While the vegetable kingdom offers us an abundance of aromatic odors the end of which it is impossible to foresee, the animal kingdom contains absolutely no substance which may be called sweet-scented in the strict sense of the term. If we find nevertheless a few animal substances generally used in perfumery, they should be considered rather as excellent means for fixing subtle vegetable odors than as fragrant bodies in the true sense. By themselves, indeed, they have an odor, but to most persons it is not agreeable even if properly diluted. Thus far only five substances of animal origin are employed in perfumery, namely: ambergris, castor, hyraceum, musk, and civet.
Ambergris.
Latin—Ambra grisea; French—Ambregris; German—Ambra.
This is a substance whose origin is still doubtful; many facts indicate that it is a secretion—whether normal or morbid may be left undecided—of the largest living mammal, namely, of the pot-whale (Physeter macrocephalus). Ambergris is found in the intestines of this animal or, more frequently, floating about in the sea; the shores of the continents bordering the Indian Ocean furnish the largest amount of this peculiar substance.
Ambergris is a grayish-white fatty substance which occurs in commerce in pieces of various sizes—those as large as a fist are rare—of a penetrating, decidedly disagreeable odor. It is soluble in alcohol, and when properly diluted the odor becomes pleasant and it is so permanent that a piece of linen moistened with it smells of it even after being washed with soap. By itself, ambergris is not much used; it finds its chief application in combination with other odors or as an addition to some perfumes in order to make them lasting.
Castor.
Latin—Castoreum; French—Castoreum; German—Castoreum.
This is a secretion of the beaver (Castor fiber); it accumulates in two pear-shaped bags on the abdomen of the animal, both male and female. The hunters remove these bags from the body of the dead animal and in this form they are brought into commerce. These sacs are the length of a finger, at the thickest point the diameter of a thumb, and contain a greasy mass of yellowish-brown, reddish-brown, or blackish color, according to the nourishment of the animal. This mass constitutes castor; it has a strong, disagreeable odor, a bitter, balsamic taste, becomes soft when heated, is combustible, and almost entirely soluble in alcohol. It is probable that this secretion in its composition has some relation to the nourishment of the beavers which feed by preference on resinous vegetable substances. In commerce Canadian and Siberian castor are distinguished; the latter is more valuable and has almost disappeared from the market. It possesses a peculiar tarry, Russian-leather odor, probably due to a substance present in birch bark, upon which the Siberian animals feed almost exclusively. Canadian castor has an odor more nearly resembling pine resin. In perfumery castor is rarely used, usually only for fixing other odors.
Hyraceum.
The substance occurring in commerce under this name, the excrement of an animal found in Capeland, the rock badger or rock rabbit (Hyrax capensis), is very similar in its properties to castor, and according to comparative experiments made by us can be used in place of the latter.
Musk.
Latin—Moschus; French—Musc; German—Moschus.
Of animal substances, musk is most frequently used in perfumery, and possesses the most agreeable odor of them all. Moreover, the odor of musk is the most intense that we know, actually imponderable quantities of it being sufficient to impart to a large body of air the strong odor of musk. This substance is derived from a deer which attains the size of a small goat and, like the chamois of the Alps, lives on the highest mountains of the Himalayas. Only the male animal (Moschus moschiferus) produces musk, which is secreted in a sac or rather gland near the sexual organ. Musk being subject to the worst adulterations owing to its high price, we append a description of the substance as well as of the sac or bag in which it appears in commerce.
The musk bag cut by the hunter from the body of the animal has the size and shape of half a walnut. On the side by which it was attached to the body of the animal it is membranous and nearly smooth; on the external surface it is more or less hemispherical and covered with light brown or dark brown hair, according to the season at which the animal was killed. The hair assumes a circular arrangement around an opening situated in the centre of the bag. This opening, the efferent duct of the gland, is formed by a ring-shaped muscle which yields to the pressure of a pointed object and permits the introduction of the point of the finger. Internally the musk bag consists of several layers of membrane which surround the musk itself. It is probable that the musk is secreted by these membranes, for when the animal is dissected, no direct communication of the musk gland with the body can be detected.
It has been surmised that the secretion of musk bears some relation to the food; at least it has been asserted that the animals eat, among other things, sumbul root with great avidity; and this root, it will be remembered, has a very intense odor of musk. However, though this appears probable at first sight, it is contradicted by the fact that the females and the young males likewise eat the root without manifesting any odor of musk nor do they secrete the substance, while the older males produce it even when they are fed with hay only. Another fact is of interest, namely, that other ruminants, too, for instance, cattle, diffuse a marked though faint odor of musk which occurs also in their excrements, exactly as in the case of the musk deer. Alligators likewise produce a musk-like substance which has actually been made use of in place of musk for coarser purposes.
