Note Back to Main Text — Chapter VIII

Soon after the introduction and cultivation of tobacco in Spain and Portugal its use in the form of snuff came in vogue and from these notions it spread rapidly over Europe, particularly in France and Italy. It is said to have been used first in France[57] by the wife of Henry II., Catherine de Medici, and that it was first used at court during the latter part of the Sixteenth Century. The Queen seemed to give it a good standing in society and it soon became the fashion to use the powder by placing a little on the back of the hand and inhaling it. The use of snuff greatly increased from the fact of its supposed medicinal properties and its curative powers in all diseases, particularly those affecting the head, hence the wide introduction of snuff-taking in Europe. Fairholt says of its early use: