Snuff

a powder made of tobacco. The expensive qualities are made of fine leaf; the cheap, of stems and rejected portions of the leaf. The moist snuff known as French rappee is made by the French government. The leaf is put through a process of fermentation and the snuff undergoes a second process of a similar nature. Between fermenting, grinding, curing, and dampening nearly two years are spent in making the finest product. A number of perfumes, as musk, lavender, rose, clove, and jasmine are used. Irish, Scotch, and Copenhagen snuff are of the sort known as dry. Snuff-taking was quite the thing in court circles at the close of the seventeenth century. A snuffbox ornamented with costly gems was a gift fit for a prince. Snuff taking has held on in Scotland as persistently as in any country. For a Scot to offer a pinch from his "mull" or snuffbox is an act of fellowship. A recent writer places the consumption of snuff in the United States at 9,500 tons a year. See Tobacco