decking vp of their gardens as being a strange plant and seld seen more then for the hidden vertues of the hearb but now it is much more famous by reason of his rare qualities then for his elegancie and beauty that it carrieth in a garden The common people of India vsually tearme it Picielt for the name of Tabacco first came from the Spaniards because there was such plentie of it grew in a certain Iland called Tabacco according to the name wherof they haue christned it Andrew Theuet saith that the Americans haue a secret herbe which they name in their language Petum the which most commonly they beare about them for that they esteeme it marueilous profitable for many things this herbe is like to our buglosse They gather this herbe very charily and drie it within their little cabanes or houses Their manner to vse it is this they wrap a quantitie of this herbe being drie in a leafe of a Palme-tree which is very great so they make rolles of the length of a candle and then they fire the one end and receiue the smoak thereof by their nose and by their mouth they say it is verie wholesome to cleanse and consume the superfluous humors of the braine Moreouer being taken after this sort it keepeth the parties from hunger and thirst for a time therefore they vse it ordinarily Also when they haue any secret talke or counsell among themselues they draw this smoake and then they speake The which they doe customably one after another in the warre whereas it is very needful The women vse it by no meanes If that they take too much of this perfume it will make them light in the head as the smell or taste of strong wine The Christiās that do inhabite there are becom verie desirous of this perfume although that the first vse thereof is not without danger before that one be accustomed thereto for this smoke causeth sweats and weakenes yea foaming at the mouth suddaine falling downe and conuulsions as I haue seene in some And this is no such strange thing as it seemeth for there are many other herbs and fruits that offend the braine though that the taste of them bee pleasant and good to eate Plinie sheweth that in Lyncestis there is a fountaine that maketh the people drunke that take thereof Likewise another of Paphlagonia which as Ouid saith in the 15 booke of his Metamorphosis will cause a man to bee no lesse drunke then if he had copiously quaffed a great deale of wine His words be these Quem quicunque parùm moderato gutture traxit Haud aliter titubat quà m si mera vina bibisset This I know will not be receiued of all men for truth and yet Philosophers doe witnesse that there is in Esclanonie by Apollonia a fountaine comming out of a rock wheras is seene to proceed a flame of fire whereby al the waters adiacent are as boyling They haue in diuers places of Hisp. Noua many hot springs of water as aboue all other I haue seen in the Prouince of Mechuacan In a plain field without any mountaine there is spring which hath much water and it is so hot that if a whole quarter of beefe be cast into it within one halfe houre it will bee as well sodden as it will bee ouer a fire in halfe a day I haue seen half a sheep cast in immediatly it hath been soddē I haue eaten part of it this hath the learned Hackcluit set down in his booke discoursing of the voiages of the English nation by the relation of Henrie Hawkes a marchant who liued three yeares in Noua Hispania I will proceede a little further in relating strange things in nature In Bactria in the Citie of Boghar there is a litle riuer running through the midst of it but the water is vnholesome for it breedeth sometimes in men that drinke thereof and specially in them that are there borne a worme of an elle long which licth commonly in the legge betwixt the flesh and the skinne and is pluckt out aboue the ankle with great art and cunning Diodorus Siculus reporteth that in Egypt there was a poole the colour of whose water was vermilion which being drunke would reueale secrets Strabo speaketh of a fountaine in the Citie Leuca of a most horrible smell Besides this is verie strange that there is a fountaine besides Haslea which neuer riseth but early in the morning at high noone and at the shutting of the euening And if therein any euill thing bee cast that may corrupt the same Theodorus Zuingerus mentioneth that for certaine daies after it will not rise at all There is a fountaine in Salmac in the countrey of Caria which as Strabo writeth maketh men effeminate and lither That of Aphrodosium in Pyrrhea causeth barrennesse as Plinie noteth and such like a man man may easily finde if any will take paines to read ouer the booke entituled Britannia written by that most learned and famous gentleman master Wil. Camden the best antiquary of our age he shal there I say haue plenty wherat to admire peraduēture to giue satisfaction to that which here I haue set down for truth Some I doubt not but will imagine this not to bee true but altogether false the which I haue spoken touching the natures and strange qualities of these waters and of this herbe Tabacco as though Nature could not giue