first covered with stout tin-foil, then completely painted all over the surface, and afterwards placed in the ruling machine, which traces upon it an intricate pattern of curved and straight lines, by means of a sharp flat tool. This instrument penetrates completely through the paint, but only scrapes the tin-foil, which is left very bright, and resembles inlaid silver. Several coats of copal varnish, each of which is successively polished down, are then applied to complete the snuff-box. Box-wood, box-root, king-wood, ebony, and all kinds of hard wood; tin, brass, pewter, lead, silver, and all sorts of metals, are used for snuff-boxes, some of these cheap and rudely fashioned, others elaborate and expensive; some lined with tortoise-shell or horn, others with tin or lead-foil; and invention has been taxed to produce all kinds of ornamentation. The practice of using snuff is said to have come into England after the Restoration, and to have been brought from France; but it is well known that the habit of mere snuff-taking did not originate with the introduction of tobacco, since there are recipes for making snuff from herbs in the oldest medicinal works extant. The use of tobacco snuff has been referred to the age of Catherine de Medicis, and it was recommended to her son, Charles IX., for his chronic headaches. Snuff-taking was formerly characteristic of the medical profession; and the gold-headed cane and gold snuff-box came to be the peculiar emblems of those who were learned in the healing art.