45

PEREGRINE FALCON.

PERFUME.

46

ally seek shelter in the woods, perching on the branches | signate plants which exist for more than two years, or secreting among the brush-wood; but they are found though their stems may flower and perish annually. most usually in open fields, or along fences sheltered by They are also distinguished as 'herbaceous plants.' thickets of briars. Where they are not too much per- [BOTANY.] secuted by the sportsmen, they become almost half domesticated; approach the barn, particularly in winter, and sometimes in that severe season mix with the poultry to glean up a subsistence. They remain with us the whole year, and often suffer extremely by long hard winters and deep snows. At such times the arts of man combine with the inclemency of the season for their destruction.

PERFUME denotes either an odoriferous emanation from a body creating a pleasant impression on the olfactory nerves, wherein resides the organ of smell, or the body itself whence this emanation proceeds. The name is derived from two Latin words, per fumum, through smoke,' because the first perfumes were obtained from the combustion of aromatic woods or resins. Perfume is both invisible and imponderable. The 'The Quail begins to build early in May. The nest most minute investigations have not succeeded in provis made on the ground, usually at the bottom of a thicking that its emission lessens in any way the weight of tuft of grass that shelters and conceals it. The materials the body which gives it out. A single pod of musk are leaves and fine dry grass in considerable quantity. was found to have discharged in one day 57,000,000 It is well covered above, and an opening left on one side particles in a radius of 30 yards, without having lost an for entrance. The female lays from fifteen to twenty- atom. Mr. Millon's process of extracting the aroma of four eggs, of a pure white without any spots. The flowers tends to show the same result, for although the time of incubation has been stated to me by various concrete essence it produces seems from its intensity of persons at four weeks when the eggs were placed under flavour to be the solidified principle of scent, all its odour the domestic hen. The young leave the nest as soon as may be removed by infusion in alcohol without diminishthey are freed from the shell, and are conducted about ing its weight in the slightest manner. in search of food by the female.'

Genus V. Lophortix. This genus is separated from the preceding by the prince of Musignano; it differs in possessing an elegant crest of plumes. Example, the Californian Quail (Lophortix Californicus). Locality, California, where, assembled in bands of two or three hundred, it frequents the low woods and plains.

Genus VI. Hemipodius (Turnix, Bonn.; Tridactylus, Lacép.; Ortygis, Illiger). This genus is spread through a part of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Oceania. Colonel Sykes describes several species in the 'Transactions of the Zoological Society,' as H. pugnax, H. Taigoor, and H. Dussumieri, natives of India.

Of African species we may notice Hemipodius (Turnix) Lepurana of Dr. Smith, who remarks that in the museum of the Army Medical Department at Fort Pitt, Chatham, there were the male and female of an Indian species of Hemipodius very closely resembling the Hemipodius Lepurana. They differ, however, he observes, in so many minor points, that he feels disposed to regard them as belonging to a distinct species. In the catalogue of the Fort Pitt Collection, Dr. Smith has named this Asiatic species Hemipodius Sykesii, in honour of Colonel Sykes, who, he justly states, has added so much to our knowledge of the zoology of India.

Mr. Gould proposes a family under the name of Tinamida, of which he makes Turnicine a sub-family, including the genera Pedionomus, and Turnix or Hemipodius. He describes and figures two species of the first, and eight of the latter, in his 'Birds of Australia.' He places the genera Coturnix and Synoïcus under the family Tetraonida. Of the first genus he describes a single species only; of the latter, which is closely allied to Perdiz, four species.

It might be concluded from the above fact and the unanalyzable nature of perfume, that it is not a gas, but simply a dynamic action of the odoriferous substance which strikes the sense of olfaction by means of waves of scent, in the same manner as the light strikes the eye, or sound strikes the ear. This is, however, a very abstract theory, which has led to a great deal of controversy without eliciting, hitherto, any satisfactory solution.

Perfumes are evolved principally by bodies belonging to the vegetable kingdom, such as flowers, plants, rhizomes, bark of trees, gums, &c., &c.; the animal kingdom furnishes but three available specimens: musk, civet, and ambergris. The first of these substances is found in a pod under the belly of the male musk deer (Moschus moschiferus), civet is a secretion of the civet cat (Viverra civetta), and ambergris is ejected by the large-headed whale (Physeter macrocephalus).

Odours can become fixed into other bodies with which they come in contact, and on the degree of affinity which exists between them may be said to rest the principles of the art of perfumery.

