This evening I was part of an interesting discussion with my private students talking about Britain’s recent decision to use gory pictures of tobacco smokers’ decaying bodies as a means to discourage existing and potential smokers from cigarettes. During the course of our conversation, I asked them what they thought about government infringing on the “rights” of people to smoke/ making them feel guilty. They seemed to think that it was okay for the government to do this although one of them expressed some doubt as to the effectiveness of banning a personal habit. Then he started talking about an interesting practice that I thought had been lost in the folds of history, only remembered by little metal boxes for sale in antique shops; relics of that forgotten era. But I am wrong. Several years ago, the government in Poland tried to ban the use of snuff based on a pretext of health concerns. However, one particular part of Poland has had a “snuffing” tradition for generations and refused to give up the practice saying that it was taking away their cultural tradition to do so. This got me quite interested. I thought snuff was something that wealthy merchants and businessmen “used/ did” in sixteenth century England and Portugal. Now I learned that it is in fact a very old practice but not an obsolete one. In fact, it is really growing in popularity in some circles due to recent court rulings banning public smoking. Hence, snuff companies have capitalized on this social quandary to put in their own bid for satisfying the nicotine crave in public places.
I read a bit about the manufacturing and the use of snuff and found it to be quite informative. The grinding of the tobacco into powder at least the consistency of flour is difficult. It is done in mechanical mortar and pestles, but if the leaves are too dry the powder will become airborne and be lost. Talk about being in an environment where you would be “doing snuff”! So, the moisture content must be low but not too low allowing the product to disappear. After the grinding process is completed, the snuff is mixed with different natural oils, fragrances, and sweeteners to give it a particular signature flavor. To use the end product, the addict puts a pinch of the snuff under each nostril and inhales. the fine powder is sucked up onto the mucus linings of the nose where the nicotine is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and the addict smells the fragrance and feels a nicotine boost for twenty minutes or so. I am sure you all have read classic English stories about a conversation between to aristocrats who “took snuff and sneezed together/ in unison”. This must mean that the tobacco irritates the lining of your nose enough to give you the urge to sneeze. I really don’t know if these guys were too nervous to be “doing snuff” properly but some sources say that if snuff is taken properly there will be little if any urge to sneeze. In the remote chance that the urge suddenly arises, I suppose the snuff user would do well to carry a heavy weight bandanna to catch that sneeze. But make it a red or green or blue one. Not white.
In no way am I condoning the use of tobacco. With Polski Rolski, this is Robin signing off.
