[12] Tooke says “Snuff is the past participle of to sniff, that which is sniffed.”
[13] Lord Stanhope makes the following curious estimate:——“Every professed, inveterate, and incurable snuff-taker, at a moderate computation, takes one pinch in ten minutes. Every pinch, with the agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose, and other incidental circumstances, consumes a minute and a half. One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours to a snuff-taking day, amounts to two hours and twenty minutes out of every natural day, or one day out of every ten. One day out of every ten amounts to thirty-six days and a half in the year; hence, if we suppose the practice to be persisted in for forty years, two entire years of the snuff-taker’s life will be dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing it.” The expense of snuff, snuff-boxes, and handkerchiefs, is also alluded to; and it is calculated that “by a proper application of the time and money thus lost to the public, a fund might be constituted for the discharge of the national debt.”
[14] Curiosities of Food, by P. L. Simmonds. Bentley, 1859.
[15] Tobacco entered for home consumption—
1856 1857 1858
32,579,166 lbs. 32,851,365 lbs. 34,110,850 lbs.
Total 99,541,381 lbs.—or 44,438 tons.
[16] Tea entered for home consumption in—
1856 1857 1858
63,295,643 lbs. 69,159,640 lbs. 73,217,483 lbs.
[17] Mesembryanthemum tortuosum, Linn.
[18] Rhus typhina.
[19] “The tree Tooba that stands in Paradise, in the palace of Mahomet.”——Sale. “Tooba signifies beatitude or eternal happiness.”——D’Herbelot.