52 MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE ROSE. 



longed use will sometimes cause a slight constipation of the 

 bowels, while in a much stronger dose they act as purgatives. 



The conserve of the Provins Rose has much reputation in 

 France, for the trea:tment of all chronics and affections of the 

 bowels, caused by \veakness and inactivity of the digestive organs ; 

 it is also employed in colic, in diarrhea, in cases of hemorrhage 

 and leucorrhoea. 



The conserve of any variety of roses is considered excellent in 

 cases of cold or catarrh. It is prepared by bruising in a mortar 

 the petals with their Aveight in sugar, and moistening them with 

 a little rose-water, until the whole forms a homogeneous mass. 

 Some receipts prescribe powdered petals mixed with an equal 

 part of sugar ; others direct to use two layers of sugar and only 

 one layer of pulverized petals. 



Opoix, a physician of Provins, states that the true Rose of Pro- 

 vins has a more sweet and penetrating fragrance than the same 

 rose grown elsewhere, and even goes so far as to say that they 

 have acquired properties which they do -not possess in their native 

 country, the Caucasus. On account of the supposed superior 

 qualities of this rose, the citizens of Provins, in 1807, addressed 

 a petition to government to encourage in their territory the culti- 

 vation of the true Provins Rose, by giving it the preference in all 

 the hospitals and military dispensaries. This gave rise to a dis- 

 cussion between two French chemists, but without deciding the 

 fact whether the Rosa gallica was superior in medical properties 

 to any other rose. It seems to be acknowledged that those culti- 

 vated at Provins were superior to the same kind grown else- 

 where, and this superiority is attributed by some to the presence 

 of iron in the soil about that city. It was probably owing also 

 to the very careful cultivation practised there. The petals are 

 used extensively in several medical preparations, as the sugar of 

 roses, the ointment of roses, the treacle of roses, &c. Rose-water 

 is, however, more extensively used in medicine than any other 

 preparation of the rose. This water, when manufactured from 

 the gallica or any other vaiiety of the centifoUce, is eiYiployed 

 internally as an astringent, and is sometimes mixed with other 