Perfumes exercise a cheering and exhilarating influence on the system, and revive the nerves when fatigued or depressed. 'Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart,' say the scriptures (Prov. xxvii.), and, in fact, owing to the close connection which exists between the olfactory organs and the brain, perfumes produce an agreeable and beneficial effect on the mind, and procure the most pleasurable sensations. They especially refresh memory, and a spot that we have visited, or some circumstance in our life, will be often recalled to us by some particular odour. Even when sleep has bereft us of most of our faculties, perfumes preserve their action on our confused ideas, and are capable of influencing our dreams. (Dr. Cloquet's Traité d'Osphrésiologie.')

PEREGRINE FALCON. [FALCONIDE.] PEREKOP (meaning 'rampart '), a town of Russia, Odours have been classified in various ways by scienon the isthmus of the same name, 85 miles N.N.W. tific men. Linnæus divided them into seven classes, of Simpheropol, in the Crimea. Salt abounds in the three of which only were pleasant odours, viz., the vicinity; and a rampart of little strength crosses the aromatic, the fragrant, and the ambrosial; but however isthmus at its narrowest point-5 miles broad. The good his general divisions may have been, the above town is only a hamlet, garrisoned in ordinary times were far from correct, for he classed carnation with by a few invalided troops; and the inhabitants suffer laurel leaves, and saffron with jasmine, than which severely from intermittent fever, the situation being nothing can be more dissimilar. Fourcroy divided them very unhealthy and singularly depressing. The popula- into five series, and De Haller into three. All these tion is 3397. [CRIMEA.] were, however, more theoretical than practical, and PERENNIALS, a botanical term, employed to de- none classified odours by their resemblance to each

In all the temples of their numerous deities incense was constantly burning, and on grand state occasions the king himself officiated, holding a censer in one hand and in the other a vial full of scented oil to anoint the-hedysmata, or solid unguents; stymmata, or liquid statue of the god.

49

PERFUMERY, HISTORY OF.

from the original place of their production, and others, again, from the peculiar circumstances under which they were first made. Like our present preparations, they succeeded each other in public estimation, and novelty was as great an attraction to the Roman belles as it is to our own modern ladies. There were the simple unguents, flavoured with one aroma, such as the rhodium, made from roses, the crocinum, from saffron, the melinum, from quince blossoms, the metopium, from bitter almonds, the narcissinum, from narcissus flowers, the malobathrum, prepared from a tree called so by Pliny (supposed by some to be the laurus cassia), and many others, too numerous to mention. The compound unguents were prepared by combining several ingredients together. The most celebrated were the susinum, a fluid unguent, made of lilies, oil cf ben, calamus, honey, cinnamon, saffron, and myrrh; the nardinum, made of oil of ben, sweet rust, costus, spikenard, amomum, myrrh, and balm; and, above all, Pliny praises the real unguent, which was originally prepared for the king of the Parthians, and which consisted of no less than twenty-seven ingredients (Pliny's 'Nat. Hist.,' book xiii., chap. 2). Some of those preparations were very costly, and sold for as much as 400 denarii per pound, or about 147. The Romans not only applied them to the hair, but to the whole of the body, even to the soles of their feet. The most refined, indeed, adopted a different perfume for each part of their person. Besides this, their baths, their clothes, their beds, the walls of their houses, and even their military flags, were impregnated with sweet odours. Some carried that taste so far as to rub their horses and dogs with perfumes. In addition to the unguents named, the Roman ladies made use of numerous cosmetics to increase their beauty, and they attached so much importance to that branch of their toilet that they had some slaves called cosmeta, whose special duty was to apply those preparations. Some of those cosmetics consisted of pea flour, barley meal, eggs, wine lees, hartshorn, bulbs of narcissus, and honey; others simply of corn flour, or crumb of bread soaked in milk. They made with those pastes a sort of poultice, which they kept on the face all night and part of the day.

The perfumers of Rome (called unguentarii) were very numerous, and occupied a quarter of the town named Vicus Thuraricus, in the Velabrum. They were principally Greeks, and their shops were the common resort and meeting-place of the fashionable loungers.

Avicenna, an Arabian physician who flourished in the tenth century, was the first to study and apply the principles of chemistry, which were but imperfectly known to the ancients. He is supposed to be the inventor of distillation, and naturally applied his discovery to the extraction of the many fragrant treasures with which his native country was gifted. Rose water was one of his first productions, and it was soon made in such quantities that when Saladin entered Jerusalem in 1187, he had the floor and walls of Omar's mosque entirely washed with it.

