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Show VTE My RRSa5 6,SEIN oe easate oo“ TOBACCO, 191 HISTORY. The Nicotiana is a native of A meri ca, and flowers in July and August. Saaz J Tobacco was first imported into Europe about the middle of the sixteenth century by Hernandez de Toledo, who sent it to Spain and Portugal; at that time the ambassador of Francis If. resided at the court of Lisb on, andin the year 1560 he carried the tobacco into France, whenit was presented to Catharine de Medicis as a plant from the new world possessing extraordinary virtues. ‘The ambassad or’s name was Nicot, and hence the appellation Nicotiana. It appears from Lobel, that this plant was cultivatedin Britain prev ious to the year 1570; and the introduction of the custom of smoking it in Englandis ascribed to sir Walter Raleigh. The cultivation of tobacco is now commonin various parts of the globe, and thou gh prohibited by the laws ofthis country, still the manufacture of it forms no inconsiderable branch of commerce, MEDICAL USE. This plant was first brought into Euro pe about the year 1560, from the island of Tobago in Amer ica, and is now sometimes cultivated for medicinal use in our gardens, but in general imported from America in large quant ities. ‘The leaves are about two feet long, of a pale green colo ur whilst fresh, and when LO BALL. NICOTIANA TABACUM. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. carefully dried of a lively yell owish cast. : . . . 7 1REssent. GEN. Car. Corolla funnel-shaped, limb plicate: Stamina clined: Capsule two-valved, two-celled. 35 cau Spec. Cuar. Leaves lanceolate-ovate, sessile, decurrent: Flowers W segments acute. a DESCRIPTION. Tus plant rises from five to six feet in height; stalk Leaves large, oblong, pointed, veined, entire, of a pale we without footstalks. The bracteas are long,linear, pointed. ae corolla is composed of a single petal, funnel-shaped, with a tube beset with short hairs, and whose borderis eat into i segments, ending acute. The calyx is large, also hairy, en a in five pointed segments. The capsule is oval, divided into cells, containing many small roundish seeds. They haye a strong, disagreeable smell, like that of the narcotic plants, anda very acrid burning taste. Taken inter nally, they prove virulently cathartic and emetic, occasioning almost intolerable cardialgic anxieties, By boiling in water their virulence is abated, and at length destroyed. An extract made by long coction is recom. mended by Stahl and other German physicians as a safe and most effectual aperient, expectorant, dete rgent, &c.; but this medi- cine, which is extremely prec arious and uncertain in stre ngth, has never come into esteem among us. Of late, howe ver, ‘To. bacco, under the form ofa vinous or watery infusion, and taken in such small doses as to produce little effec t from its action on the stomach, has been reco mmended to the attentio n of practitioners by Dr. Fowler. He has found it to bea very useful and powerful diuretic, and has published many cases of dropsy and dysury, in which its employment has been attended with the |