“Pepys was a believer in science, and he tried to follow the most cutting-edge advice from his doctor friends. This included smoking tobacco as a precautionary measure, because smoke and fire would purify the bad air. In June of 1665, as the plague began, Pepys described seeing red crosses on doors for the first time. It put me into an ill conception of myself and my smell, he writes, so that I was forced to buy some roll-tobacco to smell and chaw, which took away the apprehension.”
It’s amusing reading about what was “settled science” back then... and makes you wonder about our settled science today.
Used to ‘settled science’ that atoms were made up of electrons, protons and neutrons, and that was it.................