Among modern nations, France and Italy were the first to resume the use of perfumes. In the Catholic churches they not only burnt incense as they do now, but they used fragrant tapers to perfume the air at all grand ceremonies; and we find that such was the case at the baptism of Clovis, the first Christian king of France, in the year 496. Perfumes were also consumed in private life at an early period, and Charlemagne is said to have been very partial to them. The intercourse brought about between the West and the East by means

of the crusades was also instrumental in introducing the use of perfumes into Europe. In the year 1190 Philip Augustus granted a charter to the master perfumers, which was confirmed by John in 1357, and later by Henry III. in 1582. That charter was for the last time renewed and enlarged by Louis XIV. in 1658. It was then requisite to serve four years as apprentice and three years as companion to be elected master, which shows it was already considered as a handicraft of some importance. Their preparations were at first very simple, such as aromatics to burn in apartments, various unguents, and rose water, which was always offered by noblemen to their guests at table. Alcoholic perfumes were not made till about the fourteenth century, and the first we find mentioned is Hungary water, distilled from rosemary, which, according to some authors, was prepared in the year 1370 by a queen of Hungary named Elizabeth, who had the recipe from a hermit, and became so beautiful through the use of it that she was asked in marriage at the age of seventy-two by the king of Poland.

When Catherine de Medici came to France to marry Henry II., she brought with her a Florentine, named René, who was very expert in preparing perfumes, for the Italians were then more advanced than the French in that art, and from that time perfumery came into general use among wealthy people. This René also possessed the art of preparing subtle poisons, and his royal mistress is said to have had frequent recourse to his talents to get rid of her enemies. Among her victims the historians mention Jeanne d'Albret, mother of Henry IV., and state that she was poisoned by having worn some perfumed gloves presented to her by Catherine, but modern chemists doubt whether it was possible to effect such a mode of assassination.

From that time perfumery went on progressing; and at the court of Louis XV. etiquette prescribed the use of a particular perfume for each reception day, which caused it to be named the 'perfumed court.' Since then the advance of civilization and public welfare has rendered the use of perfumery general in all ranks of society, and France has now become the chief mart of that article for all parts of the world.

In England perfumes were at first imported from Italy and France, and came into great vogue during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Shakspeare often mentions musk, civet, perfumed gloves, and pomander, or pommes d'ambre, which were balls of perfume, to be held in the hand and smelt occasionally; the latter were supposed to preserve from the plague. It is difficult to ascertain the precise date when manufactories of perfumery were first established in England, as perfumers did not form here a separate corporate body as they did in France; but an old English recipe book, printed in 1663, contains a dentifrice prepared by M. Ferene, of the New Exchange, perfumer to the queen, so that they had already at that time begun to manufacture. Since that period the perfumery trade of England has followed about the same progress as that of France, until it has reached its present state of prosperity.

Perfumery is now divided into two distinct branches: the preparation of perfumery materials, which chiefly takes place in France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Algeria, and other warm countries; and the manufacture of perfumes, cosmetics, and toilet soaps, for general use, which is carried on in the principal cities of Europe, but especially in London and Paris.

PERFUMERY, PROCESSES OF. There are four means in use among modern European perfumers for

extracting the aroma from fragrant substances: distilla- | in direct contact with the flowers, would not extract it tion, maceration, absorption, and expression.

from them. These alcoholic extracts form the basis of Distillation, which is applied to plants, seeds, barks. the finest perfumes, as they possess the true scent of woods, and a few flowers, consists in placing the sub- the flower in all its freshness and delicacy. The best stance from which the scent is to be extracted in a are made from pommades, those made from oil retaincopper vessel called a still, with enough water to covering a slightly oily flavour which is not agreeable. it. Heat is applied, and the steam generated, which is impregnated with the fragrant molecules, passes through the head of the still into the worm (a coiled pipe placed in a tube, where it becomes condensed by means of the surrounding water, which is constantly kept cool), issues in liquid form at the tap, and flows into the recipient. If sufficiently loaded with aroma it then separates into two parts, the most concentrated of which, called the essential oil, collects either on the surface or at the bottom, according to its specific gravity. It is then decanted, and the water used again for distilling, unless it is of sufficient value in itself to be saved, as is the case with rose and orange-flower water. The recipient is constructed in such a way as to allow the water to escape whilst retaining the essential oil.

The principal plants from which essential oils are made, are lavender (Lavandula vera), spike (Lavandula spica), peppermint (Mentha piperita), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), wild thyme (Thymus serpyllum), and marjoram (Origana marjorana), which grow wild in the mountains, and are distilled on the spot by means of portable stills. essential oil is also extracted from geranium (PelarThese two processes of maceration and absorption are gonium odoratissimum), which from its strong rosy founded on the affinity which fragrant molecules possess flavour is much prized by perfumers, and the bitter for greasy bodies, becoming fixed into them more readily orange leaves yield a powerful essence named Petitthan into any other. Thus the aroma of flowers is first grain, which is used in eau de Cologne. The following transferred to these pommades, which are made after-table gives the average quantities of flowers and plants wards to yield it to alcohol, whilst the latter, if placed required to make one pound of essential oil .

