The gratification of his senses is peculiar to man, and it is to this trait that we are indebted for all the arts. The activities which aimed at the gratification of the eye and ear developed into the creative arts and music, and in like manner human endeavor directed toward the stimulation of the sense of smell has in our time assumed the proportions both of an art and a science; for it was nothing but the advancement of chemistry that made it possible to fix all the pleasant odors offered by nature and to create new perfumes by the artistic combination of these scents. The preparation of perfumes is a very ancient art that is met with among all peoples possessed of any degree of civilization. It is particularly the ancient nations of the Orient which had in truth become masters in the manufacture of numerous perfumes.

The first perfume was the fragrant flower; it has continued to be so to the present day: the sprig of dried lavender flowers which we lay in the clothes-press was probably used for the same purpose by the contemporaries of Aristotle. In the Orient, which we may look upon as the cradle of the art of perfumery, the idea suggested itself early to substitute for the delicious fragrance of the flowers some substances of lasting odor; various sweet-scented resins supplied the material for this purpose. The use of these aromatic resins must have been very extensive: the ancient Egyptians alone consumed extraordinary quantities for embalming their dead. How highly the Oriental peoples in general prized perfumes can be learned from the Bible: the Jews (like the Catholics to the present day) employed an aromatic gum-resin (olibanum, frankincense) in their religious ceremonies; in the Song of Solomon mention is made of Indian perfumes, for instance, cinnamon, spikenard, myrrh, and aloes.

Altogether, incense played a prominent part in the religious ceremonies of the ancient Western Asiatic nations—among many peoples under a theocratic government it was even believed to be sinful to use incense for other than religious purposes. The Bible teaches us that Ezekiel and Isaiah protested against it, and that Moses even prescribed the preparation of certain kinds of incense for use in the tabernacle.

Among the most highly civilized people of antiquity, the Greeks, a large number of fragrant substances, as well as oils perfumed with them—that is to say, perfumes in the same sense as we still understand the term—was known; this will be no surprise to those familiar with the culture of this remarkable people. The odor of violets was the favorite among the Greeks; besides this they used the scent of the different mints, thyme, marjoram, and other aromatic plants. This was carried so far as to become a matter of fashion for the Greek fop to use only certain odors in the form of ointments for the hair, others for the neck, etc. In order to prevent this luxury which was carried to such an excess, Solon even promulgated a law that interdicted the sale of fragrant oils to Athenian men (the law did not apply to the women).

The Romans, who were the pupils of the Greeks in all the arts, carried the luxury with perfumes perhaps even farther. In ancient Rome there was a very numerous guild of perfumers called unguentarii; they are said to have had a street to themselves in Capua. A Patrician Roman anointed himself three times daily with precious, sweet-scented oils which he personally took along into his bath in golden vessels of exquisite workmanship, so-called nartheciÆ. At the funeral of his wife PoppÆa, Nero is said to have used as incense more odorous substances than could be produced in one year in Arabia, at that time the only reputed source of perfumes. This luxury went so far that during the games in the open amphitheatres the whole air was filled with sweet odors ascending from numerous censers arranged in a circle. The apartments of well-to-do Romans always contained large and very valuable urns filled with dried blossoms, to keep the air permanently perfumed.

Roman extravagance with perfumes was carried to such an excess that under the consulate of Licinius Crassus a law was passed which restricted the use of perfumery, there being good reason to fear that there would not be enough for the ceremonies in the temples.

With the migration of the almost savage Huns and Goths, the refinement of morals ceased, progress in civilization was retarded for centuries, and at the same time the use of perfumes disappeared entirely in Europe; but it was otherwise in the Orient. As an instance we may mention the prophecy of Mohammed, who promised in the Koran to the faithful in paradise the possession of black-eyed houries whose bodies were composed of the purest musk.

The Arabs, the ancient masters of chemistry, were also the first founders of the art of perfumery. Thus the Arabian physician Avicenna, in the tenth century, taught the art of preparing fragrant waters from leaves, and Sultan Saladin, in 1157, on his triumphal entry, had the walls of the mosque of Omar washed with rose water.

It was the intercourse with the Orient brought about by the Crusades that made Europeans again more familiar with the art of perfumery, and a number of new odors rapidly became known. Italy and France, in those times the representatives of culture, were the countries in which the preparation of perfumes was carried on on a large scale. Thus, for instance, we find the name of a Roman family preserved to the present day because one of its members had combined a sweet-scented powder, called Frangipanni after its inventor, which is still in favor, and because his grandson Mauritius Frangipanni had made the important discovery that by treating this powder with spirit of wine the fragrant substance could be obtained in a fluid form.

The fact has been frequently related and repeated, that Catherine de Medici, the wife of Henry II., had made use of the fashion of perfuming the body for the purpose of ridding herself of objectionable persons, by giving them scented gloves prepared and at the same time poisoned by a Florentine named RenÉ (Renato?). We think this tale to be simply a hair-raising fable—modern chemistry knows no substance the mere touch of which could produce the effect of a fatal poison; and it is scarcely credible that such a material had been known at that time and lost sight of since.

In the sixteenth century, especially at the court of Queen Elizabeth, perfumes were used with great extravagance; in fact, were looked upon as one of the necessaries of life. This luxury was carried still farther at the courts of the sumptuous kings of France; Louis XV. went so far as to demand every day a different odor for his apartments. A lady’s lover always used the same kind of perfume she did.

It is well known that among the Oriental nations perfumes are used so largely that even food is flavored with rose water, musk, etc.; and Indian and Chinese goods always possess a peculiar aroma which is so characteristic for certain products that it was considered to be a sign of genuineness; this was the case, for instance, with the patchouly odor which always adheres to Indian shawls.

A shawl-maker of Lyons, who had succeeded in perfectly imitating Indian shawls with reference to design and colors, spent a fabulous sum to obtain possession of the plant used by the Indian weavers for perfuming their wares. Despite the great outlay caused by the search for this plant, the manufacturer is said to have done a flourishing business with his “genuine” Indian shawls.

In more recent times the great extension of trade to the farthest countries of the globe, and still more the progress of chemistry, have made us familiar with a number of new perfumes. More than two hundred different aromatic substances are now known, and still they are far from being exhausted; every year new odoriferous plants become known, from which the chemist extracts perfumes. By this means, as well as by the enormous employment of perfumes in all grades of society, the art of their preparation has risen to a higher plane; out of empiricism, which alone prevailed a few decades ago, into the domain of the chemical sciences.

Since the appearance of the last edition of this book, the art of perfumery has made noteworthy progress both with reference to the knowledge of new aromatic substances and to improvement in the methods of their preparation; by the introduction of glycerin, solid and liquid vaselin, and salicylic acid into perfumery, one of its branches—hygienic cosmetics—has made an important advance.

At present it is particularly France and England whose perfumery industry is most extensive and which to some extent rule the markets of the world; southern France and Algiers especially furnish the best raw materials, the finest essential oils for the manufacture of perfumes at the chief centres, Paris and London.