HERCVLES to obey the com­mandement and will of IVNO, busied himselfe to overthrow the most famous monsters of his time, his Armes were a bagge and a club. A most worthie Ladie, and, if I durst say so, the very IVNO of our Ile hath comman­ded me to destroy some monstruous Diseases, so that to imitate the most chiualrous Chiftan of the worlde, I haue armed my selfe with a boxe for his bagge, and a pipe for his club: a boxe to conserue my Tabacco, and a pipe to vse it, by those two Godwilling, to ouercome [Page] many maladies. If the hostes of such Diseases doe not betray my endeuoures to their hating and hated guests by not vsing or abusing my weapons. But before I enter in the list, I must whet as it were my wits with these two points, First why doe I treat of a matter so often han­dled by so many, so odious to Princes, so per­nicious to sundrie, and so costly to all?

Secondly why doe I as another CLODIVS reueale mysteria bonae Deae, and prophane the secrets of Physicke? I answere that a good mat­ter is not the worse to be maintained by ma­ny: and Plus vident oculi quam oculus. As concerning the hatred of Princes, one mans meate is another mans poyson. The wine prince of liquors hateth vehemently colworts, and yet beere, aile, sider water, oyle, honey, & all other liquors doe well agree with colworts. The king of France drinketh neuer Orleans wine notwithstanding his subjects do loue it well.

I know sundrie men that haue such Antipa­thie with butter that they dare not smell it. It hath beene pernicious to sundrie I grant it, so hath wine, so hath bread, so hath gold, so hath land, and what so wholsome thing is that can­not [Page] be turned to abuse? If it be costly vse the lesse of it. What? is not Rheubarbe coastly? is not Muske coastly? is not Ambergreese coastly? As touching the second point of my reuealing this secret of Physicke, I answere, I meane but to reforme the harme which proceedeth of the abuse, and to shew to my countrey men that I am more willing to pleasure them then to pro­fite my selfe, neither did I sweare to conceale that point when in a robe of purpure I wedded the metamorphosed DAPHN [...]. It resteth now to vnfold what moued me to entitule this trea­tise Nepenthes, because it hath certaine melliflu­ous delicacie, which deliteth the senses, & spi­rits of man with a mindful obliuion, insomuch that it maketh & induceth [...] the forgetting of all sorrowes & miseries. And there is such hostilitie betwene it & melancho­lie, that it is the only medicament in the world ordained by nature to entertaine good compa­nie: insomuch that it worketh neuer so well, as when a it is giuen from man to man, as a pledge of friendshippe and amitie

The countrey which God hath honoured and blessed with this happie and holy herbe, [Page] doth call it in their natiue language Petum, the Spaniards, who haue giuen it the right of na­turalitie, in their soyle terme it Tabacco, the Frenchmen which haue receiued it in their countrey as in a colonie call it Nicotian, in this our Ile of Brittaine, as in all other maritime parts, we vse the Spanish name of Tabacco. But esteeming it worthie of a more loftie name, I haue chosen for gossip the faire and famous Helena, and giuen to her the honour to name this most profitable plant Nepenthes.

Albeit this herbe disdaines not to be nou­rished in many Gardens in Spaine, in Italie, in France, Flanders, Germanie and Brittaine, yet ne­uerthelesse only that which is fostred in India, and brought home by Mariners and Traffi­quers is to be vsed, as after you shall heare the reason is.

But auarice and greedines of gaine haue mo­ued the Marchants to apparell some European plants with Indian coats, and to enstall them in [...]ops as righteous & legittime Tabacco. Some others haue Tabacco from Florida indeede, but because either it is exhausted of spiritualitie, or [Page] the radicall humor is spent, and wasted, or it hath gotten moysture by the way, or it hath bene dried for expedition in the Sunne, or ca­ried too negligently, they sophisticate and farde the same in sundrie sortes with blacke spice, Galanga, aqua vitae, Spanish wine, Anise seedes, oyle of Spicke and such like.

So that the most fine, best, and purest is that which is brought to Europe in leaues, and not rolled in puddings, as the English Nauigators first brought home.

The finest Tabacco is that which pearceth quickly the odorat with a sharpe aromaticke smell, and tickleth the tongue with acrimonie, not vnpleasant to the taste, from whence that which draweth most water is most vertuous, whether the substance of it be chewed in the mouth, or the smoake of it receiued. Skillie ta­sters of wine, Bacchus butlers, know the wine ‘Odore▪ fapore colore.’