such power to things yes truely and farre greater as shee hath also giuen to beasts according to the diuersities of countries and regions Wherefore then should it leaue this countrey of America wherein God included the greatest gulfe of mankind void of such a benefite being naturally proper to it and being temperate without comparison more then others As in generalitie Africke yeeldeth the best Mules Europe the best Lions as Herodotus and Plinie make report onely to be found between the riuers Nestus and Achelous the one coasting Abdera a citie of Thracia the other being a floud of Epyrus separateth Acarnania from Aetolia So in particular we find England yeeldeth the greatest store of good sheepe wooll tinne and lead Muscouia the best Bees yeelding honie and waxe in plentie and the best furres Wherefore a learned Physician is to obserue what store of vegetables either of woods trees for fruite or plants the countrie yeeldeth for euerie country hath his commodities and singularitie of them fitted by the prouidence of the eternall God As we read of in Asia and Virginia singular Cedars and Pine trees So we haue experience that for firre and Deale trees Denmarke Bohemia Pomerania Russia Norway and the New-found land are notorious For Vines France for apples peares plums and such ordinarie fruit the realme of England For oranges lymons pomgranates and such like Spaine and other hot countries for Oyle and Oliues Candia c. As for the second concerning things hid in the veines and wombe of the earth for what shall we neede to enlarge this discourse
encrease of Worship prosperous health and Gods graces I commend you to the Almightie Your Worships most humble at commandement Edmund Gardiner To the Curteous and friendly Readers THere be some I make no question which in this iudging world will censure me either to be too idle and to haue little else to doe or imagine mee too curious for committing to the presse this little book whose criticall censures byting stings I doe little esteeme so that I may heare or know that these trifles as they are accounted will doe any good Many fault-finders enuious carpers and malicious sycophants for malice is euer working of mischiefe what is it that cankred Calumnia cannot inuent will readily repreheÌ„d but this chiefly that I haue been too open in publishing medicines But friendly and indifferent Readers I for your sakes wil sustain willingly this blame and for your good contentment will be readie to vndergoe more and meekely to submit my selfe if cause so require to a prouoked patience I send forth this worke to you that are studious and desirous of learning not to sophysticall mount-bankes cozering quacksaluers such like false iugling deceiuers with their paradoxicall innouations whose countrey soile is to them a wilde cat and who abuse all good arts wheresoeuer they come or abide I must confesse that I haue vsed some store and varietie of examples not thereby to vendicate to my selfe much reading to arrogate to my selfe great learning or that I coueted my diligence to be praised For I desire to bee cured of ignorance which I cannot be vnlesse I confesse the same and that diligence deserueth but a slight and bare commendation if any one of his own accord shal voluntarily take vpon him a needlesse vaine and vnnecessarie labour But this was my scope this the whole drift and marke I especially aymed and shotte at that seeing the fume of this Indian Tabacco to be vsedly and abusedly taken of all sorts of men all condiâ—ions and estates to shew according to my simple skill the true vse of it and to remooue out of their mindes the errors that manie are possessed if not bewitched withall and to bring both their mindes and bodies to a better temper and moderation which thing as hitherto for ought I know hath not beene performed by any nay scarselie attempted But now perchaunce whilest I labour to please all I displease all If it be so Iacta est alea the dice are throwne If any saying heere displease anie queasie stomacked Tabacconist for remedie thereof I would wish him to passe lightlie by it for feare of further offence Physicke is a large profession and euerie one as he is affected taketh one or other part to be illustrated set foorth and brought more to light by his labour and industrie one in the Anatomie as Caspur Bauhinus Salomon Albertus Gabriel Fallopius Andreas Vesalius and Arantius of Bononia Another in the historie of Plantes and knowledge of Simples as the most learned Maister Iohn Gerard Cittizen of London Carolus Clusius Andreas Matthiolus Rembert Dodoens and others A third in Fishes as Rondeletius and others in other huing creatures as Conradus Gesner and some in Mineralls as Rodolphus Agricola haue beene found singular And surelie they are not to be denied their due commendation who in other smaller matters of Physicke haue done something as namely those that haue corrected bookes haue made commentaries vpon auncient authors and translated out of the Greeke and Arabick tongues into the Latine or our own vulgar In this so great a haruest of fertill wittes and