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.
