doth presently ease the pain of the teeth coming from cold or wind and takes away all corruption but this remedy is nothing worth if the pain proceed from a hot cause Also it is good to rub aking teeth with the diâ—â—lled water of Tobacco To cure the Thrush and Ulcers of the Gums a mixture is made with Honey of Roses and the juyce of sour Pomgranats which maudifies scoures and breeds flesh The leaves of Tobacco roâ—sted under the hot embers applyed to the pained part ease the pains of the Throat over-cooled by rheume and all other Diseases of the body proceeding from cold causes And a gargarism may be made of the decoction of this Herb alone or mingled with other Herbs proper for this Disease It wonderfully helps Diseases of the brest and those that spit bloody matter Also for short breath and other inveterate Diseases if a decoction of it be made with Sugar and the Stomach being first purged it be taken for somâ— daies together So the leaves of Tobacco boyled in water and Sugar put to the decoction Or rather juyce of the leaves pressâ—d forth and boyled into a syrrup Apozeme or Julep taken daily upon an empty stomach two or three ounces 〈◊〉 a time abates the difficulty of breathing and an old cough It brings forth thick clammy corrupt humours but the sick must be first well purged and generally his body must be well emptied by Physick Also a Syrrup may be made of other pectoral means adding the leaves of Tobacco to them or Liquorish Reasins Jububes Figges Prunes Dates and Herbs fit for this use as Maydenhair Scabious Horehound and the like Take Maydenhairs white and black Horehound Coltsfoot of each one handfull Tobacco leaves two or three Reasins without stones whole Barley of each one Pugill Liquorish scraped two drammes make a decoction to a pint sweeten it with Sugar and Honey what is sufficient Another that attenuates and cuts more Take Scabious Horehound Maydenhairs Wall-Ruâ— of each one handfull and half Figgs ten Reasins one ounce Tobacco leaves five Liquorish scraped two drammes make a decoction in a pound of Hoâ—ied water untill two parts be consumed Adde to the strained Liquor of simple Oxymel Syrrup of Maydenhair of each two ounces Oxymel compound one ounce mingle them Water of Tobacco with Eybright water drank daily upon an empty stomach doth the same as Doctor Iarnacus Goverour of Rochel hath proved who was an intimate acquaintance of Nicotilus and private to the counsels and businesses of the French King and whom he chiefly desired to communicate the Knowledg of this Plant to This man being at a Banquet of the Kings with the Embassodour professed that by this means he cured one of an Asthma I saith Nicolaus Monardus observed some men troubled with an Asthma returning from the WestIndies or from Peru chewing Tobacco leaves in their mouthes and swallowing the juyce of them to make them spit forth corrupt matter but though these men were drunk by it it appears they found much good by it to bring out matter and flegm that stuck in their stomachâ— The dry powder of Tobbacco performs the same if you hold as much of it as you can take between the top of your fore-finger and thumb at the root of your tongue near your palate taking care that you swallow not the powder for in a short space you shall perceive great plenty of flegmatique humours to run forth at your mouth and this will endure untill that you may fill a small dish with flegme When you think this watry huâ—our is come forth in sufficient quantity wash your mouth with some good white Wine Do this every morning upon an empty stomach If this be to troublesome do it every third day alwaies according to art premising universals The same way it is profitable for the Diseases of the Brest and the parts adjoyning as the Lungs Wesand Throat offended by afflux of humours It is wonderfull good for pains proceeding from a defluxion of humours upon the mouth of the stomach or bred there and for all old paines of it or preternatural long-during paines of the Reins and for contractions of parts from chronical and lasting Diseases to chew the powder of dry leaves of Tobacco in the mouth to make an Apophâ—egmatism with them The women of the West-Indies mightily commend the leaves of Tobacco because they take away the crudities of the stomachs of young and old and dispell winds restore concoction soften the belly if it be first annointed with oyl of Olives and the leaves being made hot under hot embers be applyed to the region of the belly and be renewed as oft as occasion is The ashes must not be wiped off but more must be laid on to make it more effectual Also if you lay the said leaves so prepared to one that is surfeitted with meat or drink you shall very much remove his Crapula and repletion The same reason serves for the powder of the dry Herb if you put so much of it as you can hold between your finger and thumb into a spoonfull