is spirit of wine distilled upon rosemary, and which therefore contains its oily and strong-scented essence (see PHARMACY, p. 365, Encycl.). To be really good, says Professor Beckmann, Hist. of India, the spirit of wine ought to be very strong, and the rosemary fresh; and if that be the case, the leaves are as proper as the flowers, which, according to the prescription of some, should only be taken. It is likewise necessary that the spirit of wine be distilled several times upon the rosemary; but that process is too troublesome and expensive to admit of this water being disposed of at the low price it is usually sold for; and it is certain, that the greater part of it is nothing else than common brandy, united with the essence of rosemary in the simplest manner. In general, it is only mixed with a few drops of the oil. For a long time past, this article has been brought to us principally from France, where it is prepared, particularly at Beaucaire, Montpellier, and other places in Languedoc, in which that plant grows in great abundance.
The name Hungary water seems to signify, that this water, so celebrated for its medicinal virtues, is a Hungarian invention; and we read in many books, that the receipt for preparing it was given to a queen of Hungary by a hermit; or, as others say, by an angel, who appeared to her in a garden, all entrance to which was shut, in the form of a hermit or a youth. Some call the queen St. Isabella; but those who pretend to be best acquainted with the circumstance affirm, that Elizabeth, wife of Charles Robert king of Hungary, and daughter of Vladislaus II. king of Poland, who died in 1380 or 1381, was the inventor. By often walking with this spirit of rosemary, when in the 70th year of her age, she was cured, as we are told, of the gout and an universal lameness; so that she not only lived to pass 80, but became so lively and beautiful, that she was courted by the king of Poland, who was then a widower, and who wished to make her his second wife.
The Professor justly considers this story as a ridiculous fable (a). "It appears to me (says he) most probable,
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(a) It was first published to the world in 1659 in a posthumous work of John Prevot, who says, that in the beginning of a very old breviary, he saw a remedy for the gout, written by the queen's own hand, in the following words:
"I Elizabeth, queen of Hungary, being very infirm and much troubled with the gout in the 72d year of my age," bale, that the French name Peau de la reine d'Hongrie, was chosen by those who, in latter times, prepared spirit of rosemary for sale, in order to give greater consequence and credit to their commodity; as various medicines, some years ago, were extolled in the gazettes under the title of Pompadour, though the celebrated lady, from whose name they derived their importance, certainly neither ever saw them nor used them."