OLEUM ROS^. 263 



The first allusion to the distillation of roses we have met with, is in 

 the wi'itings of Joannes Actuarius/ who was physician to the Greek 

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

 Rose water was distilled at an early date in Persia ; and Nisibin, a town 

 north-west of Mosul, was famous for it in the 14th century.^ 



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

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

 other parts of Persia, as well as to all India ; and he adds as a singular 

 fact, that there separates from it a certain fat-like butter, called JSttr 

 gyl, of the mast 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 

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

 Shiraz in the time of Niebuhr (1778). 



Rose water was much used in Europe during the middle ages, both 

 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 in the distillation of rose water.* 



The fact that a butyraceous oil of delicious fragrance is separable 

 from rose water, was noticed by Geronimo Rossi ^ of Ravenna in 1582 (or 

 in 1574 ?) and by Giovanni Battista Porta '^ of Naples in 1-589 ; the latter 

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

 rosarum oleum atque in minima quantitate sed suavissimi odoris."' The 

 oil was also known to the apothecaries of Germany in the beginning of 

 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 being of " . . . candicante pinguedine instar Spermatis Ceti." 

 In Pomet's time (1694) it was sold in Paris, though, on account of its 

 high 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 

 an interesting and learned pamphlet by Langles,^^ published in 1804. 

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

 the marriage of the Mogul emperor Jehan Ghir with Nur-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 accoiint it re- 

 ceived the name of Atar-jehanghiri, \.q. perfume of Jehan Ghir. In later 



^ " . . . . stillatitii rosarum liquoris ' Magice Naturalia Ubri xx. Neap. 1589. 



libra una. " De Methodo Medendi, lib. v. c. 4. 188. 



* F&ya^e cZ'/frn jBatojrfaA, trad, par Defre- * De Distillatione, Romse (1608) 75. 

 mery, ii. (1854) 140. " Fliickiger, Documente zur Geschkhte 



3 Amcenitates, 1712. 373. der Pharm. Halle, 1876. 37. 38. 40. 



* Statement of the Trade and Navigation ^"^ Observations sur les kuiies des planfes — 

 of the Presidenq/ of Bombay for 1872-73, M&m. de FAcad. des Sciences, 1700. 206. 

 part ii. 52. ^ Uist.desPlantesdelaGuianefrangoise,u. 



' Jje Grand d^Auasy, Hist, de la vie priv^e M^moires, p. 125. 



des Francois, ii. (1815) 250. ^^ Recherches sur la d^couverie de VEssence 



' HieronymiRubeiKav. DcjDeafj^/ofiore, de i?o«e, Paris, 1804. 

 Ravennae, 1582. 102. 



