# Does Anybody Use Snuff (in 18th Century Fashion) Anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 25, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818 "2015-08-25T11:44:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/21 "2015-08-25T19:59:25Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > In those days tobacco was not smoked or even known to contain anything that would give the consumer any sort of high or other reaction, other than to sneeze. Nice whoosh, but lest anyone take this seriously, tobacco was [smoked by Europeans from its first introduction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco#/media/File:Chute_tobacco.JPG), in pipes and later in cigars (and cigarettes, mainly after the invention of rolling machines in the 1880s). The [addictive effects of tobacco](http://www.tobaccofacts.info/tobacco_history.htm) were recognized from the start: > [@](#): > > The fashion of smoking caught on among colonists and when they were asked why they did it, their only answer was, that they could not do without it any more.” --Bishop Bartholomus de las Casas, 1474-1566 (Nicotiana Tabacum, George A Brongers, 1964.) > > “As the smoking of tobacco has taken very bad effect upon the health and mind of many persons, I ordered that no-one should practice the habit. My brother Shah Abbas also being aware of it’s evil effects, has issued a command against the use of it in Iran." > –Mogul Emperor of Hirdustan–Early 17th Century > The sentence was to split the lips of smokers and the death penalty for suppliers. (The International Journal of Addictions, 1973.) > > “…These people became so addicted to it (tobacco) like Drunkards to Wine and Beer, and they cannot lose the habit of it as by nature it warms people and dopes the brain.” > –Emanuel van Meeeren, 1598 > (Nicotiana Tabacum, Georg A Brongers, 1964.) > > "A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” > –James I of England (A Counterblast to Tobacco, 1604) Snuff was first used by Native Americans and its use spread to Europeans and then to the rest of the world. Its primary purpose was always as a nicotine-delivery system. Among users, sneezing is regarded as the mark of a beginner. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/22 "2015-08-25T20:48:53Z")
Besides, everyone knows that it’s a myth that sneezariums were places where people congregated to sneeze. They’re actually convalescent homes, and the name is derived from a corruption of the latin _senescere_, to grow tired or old. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/23 "2015-08-25T20:58:55Z")
Snuff said. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/24 "2015-08-25T21:09:10Z")
> [@spinky](#): > > Besides, everyone knows that it’s a myth that sneezariums were places where people congregated to sneeze. They’re actually convalescent homes, and the name is derived from a corruption of the latin _senescere_, to grow tired or old. This is very interesting, etymologically speaking. While many of the rich could afford to convalesce in various sneezariums of their day—keeping their exposure to snuff at a minimum, if not an all out abstinence for a time—it was largely out of reach for the poor; who in great number would indulge because of snuff’s relative cheapness. In the latter part of the 19th century, sneezariums did come into great fashion for those with the proper endowment from the elderly & posh. However, the hoi polloi of their day, were mostly found squirming in old churches, and squatting in abandon buildings as they suffered out their insufferable and terminal “sneezonoma”. The officials wouldn’t bother with mass graves, and would usually burn the bodies of those that succumbed to this horrible fate. And this is in agreement with the research of both Woodson and Carmichael. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/25 "2015-08-25T21:09:41Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Are you saying there was no nicotine delivery? No, they had to go out and buy it. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/26 "2015-08-25T21:21:13Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > No, they had to go out and buy it. This was way before 30 minutes or less and it’s free!™ ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/27 "2015-08-25T21:35:43Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > I broke the link in your post, **DrunkySmurf** , as you asked. Thank you, Sir Mod. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/28 "2015-08-25T21:35:46Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > This was way before 30 minutes or less and it’s free!™ Actually there was an early form of online tobacco ordering in 18th Century London. Keen smokers unwilling to leave the confines of their parlours had a form of semaphore which, when a small lever was pulled, raise a signal flag on the roof to let the tobacconist know that more supplies were needed. Tobacco being known colloquially as “bush” {akin to today’s slang term “weed” for marijuana} the phrase. ''bush telegraph" was born. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/29 "2015-08-25T21:45:39Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > And this is in agreement with the research of both Woodson and Carmichael. You must be joking. No serious consideration of their research supports your claim in any way. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/30 "2015-08-25T22:22:35Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > … > It wasn’t until J. Scott Marlboro in 1893 first attempted rolling it into paper and smoking it that he realized it’s more pleasant and presumably healthier effects. He first attempted it while traveling from Winston-Salem to Newport on his camel. He had stopped at the GPC center on a lark to get a good vantage point of the viceroy’s arrival at Pall Mall when he was accosted by some players from Kent who went maverick on him for stealing their chesterfield. He had a lucky strike and escaped with only basic injuries due to the intervention of a natural American spirit, who left him seeing seven stars and a vision of a new technique to try at the next Parliament meeting. This is a true story - I heard it from some guy in Bel Air. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/31 "2015-08-25T22:52:30Z")
