part ii

. 52.

[1007] Le Grand d’Aussy, _Hist. de la vie privée des François_, ii. (1815) 250.

[1008] Hieronymi Rubei Rav. _De Destillatione_, Ravennæ, 1582. 102.

[1009] _Magiæ Naturalis libri xx_, Neap. 1589. 188.

[1010] _De Distillatione_, Romæ (1608) 75.

[1011] Flückiger, _Documente zur Geschichte der Pharm._ Halle, 1876. 37. 38. 40.

[1012] _Observations sur les huiles des plantes—Mém. de l’Acad. des Sciences_, 1700. 206.

[1013] _Hist. des Plantes de la Guiane françoise_, ii. Mémoires, p. 125.

[1014] _Recherches sur la découverie de l’Essence de Rose_, Paris, 1804.

[1015] _Asiatick Researches_, i. (1788) 332.

As already stated, the supplies at present come from European Turkey; but at what period the cultivation of the rose and manufacture of its oil were then introduced, is a question on which we are quite in the dark. There is no mention of attar in the account given by Savary[1016] in 1750 of the trade of Constantinople and Smyrna, but in the first years of the present century some rose oil was obtained in the Island of Chios as well as in Persia.[1017]

In English commerce, attar of rose was scarcely known until the commencement of the present century. It was first included in the British tariff in 1809, when the duty levied on it was 10_s._ per ounce. In 1813 the duty was raised to 11_s._ 10½_d._; in 1819 it was 6_s._, and in 1828, 2_s._ per ounce. In 1832 it was lowered to 1_s._ 4_d._ per lb., in 1842 to 1_s._ and in 1860 it was altogether removed.[1018]

On searching a file of the _London Price Current_, the first mention of “_Otto of Rose_” is in 1813, from which year it is regularly quoted. The price (in bond) from 1813 to 1815, varied from £3 to £5 5_s._ per ounce. The earliest notice of an importation is under date 1-8 July, 1813, when duty was paid on 232 ounces, shipped from Smyrna.

=Production=—The chief locality for attar of rose, and that by which European commerce is almost exclusively supplied, is a small tract of country on the southern side of the Balkan mountains, the “Tekne” of Kazanlik or Kisanlik, an undulated plain famous for its beauty, as picturesquely sketched by Kanitz[1019] and many other travellers. The principal seat of the trade is the town of Kizanlik, in the valley of the Tunja. The other important districts are those of Philippopli, Eski Zaghra, Yeni Zaghra, Tchirpan, Giopca, Karadsuh-Dagh, Kojun-Tepe, Pazandsik. North of the Balkans, there is only Travina to be mentioned as likewise producing attar. All these places with Kizanlik were estimated in 1859 to include 140 villages, having 2,500 stills.

The rose is cultivated by peasants in gardens and open fields, in which it is planted in rows as hedges, 3 to 4 feet high. The best localities are those occupying southern or south-eastern slopes. Plantations in high mountainous situations generally yield less, and the oil is of a quality that easily congeals. The flowers attain perfection in April and May, and are gathered before sunrise; those not wanted for immediate use are spread out in cellars, but are always used for distilling the same day. The apparatus is a copper still of the simplest description, connected with a straight tin tube, cooled by being passed through a tub fed by a stream of water. The largest establishment, “Fabrika,” at Kizanlik has 14 such stills. The charge for a still is 25 to 50 lb. of roses, from which the calyces are not removed. The first runnings are returned to the still; the second portion, which is received in glass flasks, is kept at a temperature not lower than 15° C. for a day or two, by which time most of the oil, bright and fluid, will have risen to the surface. From this, it is skimmed off by means of a small tin funnel having a fine orifice, and provided with a long handle. There are usually several stills together.

[1016] _Dict. de Commerce_, iv. 548.

[1017] Oliver, _Voyage dans l’Empire Othoman_, etc. ii. (Paris, An 9) 139, v. (1807) 367.

[1018] Information obligingly communicated by Mr. Seldon of the Statistical Office of the Custom-house.

