男人是一部思想史，女人是一部感情史

我买的第一本关于芳疗的书是Maggie Tisserand的Aromatherapy for Women。就像很多人评价的那样，这本书会让人对芳疗产生空前的热情，也在我对芳疗沉迷的过程中起到了推波助澜的作用。

在Introduction部分的第二页，有长长的一段话引起我的八卦热情：

One day a friend turned up on the doorstep, nursing a badly burned arm. He had removed the radiator cap from his Jeep, and a jet of steam had seared the skin from his forearm. He resolutely refused to go to the hospital, insisting that we treat him. Annie (an SRN nurse and trainee acupuncturist) diagnosed the injury as being a second-degree burn, and tidied up the site of injury with sterile instruments. I administered homoeopathic arnica to lessen the shock, and Robert Tisserand applied neat lavender oil on sterile gauze. The essence stung at first, but then reduced the pain, and this treatment was employed twice a day for a little over a week. After two weeks the arm was completely healed, there was no scar tissue, and our friend was able to return to work.

Lavender oil had been chosen because it had been used by Gattefosse in the 1930s and later by Dr Valnet – both in the treatment of burns, and both with remarkable results. Witnessing for myself the incredible healing power of essential oils in this way was the start of a long love affair with aromatherapy.

During my 11-year marriage to Robert Tisserand, now a leading aromatherapist, I literally “lived and breathed” aromatherapy, utilizing essential oils for health, beauty and well-being, and although I am now divorced from Robert, my love for aromatherapy and my appreciation and respect for essential oils just gets stronger.

当时我所了解到的芳疗界的名人，远一些的如莫利夫人，近一些的如Shirley Price 和 Len Price，更近的如温佑君，甚至我们版里的园丁，星竹，猪猪，还有小鱼儿等等，都是极其幸福美满的。我甚至有种感觉，是否亲近精油和植物，就会让人更懂得欣赏和宽容，也更容易生活幸福？所以我对Maggie和Robert 在生育了三个小孩之后竟然离婚了这一事实颇难接受。

看Maggie这段话的感觉是，她对Robert还是很欣赏和崇拜的。医务所里的一件寻常小事，也被她描写的含情脉脉，甚至于改变一生：Witnessing for myself the incredible healing power of essential oils in this way was the start of a long love affair with aromatherapy.那么他们的感情又是怎么结束的呢？

不久以后，我在另一本书里再次读到这桩“医务所里的寻常小事”，那是在美国版的the Art of Aromatherapy 第九章的第四页。Robert 写道，

Most, if not all, essences are cytophylactic; they stimulate the generation of new cells, and in so doing help to preserve the health and youth of the skin. This cytophylactic property is particularly evident in oils of lavender and orange blossom. It is one of the reasons why lavender oil is so good for healing burns, when the upper layers of the skin are destroyed. This was dramatically demonstrated to me when I was called on to treat a quite serious burn. The patient was a friend nearby. He had taken the cap off his car radiator, not realizing that the water was boiling. Immediately a powerful jet of steam shot up, searing his inner forearm, and taking off the whole of the epidermis, a severe second degree burn. He immediately rushed over to see me. I had never treated a serious burn in my life, and would have sent him to hospital, but I was working with a nurse （这个应该是Maggie文中的Annie吧？） who had plenty of casualty experience. She carefully removed the dead skin that was still stuck to his arm, and we treated it with fine gauze impregnated with neat lavender oil. The wound was extremely painful, but the essence stung only slightly, and then reduced the pain. At first he needed almost constant attention, but within seven days it was completely healed, with absolutely no scarring or hint of infection. My nurse was suitably impressed.

看来这件事情对Robert的影响也颇深，虽然他仅仅将它排在第九章，SKIN CARE．令我颇为失望的是，只有一句话提到Maggie(或许还不是Maggie而是Annie？当然这个可能性不大，既然Annie有那么多casualty experience,应该不至于对这个事件suitably impressed吧？)，也只是轻描淡写的最后一句话。

但我觉得这句话还是有其玄妙之处，因为它看起来跟前面的描写不太连贯啊，哪个医生在描写病例的时候会提到自己的护士有什么感受的？也许他借此辗转了表达了自己对往事的美好回忆；也许他对自己引领Maggie进入芳疗世界颇为骄傲；也许是我猜不到的理由。

八卦都快完成了，还没有跟题目联系起来，其实我写文章之前是想说，这件事情对Maggie来说是一件改变人生的love story, 对Robert来讲却不过是一个效果很好的个案。现在想来，也未见得如此。
希望这样贫瘠的内容不会让大家太过失望。