Up To Snuff - Origin Of Phrase

Every once in a while I hear a familiar phrase and wonder about its origin. Recently I was in the temple and one of the workers commented about training. She said she had to be "up to snuff." This struck me as humorous, especially in this setting. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don't use tobacco. 

Here's what I found about about the origin of the phrase.

"UP TO SNUFF: Originally the expression ‘up to snuff’ meant ‘sharp, keen, wise, all-knowing.’ Presumably it got its meaning because a person who has just sniffed some snuff would have a brief sense of exhilaration and might feel that he was a lot brighter than other people. Gradually the term came to be applied more and more to a persons [sic] physical condition. If you feel ‘up to snuff’ nowadays, you feel that you’re in good shape, in normal health." 

From Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, quoted on the Wordwizard

From the Phrase Finder   'Up to snuff' originated in the early 19th century. In 1811, the English playwright John Poole wrote Hamlet Travestie, a parody of Shakespeare, in the style of Doctor Johnson and George Steevens, which included the expression.

"He knows well enough The game we're after: Zooks, he's up to snuff." &

"He is up to snuff, i.e. he is the knowing one."

A slightly later citation of the phrase, in Grose's Dictionary, 1823, lists it as 'up to snuff and a pinch above it', and defines the term as 'flash'*. This clearly shows the derivation to be from 'snuff', the powdered tobacco that had become fashionable to inhale in the late 17th century. The phrase derives from the stimulating effect of taking snuff. The association of the phrase with sharpness of mind was enhanced by the fashionability and high cost of snuff and by the elaborate decorative boxes that it was kept in."

See more information here. 

Most of the sources said the phrase now means "up to the required standard."

PS - ABC News Radio indicated the phrase has to do with hounds being able to track down or sniff out a fox. It's the only place I found that meaning. 

*I searched and searched to see why the term flash "clearly shows the derivation to be from snuff." Perhaps one of you can find the connection. 

Image: The Phrase Finder