I’m currently listening to the Radio 4 show The Long View on the links between snuff use in the 17th century and ecigarettes today. Apparently both are considered effete scaredy-cat alternatives to smoking, then and now. The podcast can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s7d6

Sounds to me as if the producer approached the subject with a skewed attitude. Based on my past experiences with the BBC, (the International branch anyway) that’s unusual. As for “then and now”… I don’t think that cigarettes had been invented yet in the 17th century! Did you know that snuff was the first method of using tobacco? Smoking it was the “alternative.”

I guess it could be “effete” in the sense that a lot of women have used nasal snuff, particularly in America. I’m not so sure it was a women’s thing it Europe. And I wonder why it was a “scaredy cat alternative” when the connection between smoking and disease hadn’t been established yet? But I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, I’ll do it when I have some spare time.

As I recall from school history (was also mentioned on the prog) James I didn’t like smoking. Said it was ‘damaging to the lung’ so there was clearly suspicion, even then.