Tobacco smoking
![Aztec women are handed flowers and smoking tubes before eating at a banquet, Florentine Codex, 16th century.](/Images/godic/202501/21/Aztec_feast_10832.jpg")
![Gentlemen Smoking and Playing Backgammon in an Interior by Dirck Hals, 1627.](/Images/godic/202501/21/Gentlemen_Smoking_and_Playing_Backgammon_in_an_Interior0832.jpg")
![Bonsack's cigarette rolling machine, as shown on U.S. patent 238,640.](/Images/godic/202501/21/Bonsack_machine0832.png")
![Newsies smoking at Skeeter's Branch, St. Louis, MO. Photograph by Lewis Hine, 1910](/Images/godic/202501/21/Lewis_Hine,_Newsies_smoking_at_Skeeter's_Branch,_St._Louis,_19100832.jpg")
Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and inhaling the smoke (consisting of particle and gaseous phases). (A more broad definition may include simply taking tobacco smoke into the mouth, and then releasing it, as is done by some with tobacco pipes and cigars.) The practice was believed to begin as early as 5000–3000 BC . Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 17th century where it followed common trade routes. The practice encountered criticism from its first import into the Western world onwards, but embedded itself in certain strata of a number of societies before becoming widespread upon the introduction of automated cigarette-rolling apparatus.