CHAPTER VI. 



THE MEDICAL PROPBRTIES OF THE ROSE. 



E have hitherto viewed the Rose as the chief 

 ornament of our gardens, and if we have 

 found it abounding with charms of fragrance 

 and beauty, we shall now find it occupying 

 a prominent place in materia medica. Some 

 authors have, with a degree of exaggeration, 

 endeavored to make its medical as brilliant as its floral reputa- 

 tion. Rosenberg, in his work on the Rose, makes it a specific in 

 every disease, and even attributes to it supernatural virtues. 



In the opinion of most medical men, the medical properties of 

 the Rose are about the same in all the kinds, while some writers 

 assert that the Rosa gallica is superior to all others in a greater 

 or less degree. We will mention those principally used in medi- 

 cine, and the properties which are especially attributed to each. 



The most valuable properties of the Rose reside in its petals, 

 and in order to preserve these properties, it is highly essential 

 that the petals should be quickly and perfectly dried. Those of 

 the Provins Rose (Rosa gallica} have an astringent and some- 

 what bitter taste, and are tonic and astringent in their effects. 



According to an analysis recently made in France, they con- 

 tain, besides vegetable matter and essential oil, a portion of gallic 

 acid, coloring matter, albumen, tannin, some salts, with a base of 

 potash or of chalk, silex and oxyde of iron. A small dose in pow- 

 der strengthens the stomach and assists digestion. Their pro- 



