HEALTH COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2511, 30 April 1902, Page 64

HEALTH COLUMN.

The Health Talue of Perfumes. Among the many wise beliefs of the 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 hyssoy, naid, 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 85 remedies derived fiom odorous rue, 41 -whose base was mint, 32 balms from ro«es, 21 from lilies, bulb and bloom, and 17 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 ib must be obtained from the flowers themselves, not from the chemical imitations. Chemically-derived perfumes are irritant, poisonous even, to persons of espeinlly sensitive constitution. True flower scents are obtained in three ways: First, by spreading fresh blo<;«o'ns upon glass thickly smeared with pure grease, letting them stand in the sun, and" as they wilt, replacing them until the grease is as fragrant as the floweis ; second, by repeatedly infusing fresh petals in oil, and third, by infusing them in ether, which is then distilled to a dry solid. As this solid se^ls for 250d0l an ounce, ib is easy to understand why the ether process, tlio\igh far and away the best, is not commonly used. But the scented grease and the essences made by steeping it vi pure spirit are never cheap. After all the scent possible Jus been extracted from the grease, it is still fragrant enough to make the very finest perfumed soap. All the eitrene scents, bergamot, neroli, orange-flower water, aie refreshing, and in a degree -stimulating, if properly prepared. To make a lasting perfume some animal base is essential — musk, civtt, or amber t(i - is. If the base is 100 strong, h makes the flower scent curiously initanl. 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 ; 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 Meed 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. Xone the less, they have their effect. Witness the refreshment of lavender water nben one is faint from heat or crowding. Lavender is peculiarly suited to highstrung temperaments. It is hoothing. as well as refreshing, without being unduly stimulating. — New Yoik Journal.