Nicotiana; Or, The Smoker's and Snuff-Taker's Companion

A curious time capsule from 1832, when tobacco's defenders still had the luxury of arguing for its virtues. Henry James Meller mounts a vigorous and now eerily fascinating campaign on behalf of smokers and snuff-takers, refuting the moralists and physicians who dared question the weed. He invokes history, quotes notable figures, and presents what he sees as tobacco's social and medicinal gifts. The result is less a practical guide than a spirited defense of pleasure, written with earnest conviction that civilization itself depends on the pipe and the snuffbox. For readers curious about the strange, vanished world where tobacco required advocacy - where someone could seriously argue that the habit fostered friendlier social interactions and count this as wisdom.