Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) NICOTIANA; OR THE SMOKER'S AND SNUFF-TAKER'S COMPANION; CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF TOBACCO; CULTURE--MEDICAL QUALITIES AND THE LAWS RELATIVE TO ITS IMPORTATION AND MANUFACTURE: WITH AN Essay in its Defence. THE WHOLE ELEGANTLY EMBELLISHED AND INTERSPERSED WITH ORIGINAL POETRY AND ANECDOTES, BEING INTENDED AS AN AMUSING AND INSTRUCTIVE VOLUME FOR ALL GENUINE LOVERS OF THE HERB, BY HENRY JAMES MELLER, ESQ. "I do assert and will affirm it before any prince in Europe, to be the most sovereign and precious weed that ever the earth tendered to the use of man." _Captain Bobadil.--Every Man in his Humour._ LONDON: EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 1832. TO H. R. H. THE DUKE OF SUSSEX, This little Work, AS A TRIFLING TOKEN OF VENERATION FOR HIS CHARACTER AND ESTEEM FOR HIS TASTE, IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. PREFACE. Many an excellent cause has been lost through the want of sound arguments, founded on a knowledge of the case, to support and place it in its proper light. None, perhaps, more than _smoking_ and _snuff-taking_, the propriety of which, in the upper orders of life, have been and are, whether as regards their social or medicinal qualities, so frequently called in question by their enemies. These, the author is sorry to say, by the use of a few specious arguments, that chiefly pass current in refined society--the ladies in particular--have, strongly aided by prejudice, often made the defence succumb to the attack--an unpardonable weakness on the part of a _consumer_ of the herb, who is naturally enough expected to know the entire history of the favorite of his adoption. Unacquainted with the excellence of his subject, its importance and consequence in ancient and modern annals--its high worshippers and eulogists, medical, and non-medical, with its many endearing and social virtues acknowledged over the far greater part of the world; he, the Author asserts, unacquainted with the above _data_ and references, opposes but a feeble barrier to the sweeping and general assertions of his adversary.