purpose of obtaining the essential oil or attar of roses.  But distillation, even with the aid of steam, is not altogether satisfactory.  For instance, the distilled rose oil contains anywhere from 10 to 74 per cent. of a paraffin wax (stearopten) that is odorless and, on the other hand, phenyl-ethyl alcohol, which is an important constituent of the scent of roses, is broken up in the process of distillation.  So the perfumer can improve on the natural or rather the distilled oil by leaving out part of the paraffin and adding the missing alcohol.  Even the imported article taken direct from the still is not always genuine, for the wily Bulgar sometimes “increases the yield” by sprinkling his roses in the vat with synthetic geraniol just as the wily Italian pours a barrel of American cottonseed oil over his olives in the press.

Another method of extracting the scent of flowers is by enfleurage, which takes advantage of the tendency of fats to absorb odors.  You know how butter set beside fish in the ice box will get a fishy flavor.  In enfleurage moist air is carried up a tower passing alternately over trays of fresh flowers, say violets, and over glass plates covered with a thin layer of lard.  The perfumed lard may then be used as a pomade or the perfume may be extracted by alcohol.

But many sweet flowers do not readily yield an essential oil, so in such oases we have to rely altogether upon more or less successful substitutes.  For instance, the perfumes sold under the names of “heliotrope,” “lily of the valley,” “lilac,” “cyclamen,” “honeysuckle,” “sweet pea,” “arbutus,” “mayflower” and “magnolia” are not produced from these flowers but are simply imitations made from other essences, synthetic or natural.  Among the “thousand flowers” that contribute to the “Eau de Mille Fleurs” are the civet cat, the musk deer and the sperm whale.  Some of the published formulas for “Jockey Club” call for civet or ambergris and those of “Lavender Water” for musk and civet.  The less said about the origin of these three animal perfumes the better.  Fortunately they are becoming too expensive to use and are being displaced by synthetic products more agreeable to a refined imagination.  The musk deer may now be saved from extinction since we can make tri-nitro-butyl-xylene from coal tar.  This synthetic musk passes muster to human nostrils, but a cat will turn up her nose at it.  The synthetic musk is not only much cheaper than the natural, but a dozen times as strong, or let us say, goes a dozen times as far, for nobody wants it any stronger.

Such powerful scents as these are only pleasant when highly diluted, yet they are, as we have seen, essential ingredients of the finest perfumes.  For instance, the natural oil of jasmine and other flowers contain traces of indols and skatols which have most disgusting odors.  Though our olfactory organs cannot detect their presence yet we perceive their absence so they have to be put into the artificial perfume.  Just so a brief but violent discord in a piece of music or a glaring color contrast in a painting may be necessary to the harmony of the whole.