or two of Aqua vitae when you go to bed For it takes away your surfet and makes you sleep and resolves flegm They that swound away presently recover their former strength if the smoak of the leaves come into their mouthes or nostrils drawn by a Pipe or Reed Tobacco wonderfully helps the torments of the Guts and Belly and pain of the Colick and other paines proceeding from wind or cold if you lay the leaves on very hot and change them often untill the pain abate The powder of the leaves dried is good for the same use taken in white Wine or some other liquor when you go to bed about half a dram or a dram weight or thereabouts The leaves used the same way cure the wringing of the small Guts and it is proper to put this Herb with others in decoctions for Clysters as also to use them for Plasters and Fomentations that will do great service For Example take Mercury Râ—e Marsh Mallows Little Centâ—ury of each one handfull Hysop Calamint Wormwood of each one handfull and an half Tobacco leaves six roots of Marsh-mallows half an ounce Linseed Fenegrek of each three drams Cumminseed Anniseed of each one dram and half let them boâ—l in sufficient quantity of water untill the third paâ—t be consumed then take of the liquor boil'd and strained one pound Hiera Picra half â—n ounce Benedicta Laxativa â—ix drams fresh Butter Honey of Roseâ— strained of each six drams Oyl of Rue and Dill of each one ounce and half common Salt one dram Mingle them all and make a Clyster If Tobacco leaves be distilled with Fumitary it wonderfully helps all Diseases of the Liver But observe you must take less quantity of Fumitary then of Tobacco The juyce of the leaves of Tobacco bruised with a little Vineger or the Oyntment of them
superfluous leaves for otherwise these will suck to themselves the force and nutriment of the greater leaves dig the earth with your finger or a little stick and make a hole in it and put into it ten or twelve grains and put a piece of Oxe dung both at the botom and top of them Do not put fewer seeds into one hole for they are so small that they would be choaked and lost It hates cold exceedingly as I told you and therefore you must raise a wall with clay or stone upon the North side of it that it may lie open to the Sâ—uth Sunne that so in Winter it may receive some warmth for then it must be â—enced and covered with mats and straw The Preparation of the Leaves IT may at first be sowed in an open field and when it is grown forth to the height of the leaves or tender branches of Colâ—worts it may be transplanted and be set apart in the fâ—resaid long bedâ— three foot broad and they must be planted in that order that every plant may stand three or four foot off from another least when the plants grow big the greater leaves should touch and hurt one the other and this would prove to be very great damage Bâ—t when they are growne so great that the flowers begin to peep forth presently before the flowers open themselves you shall cut away all the young shoots and tops with all the small twigs on the sides and the lesser leaves that use to grow between the rest For Tobacco must not bring flowers or seeds if you intend to preserve the force of it entire Moreover at the lower end of the stalk of it there are commonly two leaves found the Spaniards call them Bascherâ—s which take away the pleasant taste of Tobacco if they be mingled with the others You shall therefore be sure to cut off these with the rest that are superfluous and do not use them in any use with the rest for they tast ill and do not smell well and leave but ten or twelve gâ—eat leaves upon the stalk commonly when the foresaid smalleaves with the shoots on the top and the two lowest and such as are to be rejected are cut off But have an espâ—cial care that the Tobacco you desire to sell into these Germane Countreys England or France you suffer it not to runne to flower for all the forces of it will be lost when it flowers Moreover you shall mingle and bruise together the foresaid smaller leaves cut off with the small sprouts and buds of the flowers utterly rejecting those two greater leaves at the bottom called Boscheros as being good for nothing and unprofitable and having pressed forth the juice you shall boyl it in the best sweet strong Spanish Malago wine others adde to it Dants Ale and you shall skim it well and when it is well purified you shall put in good store of salt that the juyce may be as salt as Sea water then cast in a good quantity of Anni-seed and Ginger beaten into very small pouder and let it boyl one hour longer then let it stand that the dregs may settle to the bottom and pour off all that is clear You must keep this juyce thus boyled the Spanisâ— call it Caldo in a vessel close stopt that the forces may be kept within untill such time as the greater leaves which you lefâ— upon the stalk for in these resides all