516 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
was sinking. ‘‘ Whenever this effect was of a certain intensity 
Dr. Elliotson observed that the patient always died.” 
The famed perfumes of the East were first brought into 
Western Europe by the Crusaders ; and no treasures were more 
valued by the medieval lady than these, for it was thought 
that the atmosphere of fragrance in which Oriental women 
lived was the means of preserving their beauty. But the use 
of perfumes was not common in England until the time of Queen 
Elizabeth ; it is probable that they were then introduced from 
abroad by the Earl of Oxford. Immediately, these cosmetics 
and fragrances captured the fancy of the Queen, and her ladies, 
so that their use spread through the island. Not even in Egypt 
were perfumes more costly, or more popular than during her time. 
In the bedrooms of ladies of fashion sweet candles were burned ; 
odorous cakes were thrown into the fire in order to fill the air 
with fragrance; cosmetics were kept in costly scented boxes ; 
coffers containing perfumes were suspended about the rooms 
so as to gradually give out their sweetness; a kind of scented 
lozenge was used to perfume the breath; and one of the most 
popular devices was the scented glove. Nowadays recent 
science is returning to the old belief, that scents and perfumes — 
exercise medicinal health-giving properties. ‘“‘ Perhaps,” says 
one modern doctor, ‘the Orientals were not wrong in claiming 
that the sagacious employment of scents enhanced beauty, and 
prolonged life.” Dependent thereupon is the self-protective prin- 
ciple which so many Eastern plants and herbs employ, by diffusing 
around themselves a vaporous aroma of volatile scent which 
repels the tropical solar rays; so, likewise, it was a former 
custom, now explained by science, of warding off infection by 
placing Rue before the Judge when prisoners came into court 
straight from foul dens ; as also at funerals by carrying Rosemary 
against possible harm from the corpse; or, again, of keeping 
linen sweet by storing Lavender therewith; as well as by 
reviving a faint person with the smell of burnt feathers, and by 
nullifying a catarrh of the head with antiseptic smelling salts. 
It cannot be doubted that most animals are endowed with 
a keen and subtle sense of smell, much in advance of that 
which the majority of persons can exercise. But, none the less, 
training will marvellously improve the human faculty of smell ; 
for instance, Oil of Cloves can be detected with one part 
eighty-eight thousand of water by trained men; as likewise 
