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Page 8
"The trade for the East in perfume-drugs caused many a vessel to
spread its sails to the Red Sea, and many a camel to plod over
that tract which gave to Greece and Syria their importance as
markets, and vitality to the rocky city of Petra. Southern Italy
was not long ere it occupied itself in ministering to the luxury
of the wealthy, by manufacturing scented unguents and perfumes. So
numerous were the UNGUENTARII, or perfumers, that they
are said to have filled the great street of ancient
Capua."--HOFMANN.
As an art, in England, perfumery has attained little or no distinction.
This has arisen from those who follow it as a trade, maintaining a
mysterious secrecy about their processes. No manufacture can ever become
great or important to the community that is carried on under a veil of
mystery.
"On the subject of trade mystery I will only observe, that I am
convinced that it would be far more to the interest of
manufacturers if they were more willing to profit by the
experience of others, and less fearful and jealous of the supposed
secrets of their craft. It is a great mistake to think that a
successful manufacturer is one who has carefully preserved the
secrets of his trade, or that peculiar modes of effecting simple
things, processes unknown in other factories, and mysteries beyond
the comprehension of the vulgar, are in any way essential to skill
as a manufacturer, or to success as a trader."--PROFESSOR
SOLLY.
If the horticulturists of England were instructed how to collect the
odors of flowers, a new branch of manufacture would spring up to vie
with our neighbors' skill in it across the Channel.
Of our five senses, that of SMELLING has been treated with
comparative indifference. However, as knowledge progresses, the various
faculties with which the Creator has thought proper in his wisdom to
endow man will become developed, and the faculty of Smelling will meet
with its share of tuition as well as Sight, Hearing, Touch, and Taste.
Flowers yield perfumes in all climates, but those growing in the warmer
latitudes are most prolific in their odor, while those from the colder
are the sweetest. Hooker, in his travels in Iceland, speaks of the
delightful fragrance of the flowers in the valley of Skardsheidi; we
know that winter-green, violets, and primroses are found here, and the
wild thyme, in great abundance. Mr. Louis Piesse, in company with
Captain Sturt, exploring the wild regions of South Australia, writes:
"The rains have clothed the earth with a green as beautiful as a
Shropshire meadow in May, and with flowers, too, as sweet as an English
violet; the pure white anemone resembles it in scent. The Yellow Wattle,
when in flower, is splendid, and emits a most fragrant odor."
Though many of the finest perfumes come from the East Indies, Ceylon,
Mexico, and Peru, the South of Europe is the only real garden of utility
to the perfumer. Grasse and Nice are the principal seats of the art;
from their geographical position, the grower, within comparatively short
distances, has at command that change of climate best fitted to bring to
perfection the plants required for his trade. On the seacoast his Cassi�
grows without fear of frost, one night of which would destroy all the
plants for a season; while, nearer the Alps, his violets are found
sweeter than if grown in the warmer situations, where the orange tree
and mignionette bloom to perfection. England can claim the superiority
in the growth of lavender and peppermint; the essential oils extracted
from these plants grown at Mitcham, in Surrey, realize eight times the
price in the market of those produced in France or elsewhere, and are
fully worth the difference for delicacy of odor.
The odors of plants reside in different parts of them, sometimes in the
roots, as in the iris and vitivert; the stem or wood, in cedar and
sandal; the leaves, in mint, patchouly, and thyme; the flower, in the
roses and violets; the seeds in the Tonquin bean and caraway; the bark,
in cinnamon, &c.
Some plants yield more than one odor, which are quite distinct and
characteristic. The orange tree, for instance, gives three--from the
leaves one called _petit grain_; from the flowers we procure _neroli_;
and from the rind of the fruit, essential oil of orange, _essence of
Portugal_. On this account, perhaps, this tree is the most valuable of
all to the operative perfumer.
The fragrance or odor of plants is owing, in nearly all cases, to a
perfectly volatile oil, either contained in small vessels, or sacs
within them, or generated from time to time, during their life, as when
in blossom. Some few exude, by incision, odoriferous gums, as benzoin,
olibanum, myrrh, &c.; others give, by the same act, what are called
balsams, which appear to be mixtures of an odorous oil and an inodorous
gum. Some of these balsams are procured in the country to which the
plant is indigenous by boiling it in water for a time, straining, and
then boiling again, or evaporating it down till it assumes the
consistency of treacle. In this latter way is balsam of Peru procured
from the _Myroxylon peruiferum_, and the balsam of Tolu from the
_Myroxylon toluiferum_. Though their odors are agreeable, they are not
much applied in perfumery for handkerchief use, but by some they are
mixed with soap, and in England they are valued more for their medicinal
properties than for their fragrance.
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