the strength of the plant are grown full ripe which when they are come to you shall presently cut them off next to the stalk and you shall seâ— the foresaid juyce or Caldo upon the fire and boyl it almost yet it must not boyl for should it boyl the strength of it would flie away to nothing and you must dip all the said leaves in that juyce severally But if it be too troublesome to dip all the leaves in one by one you must spread a woollen cloth on the ground upon a floor or in a barn or place where the wind hath no power though it be in the open air and upon this y on shall lay a row of leaves as close as to touch one the other and upon this rank of leaves you shall lay another rank of leaves in the same order yet not wet in the foresaid juyce and taking into your hands a great watering vessel which you must dip into the said juyce or Caldo you shall water by sprinkling all the foresaid leaves and those being watered you shall lay upon them a third and fourth rank and so forward a fifth rank and upon that a sixth of new leaves sprinkling all the rows with the foresaid Ewer or with a brush still observing the same order untill such time as the leaves thus disposed in order rise to be a foot and half high Then you must cover the leaves yet hot with the liquor newly sprinkled upon them with other woollen clothes that all the rows of the leaves may hold their former â—eat and lie to ferment But if that heat or fermentation cannot be procured by those woollen clothes covering the leaves you may lay Horse dung upon those clothes to raise the heat to cherish the leaves and make them stand in a constant fermentation But that they may not grow over hot you must often look upon the leaves untill they change colour And if by the heat they begin to look any whit red and to appear so which may be seen if the leaves be held against the light it is time to uncover the leaves and to take the coverings away for being too much heated they would grow black which is a sign of burning and of corruption and there must be principal care taken that that befall not for this is the chiefest thing to be obâ—erved Tobacco being thus warmed and fermented the foresaid leaves must be hanged up with small packthreds thrusting the needle through the greater nerve of the leaves that is on the backside and so they must be hanged up in a windy place but not very high where the Sunne shines for by the Sunnes heat all their forces would vanish When the wind hath dried them enough they must be bound in bundles binding them with cords as hard as you can so that each bundle must be as great about in the circumference of it as a great Spanish Daller but above all take care that thâ—y be most closely bound together The leaves of Tobacco thus prepared must be diligently and closely pack'd in vessels thrusting them in as much as you can And by this preparing and preserving of Tobacco it will have excellent force and vertue Note in Spanish or Malago wine This way of preparation is of later time and invented by the Spaniards for the use of themselves and strangers For it is probable that the Indians that are the Inhabitants untill such time as wine was brought unto them from other parts beyond the Seas used wine of Dates or of Coccos or some other liquour not to say piss
chearfull of their work and saith Nicolaus Monardus we found that by their example our servants and the Mâ—ors that come strangers into the West-Indians used to do the same for when they are weary and tired with many leapings and danceings they draw this Herb in by their Mouthes and Nostrils and so the same thing befals them that doth the Indians for about three or four houres they seem as if they were dead after this they are well refreshed and more able and chearfull to work then they were before And they take such pleasure in this that sometimes they will go out of sight that they may the more freely take it though they be not weary Yea they grow so mad that sometimes they are therefore punished for it by their Masters who also take care that their Tobacco may be burnt that so they may take from them all occasion of this pleasure What need more words I saw saith Nicholaus Monardus both the Servants and Moores that were not suffered to make â—hemselves drunk with Wine to drink the juyce of Tobacco and make themselves drunk wherein they take not small pleasure and they boast that it takes away wearinesse from them It is also as strange and wonderfull that the Inhabitants of Florida at some set times of the year will feed on the smoke only of this Plant which they suck into their Mouths by horns made for this use The Marriners are sufficient witnesses and many more that newly returned from Florida and more are daily coming back who having some things like horns or tunnels tide about their necks made of Palm tree leaves are much delighted with Reeds or Canes in the