[1019] _Donau-Bulgarien_, ii. (1877) 103-123.—A figure of a still is given, p. 123. A good map of the Tekne of Kizanlik and environs will be found in _Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin_, xi. (1876) Taf. 2.

The produce is extremely variable. According to Baur,[1020] whose interesting account of attar of rose is that of an eye-witness, it may be said to average 0·04 per cent. Another authority estimates the average yield as 0·037 per cent.

The harvest during the five years 1867-71 was reckoned to average somewhat below 400,000 _meticals_,[1021] or 4226 lb. avoirdupois; that of 1873, which was good, was estimated at 500,000 _meticals_, value about £70,000.[1022]

Roses are cultivated to a considerable extent about Grasse, Cannes and Nice in the south of France; and besides much rose water, which is largely exported to England, a little oil is produced. The latter, which commands a high price, fuses less easily than the Turkish.

There is a large cultivation of the rose for the purpose of making rose water and attar, at Ghazipur on the Ganges, Lahore, Amritsar and other places in India, but the produce is wholly consumed in the country. The species thus cultivated is stated by Brandis[1023] to be _R. damascena_. Medinet Fayum, south-west of Cairo, supplies the great demand of Egypt for rose vinegar and rose water.

Tunis has also some celebrity for similar products, which however do not reach Europe. A recent traveller[1024] states that the rose grown there, and from which attar is obtained, is _Rosa canina_ L., which is extremely fragrant; 30 lb. of the flowers afford about 1½ drachms, worth 15_s._ When at Genoa, in 1874, one of us (F.) had the opportunity of ascertaining that excellent oil of rose is occasionally imported there from Tunis.

The butyraceous oil which may be collected in distilling roses in England for rose water is of no value as a perfume.

=Description=—Oil of rose is a light yellow liquid, of sp. gr. 0·87 to 0·89. By a reduction of temperature, it concretes owing to the separation of light, brilliant, platy crystals of a stearoptene, the proportion of which differs with the country in which the roses have been grown, the state of the weather during which the flowers were gathered, and other circumstances less well ascertained. The oil produced in the Balkans solidifies, according to Baur, at from 11 to 16° C. In some experiments made by one of us[1025] in 1859, the _fusing_ point of true Turkish attar was found to vary from 16 to 18°; that of a sample from India was 20° C.; of oil distilled in the south of France, 21 to 23°, of an oil produced in Paris, 29°; of oil obtained in distilling roses for rose water in London, 30 to 32° C.

[1020] _Pharm. Journ._ ix. (1868) 286.

[1021] _Consular Reports presented to Parliament, May_, 1872.—The _metical_, _miskal_ or _midkal_ is equal to about 3 dwt. troy=4794 grammes.

[1022] _Consular Reports presented to Parliament_, Aug. 1873. 1090.

[1023] _Forest Flora of North-western and Central India_, 1874. 200.—D. Forbes Watson, Catal. of the Indian Department, Vienna exhibition, 1873. 98.

[1024] Von Maltzan, _Reise in den Regentschaften Tunis und Tripolis_, Leipzig, 1870.

[1025] Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ xviii. (1859). 504-509. _Science Papers_, 172.

From these data, it appears that a cool northern climate is not conducive to the production of a highly odorous oil; and even in Bulgaria experience shows that the oil of the mountain districts holds a larger proportion of stearoptene than that of the lowlands.

Turkish oil of rose is stated by Baur to deviate a ray of polarized light 4° to the right, when examined in a column of 100 mm. The oil from English roses which we examined exhibited no rotation.

=Chemical Composition=—Rose oil is a mixture of a liquid constituent containing oxygen, to which it owes its perfume, and the solid hydrocarbon or stearoptene already mentioned, which is entirely destitute of odour. The proportion which these bodies bear to each other is extremely variable. From the Turkish oil, it may be obtained to the extent of 18 per cent., and from French and English to 35, 42, 60 or even 68 per cent.