The musk present in the glands differs in appearance with the season and the age of the animal. Musk deers killed in spring have in their musk bag an unctuous soft mass of a reddish-brown color with the strongest odor; at other seasons the mass is darker in color, almost black, and granular; the size of the grains ranges from that of a millet-seed to that of a large pea.
That the secretion of musk belongs to the sexual functions appears probable from the fact that it can be found only in the bags of males more than two years old; that of younger animals contains only a substance of a milky consistence, whose odor has no resemblance to that of musk. The quantity of musk present in a bag varies with the season and the age of the animal; the smallest quantity may be assumed at about six drachms, though some bags contain as much as one and a half ounces.
The hunters dry the bags either on hot stones or in the air, or they dip them into hot oil. In commerce musk occurs either in bags under the name moschus in vesicis, “musk in pods,” or free, moschus in granis, moschus ex vesicis, “grain musk.” According to its origin four sorts are distinguished: Chinese or Tonquin musk, Siberian or Russian musk, Assam or Bengal musk, and finally Bokharian musk. The latter two varieties, however, rarely reach this market. Chinese musk (Tonquin or Thibet musk) occurs in small boxes containing twenty to thirty bags, each wrapped in Chinese tissue paper; on which Chinese characters are printed. This is considered the best quality. Assam musk occurs in boxes lined with tin which contain as many as two hundred or more bags; its value is about two-thirds that of the former. Russian musk is packed in various ways and is worth about one-fourth that of the Chinese; a special variety of it, of a weaker and rather urinous odor, is known as Cabardine musk; of least value is Bokharian musk which is of a grayish black color, with a faint odor.
Musk is adulterated in an almost incredible manner; at times so-called musk bags are met with which are artificially constructed of animal membranes and filled with dried blood, earth, etc., and slightly scented with genuine musk. But even the genuine musk bags are often tampered with; musk being removed from the opening and the space filled with earth, dried blood, animal excrement, or perhaps pieces of copper and lead.
Pure musk reacts quite characteristically toward caustic alkalies such as caustic potash and soda or solution of ammonia, and these substances are used for testing the purity of musk. If a dilute alkaline solution is poured over musk, a marked increase of the odor is observed after a short time; if the alkaline solution is concentrated or hot, the odor of musk disappears completely and the fluid develops the caustic odor of pure ammonia. Hot water dissolves about eighty per cent of the total weight of musk; strong alcohol dissolves about one-tenth of it; when heated in an open porcelain capsule, musk burns with a disgusting empyreumatic odor and leaves a considerable amount of ash, about one-tenth of its weight. Besides the above-named substances which destroy the musk odor by the decomposition of the aromatic constituent, there are other bodies, whose action we do not know at present, which have the peculiar property of completely extinguishing this most penetrating of all odors: to deodorize a vessel completely which has contained musk, it is sufficient to rub in it some bitter almonds moistened with water or some camphor with alcohol.
In an extremely dilute condition musk is used for perfuming the finest soaps and sachets, and even in the manufacture of the most expensive and best perfumes, owing to its property of imparting permanence to very volatile odors. In the last-mentioned class, however, the quantity of musk must always be so small that its presence is not distinctly observed, since many persons find the pure odor of musk very disagreeable, while they praise the fragrance of such perfumes as contain an amount of this substance too small to be perceived by the olfactory nerves.
Civet.
Latin—Civetta; French—Civette; German—Zibeth.
This substance bears some resemblance to musk with reference to its derivation and the rÔle it plays in the life of the animal from which it is obtained. The ViverridÆ, a class of carnivora related to the cats and weasels, found in Asia and Africa, furnish this substance. It is obtained chiefly from the civet cat (Viverra Civetta) and the musk rat (Viverra Zibetha) which are kept in captivity for the purpose of abstracting from them from time to time the civet which is always formed anew.
Civet is the secretion of a double gland present both in the male and the female near the sexual organs. Fresh civet is a whitish-yellow mass of the consistence of butter or fat, and becomes thicker and darker on exposure to the air. Similar to musk, it has a strong odor which becomes pleasant on being diluted and is used both alone and for fixing other odors.