ends whereof these Leaves are fastned in Bundles when they are grown dry and withered Then put lighted Coles to the more narrow part of the Tunnel and draw with open mouth the fume that is raised as much as they can and they swear and maintaine it that hunger and thirst is thereby abated their Strength is restored their Spirits are cheared and their Braine is comforted with a kind of pleasant Drunkennesse and the superfluous Humours of it are consumed and an incredible quantity of Flegmatique Humours are drawn into their mouths Like to these is that which the said Monaâ—dus left in writing in his own Spanish Language The Indians saith he use Tobacco to stay hungâ—r and thirst and to drive it away for some daies that they may not need to eat or drink when they have cause to go abroad into Woods and Desarts and inhospitable places where meat and drink can hardly be got For they chew the leaves and mingle them with powder of great Cockle shels and these they hold in their mouthes together untill they come to a Mass and of that they make Trochisks so great as Pears which being dried in the shade when occasion is they use after this manner They put this pellet under their lips and fore-teeth and suck it as they travell and having sucked it all they swallow it down instead of meat and drink and fill their stomach By this means they will fast for three or four daies and lose no strength preserving as I think their native heat by the plenty of flegm which being suckt into the mouth is swallowed down with it and the stomach for want of better juyce turns it into nourishment To these things I shall adde what the most famous Physician to the Emperour Rombertus Dâ—doneus a great Scholar and who deserved much for his great skill in Plants reports in his late History of Plants I understand by the relation of my Friend saith he that drinking the juyce of this Plant about four or five Ounces in weight their belly is mightily troubled and they purge up and down after that they fall into a long and deep sleep There was a Countrey man that was strong of a middle age who had a Dropsy and he took this juyce and he when he awakened demanded for meâ—t and drink and after that he was well He relates also that he cured many Countrey-men of Agues with the distilled water of the leaves of Tobacco drâ—nk a litâ—le before his fit come But with the powder or the dry stalks and rabbish he soon cured gallings not only of men but of horses and other creatures These arâ—Dodonâ—us his words But to come more particularly to the Effects of Tobacco First of all the powder of the leveâ— of Tobacco finely beaten and sifted and blown into â—oth Noâ—trils in the morning through â— Quill is good against Catarrâ—s and all deâ—luxions upon the eyes and for pains and giddiness of the head if these proceed from a cold cause It purgeth all Humours that trouble the head marvellously like to an Errhine or nose-Purge and diverts them so we use it in the morning for some daies the body being well purged before The paines of the head legs armsf coming of wind or cold abate if you lay on one of Tobacco leaves green rosted on the fire upon the part If you want green leaves use those that are dry which you must moisten in Wine and lay under hot embers then sprinkling them with water of Naphtha they will be applied happily to the part You may do as much with the powder of the leaves dried mingling such things as are proper for these Diseases But you must repeat the cure so often untill the pain be gone In Convulsions and such like Diseases the leaves of Tobacco will do good if they be laid to the nape of the Neck Carolus Clusius affirms that the distilled water is good for clouds of the eyes to discuss them and to preserve the sight if you often wipe the eyes with it warm It cures deafness especially from a cold cause if you drop in one drop of the oyl or juyce warm into the ears for some daies together Doctor Monardus writes that he saw a man who for a long time had Ulcers in his Nostrils from whence there ran much fretting matter and filth that eat his Nostrils but at length when by his advice he snuft up the juyce of Tobacco into his Nostrils first he hawked up above twenty small worms then greater untill there were none remaining so that the inward Ulcers of his Nostrils you would have thought it a kind of Polypus were cured but the parts corroded and eaten up were not to be repaired and so it had been with all the rest had he not had the Physicians advice The juyce and oyntment of Tobacco takes away the redness of the face if you dip a fine rag in it and apply it to the cheek-bones Anoynting with the oyl doth the same or washing with the water of it A little leaf of Tobacco wrapt up into a lump be it a green or a dry leaf and this held in the mouth but the teeth must be first rubbed clean with a linnin cloath wet in the juyce of Tobacco