> [@spinky](#): > > You must be joking. No serious consideration of their research supports your claim in any way. Listen, I don’t have the time to get into a debate/cite war over this, and I certainly take their research over the matter with a grain of salt. But surely you can’t deny the eyewitness accounts of the time by Hodgeson, Greye or even Vanderbilt? ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/32 "2015-08-26T01:51:44Z")
Sniffing snuff, as I learned to call it, is still pretty popular in some areas. I know several cigar shops that carry fairly extensive (pardon the word choice) lines of the stuff. I’ve talked with some of the users and they say the experience is more a masking odors thing than a tobacco rush thing. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/33 "2015-08-26T03:39:06Z")
That Sesame Street character brought attention to the hidden epidemic of sneeze addiction. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/34 "2015-08-26T12:58:34Z")
> [@spinky](#): > > Besides, everyone knows that it’s a myth that sneezariums were places where people congregated to sneeze. They’re actually convalescent homes, and the name is derived from a corruption of the latin _senescere_, to grow tired or old. I hate to be pedantic, but it’s from the root _senesco_. This is cited in most of the popular books on the topic, if you bothered to look. > [@cmyk](#): > > This is very interesting, etymologically speaking. > > While many of the rich could afford to convalesce in various sneezariums of their day—keeping their exposure to snuff at a minimum, if not an all out abstinence for a time—it was largely out of reach for the poor; who in great number would indulge because of snuff’s relative cheapness. In the latter part of the 19th century, sneezariums did come into great fashion for those with the proper endowment from the elderly & posh. > > However, the hoi polloi of their day, were mostly found squirming in old churches, and squatting in abandon buildings as they suffered out their insufferable and terminal “sneezonoma”. The officials wouldn’t bother with mass graves, and would usually burn the bodies of those that succumbed to this horrible fate. > > And this is in agreement with the research of both Woodson and Carmichael. An interesting fact, one of the first recorded smoking bans actually had to do with the burning of these bodies, as the amount of nicotine in them would pollute the air and irritate the townsfolk. These were the origins of modern smoking bans, or _corpus ardens_ laws. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/35 "2015-08-26T13:21:07Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Apparently there is a niche market for videos showing these people sneezing. I’ve even heard claims that these films are illegal! That’s just an urban legend. No credible reports of any of these so-called “sneeze films” has ever surfaced. Obviously, any such film would be seized by the police as evidence for a serious assault-and-boogery investigation. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/36 "2015-08-26T14:09:54Z")
You’ll be glad to know that [they still keep snuff in the US Senate.](http://www.senate.gov/vtour/snufb.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/37 "2015-08-26T14:54:32Z")
I tried snuff/snus while in Iceland recently. According to [this article](http://icelandreview.com/news/2015/06/03/smoking-down-snuff-and-snus-use) 10% of males aged 18-44 in Iceland use snuff. In my experience, it was definitely being used as a nicotine delivery system. I don’t recall sneezing. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/38 "2015-08-26T15:03:21Z")
> [@Trom](#): > > I tried snuff/snus while in Iceland recently. According to [this article](http://icelandreview.com/news/2015/06/03/smoking-down-snuff-and-snus-use) 10% of males aged 18-44 in Iceland use snuff. In my experience, it was definitely being used as a nicotine delivery system. I don’t recall sneezing. Which makes sense since the sneeze-inducing particles have to be artificially removed because of its ban in 1904. The sneeze particles are recycled and used in sneeze and itching powders found at your local novelty stores. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/39 "2015-08-26T15:41:04Z")
Plus, having sneeze agents added causes it to be classified as a sex toy. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818/40 "2015-08-26T16:05:05Z")
> [@AncientHumanoid](#): > > Plus, having sneeze agents added causes it to be classified as a sex toy. Ahh. The sneezarium brothels where one would sneeze directly into another’s vagina. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anybody-use-snuff-in-18th-century-fashion-anymore/728818.md?page=3)