Though the stearoptene can be entirely freed from the oxygenated oil, no method is known for the complete isolation of the latter. As obtained by Gladstone[1026], it had a sp. gr. of 0·881 and a boiling point of 216° C.

With regard to the stearoptene of rose oil, the analyses of Théodore de Saussure (1820) and Blanchet (1833) long since showed its composition to accord with the formula CₙH₂ₙ. The experiments of one of us[1027] confirm this striking fact, which assigns to the stearoptene in question a very exceptional place among the hydrocarbons of volatile oils, all of which are less rich in hydrogen.

Rose stearoptene separates when attar of roses is mixed with alcohol. We have isolated it also from oil obtained from Mitcham roses, by diluting the oil with a little chloroform and precipitating with glacial acetic acid or spirit of wine, the process being several times repeated. The stearoptene was lastly maintained for some days at 100° C.; thus obtained, it is inodorous, but when heated evolves an offensive smell like that of heated wax or fat. At 32·5° it melts; at 150° vapour is evolved; at 272° C. it begins to boil, soon after which it turns brown and then blackish. Stains of the stearoptene on paper do not disappear by the heat of the water-bath and the relapse of some days.

If cautiously melted by the warmth of the sun, the stearoptene forms on cooling microscopic crystals of very peculiar shape. Most of them have the form of truncated hexahedral pyramids, not however belonging to the rhombohedric system, as the angles are evidently not equal; many of them are oddly curved, thus §. Examined under the polarizing microscope, these crystals from their refractive power make a brilliant object.

Rose stearoptene is a very stable body, yet by boiling it for some days with fuming nitric acid, it is slowly dissolved, and converted into various acids of the homologous series of fatty acids, and into oxalic acid. Among the former, we detected butyric and valerianic. The chief product is however succinic acid, which we obtained in pure crystals, showing all the well-known reactions.

[1026] _Journ. of Chem. Soc._ x. (1872) 12.

[1027] Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1869) 147.

The same products are obtained even much easier by treating paraffin with nitric acid; it yields however less of succinic acid. The general behaviour and appearance of paraffin is in fact nearly the same as that of rose stearoptene. But what is called _paraffin_, is a series of extremely similar hydrocarbons, answering to the general formula CₙH₍₂ₙ₊₂₎ (_n_ being equal to more than 16), the separation of which has not yet been thoroughly effected. The fusion point of the different kinds of paraffin generally ranges from 42 to 60° C., yet one sort from the bituminous shale of Autun, prepared and examined by Laurent,[1028] melts at 33° C., and in this respect agrees with our stearoptene. It is therefore possible that the latter actually belongs to the paraffin series.

We have not ascertained the correctness of Baur’s strange experiments (1872, _Jahresbericht der Pharm._ p. 460), by which he believes to have converted the liquid part of rose oil into the stearoptene by means of a current of hydrogen.

=Commerce=—Formerly attar of rose came into commerce by way of Austria; it is now shipped from Constantinople. From the interior, it is transported in flattened round tin bottles called _kunkumas_, holding from 1 to 10 lb., which are sewed up in white woollen cloth. These sometimes reach this country, but more commonly the attar is transferred at Constantinople to small white glass bottles, ornamented with gilding, imported from Germany.

=Uses=—Attar of rose is of no medicinal importance, but serves occasionally as a scent for ointments. Rose water is sometimes made with it, but is not so good as that distilled from the flowers. Attar is much used in perfumery, but still more in the scenting of snuff.

