The Art of Perfumery, and Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants

A great variety of formulæ have been published for the manufacture of pastils; nine-tenths of them contain some woods or bark, or aromatic seeds. Now, when such substances are burned, the chemist knows that if the ligneous fibre contained in them undergoes combustion--the slow combustion--materials are produced which have far from a pleasant odor; in fact, the smell of burning wood predominates over the volatilized aromatic ingredients; it is for this reason alone that charcoal is used in lieu of other substances. The use of charcoal in a pastil is merely for burning, producing, during its combustion, the heat required to quickly volatilize the perfuming material with which it is surrounded. The product of the combustion of charcoal is inodorous, and therefore does not in any way interfere with the fragrance of the pastil. Such is, however, not the case with any ingredients that may be used that are not in themselves perfectly volatile by the aid of a small increment of heat. If combustion takes place, which is always the case with all the aromatic woods that are introduced into pastils, we have, besides the volatilized otto which the wood contains, all the compounds naturally produced by the slow burning of ligneous matter, spoiling the true odor of the other ingredients volatilized. There are, it is true, certain kinds of fumigation adopted occasionally where these products are the materials sought. By such fumigation, as when brown paper is allowed to smoulder (undergo slow combustion) in a room for the purpose of covering bad smells. By the quick combustion of tobacco, that is, combustion with flame, there is no odor developed, but by its slow combustion, according to the method adopted by those who indulge in "the weed," the familiar aroma, "the cloud," is generated, and did not exist ready formed in the tobacco. Now a well-made pastil should not develope any odor of its own, but simply volatilize that fragrant matter, whatever it be, used in its manufacture. We think that the fourth formula given above carries out that object.