Snuff-mill.
A machine consisting of a circular arrangement of mortars around a central axis, which is occupied by a master wheel giving motion to the rolling pestle in each mortar.
The snuff-mills of
Holland are on a very large scale, and are impelled by wind.
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Brazilian snuff-mill and Sniffers. |
Although
Columbus found smokers in the Antilles, and Pizarro first beheld chewers in
Peru, yet Brazilians were the first and best fabricators of snuff.
Fig. 5262 illustrates their milling and sniffing apparatus.
The figure represents a slab of rosewood with a depression for holding the dried leaves while being triturated with a stick of the same material.
The friction of the two pieces of odoriferous wood develops a pleasant aroma, which impregnates the powder.
While yet warm with the friction, the snuff is inhaled by a double pipe, also shown in the figure.
It consists of a double tube formed of two light bones obtained from the wings of a young crane, united by a thread and terminating at their upper ends in small wooden bulbs.
The plain ends of the tubes being inserted in the powder, and the others inserted into the nostrils, a smart inhalation distributes the scented dust over the membrane of the nose.
Take out your box of right Brazil.
—Pope.
The taking of snuff—as a habit—is said to have been first adopted in
Europe by
Catherine de Medici.
It was called
herbe de la reine, 1560.