for money. Wishing you to make store thereof, for I do not know where
to have the like, I have sent you of two sorts. Mincing Lane, 12 Dec.
1600."

A curious scene took place at Oxford in 1605 when King James visited
the University. Two subjects were debated by learned dons before his
Majesty, and one of them, at his own suggestion, was, "Whether the
frequent use of tobacco is good for healthy men?" Among those who
spoke were Doctors Ailworth, Gwyn, Gifford and Cheynell. The
discussion, needless to say, being conducted in the presence of the
author of the "Counterblaste to Tobacco," was not favourable to the
herb. The King summed up in a speech which hopelessly begged the
question while it contained plenty of strong denunciation. After his
Majesty had spoken, one learned doctor, Cheynell, who is described by
the recorder, Isaac Wake, the Public Orator of the University, as
second to none of the doctors, had the courage to rise and, with a
pipe held forth in his hand, to speak both wittily and eloquently in
favour of tobacco from the medicinal point of view, praising it to the
skies, says Wake, as of virtue beyond all other remedial agents. His
wit pleased both the King and the whole assembly, whom it moved to
laughter; but when he had finished, his Majesty made a lengthy
rejoinder in which he said some curious things. He objected to the
medicinal use of tobacco, and quite agreed with previous speakers
that such a use must have arisen among Barbarians and Indians, who he
went on to say had as much knowledge of medicine as they had of
civilized customs. If, he argued, there were men whose bodies were
benefited by tobacco-smoke, this did not so much redound to the credit
of tobacco, as it did reflect upon the depraved condition of such men,
that their bodies should have sunk to the level of those of Barbarians
so as to be affected by remedies such as were effective on the bodies