OLEUM ROS^.. 



2G3 



in 



the writings of Joannes Actuarius/ ayIio was physician to the Greek 

 emperors at Constantinople towards the close of the 13th century. 

 Rose water w^as distilled at an early date in Persia; and Nisibin,a town 

 north-west of Mosul, w^as famous for it in the 14th century,^ 



Kampfer speaks^ with admiration of the roses he saw at Shiraz 

 (1683-4), and says that the w^ater distilled from them is exported to 

 other parts of Persia, as w^ell as to all India ; and he adds as a singular 

 fact, that there separates from it a certain fat-like hutter, called j£ttr 

 gyly of the most exquisite odour, and more valuable even than gold. 

 The commerce to India, though much declining, still exists; and in the 

 year 1872-73, 20,100 gallons of rose water, valued at 35,178 rupees 

 (£3,517), were imported into Bombay from the Persian Gulf.^ Rose oil 

 itself is no longer exported from Persia, as it still used to be from 



much 



(1778) 



in cookery and at the table. In some parts of France, vassals were 

 compelled to furnish to their lords so many bushels of roses, which were 



consumed 



butyr 



The 



in 1574 ?) and by Giovanni Battista Porta' of Naples in 1589 ; the latter 

 in his work on distillation says — " Omnium difficillime extractionis est 

 rosarum oleum atque in minima quantitate sed suavissimi odoris."® 

 oil was also known to the apothecaries of Germany in the beginmii^ ux 

 the 17th century, and is quoted in official drug-tariffs of that time.' 

 Angelus Sala, about 1620, in describing the distillation of the oil speaks 



of it as beilin* of '^ j:-^^«j-« *-.^-^^,i/-.^1*r^ri ino+o-r S-nro-mfl.fm (/O.ti. 



In Pomet's "time (1694) 



ins tar 



jiigh price, only in very small quantity. The mention of it by Homberg ^'^ 

 in 1700, and in a memoir by Aublet'' (1775) respecting the distillation 

 of roses in the Isle of France, shows that the French perfumers of the 

 last century were not unacquainted with true rose oil, but that it was a 

 rare and very costly article. 



The history of the discovery of the essence in India, is the subject of 

 ^ interesting and learned pamphlet by Langles,!^ p^iblished m 1S04. 

 He tells us on the authority of oriental writers, how on the occasion of 

 the marriage of the Moo-ul emperor Jehan Ghir with ^'ur-jehan, A.D. 

 1612, a canal in the garden of the palace was filled with rose water, and 

 that the princess observing a certain scum on the surface, caused it to be 

 collected and found it of admirable fragrance, on which account it re- 

 ceived the name of Atar^jehanghiri, i.e. perfmie of Jehan Ghir. In later 



' • • . stillatitii roSiarum liquoris 

 >ra una. De Methodo Medemli, lib. v. c. 4. 

 yojfafje d'lhn Baloutah, trad, par Defr6- 

 *»f y; "• (1854) m. ^ 



4 ^l»^nif,,tes, 1712. 373. 

 of tt~^''"*' of the Trade and Navigation 

 part *i. 52'"^"""^ "-^ ^'""^"^ for 1S72-73, 



, J;e Grand d'Aussy, Hht. dc la vie priv<ie 

 *^e ^^'^fO's, ii. (1815) 250. 



'^'^ennae, 1582. 102. 



1 «« 



libr 



7 Maglce Naturalls Ubri xx, I^eap. loby. 



188 

 ^'Ve DidiUaiione, Eomae (1608) 75. 



^ rilickigcr, Docnme,nfe zur GeacJucIde 

 der Fharm. Halle, 187G. 37. 38. 40. 



m (ji^, rvatloua sur les huifes dca plon^es 

 Jif<^m. de FAcad. des Sckncee, 3700. 2(>r>. _^ 



" //fsL desPJrDifee dc la GulaueJraHfoise^iv 



Meraoires, p. 125. 



12 Becherches sur la ddcouverte de CILssence 



de Hose, Paris, 1804. 