So they which traffique dayly with Tabacco doe know it by these same three senses. In a Goose there is nothing which doth not serue either for meat or medicine, [...]o not so much as the doung: But in Tabacco there is nothing [Page] which is not medicin, the root, the stalke, the leaues, the seeds, the smoake, the ashes, & to be more particular, Tabacco may serue for the vse of man either greene or dry, of greene Tabacco may be made Syrups, waters, oyles, vnguents, plasters, or the leafe of it selfe, may bee vsed mortified at the fire to cure the asthma, or shortnesse of breath, dissolue obstructions, heale the olde cough, burning vlcers, wounds, migraim, Colicke, suffocation of the mother: and many other diseases, yea almost all disea­ses. If the Romanes durst haue wanted so ma­ny yeares the helpe of Physick, vsing for all dis­eases only Colwoorts. Truelie I think the Ro­mans might want now all Physitians eternally, if they knew the vertue of Tabacco, seeing the spring of al their diseases is defluxiōs & cathars for which the only antidot is Tabacco. I intreat here the Lector of this treatise, to haue me ex­cused if I do not set down in special the forme and maner to prepare such remedies of green Tabacco, as I haue mentioned, for I wold wish to do with Tabacco as Aristoteles did with his Physicks, for he wrot to his scholler Alexander, that he had published & not published his phy­sicall [Page] Philosophie: So I must assay to say, that I haue revealed and not reuealed the quintes­sence of Tabacco. As concerning the dry Ta­bacco, it may be vsed in infusion, in decoction, in substance, in smoke, in salt. Touching the in­fusion & decoction, because they are as dange­rous & more, than Elleborus albus, or antimoni­um, I will forbeare to particularize, remitting the practise of that part to the presence of some prudent Physician, except it be in some despe­rat case of vnknown poyson. As for Tabacco in substance holdē in the mouth, as an apophleg­matisme, or medicin to draw fleame out of the head by the mouth, I avow it to be one of the best & surest remedies in the world against Pa­ralisie, epilepsie or apoplexie, that is, the falling ill, & Vertigo Idiopathica, the passion of dizzines in the head by wind, that euer was found out. These are foure of the most incurable diseases that besiege the braine of man: for vnderstan­ding of the which cure I must remember the Lector, that since the dayes of Hippocrates, and in his dayes there haue bene inuented fiue sundrie sorts of vacuations to voyde this our body of filthy corruption wherof it is the con­tinual [Page] harbinger, that is, phelebotomie, vmitiō purging by the stool, by vrins, & by sweating. Now in the latter dayes hath beene inuented a sixt way or maner of purging, which is also by the mouth, not vomiting, but spitting: The onely medicament which was wont to procure such spitting, or slavering, was Hy­drargyrum, quicke-siluer: but now of newe is found out this diuine Tabacco, which if it be rightly vsed, is a soueraigne helpe, and a pre­sent purgation, and approoued preseruatiue against the foresaid diseases, as also against Ar­thritis, the gowt, Lithiasis, the stone in reines or bledder, and Hydropisie. But because it is said that Tabacco and Hydrargyrum, worke both after one sort, It shall not be amisse to speake somewhat of the one and the other: First, there is no vegetall in the world, hath such affinitie with any minerall, as hath Ta­bacco with Mercure, or quicke-siluer, for as Mercure purgeth, [...] aboue and vnder, being taken at the mouth, so doth Tabacco, and as Mercure being applyed exteriourlie, purgeth all the body by slauering, so doeth Tabacco being holden in the mouth. As the [Page] best Physicians, Philosophers and Alchimists that euer were, can not agree vpon the quali­ties, neither first nor second of Mercure, some say it is both hote and colde, both drye and moist, that it can binde and loose, that it can rarifie and thicken, and in a word, that it is a Protheus, or a Magician. So Tabacco is hote, because it hath acrimonie, it is cold because it is narcoticke and stupefactiue, it maketh drun­ken, and refresheth, it maketh hungrie and fil­leth, it maketh thirstie, and quencheth thirst: Finallie to bring man to health, it changeth as many formes as Iuppiter doeth shapes to con­uey himselfe to his Mistresse: This difference onely there is, that Mercure being applyed to any part of the body, prouoketh spitting: But Tabacco purgeth by slauer onelie, being taken in the mouth in substance or in smoake. The Alchimists vaunt that they are able to drawe out of euery thing Mercure, sulphure and salt, but truelie out of nothing can they be sooner or better separated, then out of Tabacco: I thinke that I durst be bold to say, that Tabacco is the Mercure of vegetals, and Mercure is the Tabacco of minerals. Now to returne to our [Page] purpose, to wit, to the cure and preseruation of an armie of maladies, Tabacco must be vsed after this maner. Take of leafe Tabacco as much as being folded together, may make a round ball of such bignesse that it may fill the patients mouth, and inclyne his face down­ward towards the ground, keeping the mouth open, not mouing any whit with his tongue, except now and then to waken the medica­ment, there shall flow such a flood of water from his brain and his stomacke, and from all the parts of his body that it shall be a wonder. This he must do fasting in the morning, and if it be for preseruation, and the bodie very ca­cochyme, or full of euil humours, he must take it once a weeke, otherwise once a month: But if it bee to cure the Epilepsie or Hydropisie once euery day. Thus haue I vsed Tabacco my selfe, and thus vsed Tabacco Iean Greis a vene­rable old man at Nantes in the French Britain, who liued whill he was six score yeares