Nature and Art, November 1, 1866.] 
CONCERNING SNEEZING. 
167 
applied the remedy, which he says he found a 
perfect cure. 
Every one is acquainted with the custom of 
saluting a person who has sneezed, with the ex- 
pression, “ God bless you It is very interesting 
to trace, as we often can do, existing customs 
up to very remote periods ; and it is certain 
that the custom of blessing persons when they 
sneeze is of great antiquity, and that sneezing has 
been pretty generally considered ominous amongst 
nations. As early as the time of Homer, sneezing 
was regarded in this light ; accordingly we find 
that after a speech of Penelope in the xviith book 
of the Odyssey, Telemachus “sneezed aloud” (jiey 
e-rrrapev), which was considered a happy omen. 
Eustathius on this passage observes that sneezing 
to the left was unlucky, but lucky to the right. 
Aristotle * asks many questions about sneezing ; 
amongst others, why sneezing from midnight to 
mid-day are considered to be unattended with a 
good omen, but those which take place from mid- 
day to midnight are considered to be attended with 
a good omen 1 While Xenophon was uttering an 
important speech to his soldiers, somebody sneezed, 
whereupon this was considered a good omen from 
Jupiter the preserver, and all sacrificed to the god. f 
Plutarch tells us that when Themistocles sacrificed 
in his galley before a certain battle, and one 
of the assistants upon the right-hand sneezed, 
Euphrantides, the soothsayer, presaged the victory 
of the Greeks and the overthrow of the Persians. 
If the god of love sneezed on the right all would 
go well with lovers ; thus Catullus (Carmen xlv.) : 
“ Hac ut disit, Amor, sinistra ut ante, 
Dextram sternuit approbationem.” 
Theocritus (Id. xviii.) in the Epithalamium of 
Helen, thus addresses the newly married Menelatis : 
“ Thrice happy bridegroom ! on thy way ’tis clear 
Good demon sneezed, that only thou should’st gain 
The prize so many princes would obtain.” 
As to the custom of blessing persons when they 
sneeze, some have supposed that it had its origin 
from a disease that prevailed in the time of Gregory 
the Great, which, it is said, proved fatal to those who 
sneezed; hence the expression, “God bless you!” 
Nothing, however, can be more certain than that 
the custom dates from a time long antecedent to 
Gregory the Great. Pliny, in a very interesting 
chapter on customs, asks the question, cur sternu- 
tamentis salutamur ? “why do we salute sneezings 1 ” 
and tells us that Tiberius Ctesar, the most morose 
of men ( tristissimum ut constat , hominum) used to 
observe this custom even when riding in his chariot. 
Now that we are quoting from Pliny, we may as 
well mention that he states it is the opinion of 
some that in order to cure the hiccups, it is a good 
plan to shift the ring from off the left hand to the 
longest finger on the right, and to plunge the hands 
in hot water. It is curious that shifting the ring 
is still considered amongst ourselves as one of 
* Problem, xxxiii. OS A ITEPI MTKTHPA , 
t Nen. Anab. iii. 2, § 9, 
the popular cures for hiccups. But to return to 
sneezing. G. Petronius, a voluptary at the court 
of Nero, writes as follows : — 
“ Gyton collectione spiritus plenus, ter continue) ita sternu- 
tavit at grabatum conculeret, ad quem motum Eumolpus 
conversus, Salvere Gytona jubet.” 
There is a very amusing epigram in the Greek 
Anthology, on a man who had a nose so long that 
he could not hear himself sneeze. (The Greeks 
were of the same opinion as some of the moderns, 
that the sound proceeded from the nose.) 
“ Proclus with his hand his nose can never wipe, 
His hand too little is his nose to gripe ; 
He sneezing-, calls not Jove, for why ? he hears 
Himself not sneeze ; the sound ’s so far from ’s ears.” 
The Rabbinical account of saluting a person 
when he sneezes, is most curious. I will give it 
as I find it in Buxtorf’s “ Lexicon Chaldaicum et 
Talmudicum ” (p. 1,599) : — 
“ Since the day of the creation, every man who sneezed 
always died of his complaint ; wherever he was, whether in 
a journey or in the market, if he sneezed his life immediately 
went from him ; but when Jacob came, he asked God’s pity 
on account of this thing, and besought him thus : 1 0 Lord of 
the world, take not away my life from me before I have ad- 
monished my sons and my grandsons.’ And God granted his 
petition. Now, when all the kings of the earth heard of 
this, they trembled and were disturbed, for such a thing (as 
a man sneezing and not dying) had never happened since 
the creation of the world. On this account a man when he 
sneezes is compelled to give God thanks for having brought 
him from death to life, as it is written, ‘ His sneezings make 
light to shine ’ (Job xli. 9.) So far Chaskuni. 
Before the time of Jacob a man sneezed and died ; afterwards 
they said to a person sneezing, chayim lobvrn, that is, ‘ good 
life to you.’ ” 
Brand, quoting an extract from tlie “ Gentleman's 
Magazine,” says : — 
“ The year 750 is commonly reckoned the era of the 
custom of saying ‘ God bless you,’ to one who happens to 
sneeze. It is said that in the time of the pontificate of St. 
Gregory the Great, the air was filled with such a deleterious 
influence that they who sneezed immediately expired. On 
this the devout pontiff appointed a form of prayer, and a 
wish to be said to persons sneezing, for averting them from 
the fatal effects of this malignancy. A fable continued 
against all the rules of probability, it being certain that this 
custom has from time immemorial subsisted in all parts of 
the known world. According to mythology, the first sign 
of life Prometheus’s artificial man gave was by sternutation. 
The supposed creator is said to have stolen a portion of the 
solar rays ; and filling with them a phial which he had made 
on purpose, sealed it up hermetically. He instantly flies 
back to his favourite automaton, and opening the phial, 
held it close to the statue ; the rays still retaining all their 
activity, insinuate themselves through the pores, and set 
the factitious man a sneezing. Prometheus, transported 
with the success of his machine, offers up a fervent prayer, 
with wishes for the preservation of so singular a being. 
His automaton observed him, remembering his ejaculations, 
was very careful on the like occasions to offer their wishes 
in behalf of his descendants, who perpetuated it from 
father to son in all their colonies.” 
But though sneezing was at one time considered 
a mortal distemper, it was also regarded as a sign 
of recovery from disease. Hence, in the account 
which relates the raising to life again of the 
Shunammite’s son, in 2 Kings iv., the child, it is 
said, sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes. 
