Who introduced tobacco smoking to Europe?
History of smoking
A Frenchman named Jean Nicot (from whose name the word nicotine derives) introduced tobacco to France in 1560 from Spain. From there, it spread to England. The first report of a smoking Englishman is of a sailor in Bristol in 1556, seen "emitting smoke from his nostrils."[10] Like tea, coffee and opium, tobacco was just one of many intoxicants originally used as a form of medicine.[11]
Anthony Chute
In 1595, Chute published "Tabaco", the first English discussion of the merits of tobacco. The pamphlet lauds the many "health giving" properties of the tobacco leaf, explaining how the application of the leaf to the skin can cure illnesses and that smoking it relieves chest conditions. He asserts that tobacco probably "hath many strange virtues which are yet unknown". In the preface to the work the publisher writes that Chute died before it came out.