ITS INTRODUCTION. 219 



first in France* by the wife of Henry II., Catherine de 

 Medici, and that it was first used at court during the latter 

 part of the Sixteenth Century. The Queen seemed to give 

 it a good standing in society and it soon became the fashion 

 to use the powder by placing a little on the back of the hand 

 and inhaling it. The use of snuff greatly increased from the 

 fact of its supposed medicinal properties and its curative 

 powers in all diseases, particularly those affecting the head, 

 hence the wide introduction of snuff-taking in Europe. 

 Fairholt says of its early use : 



" Though thus originally recommended for adoption as a 

 medicine, it soon became better known as a luxury and the 

 gratification of a pinch was generally indulged in Spain, 

 Italy and France, during the early part of the Seventeenth 

 Century. It was the grandees of the French Court who 

 ' set the fashion ' of snuff, with all its luxurious additions of 

 scents and expensive boxes. It became common in the 

 Court of Louis le Grand, although that monarch had a decided 

 antipathy to tobacco in any form." 



Says an English writer "Between 1660 and 1YOO, the 

 custom of taking snuff, though it was disliked by Louis XIV., 

 was almost as prevalent in France as it is at the present time. 

 In this instance, the example of the monarch was disregarded ; 

 tobac en poudre or tobao rape\ as snuff was sometimes 

 called found favor in the noses of the French people ; and 

 all men of fashion prided themselves on carrying a handsome 

 snuff-box. Ladies also took snuff; and the belle whose 

 grace and propriety of demeanour were themes of general 

 admiration, thought it not unbecoming to take a pinch at 

 dinner, or to blow her pretty nose in her embroidered mow- 

 choir with the sound of a trombone. Louis endeavored to 

 discourage the use of snuff and his valets-de-chambre were 

 obliged to renounce it when they were appointed to their 

 office. One of these gentlemen, the Due d' Harcourt, was 

 supposed to have died of apoplexy in consequence of having, 

 in order to please the king, totally discontinued the habit 

 which he had before indulged to excess." 



Other grandees were less accommodating: thus we are 



An English writer gives a different account "The custom of taking snuff as a nasal 

 gratification does not appear to be of earlier date than 1620, though the powdered leaves of 

 tobacco were occasionally prescribed as a medicine long before that time. It appears to 

 have first become prevalent in Spain, and from thence to nave passed into Italy and France. 



t Grated tobacco. 