expence of time wherein manie men and the same verie learned and well practised haue taken paines one thing remaineth vndone that no man in my iudgement hath sufficiently entreated of this Plantnamelie Tabacco which is so much in vse amongst all English men For either they doe commend it too much aboue measure attributing to it so many great and excellent vertues as I thinke is scarse possible to finde in any one hearbe or else on the contrarie they were so farre out of the way as that they altogether contemned and discommended it so that that which was to be well liked they haue quite omitted and that which is plaine euident and manifest to all mens senses they haue quite either denied or marred for Quid nobis certius ipsis Sensibus esse potest quo vera ac falsa notemus What can more certaine be than sense Discerning truth from false pretense But if this my labour may bee gratefully accepted as with good will it is offered as I doubt it not if you please to censureiustly thereof I shall be encouraged thereby to publish and set forth in our natiue language other workes intreating more copiously and fully of Physicke and no lesse needefull to be knowneand published So I wholly referre my selfe to your fauours and courteous constructions still resting Yours in all kinde affection Edmund Gardiner The names of all those authors and learned men whose authorities are cited in this present Worke. A Ristoteles Alciatus Andreas Theuetus Aegidius Eurartus Auicenna Augerius Ferrerius Alexander Trallianus Apianus Aetius Andreas Matthiolus Semensis Amatus Lusitanus Albertus Magnus Banisterus Carolus Clusius Cardinalis Cusanus Cornelius Celsus Carolus Stephanus Cornelius Tacitus Catullus Dion Diodorus Siculus Galenus Guido Pancirollus Garceas ab Horto Galfridus Chaucerus Dioscorides Guilielmus Camdenus Fracastorius Hesiodus Homerus Hippocrates Hieronimus Cardanus Hercules Strozza Herodotus Guilielmus Clusius Vlrichus de Hutten Laurentius Ioubertus Horatius Iohannes Langius Iohannes Leo Afer Iohannes Gerardus Anglus Iohannes Liebaultius Iohannes Heurnius Iohannes Baptista Porta Iohannes Hollerius Iohannes Bruerinus Iunenalis Lucretius Iosephus Quercetanus Ludouicus Vertomanus Petrus Bellonius Titus Liuius Terentius Ronssaeus Paulus Aegineta Iultus Palmarius Theodorus Zuingerus Strabo Publius Ouidius Martialis Paracelsus Suetonius Tranquillus Mercurius Britannicus Richardus Hackluit Nicolaus Monardus Petrus Pena Matthias de Lobell Seneca Vergilius Plinius Theophrastus Philon. Philaretes Xenophon Tibullus In commendation of the Author AS farre as Boreas clappes his brasen wings So farre thy fame graue Gardiner shall flie Pleasure and profit both thy rare Worke brings Who rightly reads will say as much as I That thou of all doest yet deserue the praise And to be crowned with a crowne of baies One with disgracefull and despightfull words This soueraigne Simple basely discommends A second loftie glorious tearmes affords And grace too great vnto this Simple lends Both are extreames The golden meane is best Which here thou keep'st thy Worke excels the rest Reioyce O Britaine that thou hast brought-forth A Gardiner of such admired skill Thou showest the vertue the effect and worth Of this rare Simple the good vse and ill Then vse it well for Gardiners good sake And from his Garden a choise flower take Io Serlâ— Edward Michaell In commendation of his learned friend Master Edmund Gardiner THe Author well deserues the Tipe of fame To be conioyned to his honest name For setting
with the huge woods to bee found in Germanie Bohemia Muscouia and Ireland or with the notorious vegetables of other nations namely the mines of mettals and fossiles wherof there are such sundry species as it may seeme impertinent of vs to be further touched considering so soone as they are discouered they be committed to writing Some besides will not grant this to be true but altogether false that Andreas Theuetus writeth that Tabacco keepeth the Indians from hunger and thirst for a certain time although that our Epicureall Tabbacconists will sufficiently refute the contrarie for they will say and for a need sweare to it that they can liue a whole weeke together neither eating nor drinking any other sustenance And if they wil not be cōtented with this our witnessing and affirmation let them read Herodotus which in his second booke maketh mention of a people in Africa liuing onely with hearbes Apian rehearseth that the Parthians being banished and driuen out of their countrey by Marous Anthonius liued with a certaine herbe that tookeaway their memorie neuerthelesse they had opinion that it did nourish them though that in a short time after they died Master Stephen Burrough did see some Lappians eat rocke weedes as hungerly as a cowe doth grasse when she is hungry I saw them also saith hee eate fowles egges raw and the young birds also that were in the egges The Indians will liue seuen or eight moneths in the warre with meale made of certaine hard and drie rootes in the which some would iudge that there were no nourishment or sustenance at all And they will