(and his own works uphold him) that he preceded Nicot by some years, and that in 1556 he brought back with him from America the seeds of the shrubs which he planted in France and named the 'herb of Angoulême' from the place of his birth.

After the publication of the 'Singularitez,' Thevet became 'almoner' to Queen Catherine de Medici and later Royal historiographer, cosmographer and 'garde des curiosités.' He remained also in favour with her husband, Henri II, and with his successors, from whom he continued to hold offices of sinecure. Finally Charles IX gave him the 'commande de l'abbaye de Masdion,' in Saintonge, a post which he retained until his death in 1592. In 1575 Thevet produced the two interesting volumes of his Cosmographie Universelle.' Here in his description of America he again refers to his herb Petun, and gives a picture (fig. 4) of Indians smoking cigars of alarming magnitude, but of structure similar to that already illustrated. He now, however, weakens on the medicinal properties of the herb.

Petun a herb named after the author, Angoulême.

'I make the claim' (he says) 'that I am the first who has brought the seed of this shrub [tobacco] to France and planted it there and called it the herb of Angoulême. Since then a certain man who has never been in the country [i.e. America] has chosen, some years after my return, to give it his own name. I am not so foolish as to try to make out as some have done that the savages use the leaves of Petun as a remedy in their diseases, and especially wounds and ulcers. For these leaves have no virtue or efficacy whatever except those which I have enumerated. I am, moreover, taken aback by others who would tell of two sorts of Petun, and who distinguish male and female plants.

'Some say that by distilling my herb of Angoulême in an alembic they can extract a fluid therefrom, and this I well believe, for it is a property of all plants, but the claim that an oily extract can be thus obtained is absurd, nor can all the empirics, alchemists, extractors of the fifth essence or antimonialists persuade me of it. There is a certain Italian, moreover, who has written very oddly of this herb and who tells the most stupid lies imaginable about it, thereby proving that he has never been in the country where it is found. He assures the reader that the vapour of dried Petun is used in Florida (whence it is exported, forsooth!) and is

[To face p. 136.

there smoked through the nose, and the poor barbarians thus sustained by it are enabled to go for four days without food. I blush to read such absurdities, for there is no man under the sun who has seen Petun in Florida or within a thousand leagues thereof [sic]. In fine, the savages with whom I have long had intercourse only use the herb for the purposes I have described above, and which you may see portrayed in the accompanying picture' (fig. 5).

Thevet's error in denying that the Indians attribute any medicinal or staying qualities to tobacco is amply demonstrated by his own writing and by other authors. Thus, in a little handbook for seamen published in England in 1598, tobacco juice for erysipelas is advised on Indian authority, and its use for skin lesions was retained until the 18th century, and probably until recent times.

Similar evidence is yielded not only by Oviedo but by another very early writer who devoted much study to the medicinal properties of the plant, Nicolao Monardes, whose work ran into several editions and was translated into various languages, including English. Monardes, in his publication of 1571, is the first to figure the tobacco plant. This book contains a curious passage which has been quaintly translated by a contemporary English writer. After having told how Indians and negroes inhale tobacco and smoke, he says that they

'doe remaine lightened without any wearinesse for to labour again and thei dooe this with so greate pleasure, that although thei bee not wearie, yet thei are very desirous for to dooe it; and the thinges come to so much effecte, that their maisters doeth chasten theim for it, and do burn the Tabaco because thei should not use it.'

Another writer of similar date is the fertile author who under the pen sign I. G. P. (Jacques Gohorry, Parisien)

'The cures of the Diseased in remote regions. Preventing Mortalitie indicent in Forraine Attempts of the English Nation,' by G(eorge) W(ateson), London, 1598. Dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. See C. Singer, 'Annals of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene,' vol. vi, p. 87, 1912.

See the first item at the head of this article. An attractive English translation appeared as 'Joyful Newes out of the newfounde worlde, wherein is declared the rare and singuler vertues of diverse and sundrie Hearbes, Trees, Oyles, Plantes and Stones with their application as well for Physicke as Chirurgerie. . . . Also the portraiture of the saied Hearbes, very aptly discribed. Englished by Jhon Frampton, Marchaunt.' London, 12mo, 1577. The quotation from Monardes is taken from this translation.

published in 1572 his 'Instruction sur l'herbe Petun ditte en France l'Herbe de la Royne ou Medicée.' This work, appearing in the year of the massacre of St Bartholomew, calls the herb, for reasons already given, after Catherine de Medici (1519-98), widow of Henri II and mother of the reigning monarch Charles IX, and then at the height of her power. It is this writer Gohorry against whom Thevet justly animadverts for his folly in regarding the plant Petun as of male and female varieties. The Italian who had raised Thevet's ire was Girolamo Benzoni, who, in 1565 published at Venice a somewhat feeble work entitled 'La Historia del Mondo Nuovo.' Benzoni's work went through numerous editions and was translated into Latin and French.

Las Casas, Oviedo, Cartier, Nicot, Sainte Croix, Monardes, Gohorry, Benzoni and the Indians themselves all agree in attributing medicinal properties to the herb. It appears to have been used in surgery for wounds, ulcers and abscesses, and to have had mainly antiseptic and counter-irritant action in addition to its well-known anæsthetic and narcotic influence and emetic effects. Its value for the itch seems to have been undoubted, and it was recommended both internally and externally for cancerous growths, headache, noli-me-tangere, rheumatism, morbus gallicus, indigestion, asthma, yaws, erysipelas, and many other conditions. Monardes especially gives details of its medical application. Leaves and cakes of tobacco, extracts, infusions and distillates as well as the ashes and smoke of the burning herb all found usage in these early years.

The first account of tobacco by a skilled botanist is that of Mathias de L'Obel, Lobel or Lobelius (1538-1616), whose name has come down to us in the Lobelia. Lobel, who was a native of Lille, became physician to the Prince of Orange, and was afterwards attached to the service of the States-General. Later he came to England, where he was made botanist to James I. In 1576 appeared at Antwerp Lobel's work 'Plantarum seu Stirpium Historia,' in which he devotes a section to the tobacco plant, calling it Indorum Sana Sancta sive Nicotiana Gallorum.' Lobel gives an excellent figure of the plant (fig. 5), and by its side a negro's head smoking a truly terrible cigar formed of a palm leaf stuffed with tobacco. Lobel writes in the