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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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
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
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
84 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
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
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
86
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
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-
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
88
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
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-
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
90 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
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-
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
92
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
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.
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.
94
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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:
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).