THE FIRST SNUFFERS. 249 



" The luckless fate of inventors and originators lias become 

 proverbial, but the ingenious individual whose nostrils 

 rejoiced in the first pinch of snuff stood in no need of the 

 niggardly praise of contemporaries or the lavish gratitude 

 of posterity. That first * pinch ' was its own priceless reward, 

 far above present appreciation or future fame. What mat- 

 ters it, that his great name has not been reverently handed 

 down to us : that posterity seeks in vain his honored tomb, on 

 which to hang her grateful votive wreath ; that zealous anti- 

 quaries have raised up innumerable pretenders to his unclaimed 

 honors, and striven to rob him of his fame ? Enough for 

 that lucky inventor, wherever he may rest, that he enjoyed 

 in his lifetime the reward for which ordinary benefactors of 

 their kind are fain to look to the future. 



" It is perfectly vain to attempt now to penetrate into the 

 mystery which envelopes the name and nation of the first 

 snuff-taker: long before rough, noble-hearted Drake cured 

 his dyspepsia by the use of tobacco, or Ealeigh transplanted 

 some roots of that precious weed into English soil, there 

 were European noses which had rejoiced at its pulverized 

 leaves. Conjecture, lost in the mazy distance, gladly lays 

 hold of something substantial in the shape of snuff's first 

 royal patron. This was Catherine de Medicis, who, receiv- 

 ing some seeds of the tobacco plant from a Dutch colony, 

 cherished them, and elevated the dried and pounded leaves 

 into a royal medicine, with the proud title of * Herbe a la 

 Heine.' For in the beginning men took snuff, not as an 

 everyday luxury, but as a medicament. Like tea which a 

 hundred years later was advertised as a cure for every ill 

 the new sneezing powder was hailed a universal specific; 

 and so pleasant in its operation, that mankind, acting upon 

 the wholesome aphorism that prevention is much better than 

 cure, and eagerly anticipated the disease it was supposed to 

 remedy." 



" The use of ' the pungent grains of titillating dust ' 

 received a somewhat heavy and discouraging blow from an 

 unexpected quarter. .That ubiquitous power which hurled 

 anathemas alike at the heresies of Luther and the length of 

 clerical wigs, discountenanced its use, and at length fairly 

 lost its temper in the contest with snuff. Whether from 

 a prescience of the beneficial influence it was destined to 

 exert upon mankind, or from a suspicion of its power of 

 sharpening intellects, it is difficult to say ; but Popes Urban 

 VIII., and Innocent waged quite a miniature crusade against 



