Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-07-01
Facts About Perfumes.
Boston Transcript.

Choice perfumes may beconsidered as
belonging 10 three classes the so called
bouquet perfumes. those that are the
simple Odors of flowers whose names they
bear and those that by delicate art employ
such combinations and blendings as OF
various odors as together stimulate per
fectly the fume of some particular flower.
the real odor of which is so evanescent
and delicate that it can not be caught and
fixed by any process yet known TO science.
OF the first of these, the representative
one that most readily occurs to my mind
at present is the Edeni2' that | have al
ready mentioned among the classes. The
inventor of that perfume was no less than
nine years in bringing il TO perfection.
and when it was done he was so justly en-
thusiastic over il that he declared that in
it art was glorihed and nature eclipsed.'
All these bouquet perfumes are made by
various blendings of the result of the en-
heurage process the extracted odors of
violet jasmin, tuberose, rose, orange
flower, and cassie together
with musk. oil of rose oil of ylang- ylang
and ambergris as a tixateur. One or an
other of those may be left out of a special
blending but this is the open field for
selection. The enheurage process con
sists in exposing clarified grease, thinly
spread on glass frames, to the presence
of the flowers, until it has taken their
odor from them. That is done by manu-
facturers in the valley of the Var. in the
south of France. where vast fields of
sweet-smelling flowers are grown for this
purpose. Alcohol afterward takes up all
the perfume from the grease, and the
perfuIned alcohol is what is used in max
ing the extracts for the toilet. 1t Is in
the grease form that the perfumes are
imported TO this country. Other fixateurs
than that which Ihave mentioned are en-
plOyed, such as gum benzoin and gum
tolu. The province of ambergris Is TO
blend and develop perfumes, to give them
homogeneity, "a il were. Its natural
smell is not pleasant. being more like
damp cellar than anything else. 1t is
found in the spermaceti whale, is an in
dicati0n of an abnormal and unhealthy
condition of that creature, and is suppOs-
ed to be a product of indigestion. Never
theless it is a requisite for the perfumer.
and nothing else can take it place.
Doubtless the incest art of the per
fumeries is shown in the perfect si2ula-
ton Of the odOrs of certain flowers. the
real perfume of which can not be caught
Such flower, for instance, is the lily of
the valley; yet here is a perfume named
after that flower, the entrancingly sweet
odor of which Is the perfect reproduction
of natures work, so far as the smell goes
The reproduction of such a stimulant
perfume is sometimes the work of years
1t can only be carried on when the flowers
themselves are in perfection for purposes
of comparison, for a scent can no more
be accurately remembered than it can be
analysed. And even when the time is
propitous the artist compounder must
lay aside his work for days together be-
cause his olfactories grow weary, tempo
rarily vitiated and unreliable. Two of
our most delightfully."- sweet flowers that
grow upon our continent, the magnolia
and the tea olive of Georgia and Alabama,
have never yet been perfectly simulated
in perfume though they have been the
subj ects of almost countless experiments
Again and again the exact odors have
been caught and lost again the moment
that the necessary tixateurs for retaining
them were added to the alcoholic com
pounds. OF course they will be won some
day, but when they do they will have been
well earned