=Adulteration=—No drug is more subject than attar of rose to adulteration, which is principally effected by the addition of the volatile oil of an Indian grass, _Andropogon Schœnanthus_ L. This oil, which is called in Turkish _Idris yàghi_, and also _Entershah_, and is more or less known to Europeans as _Geranium Oil_, is imported into Turkey for this express purpose, and even submitted to a sort of purification before being used.[1029] It was formerly added to the attar only in Constantinople, but now the mixing takes place at the seat of the manufacture. It is said that in many places the roses are absolutely sprinkled with it before being placed in the still. As grass oil does not solidify by cold, its admixture with rose oil renders the latter less disposed to crystallize. Hence arises a preference among the dealers in Turkey for attar of the mountain districts, which, having a good proportion of stearoptene, will bear the larger dilution with grass oil without its tendency to crystallize becoming suspiciously small. Thus, in the circular of a commercial house in Constantinople, dated from Kizanlik, occur the phrases—“_Extra strong oil_,”—“_Good strong congealing oil_,”—“_Strong good freezing oil_;”—while the 3rd quality of attar is spoken of as a “_not congealing oil_.” The same circular states the belief of the writers, that in the season in which they wrote, “_not a single metical of unadulterated oil_” would be sent away.

The chief criteria, according to Baur, for the purity of rose oil are:—1. _Temperature at which crystallization takes place_: a good oil should congeal well in five minutes at a temperature of 12·5° C. 2. _Manner of crystallizing._—The crystals should be light, feathery, shining plates, filling the whole liquid. Spermaceti, which has been sometimes used to replace the stearoptene, is liable to settle down in a _solid cake_, and is easily recognizable. Furthermore, it melts at 50° C. and so do most varieties of paraffin. The microscopic crystals of the latter are somewhat similar to those of rose stearoptene, yet they may be distinguished by an attentive comparative examination.

[1028] _Ann. de Chim. et de Phys._ liv. (1833) 394.

[1029] For particulars, see Baur (p. 262, note 3).

FRUCTUS ROSÆ CANINÆ.

_Cynosbata_; _Fruit of the Dog-rose_, _Hips_; F. _Fruits de Cynorrhodon_; G. _Hagebutten_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rosa canina_ L., a bush often 10 to 12 feet high, found in hedges and thickets throughout Europe except Lapland and Finland, and reaching the Canary Islands, Northern Africa, Persia and Siberia; universally dispersed throughout the British Islands.[1030]

=History=—The fruits of the wild rose, including other species besides _R. canina_ L., have a scanty, orange, acid, edible pulp, on account of which they were collected in ancient times when garden fruits were few and scarce. Galen[1031] mentions them as gathered by country people in his day, as they still are in Europe. Gerarde in the 16th century remarks that the fruit when ripe—“maketh most pleasant meats and banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like.“ Though the pulp of hips preserved with sugar which is here alluded to, is no longer brought to table, at least in this country,[1032] it retains a place in pharmacy as a useful ingredient of pill-masses and electuaries.

=Description=—The fruit of a rose consists of the bottle-shaped calyx, become dilated and succulent by growth, and sometimes crowned with 5 leafy segments, enclosing numerous dry carpels or achenes, containing each one exalbuminous seed. The fruit of _R. canina_ called a _hip_, is ovoid, about ¾ of an inch long, with a smooth, red, shining surface. It is of a dense, fleshy texture, becoming on maturity, especially after frost, soft and pulpy, the pulp within the shining skin being of an orange colour, and of an agreeable sweetish subacid taste. The large interior cavity contains numerous hard achenes, which, as well as the walls of the former, are covered with strong short hairs.

For medicinal use, the only part required is the soft orange pulp, which is separated by rubbing it through a hair sieve.

=Microscopic Structure=—The epidermis of the fruit is made up of tabular cells containing red granules, which are much more abundant in the pulp. The latter, as usual in many ripe fruits, consists of isolated cells no longer forming a coherent tissue. Besides these cells, there occur small fibro-vascular bundles. Some of the cells enclose tufted crystals of oxalate of calcium; most of them however are loaded with red granules, either globular or somewhat elongated. They assume a bluish hue on addition of perchloride of iron, and are turned blackish by iodine. The later colouration reminds one of that assumed by starch granules under similar circumstances; yet on addition of a very dilute solution of iodine, the granules always exhibit a _blackish_, not a blue tint, so that they are not to be considered as starch granules. The hairs of the pulp are formed of a single, thick-walled cell, straight or sometimes a little crooked.

