River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-06-11
PERFUMES DAMAGE VOICES.
French Professors OF Vocal Music
Warn OPERATE Singers Even
Against Flowers.


Girls and others who take singing
lessons are experiencing the incon-
yeniences sometimes attached to sci
ence's discoveries. Those whose
teachers follow assiduously the latest
wrinkles from Paris have been in
structed that in future they must
vigorously abstain from the use of
perfumes, and the wearing of odor-
Gus flowers. Needless to say, many
have rebelled, says the New York
Sun.
The new regulation has been
evolved by the Partisan professors of
vocal music following the results of
certain experiments and observations
made by French scientists. Accord
ing to well-known teacher of sing
ing in this city, who is endeavoring
to make his pupils live up to the new
rule, the experiments, which were
primarily undertaken at the request
of the teachers, have proved that all
strong perfumes are injurious to the
delicate membranes of the throat
Not only does this apply to the
concentrated essences that come in
bottles, but even to the fragrant
odors that issue from the flowers
themselves. The violet's perfume, ac-
cordlng to the experiments made
with the laryngoscope, is perhaps the
most injurious of all, and the wear
ing of punches of these simple and
proverbially modest flowers has been
strictly forbidden to all who are anX-
ious To cultivate their voices.
Prima donnas and other operatic
singers have been cautioned concern
ing the dangers that Turk hidden in
their corsage bouquets, and it is
probable that they will no longer
show their appreciation of the mag
nificent floral tributes which ardent
admirers delight in showering upon
them, by ostentatiously nesting their
faces among the dainty blossoms and
assuming an air of ecstatic bliss.
After all, to layman, to whom the
discovery was eXpounded, it really
did not seem so startling and as
usual. in fact, the wonder is that no
one ever thought it out before. For
it is we'll known that the sense of
smell depends for it's appreciation up
on the tickling effect produced by the
deposit upon the delicate membranes
of the nose of enthusiastically minute
particles thrown off by the odorifer-
Gus object.
Some substances smell not at all
That is because they either throw off
no such particles, OF because the par
ticleS which they do emit are not of
nature to affect the olfactory mem
branes.
Among flowers this is the case par
ticularly. Some have no OdOr; they
fall into the class of substances just
described The smell of others is I'M
pleasant because they throw off par
ticles which are obnoxious 10 the
membranes, and the latter rebel
The so-called fragrant flowers, not
nation, literally tickle the olfactory
membranes to sense of pleasure
and enjoyment, though it is worthy
of note that some persons abhOr the
scent of certain flowers that to the
majority of mankind seem deliciously
fragrant.
If, then, these odoriferous particles
have such lively action Upon. the
nasal membranes, it certainly does
not appear strange that when in
hale6. as they must be at times, they
should have an injurious effect upon
the membranes of the throat, which
are at least as sensitive as those of
the nose. 1t requires no great stretch
of the imagination to conceive that
the inhaling of perfumes, therefore,
might seriously interfere with an OPP
cratic singers powers, which are so
keenly dependent upon the perfect
condition of the laryngeal mem
branes.