of age, and who was known for the only refuge of the poore afflicted souldiers of Venus when they were wounded with the French Pickes, I should haue said Pockes. Thus much for the [Page] vse of Tabacco in substance. As concerning the smoke, it may be taken more frequently, & for the said effects, but alwayes fasting, & with emptie stomack, not as the English abusers do, which make a smoke-boxe of their skull, more fit to be caried vnder his arme that selleth at Paris dunoir a noircir to blacke mens shooes, then to carie the braine of him that can not walke, can not ryde except the Tabacco Pype be in his mouth, I chanced in company on a tyme with an English merchant in Normandie betweene Rowen and New-hauen. This fellow was a merrie man, but at euery house he must haue a Cole to kindle his Tabacco: the French­men wondered, and I laughed at his intempe­rancie. But there is one William Anslop an ho­nest man dwelling in Bishops-gate street, hard within the gate that selleth the best Tabacco in England, and vseth it most discreetly. Because the matter of smoake taking is controuerted and disputed, I will first decide this que­stion of smoake before I enter to shewe the commoditie which proceedeth of it. Suffumigation or receauing of smoake, is not a newe inuented remedie, it is an [Page] old and well approoued forme of medicine in many diseases, Hippocrates in his booke of the diseases of women teacheth many kindes of smoake which women should receaue and specially of many vnsauourie and stinking things at the nose and the mouth, to represse and thrust back the mother in the suffocation, a fearefull and dangerous disease. The most expert Physitians in our dayes admit with one consent the smoake of tussilago to be receiued at the mouth, by those which are ptisicke, or asthmaticke or haue the cough of cold. Gordon a learned olde Physitian, the Vade mecum of practitians, ordaineth Trochisques of Amber­greis, Muske, and other Ingredients to be vsed after the forme as we take the smoake of Ta­bacco for the Epilepsie. In the booke called Aphorismi tonsorum, or Schola Salerni, there is a suffumigation made of Leek seeds, and white Insquiā seeds for the tooth ache to be receiued at the mouth. Leonardo Fioravanti an Italian practitian commendeth for deafenesse a suffu­migation made with cinaber, frankincense and myrrhe, to bee taken at the mouth. Consider now good Lector, and repeat againe, Shall [Page] Hippocrates permit the smoake of stinking fea­thers, and of old rotten shooes from a Coab­lers dunghill? shall other Physitians permit the smoke of tussilago? shal Gordon prescribe the aro­matical smoke of musk & ambre? shal Schola Sa­lerni permit Insquiam to bee incensed in the mouth which is a venemous plant, shall FIO­RAVANTI command the smoke of cinabre, which is a present poyson to infect the braine? and shall wee onely banish the poore Tabacco which hath more vertue for all these foresaide Diseases, then each of the forenamed things hath for their seuerall sores. If the mother vexe and torment a woman, the smoake of Tabacco either aboue or vnder, shal ease her more, then feathers or lether. If thou be ptisicke, if thou be asthmaticke, if thou be vrged to cogh through defluxion, the smoake of Tabacco is better then tussilago: if the rage of toothache excarnificate the goomes, Tabacco is better then Insquiam: if there be sounding in the eares, it is fitter thē ci­nabre. I ad further, that amongst so many thou­sands which vse & abuse Tabacco at al occasions without obseruation of any physicall precept, there are very sew found that can ascribe their [Page] death to Tabacco: so that if Tabacco were vsed physically and with discretion there were no medicament in the worlde comparable to it. Now to returne from whence I did digresse to shew the commodities of Tabacco, I lay here as a ground to build vpon, that by reason of the situation of mans head, which is aboue al the o­ther members of the body, the most parte of diseases flow from the head, as from a fountain, so that Tabacco going immediatly to the brain, it not only augmenteth and refresheth the ani­mall spirites, but drieth the sourse of innume­rable diseases, and fortifieth the braine. So that there is no man but may receiue commoditie by the vse of Tabacco, except only those which haue their braine dry & hot, which is a tempe­rament vnnaturall to the braine, yea and a dan­gerous disease, and the next degree to reauing to furie, to madnesse. I know that euery one will be curious to aske me how he shall know a hote & dry braine. GALEN in his book which he calleth ars parva, declareth at large the signes of all intemperies, yet to satisfie the mindes o [...] curious Lectors, it is euident that his braine [...] hot & dry who sleepeth very litle or nothing [Page] who reaueth waking, and formeth monstruous dreames sleeping, and whose nose distilleth no­thing. It were a world of worke to specifie in particular all the diseases, and symptomes that are helped or preuented by Tabacco, but I will only set downe those which I know either by mine own experience, or by the faithfull re­porte of learned Physicians or of credible pa­tients. I will begin at the Epilepsie which is cal­led by HIPPOCRATES morbus sacer, the falling sicknes, and this plant is called by some nations herba sacra: then after legittime preparation, & such diet as a skilful Physician shal prescribe, let the patient be purged with the infusion of Ta­bacco in hidromel, in the strained liquor of this infusion dissolue foure graines of the salt made of Tabacco and giue it to the patient to drinke: herafter, hauing a cauter in his neck, he shal take euery day the smoke of a pipe of fine Tabacco fasting in the morning, & once euery third day hee shall hold in his mouth the apophlegma­tisme of Tabacco in substance.

