Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1903 — EARLIEST uses of tobacco. [ARTICLE]

EARLIEST uses of tobacco.

It Waa Considered a Medicine, Both to Smoke and Snuff. Tobacco was first used in Europe as a kind of rude anticeptic and preventer of infection, and in the West Indies, northern America and Africa, the inhaling of the dried and powdered tobacco leaf was practiced long before the herb was known In Europe, according to a writer In the Detroit NewsTribune. The same is probably true of smoking. The use of tobacco was introduced into Europe by a Francescan friar named Ramon Pane, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage to the West Indies in 1494. He was sent ashore at Cuba In charge of an exploring expedition, and reported on ills return that he had found the natives snuffing this powdered herb, which they did through a short, hollow cane. He introduced the practice into Europe, but it was not until 1560 that the plant was cultivated in Europe. Jean Nicot, who had been British ambassador at Lisbon, began tobacco growing in France in that year, and through this circumstance the herb got its name nicotine. Snuff was first used as a relief from catarrh and stoppages of the nasal passages, and the first personage to make the use of it popular was the famous Catherine de Medici, and her son, Charles IV., also used it as a relief from chronic headache. The great Catherine’s patronage caused snuff to be called “Herbe a la Reine.” It became enormously popular as a preventive In England after the great plague of 1660.