

known the world over. The late Professor Frederick W. Putnam,

the then dean of American archaeologists, on one occasion re-

marked in the present speaker's hearing, that the Squier and Davis

"find" probably never would be equalled. Strangely enough, while

the archaeologists of the Ohio State Museum, in August, I915,

were removing a similar and even greater deposit of pipes from

the Tremper Mound, Scioto County, a telegram arrived announc-

ing the death of Professor Putnam. It was of course a matter of

deep regret that he did not live to learn of this outstanding dis-

covery.

In our consideration of the use of tobacco by the American

natives of historic times, we noted three principal justifications --

personal gratification, medical and ceremonial. In present-day use

of the plant, personal gratification appears as the prime incentive,

with the medical and ceremonial definitely suppressed but still

very much in evidence. We have noted that the aboriginal faith

in the curative properties of tobacco was accepted and even mag-

nified by early Europeans. That something of the same thing still

survives both in Europe and in America can readily be demon-

strated by close observation. Remarking this to a physician friend

recently, he was so frank as to opine that medical science had its

genesis in magic, and that it is still genesis-ing! The ceremonial

use of tobacco by the aborigines is strikingly represented in the

social aspect of present day smoking. In the words of the late

Dr. Berthold Laufer, from whose Introduction of Tobacco into

Europe I have drawn freely for this paper,

Of all the gifts of nature, tobacco has been the most potent social

factor.... It has made the whole world akin and united it in a common

bond. Of all luxuries it is the most democratic and the most universal; it

has contributed a large share toward democratizing the world.

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100   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

For the prehistoric use of tobacco we may safely assume, on

the evidence from the mounds, the three motives common to the

historic--personal gratification, medicinal use, and ceremonial or

social employment. Moreover, as you will agree after inspection

of these ancient pipes, we may add a fourth--utilization of

tobacco pipes as a medium for artistic expression. It is true that

the artistic enters to some degree in the fashioning of pipes of

today, but this is confined mostly to giving them a sightly form

or shape, with little attempt to embellish them with added details.

An outstanding factor--perhaps the outstanding factor--in the

culture of the builders of the Ohio mounds was their remarkable

artistic ability. Not only did these prehistoric sculptors depict

practically all the mammals native to their territory, but many

of the more important birds likewise served to embellish their pipe

bowls. These small sculptures are not surpassed in the archaeology

of any stone age peoples and they are, in a very true sense, ac-

ceptable art objects from any point of view. Examples of tobacco

pipes from the several mound cultures are shown in the Plates

facing pages 82/83.

Tobacco in Literature.

In the preparation of this paper and in assembling a bibliog-

raphy on tobacco, I have been impressed with the importance of

the subject in English literature. Among standard authors dealing

with the subject occur such names as Bulwer-Lytton, St. Pierre,

Byron, Lamb, Thackeray, Bacon, Pope, Goldsmith.

Most of you who are bachelors and some of you who once

were bachelors have sat by the open fire with Ike Marvel and

lighted a pipe with a coal; those of you who are fond of English

parody have admired Isaac Hawkins Browne's ingenious "A Pipe

of Tobacco," written in imitation of six contemporaneous poets;

admirers of Rupert Hughes are fond of "The Lady Who Smoked

Cigars," and all of you admit the broad humor of J. M. Barrie's

"My Lady Nicotine," from which I quote the following:

Many hundreds of volumes have been written about the glories of the

Elizabethan age, the sublime period of our history.... But why was this

period riper for magnificent deeds and noble literature than any other in

English history? We all know how the thinkers, historians and critics of

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NICOTIANA                             101

 

yesterday and today answer that question; but our hearts and brains tell us

that they are astray. By an amazing oversight they have said nothing of

the Influence of Tobacco. The Elizabethan age might be better named the

beginning of the smoking era. No unprejudiced person ... can question

the propriety of dividing our history into two periods--the pre-smoking and

the smoking. When Raleigh, in honor of whom England should have

changed its name, introduced tobacco into this country, the glorious Eliza-

bethan age began. ... Soldiers and sailors felt when engaged with a for-

eign foe that they were fighting for their pipes. The whole country was

stirred by the ambition to live up to tobacco.

That no mention of tobacco occurs in the works of Shakes-

peare, although he is known to have been a smoker, will appear

strange only to the uninformed. Barrie makes the omission per-

fectly clear and shows that it was intentional when he explains

that smokers of the classic Arcadian mixture were extremely reti-

cent and cautious lest the unworthy and uninitiated should learn

of its delights.

Lovers of books "out of print" will delight in that quaint

literary product Dow's Patent Sermons, by Dow, Jr., published

about 1855. Two sermons on tobacco exhaust the English lan-

guage for terms of scathing denunciation, and conclude with cor-

responding achievements in praise of the weed.

Perhaps as fitting as any other quotation in concluding this

paper are these lines from Byron's "The Island":

Sublime Tobacco which from east to west

Cheers the tar's labour or the Turkman's rest;

Which on the Moslem's ottoman divides

His hours, and rivals opium and his brides;

Magnificent in Stamboul, but less grand,

Though not less loved in Wapping or the Strand;

Divine in hookas, glorious in a pipe;

When tipped with amber, mellow, rich and ripe;

Like other charmers, wooing the caress,

More dazzingly when daring, in full dress;

Yet thy true lovers more admire by far

Thy naked beauties--Give me a cigar!

Condensed Bibliography.

Of the vast number of books and publications on tobacco,

the following will be found most useful to those wishing to inquire

more closely into the subject:

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102   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Corti, Count E., A History of Smoking (London, 1931).

Laufer, Berthold, Introduction of Tobacco into Europe (Chi-

cago, 1925).

Laufer, Berthold, Tobacco and Its Use in Asia (Chicago,

1925).

Linton, Ralph, Use of Tobacco among North American

Indians (Chicago, 1924).

Mason, J. Alden, Use of Tobacco in Mexico and South Amer-

ica (Chicago, 1925).

Shetrone, Henry C., The Mound-builders (New York, 1930).

• 22