242 SNUFF AND SNUFF-BOXES. 



noses all night ; but this is found to occasion vomiting 

 usually on the next morning. Another thing charged 

 on this way of application, is, that it weakens the 

 sight." 



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 much patron- 

 ised by the clergy, and led to the Anathema of Urban 

 VIII. in 1 624 against any person who took snuff in a 

 church, as mentioned in p. 78. The author of Le Bon 

 Usage du Tabac en Poiidre, Paris (1700), says it is 

 " the passion of Prelates and Abbes, the religious com- 

 munity generally are fond of it, and in spite of the 

 Pope and his ordinances, the Spanish Priests will not 

 scruple to place their snuff-boxes on the altar for their 

 use." 



Butler has noted that the Saints of the Cromwellian 

 era were not averse to its use ; he says of one : — 



He had administered a dose 

 Of snuff mundungus to his nose ; 

 And powdered the inside of his skull 

 Instead of the outward johbernole." * 



In that scandalous satire on the ladies of the puri- 

 tanic party called Neives from the New Exchange 

 (1650), they are frequently accused of a love of tobacco, 



* Hudibras, pt. iii. cant. 2. 



