Note 446 — MINERAL POISONS. (continued 4)

In 1624 Pope Urban the VIII, published a decree of excommunication against all who took snuff in the church. Ten years after this, smoking tobacco was forbidden in Russia, under the pain of having the nose cut off. In 1653 the Council of the Canton of Appenzel cited smokers before them, whom they punished; and they ordered all inn-keepers to inform against such as were found smoking in their houses. The police regulations of Berne, made in 1661, were divided according to the ten commandments, in which the prohibition of smoking stood immediately beneath the command against adultery. This prohibition was renewed in 1675, and the tribunal instituted to put it into execution—viz. “Chambre au Tabac,” continued to the middle of the eighteenth century. Pope Innocent the XII, in 1590 excommunicated all those who were found taking snuff, or using tobacco, in any manner, in the church of St. Peter at Rome; even so late as 1719 the Senate of Strasburgh prohibited the cultivation of tobacco, from an apprehension that it would diminish the growth of corn. Amurath the IV published an edict which made the smoking tobacco a capital offence; this was founded on an opinion that it rendered the people infertile.