cularly those affecting the head, hence the wide introduction of
snuff-taking in Europe. Fairholt says of its early use:

[Footnote 57: 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 have passed into Italy and
France."]

"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 1700, 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 _tobac rape_[58] 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 _mouchoir_ 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 Duc
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."

[Footnote 58: Grated tobacco.]

Other grandees were less accommodating: thus we are told that
Marechal d'Huxelles used to cover his cravat and dress with it. The