tell strangers who arriue in their coasts that they haue heard say of their fathers that before they had the knowledge of the best rootes they liued but with hearbs and wilde weeds roots like brute beasts There was they say in their country a great Charaiba that is to say a Prophet the which came to one of their young maidens and gaue her certaine great roots named Hetich shewing her that she should cut them in peeces and then plant them in the earth the which she did and since they haue alwaies continued from father to sonne the which roots haue so well prospered that now they haue so great aboundance that they eat little other food and it is as common with them as bread is with vs. The old Poets and ancient people of the world did conceit that the Gods themselues did feede vpon nothing but Nectar and Ambrosia yea and that some of them had worse cōmons meaner meats as they write of Romulus who being a God as they say liued vpon turneps But I thinke that they rather alluded vnto the pouertie and simplicitie of feeding that was vsed in former ages wherewith Romulus was so well acquainted The Poet Martialis seemeth couertly to insinuate that they eat the same meats in heauen wherewith in earth they were inured to feede vpon in these verses Haec tibi brumali gaudentia frigore rapa Quae damus in coelo Romulus esse solet Therefore ought not the Storie of this Gentleman Tabacco bee thought so strange for men to liue withall as thought the like had neuer been heard or read of in histories and times forepassed The people of the East and West India haue diuers kindes of fruits proper only to those regions as Nature bringeth them forth and yet they liue long and well disposed being strong and of robustious constitutions yea they will liue I meane the people of America a whole weeke together with one groat which neither the Spanyard nor any nation in the world can doe as Petrus Martyr saith And for their long liues we may read in the learned Hackluit discoursing of the voiages of the English nation in farre distant parts of the world who introduceth the example of the King of Balloboam being one hundred and threescore yeeres of age when captaine Candish arriued at the Iland of Iaua Minor and yet he was liuing after that many yeares at that time when the Hollanders trauailed thither to the towne of Bantam which is the furthest part in the world from this realme of England being measured geometrically Therebe many who thinke it strange that some nations liue onely with fish and yet he that is but meanly trauailed in Histories knoweth that the poorest sort among the West Indies liue more with sea-fish and other like meats than with flesh The same is true in this our Isle of Britaine especially among the Cornish men and Scots yea our elders in times past liued onely with fish as many sects in religion both in these dayes and in former ages did The lawes of Triptolemus as Xenophon writeth did defend and forbid the Athenians the vse of flesh Therefore it is no strange thing to liue with fish onely First in our Europe and before that the ground was tilled men liued more hardly without flesh or fish hauing not the meane to vse them and yet notwithstanding they were stronger and liued the longer being nothing so effeminate as now in our age Americus Vespusius one of the best Pilots that euer was coasted almost from Ireland vnto the cape of Saint Augustine by the comandement of the King of Portingale the yeare 1501. And since another Captain the yeare 1534. sayled vnto the region named of Giants In this Region between the riuer of Plate and the streight of Magellane the Inhabitants are verie mightie named in their language Patagones Giants because of their hie stature and forme of bodies They which first discouered this countrey tooke one of them finely being twelue foot long who was so vneasie to hold that 25. men had inough to doe about him and for to keep him it behooued them to binde his feet and hands in their shippe notwithstanding they could not keepe him long aliue but for sorrow and thought as they say he died for hunger Thus you see I haue plainely shewed that people dwelling in some regions though faring hardly and poorely nourished yet notwithstanding are men both of good complexions of personable and heroical nay Giant-like statures and long liued And this may seeme to bee a little beside though not altogether out of the way Trinidada Tabacco hath a thicke tough and fibrous roote from which immediatly rise vp long broad leaues and smooth of a greenish colour among which riseth vp a stalke diuiding it selfe at the ground into diuers branches whereon are set confusedly the like leaues but lesser at the top of the stalkes stand vp long necked hollow flowres of a pale purple tending to a blushe colour after which succeed the coddes or seed vessels including many small seeds like vnto the seede of marierome The whole plant perisheth at the first approach of winter in hot countreys it is sowen all times of the yeare but when it first sprouteth vp it must be defended and preserued from cold and planted neere vnto a wall for the beautifying thereof for in such hot Regions as Spaine
