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diftended, and the nofe drops from tlie increafed iecretion 

 into its cavities. (Van Swieten Comment, ad Aph. 271.) 

 Its occafional dangerous violence is faid to have been the 

 caufe of the benediftion, fo univerfally beftowed on thofe 

 who fneeze, of which we (hall fay more prefently. 



The caufes of fneezing are various, and confiil not only 

 of irritating matters immediately ftimulating the lining mem- 

 brane of the nofe, but of fympathetic irritations from neigh- 

 bouring, or even from diltant parts. Any extraneous body 

 brought into contaft with the pituitary membrane, fuch as 

 inftruments, and efpecially irritating powders, fuch as fnuff, 

 or even its own mucous fluids, under particular Rates, will 

 excite fneezing. As a direft communication exilts between 

 the eyes and the noftrils, into which the tears are conftantly 

 pafTing through the lacrymal dutts, a reverfe fympathy is 

 excited in many people by irritations of the eye, fo that the 

 membrane of the nofe is at the fame time titillated ; whence, 

 in fuch perfons, fneezing is immediately excited by ludden 

 cxpofure to a llrong light, as by pafling from a Ihade into a 

 blight fun-fliine, efpecially where that is ftrongly reflected 

 from fnow or a white pavement. Other fyrapathies have 

 been mentioned by medical authors, efpecially irritations m 

 the lung;, and alfo in the itomach and bowels, as the caufes 

 of fneezing. Thus it has been produced by carbonic acid 

 gas, by fermenting beer, by eating fliell-fi(h, by worms in 

 the alimentary canal, by a leaden ball remaining in the region 

 of the diaphragm, and even by more diftant irritations, as 

 by the diftention of the gravid uterus in pregnancy, difeafes 

 of the head, &c. See Richter's Bibliotheca, vi. 730. See 

 alfo Sauvages Nofol. Method, who makes feven fpecies of 

 Jlernutcitio from thefe various caufes. 



It is only in thefe rare cafes in which fneezing, being con- 

 nefted with fome other difeafe, becomes the objeft of medi- 

 cal treatment ; and then of courfe it can only be remedied 

 by curing the difeafes, or removing the diftant irritations, 

 from which it originates. Like other fpafmodic affeftions, 

 however, it may be alleviated by opiates, with camphor and 

 ether, and fimilar antifpafmodics. It would be fruitlefs to 

 mention many of the inert remedies that have been pro- 

 pofed ; fuch as bags, filled with aromatic fubitances, fixed 

 to the vertex, rubbing the gums, &c. 



The cuftom of llejfin^ perfons when they fneeze is derived 

 from very ancient times, and its origin has been varioufly 

 accounted for. Several writers affirm that it commenced in 

 the year 750, under pope Gregory the Great, when a pef- 

 tilence occurred, in which thofe who fneezed died ; whence 

 this pontiff appointed a form of prayer and a wifh to be 

 faid to perfons fneezing, for averting this fatality from them. 

 But the cuftom is of much more ancient date. It was ac- 

 counted very ancient in the time of Ariftotle, who in his 

 problems has ende.ivoured to account for it. It is alluded 

 to in the Greek Anthology in an epigram, in which the lalu- 

 tation oifalve Jupiter, 7,<\i auitrut, is given as a familiar phrafe 

 addreiied to fneezers. Pliny alfo queftions " cur Itcrnu- 

 tantes falulantur ?" (Nat. Hiil. fib. 28. cap. 2. Anthol. 

 Lipf. 1794. torn. iii. p. 95.): and Cxlius Rhodoginus has 

 an example of it among the Greeks in the time of Cyrus 

 the younger. In Alexander Rofs's appendix to Arcana 

 Microcofmi, p. 222, it is faid, " Prometheus was the firft 

 that wifhed well to the fneezer, when the man, which he 

 had made of clay, fell into a fit of fternutation, upon the 

 approach of that celeftial fire which he itole from the fun. 

