Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-02-12 00:00:00

HISTORY OF PERFUMERY

(From Dr. J3fuspratt's Dktionary of Chemistry.)
By nature's swift and secret working hand
The gardenglows, and fills the liberal air

Witli'lavish odors:—Thomson

The distinction between perfume and odor is substan-
tial as well as critical—the former designating those
volatile emanations which are usually. considered agree-
able, while the latter; in its general signification,
is applicable to every scent, irrespective of its nature.
Grernio, in " The Taming of the Shrew," directs that the
papers he sends to Bianca may be well perfumed, for
she is sweeter than perfume itself ; while, in " King John,"
Shakspere makes Constance call death " thou odoriferous
stench." Of the five senses, that of smelling is the least
valued, and, as a consequence, is the least tutored ; but
from this one must not conclude that it,is of insignificant
importance to the welfare and happiness of mankind.
By neglecting to tutor. the olfactory. nerve, . one is
constantly Jed to breathe vitiated air, and . thus poison.
the body by neglecting the warning given at the gate of
the lungs. Persons usinc, perfames are more sensitive
to the existence of a vitiated atmosphere than those who
consider the faculty of smelling as an almost useless gift.
There is no delicate luxury which has held its influence
so long and so uninterruptedly upon refined society as
that of perfames ; and their annals comprise the history
of the folly, voluptuousness, and extravagance of past
ages. The antiquity of their use is very great, and one
is almost lost in searching for their origin.

Perfumes seem to have-been first imported from Elam,
now called Persia, and they were important articles of
commerce between that country and. Egypt. The distant
deserts were often traversed by camels laden with odours
of sweet scents ; and when the Ishmaelitish Merchants,
to whom Joseph was sold, were going to Egypt,. they
were wending their way with spices and balm and myrrh.
At a latter period, but long before the time- of Constan-
tine, the Turks were accustomed to lubricate their
persons with fragrant unctions, to complete the grate-
fulness and value of their baths. Moses was commanded
to speak unto the children of Israel, that in the offerings
of the tabernacle they should bring sweet spices, and
anointing oil,' with sweet incense; and that they should
make of the former a perfunte,a confection after the art
of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy.
Indeed, perfumes were considered among most of the
ancients as necessaries of life, and entered into nearly
all their ceremonies of a religious or social nature. They
were used both at feasts and at funerals, and were
burned as well in honour of the living as the dead.
The priests of Memphis offered them as incense, daily,
to the sun; and the Egyptians, by their aid and with
resins, have transmitted their illustrious dead, in mum-
mies, through thousands of years to living generations,
As in the Mosaic days, spices and frankincense were
held as sacred offerings to the Lord of Hosts, so in the
new era of religion the practice was not discontinued,
and Christ, after crucifixion, was embalmed in spices,
but at first, it seems that certain spices were devoted
only to religious uses, for Ezekiel accused the Jews of
profanity in applying to their own purposes the odors
which were reserved for sacred things ; and Isaiah re-
proaches them as faithless to God, and as like a spouse
painted and perfumed to please strangers.
The present mode of introducing flowers at repasts
was common among the Grecians and Romans. Rich
perfumes and precious ointments were among the trea-
sures found by Alexander in the camp of Darius, and
thus, possibly, the Greeks borrowed the example of
their use from the Persians. The violet was most
grateful to the Athenian taste, but every part of the
body had its appropriate perfume ; the oil extracted from
the palm was thought best adapted to the cheeks and the
breasts ; the arms were refreshed with balsam mint ;
sweet majoram supplied an oil, for the hair and eye-
brows ; and wild thyme for the knee and neck. Per-
fumes, in time became very common among them. The
nardus and malobathrum were held in much estimation,
and were imported from Syria. The baccaris, the
brenthium, the psagda, the plangonium, and the
sagdas, made principally of the general constituent of
all the ancient ointments, videlicit, myrrh, had their
respective eulogists. The saloon, where any entertain-
ment was given, was generally perfumed by burning
myrrh or frankincense in it. A nice distinction divided
perfumes into two kinds ; the first were of a thicker sort,
and applied-more as salves, or wax ; the latter were liquid,
and poured over the limbs. Ta indulge in the liquid oint-
ment was considered as effeminate and voluptuous, but the
sober and the virtuous were permitted to use the thicker
variety without any impeachment of their good qualities.
The supplies of perfumery occupied a considerable place
in the stock of those artisans who contributed to the
embellishment of a Grecian lady of fashion. The article
itself bore a high price, but this did not hinder volup-
tuaries using it profusely, not, however, without an occa-
sional admonition from the grave men of the mischief
arising from its abuse. . The old people referred to a
statute of Solon, forbidding the sale of perfumery, at
least by the male sex '• Sophocles significantly described
Venus as sprinkled with perfume, and looking. in a mirror;
and Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, as moist with olive
oil, and practising the exercises of the palaastra. Socrates
objected to the use of perfumery altogether. There is
the same smell, said he, in a gentleman and a slave, when
both are perfumed. In his opinion, the only odors worth
cultivating were those arising from honourable toils, and
the smell of gentility.

A knowledge of Perfumes soon extended from Qreece
to Rome ; and the abuse in the employment of them was
such that Pliny lamented their introduction into the
camp: Nero is said to have consumed in the funeral pile
of his wife, PoppFea, more incense than could have been
produced from the whole of Arabia in a year ; and
under the consulate of Sucinius Crassus, in order to
secure 'a sufficiency for church purposes,

law was neces-
sary to restrict the use of them to that, and a few other

With the decline of the Roman Empire, the European
commerce in perfumery diminished ; and in the disas-

trous epoch of Vandalism, when floods of barbarians
inundated the capital of the world, refined taste took its
flight, and perfumes became obsolete. In modern days,
however, civilisation revived, and brought back with it
this one of its concomitants, which was soon nurtured
into a vigorous growth, upon the institution of a new era
of gallantry and elegance. The supremacy of woman's
influence being thus re-established, perfumes, as aids to
beauty, were in constant and extravagant demand.
In the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, the ladies at court
indulged most freely in perfumes, and fashion ordained
an ever-varying routine; so that the royal apartments
were one day fragrant with the scent of the tuberose, and
the next with that of amber and cloves ; and so on, con-
secutively, each succeeding day bringing a change of the
reigning odor. In that luxurious age, the personal use
of perfumes was not confined to the fair sex, but the
effeminate gallants and petitmaitres of the day gloried in
perfuming themselves with the favourite scents of mis-
tresses, or of presiding belles ' • so that allegiance was
recognised, not, as in more chivalrous times, by the knight
wearing the colours of the fair one who had enslaved
him, but by his smelling of the particular odor which she
had consecrated to herself.

Pathologically considered, the use of perfumes is in the
most eminent degree prophylactic ; the refreshing quali-
ties of the citrine odors to an invalid is well known.
Health has often been restored when life and death
trembled in the balance, by merely sprinkling the essence
of cedrat in a sick chamber.
Throughout all civilisation, from the dins early ages
to the enlightened days of the present—through every
ramification of society, and in all the sacred ceremonies
of life—flowers and perfumes have ever borne a conspi-
cuous part, and by their graces and freshness, touching
allegories and seducing sweetness, blended themselves
with the pleasures and hopes a mankind; sometimes
typifying transient images, but still, also, appearing as the
beautiful symbols of those affections and principles which.
are most enduring.