Now because this disease hath some occult venome and maligne qualitie, the olde Physi­cians by long experience haue found out some [Page] things which helpe this disease by an indecla­rable vertue, and for this cause he shall take the smoake of this confected Tabacco euery day.

Take ambregreese, the seede of peonie, and stirax, of every one halfe an ounce, of muske twentie graines, of lignum aloes the weight of three crownes, of magisterium cranii humani an ounce, of the sowing thereof, halfe an ounce, of fine Tabacco as much as of them all, make of all these a grosse powder, and take the smoake of it euery morning, and thus the epilepticke shall attaine to his health rather then by the galls of dogs & superstitious characters vsed by a num­ber of ignorant deboshed Vagabondes and Montebanckes. The Hydropisie is one of the ordinarie customers that commeth to craue health at the shop of Tabacco, and specially if it bee holden in the patients mouth in substance, or if hee take now and then of the salt thereof, and euery day a pipe or two. The Arthritis or gowt, & grauell are preuented prettily, because the antecedent cause is taken away: it preser­ueth from the toothach: it cureth the migraim, the colicke, the cogh, the cold: It stayeth grow­ing fatte: it is the antidote of Hypochondriacke [Page] melancholie, it prepareth the stomacke for meat: it maketh a clear voice, it maketh a sweet breath, it cleareth the sight, it opneth the eares, it putteth away the punaise, & openeth the pas­sage of the nose, it is the nourse of the lights, it comforteth nerues, and taken in sirupe there is no obstruction that can abide it: it is present re­liefe against the most part of poysons: And in few words it is the princesse of physical plants. To conclude this discourse I must excuse here my plainnesse and simplicitie with this caveat to the curious Lector, that albeit the neuer too much commended Tabacco bee of sufficiencie to cure many diseases: yet it is not of efficacie in al persons, in all seasons, in al temperaments, but it must bee vsed by the direction of some expert and prudent Physician. There was on a time a diseased Gentleman, who for to re­couer his health sent for a Physician, the which vsing prudently & artificially his cure, the Gen­tle man became wel, & because he was subject to that disease often in the yeare, hee remarked well how the Physician had prepared his poti­on, what herbes hee had decocted, what sim­ples hee had infused, what electuaries hee had [Page] dissolued, howe much of euery one, how long they seethed, or steeped, at what a clocke he did minister it, how long hee fasted therafter, & at the next assault of the sicknesse hee tooke the same potion, obseruing all Circumstances, but was nothing the better: he sent againe for Ma­ster Doctor, and inquired what the matter should be, seeing he was diseased with the same maladie, hee had taken the same potion, he vsed it very rightly with all the circumstances and obseruations, he had not omitted one jote, No said the Physician you lacked a principal point, a very necessarie Circumstance & an essentiall Cause, that is, you receiued not the potion from the hand of a Physician: for if the patient, as experience teacheth beginneth to feele the first hope of his health at the arriuall of his Physician: how much more shall he be alleua­ted when he giueth him out of his owne hand the Cuppe which conteineth the Couenant of his restitution, the earnest of his Wellfare, and the weapon to destroy his disease. Happy were the land that had no need of Physicians, happy the lande which hauing neede of them hath of the best sorte, and happie were the Physicians [Page] whose lote were to come in the lande where the Law of good King REVTHER were curiously keeped, that no man vnder paine of death should exercise physicke that could not shew a publicke testimonie of his lawfull Cal­ling. But I must say of Physicke as a holy Father saide of the holie Scripture, hanc delirus senex, hanc garrula anus, hanc sophista verbosus putteth in practise, and is not pu­nished. God saue the Coun­trey from diseases, and God saue the diseased from such Doctors