Perfumery
an article of toilet. Some one has said that the most delicate perfume of all is just no perfume at all. Certainly a truth is hidden in the statement. Some toilet perfumes are animal secretions, as musk and civet, ambergris and castor; some are chemical compounds, more or less successfully imitating natural perfumes; some are natural gum-resins, as myrrh and camphor; but the most suitable perfumes are those derived from plants, such as might be supposed to emanate from a bouquet of fragrant flowers. The fragrance of plants is due to an oil contained in tiny oil cells or sacs in various parts of the plant. This fragrant oil is present in the flower of the rose, violet, jasmine, tuberose, water lily, apple, and plum. In the thyme, geranium, and wintergreen it is found in the leaves. Red cedar and sandalwood have fragrant wood; orris and sweet flag have fragrant roots. In all these cases fragrance is due to the presence of an essential oil; that is, an oil that evaporates slowly. Minute particles of oil falling on the nerves of smell create a pleasing sensation. Some perfumes kill bacteria.
These essential oils are obtained for commercial purposes by distillation--a process of boiling during which the oil evaporates rapidly and is caught and cooled with the steam. The oil and water are then separated by redistilling, but some trace of oil will remain in the water, making rosewater, lavender water, etc. Southern France is noted for fine perfumes. Around Grasse there are vast flower gardens. The inhabitants devote their energy to raising fields of violets, jonquils, mignonettes, roses, carnations, lavender, orange-blossoms, acacias, jasmines, and tuberoses. The harvest begins in March. They sell the fragrant blossoms by weight. The business of distilling, bottling, and labeling perfumes and water has become an immense local industry. Three hundred thousand pounds of violet blossoms alone are used annually. Ten billion pounds of all sorts of blossoms are used in making perfumery and essences.
Some flowers do not yield their perfume freely by distillation. In such cases two other methods are employed. Flowers are spread on hot melted oil or fat until the perfume is absorbed, and by repeating this process several times the grease becomes a highly fragrant ointment or unguent. This method is called maceration. Another way is known as enfleurage or enflowering. A paste of purified suet and lard is spread on the glass bottom of an air-tight box. Blossoms are laid on the grease and the lid is closed tightly. The old flowers are removed and fresh flowers are provided each morning until the grease is fragrant. Next to the French, the Turks are skilled in the various methods of producing attars, pomatums, and fragrant waters.
A hundred years ago scientists had no idea that perfumes could be made in any laboratory but that of nature. It was not supposed that the odor of a violet could ever be obtained except from the violet, but of late the chemist has succeeded in performing wonders. He not only manufactures indigo from coal tar, but, by combining chemicals, he is now able to produce many perfumes and may in time be able to produce any floral perfume known. Such putting together of chemicals is called synthesis. The process is not simple, but the skillful chemist is now able to put together chemicals with offensive odors and produce the perfume of heliotrope, hyacinth, pink, rose, violet, hawthorn, lilac, musk, wintergreen, vanilla, cinnamon, bitter almonds, and that of many fruits.
The fragrance of the article produced by synthesis cannot be told from the fragrance of the perfume of floral origin. It is predicted freely that the fields now beautiful in season with flowers raised for their fragrance will be surrendered to more prosaic crops, and that the delicate perfumes of the toilet will be produced from ill-smelling chemicals in unattractive laboratories.
See Attar Of Roses; Mignonette; Heliotrope; Carnation; Violet; Oil