SNEEZING, a convulsive motion of the muscles of the breast, by which the air is expelled from the nose with much vehemence and noise. It is caused by the irritation of the upper membrane of the nose, excited by acrid substances floating in the air, or by medicines called sternutatory.

This irritation is occasioned either externally, by strong smells, or by dust floating in the air, and taken in by inspiration; or by sharp pungent medicines, as cresses and other sternutatories, which vellicate the membrane of the nose; or internally, by the acrimony of the lympha or mucus, which naturally moistens that membrane. The matter cast forth in sneezing comes primarily from the nose and throat, the pituitary membrane continually exuding a mucus; and, secondarily, from the breast, the trachea, and the bronchia of the lungs.

The practice of saluting the person who sneezed existed in Africa, among nations unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The accounts we have of Monomotapa inform us,^[1. Strada, Prol. Acad. ] that when the prince sneezes, all his subjects in the capital are advertised of it, that they may offer up prayers for his safety. The author of the Conquest of Peru assures us, that the cacique of Guachoia having sneezed in presence of the Spaniards, the Indians of his train fell prostrate before him, stretched forth their hands, and displayed to him the accustomed marks of respect, while they invoked the sun to enlighten him, to defend him, and to be his constant guard.

Every body knows that the Romans saluted each other on these occasions: and Pliny relates,^[2. ’ Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii. cap. 2. ] that Tiberius exacted these signs of homage when drawn in his chariot. Superstition, whose influence can debase every thing, had degraded this custom for several ages, by attaching favourable or unfavourable omens to sneezing, according to the hour of the day or night, according to the signs of the zodiac, according as a work was more or less advanced, or according as one had sneezed to the right or to the left.^[3. • Spond. Comment, in Homerum. ] If a man sneezed at rising from table or from his bed, it was necessary for him to sit or he down again. You are struck with astonishment, said Timotheus to the Athenians, who wished to return into the harbour with their fleet,^[4. Frontin. lib. i. cap. 11. ] * because he had sneezed; you are struck with astonishment, because among ten thousand there is one man whose brain is moist.

Polydore Virgil pretends, that in the time of Gregory the Great, there reigned in Italy an epidemic distemper, which carried off by sneezing all those who were seized by it; and that this pontiff ordered prayers to be made against it, accompanied by certain signs of the cross. But besides that there are very few cases in which sneezing can be considered as dangerous, and that it is frequently a favourable symptom,^[5. • Hippocrates. Halleri Phys. ] it is evident, that we ought not to date from the sixth century the origin of a custom which loses itself in the obscurity of antiquity. Avicenna and Cardan aver that it is a sort of convulsion, which gives occasion to dread an epilepsy, and that this disease is endeavoured to be warded off by prayers. Clement of Alexandria considers it as a mark of intemperance and effeminacy, which ought to be proscribed; and he inveighs bitterly against those who endeavour to procure sneezing by external aid. Montaigne, on the contrary, explains this fact in a tone rather cynical. It is singular enough, that so many ridiculous, contradictory, and superstitious opinions, have not abolished those customary civilities which are still preserved equally among high and low; and which only the Anabaptists and Quakers have rejected, because they have renounced salutations in every case.

Among the Greeks sneezing was almost always a good omen. It excited mirks of tenderness, of respect, and at-[7:20:431] tachment. The genius of Socrates informed him by sneezing, when it was necessary to perform any action. The young Parthenis, hurried on by her passion, resolved to write to Sarpedon an avowal of her love; she sneezes in the most tender and impassioned part of her letter: this is sufficient for her; this incident supplies the place of an answer, and persuades her that Sarpedon is her lover. Penelope, harassed by the vexatious courtship of her suitors, begins to curse them all, and to pour forth vows for the return of Ulysses. Her son Telemachus interrupts her by a loud sneeze. She instantly exults with joy, and regards this sign as an assurance of the approaching return of her husband. Xenophon was haranguing his troops; a soldier sneezed in the moment when he was exhorting them to embrace a dangerous but necessary resolution. The whole army, moved by this presage, determined to pursue the project of their general; and Xenophon ordered sacrifices to Jupiter the preserver.

This religious reverence for sneezing, so ancient, and so universal even in the times of Homer, always excited the curiosity of the Greek philosophers, and of the rabbins. These last have spread a tradition, that, after the creation of the world, God made a general law to this purport, that every living man should sneeze but once in his life, and that at the same instant he should render up his soul into the hand of his Creator, without any preceding indisposition. Jacob obtained an exemption from the common law, and the favour of being informed of his last hour. He sneezed and did not die; and this sign of death was changed into a sign of life. Notice of this was sent to all the princes of the earth; and they ordained that in future sneezing should be accompanied with forms of blessing, and vows for the persons who sneezed.

Aristotle likewise remounts to the sources of natural religion. He observes, that the brain is the origin of the nerves, of our sentiments, our sensations, the seat of the soul, the image of the Divinity; that upon all these accounts, the substance of the brain has ever been held in honour; that the first men swore by their head; that they durst not touch nor eat the brains of any animal; that it was even a sacred word which they dared not to pronounce. Filled with these ideas, it is not wonderful that they extended their reverence even to sneezing. Such is the opinion of the most ancient and sagacious philosophers of Greece.

According to mythology, the first sign of life Prometheus’s artificial man gave was by sternutation. This supposed creator is said to have stolen a portion of the solar rays; and filling with them a phial, which he had made on purpose, sealed it up hermetically. He instantly flies back to his favourite automaton, and opening the phial, holds it close to the statue; the rays still retaining all their activity, insinuate themselves through the pores, and set the fictitious man a-sneezing. Prometheus, transported with the success of his machine, offers up a fervent prayer, with wishes for the preservation of so singular a being. His automaton observed him, and, remembering his ejaculations, was very careful, on the like occasions, to offer these wishes in behalf of his descendants, who perpetuated it from father to son in all their colonies.