_Non potis est Proclus digitis emungere nasum, Namq; est pro nasi mole pusilla manus: Non vocat ille Jovem sternutans, quippe, nec audit Sternutamentum, tam procul aure sonat._ _Proclus_ with his hand his nose can never wipe, His hand too little is his nose to gripe; He Sneezing calls not _Jove_, for why? he hears Himself not Sneeze, the sound's so far from's ears.
Nor was this only an ancient custom among the _Greeks_ and _Romans_, and is still in force with us, but is received at this day in remotest parts of _Africa_. For so we read in _Codignus_[SN: De rebus Abassinorum]; that upon a Sneeze of the Emperour of _Monomotapa_, there passed acclamations successively through the City. And as remarkable an example there is of the same custom, in the remotest parts of the East, recorded in the travels of _Pinto_[SN: Buxt. Lex. Chald.].
But the history will run much higher, if we should take in the _Rabinical_ account hereof; that Sneezing was a mortal sign even from the first Man; until it was taken off by the special supplication of _Jacob_. From whence, as a thankful acknowledgment, this salutation first began; and was after continued by the expression of _Tobim Chaiim_, or _vita bona_, by standers by, upon all occasion of Sneezing.
[Sidenote: _Whence Sternutation or Sneezing proceeds._]
Now the ground of this ancient custom was probably the opinion the ancients held of sternutation, which they generally conceived, to be a good sign or a bad, and so upon this motion accordingly used, a Salve or Îεῦ ÏῶÏον, as a gratulation for the one, and a deprecation for the other. Now of the waies whereby they enquired and determined its signality; the first was natural, arising from Physical causes, and consequences oftentimes naturally succeeding this motion; and so it might be justly esteemed a good sign. For Sneezing being properly a motion of the brain, suddenly expelling through the nostrils what is offensive unto it, it cannot but afford some evidence of its vigour; and therefore saith _Aristotle_[SN: _Problem Sect. 33._], they that hear it, ÏÏοÏÎºÏ Î½Î¿á¿¦Ïιν á½¡Ï á¼µÎµÏον, honour it as somewhat sacred, and a sign of Sanity in the diviner part; and this he illustrates from the practice of Physitians, who in persons near death, do use Sternutatories, or such medicines as provoke unto Sneezing; when if the faculty awaketh, and Sternutation ensueth, they conceive hopes of life, and with gratulation receive the signs of safety. [SN: _In what cases a sign of good._] And so is it also of good signality, according to that of _Hippocrates_, that Sneezing cureth the hicket, and is profitable unto Women in hard labour; and so is it good in Lethargies, Apoplexies, Catalepsies, and Coma's [SN: _2. King 4. 35._]. [SN: _In what of bad._] And in this natural way it is sometime likewise of bad effects or signs, and may give hints of deprecation; as in diseases of the chest; for therein _Hippocrates_ condemneth it as too much exagitating: in the beginning of _Catarrhs_ according unto _Avicenna_, as hindering concoction, in new and tender conceptions (as _Pliny_ observeth) for then it endangers abortion.