[1030] Baker, _Journ. of Linn. Soc._ Bot. xi. (1869) 226.

[1031] _De Alimentorum facultatibus_, ii. c. 14. In the Amur country a much larger and better fruit is afforded by _R. acicularis_ Lindl. and _R. cinnamomea_ L.—Maximowicz, _Primitiæ Floræ Amurensis_, 1859. 100. 453.

[1032] In Switzerland and Alsace a very agreeable _confiture_ of hips is still in use.

=Chemical Composition=—The pulp examined by Biltz (1824) was found to afford nearly 3 per cent. of citric acid, 7·7 of malic acid, besides citrates, malates and mineral salts, 25 per cent. of gum, and 30 of uncrystallizable sugar.

=Uses=—Hips are employed solely on account of their pulp, which mixed with twice its weight of sugar, constitutes the _Confectio Rosæ caninæ_ of pharmacy.

SEMEN CYDONIÆ.

_Quince Seeds_, _Quince Pips_; F. _Semences ou Pepins de Coings_; G. _Quittensamen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Pirus Cydonia_ L. (_Cydonia vulgaris_ Pers.), the quince tree, is supposed to be a true native of Western Asia, from the Caucasian provinces of Russia to the Hindu Kush range in Northern India. But it is now apparently wild also in many of the countries which surround the Mediterranean basin.

In a cultivated state, it flourishes throughout temperate Europe, but is far more productive in southern than in northern regions. Quinces ripen in the south of England, but not in Scotland, nor in St. Petersburg, or in Christiana.

=History=—The quince was held in high esteem by the ancients, who considered it an emblem of happiness and fertility; and, as such, it was dedicated to Venus, whose temples it was used to decorate. Some antiquarians maintain that quinces were the _Golden Apples_ of the Hesperides. The name Cydonia alludes to the town of Kydon, now Canea, in Creta; in the Talmud quinces are called Cretan apples.

Porcius Cato in his graphic description of the management of a Roman farmhouse, alludes to the storing of quinces both cultivated and wild; and there is much other evidence to prove that from an early period the quince was abundantly grown throughout Italy. Charlemagne, A.D. 812, enjoined its cultivation in central Europe.[1033] At what period it was introduced into Britain is not evident, but we have observed that _Baked Quinces_ are mentioned among the viands served at the famous installation feast of Nevill, archbishop of York in 1466.[1034]

The use of mucilage of quince seeds has come to us through the Arabians; it is still met with in Turkestan.

=Description=—The quince is a handsome fruit of a golden yellow, in shape and size resembling a pear. It has a very agreeable and powerful smell, but an austere, astringent taste, so that it is not eatable in the raw state. In structure, it differs from an apple or a pear in having many seeds in each cell, instead of only two.

[1033] Pertz, _Monumenta Germaniæ historica_, Legum, i. (1835) 187.

[1034] Leland, _De rebus Britannicis Collectanea_, vi. (1774) 5.

The fruit is, like an apple, 5-celled, with each cell containing a double row of closely-packed seeds, 8 to 14 in number, cohering by a soft mucilaginous membrane with which each is surrounded. By drying, they become hard, but remain agglutinated as in the cell. The seeds have an ovoid or obconic form, rather flattened and 3-sided by mutual pressure. From the hilum at the lower pointed end, the raphe passes as a straight ridge to the opposite extremity, which is slightly beaked and marked with a scar indicating the chalaza. The edge opposite the raphe is more or less arched according to the position of the individual seed in the cell. The testa encloses two thick, veined cotyledons, having a straight radicle directed towards the hilum.

Quince seeds have a mahogany-brown colour, and when unbroken a simply mucilaginous taste. But the kernels have the odour and taste of bitter almonds, and evolve hydrocyanic acid when comminuted and mixed with water.

=Microscopic Structure=—The epidermis of the seed consists of one row of cylindrical cells, the walls of which swell up in the presence of water and are dissolved, so as to yield an abundance of mucilage. This process can easily be observed, if thin sections of the seed are examined under glycerine, which acts on them but slowly.

