Dear Bikent News,
With reference to the recent debate about the university’s policy towards smoking, you might be interested to know the debate is at least 4 centuries old. Please find below the concluding remarks from an essay entitled ‘A Counterblaste to Tobacco’ written by King James I in 1604.
Dr. David Thornton (HIST)
A Counterblaste to Tobacco (1604)
To All Ye Who Smoketh the Vile Fumes Known As Tobacco: Have you not reason then to be ashamed and to forbear this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof. In your abuse thereof sinning against God harming yourselves both in person and goods, and raking also thereby the marks and notes of vanity upon you by the custom thereof making yourselves to be wondered at by all foreign civil nations and by all strangers that come among you to be scorned and held in contempt; a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless!
James Stuart (A Non-Smoker),
King of Scotland (1567-1625)
and King of England (1603-1625)
