Thomas Harriot

"There is an herb which is sowed apart by itself & is called by the inhabitants Uppówoc: In the it has divers names, according to the several places & countries where it grows and is used: The Spaniards generally call it Tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder: they use to take the fume or smoke thereof by sucking it through pipes made of clay into their stomach and head; from whence it purges superfluous & other gross , opens all the pores & passages of the body: by which means the use thereof, not only preserves the body from obstructions; but also if any be, so that they have not been of too long continuance, in short time breaks them: whereby their bodies are notably preserved in health, & know not many grievous diseases wherewithal we in England are oftentimes afflicted."

"... He was among the first Europeans to acquire a working knowledge of a North American language—in this case, —and by means of it to understand and record indigenous culture at the time of first contact with Europeans. Outgoing and amiable, he made friends with the people, hunted and feasted with them, learned their methods of agriculture, canoe building, and fishing, and clearly enjoyed much about their way of life. As a general rule, he recorded what he saw with the detachment of a physicist and the engagement of a linguist and ethnologist, describing rather than judging religious practices and cultural ceremonies that were completely alien to him, and observing in context the details of Algonquian life."

"By the end of the 16th century with the work of Viète and especially during the first half of the 17th century in the work of Harriot, Fermat, and Descartes, mathematicians began to treat algebra more symbolically, eventually adopting a notation that readily lends itself to making algebraic computations."