THE HEALTH VALUE OF PERFUMES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVII, Issue 12819, 26 May 1902, Page 3

THE HEALTH VALUE OF PERFUMES.

{New Yorlc Journal.) Among the many wise. beliefs of th<s ancients was one that the scent of flowers and herbs was conducive to health and the ■prolongation of life.

Odorous herbs, notably vervain, warded off the evil eye. The Mosaic ritual is full of hyssop, nard, and frankincense. Greece set cinnamon gates,to its elysium, and surrounded it with a scented river a hundred cubits broad, which souls swam through, and thereby purged themselves of earthly grOssness. Pliny records eighty-five remedies derived from odorous rue, forty-one whose base was mint, thirty-two halms from 1 roses, twentyone from lilies, bulb and bloom, and seventeen medicaments strong in the virtue of violets. Thus, it appears that the violet cure for cancer is among the very new. things that surface science scorned because they were so very old. Pure violet essence is said to be especially suitable to nervous people. But it must' be obtained from the flowers themselves, not from the chemical imitations. Chemically derived perfumes are irritant, poisonous even, to persons of especially sensitive constitution.

True flower scents are obtained in three ways: First, by spreading fresh blossoms upon! glass' thickly smeared with pure grease, letting them stand in the sun, andi as they wilt, replacing them until the grease is as fragrant as the flowers; second, by repeatedly infusing fresh petals in oil, third, by infusing them in ether, which is then distilled to a dry solid. As tljfis solid sells for 250d0l an ounce it is easy to'understand why the ether process, though far and away the best, is not commonly used. But the scented grease and the essences made, by steeping .it in pure spirit are never cheap. After all the scent possible has been extracted from the grease it. is still fragrant enough to make the verj finest perfumed soap. , All the citrene scents, bergamot, nero'li, orange-flower water, are refreshing, and in a degree stimulating, if properly prepared. To make a lasting perfume some animal base is essential—musk, civet or ambergris. • • ■ If the base is too strong it makes, the flowerisce’nt curiously irritant. People who feel themselves faint in -a crowded room are often the victims of several scents simultaneously attacking their nerves. A single odour, no matter how strong, after a while deadens the olfactory nerves, whereas a combination keeps them active. Hay fever, which it is believed by some arises from'the irritant properties of fine odourless pollen yielded by grass and weed fields, is in a way a type of perfume action. Scent particles in. general are not strong enough or acrid enough to set up violent ills. None the less, they have their effect. Witness the refreshment of lavender water when one is faint from beat or crowding.

Lavender is peculiarly suited to highstrung temperaments. It is soothing, as well as refreshing, without being, unduly stimulating.