Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-09-22
BOTTLED SWEETNESS.
Facts About Rich and Delightful Per-
fumes, Natural and Fictitious

Facts About Rich and Delightful Per-
fumes, Natural and Fictitious,
Choice perfumes may be considered
as belonging to three classes-the So
called bouquet perfumes, those that
are the simple odors of the flowers
whose names they bear, and those that
by delicate art employ such combina-
tons and blendings of various odors as
together simulate perfectly the perfume
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 edna" The inventor
of that perfume was no less than nine
years in bringing it to perfection, and
when twas done he was so justly en-
thusiastic over it that he declared that
Gin it art was glorified and nature
eclipsed!' All these bouquet perfumes
are made by various blendings of the
results of the enfeurage process-the
extracted odors of violet, jasmin, tube
rose, rose, orange flower and casse-to-
gether with musk, oil of rose, oil of Wang
ylang and ambergris as fixateur One
or another of these may be left out of
special blending, but that is the open
field for selection. The enfeurage pro-
cess consists 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 manufacturers in the, valley of
the Var, in the south of France, where
vast fields of understanding flowers are
grown for this purpose. Alcohol after
ward takes up all the perfume from the
grease, and the perfumed alcohol is
what is used in making the extracts for
the toilet. 1t is in the grease form that
the perfumes are imported to this coun-
try. Other fixateurs than that which I
have mentioned are employed, such as
gum benzoin and gum tolu. The prov
ince of ambergris is to blend and de-
velop perfumes, to give them homo
gently, as it were. Its natural smell is
not pleasant, being more like that of
damp cellar than anything else. 1t is
found in the spermaceti whale, is an in
dication of an abnormal and unhealthy
condition Of that creature, and is sup
posed to be product of indigestion.
Nevertheless it is requisite for the per-
fumer, and nothing else can take its
place.
Doubtless the incest art of the per-
fumer is shown in the perfect stimulation
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 there is a perfume named
after that flower, the entrancingly
sweet ordor of which is the perfect re-
production of natures work, so Tar as
the smell goes. The reproduction of
such simulant perfume is sometimes
the work of years. 1t can only be car
ried on when the flowers themselves are
in perfection for purposes of comparison,
for scent can no more be accurately
remembered than it can be analysed.
And even when the time is propitious
the artist compounder must often lay
aside his work for days together, because
his olfactories grow weary, temporarily
vitiated and unreliable. Two of our
most delightfully."- sweet flowers that
grow upon our continent, the magnolia
and the tea olive of Georgia and Ala
Dama, nave never yet Deen perfectly
simulated in perfume, though they have
been the subjects of almost countless
experiments. Again and again~the ex-
act odors have been caught and lost
again the moment that the necessary
fixateurs for retaining them were added
to the alcoholic compounds. OF course
they will be won some day, but when
they do they will have been well
earned. -BoStoaa Times.