leaues of Tabacco at this day bee onely in vse although for want of them some doe make vse of the seeds and because they would haue them in a readinesse they thrust them thorow with a needle and thread and so haue them to drie in the shadow and afterwards at their pleasure vse them either whole or being brought into powder Because of his heat and drinesse it must needs make hot resolue mundifie a little adstringe as one may easily iudge by his vertues that hereafter follow The drie leaues of Tabacco are good to be vsed taken in a pipe set on fire and suckt into the stomacke and thrust forth againe at the nostrels against the paines of the head rheumes aches in any part of the body whencesoeuer the originall doth proceede whether from France Italie Spaine Naples India being all pockie hot countreys or from our familiar and best knowne diseases Those leaues doe palliate and ease for a time but neuer performe any cure absolutely for although they emptie the bodies of humours yet the cause of the griefe cannot be so taken away But some haue learned this principle that repletion requireth euacuation that is fulnesse craueth emptinesse and by euacuation assure themselues of health but this doth not take away so much with it this day but the next bringeth with it more as for example a Well doth neuer yeeld such store of water as when it is most drawne and emptied My selfe speake by proofe who haue cured of that infectious disease a great many diuers of which had couered or kept vnder the sicknesse by the helpe of Tabacco as they thought yet in the end haue been constrained to haue vnto such a hard knot a crabbed wedge or else had vtterly perished Fleagme in mans bodie as it is diuers so diuersly it must be altered for being by nature cold and moist it easily is conuerted into thicknesse or hard tough sliminess and in regard of his tenacious qualitie it is verie difficult to be remooued for it doth not very easily giue place either to the vertue expulsiue or yeeld to an attractiue medicine And to cause it to be pliable and yeelding there be fiue things required namely heat siccitie attenuation abstersion and cutting or diuiding which wee call incision all which properties Tabacco is furnished withall and adiudged fit to be vsed in all tough and viscous humours wherewith the bodie is ouer-charged Mercurius Britannicus in his third booke De terra Australi antehac semper incognita in the description of a certaine countrey tearmed Morouia where none but fooles dwell I suppose that it lyeth nere Portugall for that countrey is reported to abound with fooles as England is said to sauour of vanitie he wondered I say at one thing and mused aboue the rest and that not without iust cause that many of the Inhabitants there do liue neither vpon bread nor meat as other nations for the most part doe but only on the smoke of a certaine vnholesome hearbe which they taking at their mouthes forthwith againe thrust forth at their nostrels seeming as it were so many smoakie chimneys Many men stand in doubt neither can it be fully resolued whether the cockscombly Morouians learned this fashion frō the poor naked Indians or the Indians from them There be some hold opinion that certain Indians dwelling neere vnto Torrida Zona were the first inuentors and finders out of this smokie medicine that inwardly also they might turne blacke for you must imagine that their Morian-black huc pleased them wondrous well and they iudged it no reason that the inward parts should any whit differ or varie from the outward Howsoeuer it be this is certaine that when their noses are filled their purses many times are emptied and the patrimonies of many noble young Gentlemen haue been quite exhausted and haue vanished cleane away with this smoaky vapour and hath most shamefully and beastly flyen out at the masters nose But yet this may seeme verie strange yea as strange as the rich mans kitchen in Cheap-side which had no fire in it for sixteene yeeres together that whilest these lustie yonkers and tabacconists eleuate their noses on high snuffing vp the fume verie gallantly that their kitchens in the meane space haue beene key-colde They that choppe away their patrimonies for the vanishing smoake of Tabacco are scarse so wise as Glaucus who was so madde headed as that hee would needs change and giue away his armour of gold which was prised to be worth one hundred Oxen with the yron armour of Diomedes that was scarse worth nine Oxen. The famous Poet Homer maketh mention of this bartering in the sixth of his Iliades in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id est Aurea areis centenaria nouenarijs or as Alciatus hath translated it lib. 2. Praetermiss Proqúenouem centum preferro tradidit aurum He gaue away one hundred for nine and gold for yron Some vse to drink Tabacco as it is tearmed for wantonnes or rather Custom cannot forbeare it no not in the midst of their dinner or supper which kind of taking is vnholsome very dangerous if not slouenly although to take it seldom