Friday, April 7, 2017

Counterblast to Tobacco: Now Available!




This exceedingly short tract is of note for two reasons; its author and its early date for the content. Crafted at the dawn of the 17th century, it is the first anti-smoking tract, and was penned by none other than King James I himself, of "Daemonologie" fame.

Dwelling on both the humors and then-modern medical lore as well as the spiritual implications of smoking (it being according to his view a sin on several levels), the tract attempts to convince the population of James' time and lands to give up smoking except as a limited medicinal material, sarcastically declaring it miraculous that the same plant can cure sometimes congenitally opposed conditions.

25 pages.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Styx, could you please do a video on Noise Pollution? I would be so grateful. Seriously, the amount of helicopters and sirens and people banging rocks around makes me sick.

    I want to hear your thoughts on the matter.

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete