The history of many articles of diet, as well as medicine, amply prove
how much their reputation and fate have depended upon some authority or
other. Ipecacuanha had been imported into England for many years, before
Helvetius, under the patronage of Louis XIV, succeeded in introducing it
into practice in France; and, to the Queen of Charles II., we are
indebted for the introduction of that popular beverage, tea, into
England. Tobacco has suffered as many variable vicissitudes in its fame
and character. It has been successively opposed and commended by
physicians, condemned and praised by priests and kings, and proscribed
and protected by governments, until, at length, this once insignificant
production of a little island, has succeeded in propagating itself
through every climate and country. Nor is the history of the potatoe
less remarkable or less strikingly illustrative of the imperious
influence of authority. This valuable plant, for upwards of two
centuries, received an unprecedented opposition from vulgar prejudice,
which all the philosophy of the age was unable to dissipate, until Louis
XIV.
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