Most of us take for granted the sense of smell. It gives pleasure, warning, anticipation and a sense of nostalgia. People have used perfumes since the days of Ancient Persia and Egypt in order to improve their personal smell. In this work, Askinson traces the history of perfumery and gives us an overview of the sources of perfumes and how they are manipulated to enhance our lives.
By : George William Askinson
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The great progress which the art of perfumery has made during recent times is due to several causes, the chief one of which is fully realized only by the manufacturer on a large scale, who stands, as it were, behind the scenes and has access to facts and information concerning the materials he uses, which are not so easily accessible to the dilettante in perfumery, or remain altogether unknown to the latter. This important factor is the advance in our knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of the several substances used in perfumery, whereby we can better discriminate between the genuine and the spurious, the choicest and the inferior, thus insuring, at the very start, a satisfactory result, instead of being compelled to resort to wasteful experimentation and empiricism. A better knowledge has also been gained of the sources of the commercial varieties of many of the crude products, and a better insight into the conditions affecting their qualities or properties. A more exhaustive study of the proximate principles of many of the essential oils has thrown an entirely new light upon this heretofore obscure class of bodies, placing into our hands new products of definite chemical composition, unvarying in physical properties, and many of them valuable additions to the perfumer’s stock of ingredients. Synthetic chemistry has also added to the list of materials required by the perfumer, and is surely going to add many more to it hereafter. Though some of these, like the new artificial musk, are not yet in a condition to enter into serious competition with the natural products, yet it is merely a question of time when the latter need no longer be depended upon. The increasing demands for the staple articles used by the perfumer have also caused a large increase in the cultivation of many important plants in various parts of the world, and have led to the establishment of new plantations, in some cases to such an extent that the commercial relations have been entirely revolutionized, new territories producing larger crops and a finer product than the old home of the plant. The exploration of hitherto unknown or imperfectly known countries has also largely added to the perfumer’s art, and is likely to continue to do this for a long time to come, since it is now well known that vast districts, more particularly in tropical Africa, are inhabited by a flora abounding in new odoriferous plants.
In spite of all this expansion of the perfumer’s stock of trade, however, which results in the periodical introduction of new compounds, there is a very large number of popular odorous mixtures which remain in steady demand, having taken such firm root among civilized nations that they are not likely to be displaced. It is more particularly with a view to afford information regarding these latter that a work like the present is desirable and necessary. A treatise on perfumery is expected to place into the hands of the purchaser reasonably reliable processes for preparing the most generally approved simple or compound perfumes, as well as accurate information concerning the origin and properties of the various ingredients, together with practical hints regarding the determination of their genuineness and purity.
It is a frequent complaint of those who make preparations after formulas published in works like the present, that they do not succeed in obtaining fully satisfactory products. Another complaint of purchasers of such works is this: that they fail to find formulas yielding preparations identical in every respect with certain celebrated perfumes which have made the reputation and fortune of certain firms. Regarding the first complaint, we would say that the failure lies generally with the complainant himself, through carelessness in the selection of the materials or disregard of the given directions. Concerning the second complaint, a moment’s reflection must convince any one that formulas which are the result of the study and experimentation of years, and the products of which are the main stock of trade of certain firms, are carefully guarded, and not likely to be communicated to others. Moreover, in many cases even a publication of the component parts would not be of much avail, for the manufacturer on the large scale has facilities for blending and seasoning his products which the maker on a small scale does not possess, and it is this part of the art particularly upon which the quality of the products depends.
In preparing the present treatise for the American public many changes were found necessary in the original text, in order to make the information given more correct or definite, and so bring the work more abreast of the present time. In addition to various improvements and additions made in the working formulas comprising the second portion of the work, the description of the natural products used as ingredients, upon the quality and selection of which the success of the perfumer mostly depends, has been carefully revised, and so far as the objects of this work required, completed by Dr. Charles Rice, Associate Editor of American Druggist, etc., in consultation with several experts in the art of perfumery.
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