and that physically may do some good and is to be tolerated Othersome there bee that spend whole daies moneths times and yeares for the most part in Tabacco-taking not sparing to take it euen in their bed seeking by all meanes possible to hinder and peruert the course of Nature and naturall order which thing is both a great misspending of precious time and a great empairer of bodily health accelerating by these disorders their owne deaths before either Nature vrge Maladie enforce or Age require it Wherefore wee ought euer to remember that golden Aphorisme of reuerend Hippocrates Non satietas non fames non aliud quidquam bonum est quod modum excedit And againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hoc est adeoque in vniuersum nimium Naturae bellum indixit A man may haue too much of his mothers blessing It was death for any magistrate or any one placed in high authority and office amongst the people of Locris to drinke any wine vnlesse for healths sake the Physitian had prescribed to the contrarie so I could wish the like lawe to our huff-snuffe Tabacconists that misspend the flowre of their youth in this smoaking vanitie Thus you see that Tabacco is a fantasticall attracter and glutton-feeder of the appetite rather taken of many for wantonnesse when they haue nothing else to doe than of any absolute or necessarie vse which is much to bee discommended but I commend the syrupe aboue this fume or smoakie medicine Surely if wee did obserue time and the golden meane so much spoken of Tabacco it selfe is no more to be disliked or reiected thā Boleti escalenti because the emperor Claudius Caesar died with eating of them whereof both Plinie in his two and twentie booke chap. 22. Cornelius Tacitus in his twelfth booke Suetonius Tranqaillus in
Rec. Pulueris radiois Angelicae Hortensis vel syluestris ʒj Theriacae optimae ʒj ℈ ss Aquae stillatitiae sanae sanctae Indorum ℥ iiij Aceti optimi ℥ ss Misce. This is to be taken warme at one time and presently to go to bed and to mooue sweat let the sweat be continued gently and easily foure or fiue houres or more if strength will endure and keep warme after for two daies If a sore doe appeare then make a pultes with wheaten bread two handfuls sweet butter ℥ ij of the leaues of Tabacco and the hearbe called Diuels bit of either halfe a handfull with sufficient water make a pultes After it is made put to the pultes vj. onions roasted vnder the embers and mingle them Lay of this hot to the place and shift it twise or thrise in a day An Vnguent for a pestilent Carbuncle Rec. Foliorum sanae sanctae Indorum m. j. Contundantur addendo vitel Oui vnius Cum salis zss. Vnguent Basilisco zij Misce. Fiat instar vnguent applicetur super Carbanculos Aqua Theriacalis ad Pestem Rec. Liquoris stillatitij sanae sanctae Indorum l. viij Antidoti Mithridatici Damocratis ℥ vj. Cardui benedicti Scordij Galegae ana m. ij Macerentur simul per noctem posteá destillentur s. a. Cap. ℥ iiij pro vice But heere a great doubt and controuersie may arise whether as sometimes we see one poyson to be the expeller of another poyson so in like sort whether one stinking sauour and graueolent or ill odour and vapour of some pestilent breath or ayre may bee the proper amulet or preseruatiue against any such poyson to bee hanged about the necke for at this time let it bee granted to please some that Tabacco is of no good smell or sent and that it is a little poysonous For wee see some daily in the time of any generall or grieuous infection of the plague for auoidance thereof and for preseruation sake will smell vnto the stinking sauour of some loathsome Priuie or filthy Camerine and sinke and this they make reckoning is one of the best counter-poysons that may bee deuised against any pestiferous infection for their nature being inured to these they will afterwards not seeme to passe for any pestilent malignitie of the ayre and dare boldly aduenture without any preiudice or impeachment to their health into any place or companie whatsoeuer And to perswade vs the more easily to this they obiect to vs for example sake those women that spend their daies continually in hospitals for Pilgrims for poore trauellers who are accustomed to euery abhominable sauour of the sicke whereof we shall neuer see or very seldome any of them either to be taken or die with any pestiferous infection though neuer so dangerous In like maner there be some that in time of the greatest heat and rage of the Pestilence doe kill dogges cats and other like creatures suffering them to be cast and lie rotting and stinking in corners of streets crosse pathes and where many waies meete thinking that by these meanes the rotten stinking and euill vapour that from them is carryed vpwards filleth the ambient ayre and so either drinketh vp consumeth or else quite altereth the pestilent infection thereof After which sort we read that in times past a certain Physician freed Scythia now called Tartaria from the mischiefe of a most dangerous pestilence I am not ignorant how that sometimes one poyson is the preseruatiue against another poyson