Lavender and peppermint are the only two plants grown in England for perfumery purposes. The essential oil they yield is greatly superior to that obtained from foreign flowers, but it is also considerably dearer.

In the production of other perfumes of more pretentious names. Soaps and toilet-washes are chiefly scented with French and Italian oil, which is worth but from 88. to 10s. a pound; while the English oil is valued at four times that price. The difference in the value is chiefly due to the fact that in the foreign distilleries the whole of the stalks, and even the leaves, are put in the still; whereas in England, particularly at Hitchin, where even more care is taken than in the Surrey fields, nothing but the choicest blossoms are used.

The manufacture of perfumery for general use consists principally in making scented soaps, compounding perfumes, and preparing various articles used for the toilet. There are four kinds of soap generally manuThe fourth process, that of expression, is confined to factured by perfumers: hard soap by the hot process, the fruits of the citrine family, viz., orange (Citrus which is made by boiling grease, and sometimes a smali aurantium), bitter orange (Citrus bigaradia), lemon portion of resin, with an excess of soda-lees, until they (Citrus medica), bergamot (Citrus bergamia), cedrate become saponified; hard soap by the cold process, which (Citrus cedrata), and limette (Citrus limetta). The is prepared by introducing a fixed dose of concentrated rinds of all these fruits contain an essential oil ready soda-lees into grease in a liquefied state; soft soap by the formed in small vesicles, and various means are adopted to extract it. On the coast of Genoa they rub the fruit against a grated funnel; in Sicily they press the rind in cloth bags; and in Calabria, where the largest quantity is manufactured, they roll the fruit between two bowls, one placed inside the other, the concave part of the lower and the convex part of the upper being armed with sharp spikes. These bowls revolve in a contrary direction, causing the small vesicles on the surface of the fruit to burst and give up the essence they contain, which is afterwards collected with a sponge. The rinds are also sometimes distilled, but the former processes, which are called in French au zest, give a much finer

.

Orange, 300,000 made with about 540,000,000 Lemon, 500,000 750,000,000 Bergamot,. 300,000 600,000,000

The manufacture of perfumery for general use is chiefly carried on, as we said before, in London and Paris. There are about fifty manufacturing perfumers in London, employing from twenty to 100 hands each, according to the importance of their business. In Paris there are about 100 perfumers, employing together from 2000 to 3000 hands.

The chief flower farms in England are near Mitcham and Carshalton, in Surrey, and at Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. Some idea of the enormous consumption of lavender-oil may be gained from the fact that there is annually produced in England sufficient oil to make nearly 30,000 gallons of spirit of lavender. A large quantity is used

cold process, which is obtained in the same way as the last, only substituting potash for soda-lees; and transparent soap, which is a combination of soap and alcohol. The cold process is principally resorted to when a delicate colour or fine odour is to be procured. By substituting a pommade for the grease, you obtain the true scent of the flower. The removal of the excise restrictions has caused great improvements in the manufacture of English toilet soaps, by giving the perfumers free scope to make experiments, and to prepare scented soaps with all the care they require, instead of being compelled to resort, as before, to the common soap-makers.

The next important branch of the trade is the preparation of perfumes, of which large quantities are consumed both at home and abroad. The basis of all fine perfumes is obtained by treating with alcohol the pommade or oil extracted from the flowers, as it has been explained. This may be called the truly artistic part of perfumery, for with a very limited number of flowers the perfumer has to imitate all the others. This is done by studying resemblances and affinities, and blending the shades of scent as a painter does the colours on his palette. Thus, for instance, no perfume is extracted from the heliotrope; but as it has a strong vanilla flavour, by using the latter as a basis with other ingredients to give it freshness, a very perfect imitation of that flower is obtained, and so on with the others. There is also a

large quantity of toilet water manufactured chiefly with

an alcoholic basis.

Cologne water, which was invented in the last century The most widely known is the by an apothecary in Cologne. It can, however, be made just as well anywhere else, as all the materials for it come from the south of France. Its perfume consists principally of the flowers, leaves, and rind of the fruit of the bitter orange tree, which blend well together, and form an harmonious compound. The toilet vinegar is a sort of improvement on eau de Cologne, with the addition of balsams and vinegar. Lavender water was formerly distilled with alcohol from fresh flowers, but is now prepared by digesting the essential oil in alcohol, which produces the same result at much less cost. The other articles manufactured by perfumers are too unimportant to be of general interest. (Eugene Rimmel, Book of Perfumes.)

PE'RGAMOS, or PERGAMUM, the most important town in Mysia, was situated north of the Caïcus, on a small stream called Selinus. It had a strong citadel situated on a conical hill. Pergamos had many large public buildings. The modern town, called Bergma,