=Chemical Composition=—The mucilage of the epidermis is present in such quantity, that the seed easily coagulates forty times its weight of water. By complete exhaustion, the seeds afford about 20 per cent. of dry mucilage, containing considerable quantities of calcium salts and albuminous matter, of which it is not easily deprived. When treated with nitric acid, it yields oxalic acid. After a short treatment with strong sulphuric acid it is coloured blue by iodine. Tollens and Kirchner (1874) assign to it the formula C₁₈H₂₈O₁₄, regarding it as a compound of gum, C₁₂H₂₀O₁₀, and cellulose, C₆H₁₀O₅, less one molecule of water.

Quince mucilage has but little adhesive power, and is not thickened by borax. That portion of it which is really in a state of solution and which may be separated by filtration, is precipitable by metallic salts or by alcohol. The latter precipitate after it has been dried is no longer dissolved by water either cold or warm. Quince mucilage is, on the whole, to be regarded as a soluble modification of cellulose.

The seeds on distillation with water afford a little hydrocyanic acid, and, probably, bitter almond oil.

=Commerce=—Quince seeds reach England from Hamburg; and are frequently quoted in Hamburg price-currents as _Russian_; they are also brought from the south of France and from the Cape of Good Hope. They are largely imported into India from the Persian Gulf, and by land from Afghanistan.

=Uses=—A decoction of quince seeds is occasionally used as a demulcent external application in skin complaints. It is also sometimes added to eye-lotions. Quince seeds are in general use among the natives of India as a demulcent tonic and restorative. They have been found useful by Europeans in dysentery.

HAMAMELIDEÆ.

STYRAX LIQUIDUS.[1035]

_Balsamum Styracis_; _Liquid Storax_; F. _Styrax liquide_; G. _Flüssiger Storax_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Liquidambar orientalis_ Miller (_L. imberbe Aiton_), a handsome, umbrageous tree resembling a plane, growing to the height of 30 to 40 feet or more,[1036] and forming forests in the extreme south-western part of Asia Minor. In this region the tree occurs in the district of Sighala near Melasso, about Budrum (the ancient Halicarnassus) and Moughla, also near Giova and Ullà in the Gulf of Giova, and lastly near Marmorizza and Isgengak opposite Rhodes. It also grows in the valley of the El-Asi (the ancient Orontes), as proved by a specimen in the Vienna herbarium, collected by Gödel, Austrian Consul at Alexandretta. In this locality it was seen by Kotschy in 1835, but mistaken for a plane. The same traveller informed one of us that he believed it to occur at Narkislik, a village near Alexandretta.

The tree is not known to grow in Cyprus, Candia, Rhodes, Kos, or indeed in any of the islands of the Mediterranean.[1037]

=History=—Two substances of different origin have been known from a remote period under the name of _Styrax_ or _Storax_, namely the resin of _Styrax officinalis_ L. (see further on), and that of _Liquidambar orientalis_ Miller, the latter commonly distinguished as _Liquid Storax_.

According to Krinos of Athens, who has carefully investigated the history of the drug,[1038] the earliest allusions to Liquid Storax occur in the writings of Aëtius and of Paulus Ægineta,[1039] who name both _Storax_ and _Liquid Storax_ (πύρα ζυγρὸς). Of these Greek physicians, who lived respectively in the 6th and 7th centuries, the second also mentions the resin of Ζυγία, which is regarded by Krinos as synonymous with the latter substance.[1040]

[1035] The feminine gender of Styrax has been in use for a long time. In Greek it denotes the tree, as also does sometimes the masculine gender, the _neutral_ being reserved to the resin. In Latin the resin is masculini generis (Dr. Rice).

[1036] For a good figure of _L. orientalis_, see Hooker’s _Icones Plantarum_ (3rd series, 1867) pl. 1019, or Hanbury, _Science Papers_, 1876. 140; also Bentley and Trimen, _Medicinal Plants_,