and the flesh of vipers which entreth into the famous composition of Mithridatum to resist and quell not onely his owne but euen the venenositie of other Serpents There is not a presenter remedie for one that is dangerously strooke of a venomous Scorpion than the oyle of Scorpions it selfe There be many liuing creatures that haue certain hid properties against diuers euils and so we see that experience hath giuen the knowledge of many medicines of the which none can giue any certaine reason Wherefore I would that some would experiment those of our owne countrey and compound some Theriaca or Alexipharmacall medicine of our own plants which the euerlasting God hath giuen to our owne vse the which to my iudgement would proue more excellent farre better and more sure than vipers though neuer so wel corrected of whose flesh partly is made and composed the famous electuary called Theriaca magna knowing that it is not sure to vse vipers because of their deadly poison that they beare whatsoeuer others say But to returne from whence I haue a little digressed I will not deny but that such persons as haue been acquainted and accustomed to a bad and vnholsome stinking aire or any pestilent malignity but that they will smell vnto easily endure any thing that may be imagined worse then any stinke it selfe or carion-like smel without either danger trouble or any displeasure at all and doe recke so little of the plague when it rageth most as I haue seen some known moe euen fasting and without fencing their heart or spirits with any antidote to haue buried moe than two hundred whom the plague had bereft of life And yet this I say that Tabacco is not so perillous as som would make the world beleeue but that amongst the proper curations and alexiteries against any pestilent infection this obtaineth not the last place Galen in his third book De Alimentorum facultatibus plainely sheweth that in his daies there were Egyptians that fed as sauourly on Serpents as othersom did of Eeles The new-found world nourisheth great store of Serpents and Lyzards of a maruellous greatnesse the which are easily taken of those countrey people without danger yea the Neigers eat these Lyzards so doe the Indians of America both these and also the lesser ones which are of the bignesse of a mans legge And who hath not read though from long iourneys large lies are afforded what Peter Martyr of Angleria in his Decades hath written And Laurētius Ioubertus de Cutis capitis affectibus wil resolue vs that the Americans and their neighbours doe the same About three degrees and a halfe from the equinoctiall there is found a riuer that cometh from the mountaines of the country named Camia and another more lesse named Rhegium the which beare and bring forth verie good fish also Crocodiles very dangerous as the riuers of Nilus and Senega and they eate them as wee doe venison as Iohn Leo in his description of Africa saith And Andrew Theuet in his description of the new-found world agreeeth with him saying that the Americans food for the most part is roasted after their maner as rats of diuers kindes and great ones a certaine kinde of toades greater than ours Crocodiles and others that they rost al-whole with the skinne and the bowels and this they vse without any difficultie yea these Crocodiles and great Lyzards bee as great as a pigge of a moneth old the which is a fine meate as they say that haue eaten
thereof These Lizards of America are so priuie that they will come neere vnto you take their repaste if that you wil take it without all feare or difficultie Their flesh is like a chickens flesh and they kil them with shooting at them with their arrowes And if tabacco were halfe so bad as any of these I trow the dispraisers thereof might then with full mouthes and full cheekes except against it It cannot be denied but that Tabacco hath some malignitie yea some naughtie and venemous qualitie in it in respect that it produceth such a strange swimming vertiginie or giddinesse like drunkennesse in the braine with foaming at the mouth and swouning yea lying as it were dead or in a traunce for a certaine time when any almost hath first taken it and yet at length after their bodies haue been acquainted and inured to it there hath no such passion or effect followed though it hath been taken by them in a verie large quantitie Whereupon doubtlesse wee must conclude that euen of strong poysons some men may very well be nourished and conueniently fedde especially if they bee assumed moderately and by degrees a little at once as Lewes Vertoman writeth of the King of Calecut whose father so inured him to take poyson that hee was fed and nourished therwith and with nothing else all his life time so that when he intended to put any of his noblemen to death he would but cheaw and bite in his mouth a certaine fruit there growing called Chofoles which being done hee would spit them in the face of him with whom hee was offended who presently after being poysoned with this stinking breath would goe home and die This King as the forenamed author saith had foure thousand