Shade of Munchausen! must I refute this by calling your attention to the fact that in the south of France more than 80,000 persons are employed, directly and indirectly, in the cultivation of flowers, and in the extraction of their odors for the use of perfumers? that Italy cultivates flowers for the same purpose to an extent employing land as extensive as the whole of some English counties? that tracts of flower-farms exist in the Balkan, in Turkey, more extensive than the whole of Yorkshire? Our own flower-farms at Mitcham, in Surrey, need not be mentioned in comparison, although important. These, sir, are the main sources of perfumes. There are other sources at Thibet, Tonquin, and in the West Indies; but enough has been said, I hope, to refute the cow-house story. This story is founded on the fact that Benzoic acid can be obtained from the draining of stables, and that Benzoic acid has rather a pleasant odor. Some of the largest wholesale perfumers use five or six pounds of gum benzoin per annum, but none use the benzoic acid. The lozenge-makers consume the most of this article when prepared for commercial purposes; as also the fruit essences. Those of your readers interested in what really is used in perfumery, are referred to the last six numbers of the "Annals of Pharmacy and Practical Chemistry," article "Perfumery."
Your obedient servant,
Septimus Piesse.
Chemistry and Perfumery.[P]
Sir,
The discussion about chemistry and perfumery, in reality amounts to this: Mr. Septimus Piesse confines the term "perfumery" to such things as Eau de Cologne, &c.; perfumed soaps, groceries, &c., he does not appear to class as "perfumery." Now the artificial scents are as yet chiefly used for the latter substances, which in common language, and, I should say, in a perfumer's nomenclature also, would be included in perfumery. The authority for cows' urine being used for perfumery is to be found in a little French work called, I believe, "La Chimie de l'Odorat" in which a full description is given of the collection of fresh urine and its application to this purpose. I need scarcely say, that it is the benzoic acid of the urine which is the odoriferous principle.
Your obedient servant,
A Perfumer.
[When benzoic acid is prepared by any of the wet processes, it is free from the fragrant volatile oil which accompanies it when prepared by sublimation from the resin, and to which oil the acid of commerce owes its peculiar odor. This fact completely nullifies the above assertion.—Septimus Piesse.]
Chemistry and Perfumery.[Q]
Sir,
If the author of the Letter on Chemistry and Perfumery, published in No. 50 of your Journal, and intended as a reply to mine—though none was needed—which appeared in No. 49, really be a perfumer, as his signature implies, he would know that I could not, though ever so inclined, "confine the term perfumery" to various odoriferous substances, and exclude scented soaps; because he would be aware that one-third of the returns of every manufacturing perfumer is derived from perfumed soap. I do however emphatically exclude from the term perfumery, "groceries, &c.," the et cætera meaning, I presume, "confectionery," because perfumery has to do with one of the senses, smelling, while groceries, &c., are distinguishable by another, taste; and had not our physical faculties clearly made the distinction, commerce and manufactures would have defined them: I therefore repeat, that the artificial essences of fruits are not used in perfumery, as stated in No. 47, from the quoted authorities. If any man can deny this assertion, let him now do so, "or forever after hold his peace," at least upon this subject. The "Journal of the Society of Arts" is not a medium of mere controversy. If a statement be made in error, let truth correct it, which, if gain-sayed, it should be done, not under the veil of an anonymous correspondent, but with a name to support the assertion. Science has to deal with tangible facts and figures, to the political alone belongs the anonymous ink-spiller.