 This gave original to that cuftom among the Gentiles, in 

 fainting the fneezer. They ufed alfo to worftiip the head 

 in fternutation, as being a divine part, and feat of the fenfes 

 and cogitation." For many other paflages relating to this 

 fnbjeft, fee Brand's Obfervations on Popular Antiquities, 



edited by H. Ellis, vol. ii. p. 456, et feq. Thefe tellimonlfes 

 are fufBcient to fliew the antiquity of this cuitom, and the 

 obfcurity of its origin. It may be added, that fneezing has 

 been from ancient times alfo confidered as an omen ; reject- 

 ing which Pliny has fome obfervations in the chapter jull 

 quoted. It is noticed as fuch in the eighteenth Idyllium of 

 Theocritus ; and by Ariftotle, who has a problem, " why 

 fneezing from noon to midnight was good, but from night 

 to noon unluckv." 



SNEGACIUS, Cyriacus, in Biography, in 1590 pub- 

 lifhed at Erford, a traft upon " Harmony, or the Ufe of 

 the Monochord, an Inftrument for meafuring and afcertain- 

 ing the Proportion of Sounds by a fingle String ;" of which 

 he afcribes the invention to the Arabians ; the only new idea 

 which we could find in the book, which is written in Latin, 

 and of which the original title is, " Nova et exquifita Mo- 

 nochordi dimenfio." 



The fame author publiflied likewife, in 1590, an elemen- 

 tary traft, entitled " Ifagoges Muficx," in two books, 

 the chief merit of which leems to conlift in the definitions 

 of mufical terms, with (hort examples in notation. 



SNEIRNE, in Geography, a town of Perfia, m the pro- 

 vince of Irac. 



SNELL, RoDOLPH, in Biography, a refpeftable Dutch 

 philofopher, was born at Oudenwater in the year 1546. 

 After having occupied the ftation of profelfor of Hebrew 

 and mathematics at Leyden for fome time, he died in 1613, 

 at the age of 67 years. He was a writer of feveral works 

 on geometry, and various parts of philofophy. 



Snell, Willebrord, the fon of the preceding profeflor, 

 and an excellent mathematician, was born at Leyden in the 

 year 1591, where he fucceeded his father in the proteflbrial 

 chair in 161 3, and where he died in 1626, at tlie premature 

 age of 35 years. He was the author of feveral valuable 

 works and difcoveries. To him we owe the firft difcovery 

 of the true law of the refraftion of the rays of light ; and 

 this difcovery was made, as Huygens allures us, before it 

 was announced by Des Cartes. Snelhus undertook alfo to 

 nieafure the earth ; and this operation he effected by obferv- 

 ing the interval between Alcmaer and Bergen-op-Zoom, 

 correfpondiiig to a difference of latitude of 1° 11' 30". He 

 alfo determined the diftance between Alcmaer and Leyden ; 

 and from a mean of thefe meafurements, he made a degree 

 to confift of 55,021 French toifes or fathoms. Thefe mea- 

 fures were afterwards repeated and corredled by Mufchen- 

 broeck, who then found the degree to contain 57,033 toiles. 

 His works were numerous, and the principal of them are 

 enumerated in Hutton's Diftionary. 



SNELLINCKS, John, was born at Mechlin in 1544. 

 He painted in hiftory and ftill-life ; but he derives his 

 principal renown from his fliill in reprefenting battles, 

 particularly attacks of cavalry, which were regarded as pre- 

 eminent among works of that kind. He was honoured 

 by the patronage of the archduke and duchefs, and moit 

 of the nobility of his day in the Netherlands, and en- 

 joyed all the gratifications which employment and applaufe 

 are calculated to afford. His tafte in grouping is judicious, 

 and he knew how to take advantage of the circumlf ances of 

 a battle to difplay his knowledge of chiaro-fcuro with great 

 effect. Vandyck appears to have honoured him with his 

 approbation, and has painted his portrait among the dif- 

 tinguillied artifts of his day, and alfo etched a plate of it. 

 He died in 1638, aged 94. 



SNET, among Sport/men, the fat of all kinds of deer. 

 Dia. Ruft. 



SNEYDERS, or Snyders, Francis, in Biography. 

 This ingenious painter was born at Antwerp in 1579, and 



was 