wiues but he neuer lay with any of them but one night for the next day day shee was found dead onely with the poisonous breath of the King So that hereby by these examples we may learne that poysons and strong medicines may by degrees bee ouercome by the vertue and strength of nature be cōuerted into a profitable norishment of the whole bodie as al Physicians alleage sithence there is nothing that nourisheth but that which is first concocted digested by the power benefit of nature Custome is of great force in our meats and that many haue been fed onely with poysons Iohn Bruyerni de re cibaria lib. 1. cap. 22. plainely sheweth So in times past the people called Psylli and the Marsi would without danger both handle and eat Serpents Hollerius reporteth of a Spaniard that would eate halfe an ounce of Opium at one time we in England must not exceed twelue graines and in Poland two graines onely will kill a strong man so that he shal neuer arise till the trumpe of the Archangell awake him Iohannes Heurnius saith that hee hath seene diuers slaues at Naples in Italy which would deuoure a verie great deale of Meconium and others againe would as fast eate poppie without any sensible hurt thereby And as I haue partly touched before wee read of one Tharsias an Apothecary and many shepheards in Greece who would take into their stomacks whole handfuls of Helleborus albus or Neesewort without any danger at all digesting thē very well Eudemus of the Iland of Chios would do the same without any purging downwards as Theophrastus assureth vs yet with others we know that it procureth vomiting mightily that with extream danger hazard of life if it be not well corrected giuen to strong complexions and robustious constitutions and not to nice and delicate persons Wee reade in histories of a maide of excellent beautie that was onely fed and brought vp with the deadly poyson of Napellus who was presented to Alexander the great by the king of India to the intent he should bee ensnared in the inextricable labyrinth of her beautious physnomie whome when Aristotle his master had throughly veiwed and beheld hee forewarned the king of the danger and the bait that was laid to insnare him Neither was he therein deceiued in his iudgement for though the king refused her companie manie other sprightfull laddes and lustie-bloudes being allured and bewitched with her companie they all died by that abominable poysonous and destroying vapour or hurtfull breath which came from her body as Iohannes Langius in his Medicinall epistles hath also remembred This maide did well enough with this hearbe Napellus and yet the force and facultie thereof is so deadly both to man and also to all kindes of beastes that if any doe eate thereof their lippes and rounges swell forth-with their eyes hang out their thighes are stiffe and their wittes are taken from them as Auicenua writeth in his fourth book Yea the force of this poyson is such that if the pointes of speares dartes or arrowes bee touched or annointed with the same they bring deadly hurt to those that are wounded therewith So that if strong poysons through custome may bee turned into the profitable nourishment of our bodies howe much more such Simples that bee but as it were a little hurtfull as Tabacco is The like may bee said of meates and medicines some men will eate and continue with feeding on Cassia as familiarly as if all their life time they had neuer taken delight in any otherthing and yet with others againe it is accounted verie loathsome and bringeth gripings wringing and much torment to the whole bodie In some persons Manna turneth wholly in choler and it gently looseneth the belly in others Some will very easily digest beefe or any meats of harder digestion whose stomacks againe doe abhorre the flesh of hens rabbets and the like if they chance to eat of them they turne into sower belchings and are quickly corrupted in their stomacks lying there stinking as in a filthy puddle Therefore whatsoeuer is familiar to any particular mans nature and wherewithall he is most delighted neuer bee afraide to giue the sicke although in others it may not be tollerated But to returne againe into my path from whence I haue a little digressed Although all men and all countreys are not alike subiect to and hurt by the pestilence for China which is the greatest part of the habitable world in which there are as some Histories report seuenty millions of people being scarse so many in all Europe wherein as I suppose God hath included the greatest gulfe of mankinde is not subiect to this dangerous disease nor yet many parts of Africa as Iohn Leo a Moore borne in the Kingdome of Granada saith yet we know and feele that all those countreys that lie open to the sea or bee situated right against the South or lie much open to that point are more dangerously infected than others that haue not the same site of place for their dwelling And likewise those that dwell in hot and moist places poysoned with filthy or mistie exhalations are more vexed and plagued than more open and champain countreys or those that be