A Practical Treatise on the Manufacture of Perfumery. C. Deite
writings of Arabian physicians, such as Rhazes (end of the 9th to the commencement of the 10th century), Avicenna (end of the 10th to the commencement of the 11th century), and Mesuë (11th century). To the 11th century also belong the works of the celebrated Trotula, "De mulierum passionibus," "Practica Trotulae mulieris Salernitanae de curis mulierum," and "Trotula in utilitatem mulierum," all of which contain receipts for cosmetics. In the 14th century the most celebrated surgeon of the Middle Ages, Guy de Chanlios, did not consider it beneath his dignity to devote a section of his "Grande Chirurgie" to cosmetics. However, it was only in the 16th century that perfumes and cosmetics came again into prominent notice in Italy, which at that time was the country of luxury and art. Giovanni Marinello,[2] a physician, in 1562 wrote a work on "Cosmetics for Ladies," which he dedicated to the ladies Victoria and Isabella Palavicini. In the preface the author expresses the opinion that it is only right and pleasing to God to place the gifts bestowed by him in a proper light and to heighten them. He then proceeds to give perfumes for various purposes, aromatic baths to keep the skin young and fresh, means for increasing the stoutness of the entire body and of separate limbs, and others for reducing them. He further recommends certain remedies for making large eyes small, and small ones large. The chapter on the hair is very fully treated. To prevent the hair from coming out, rubbing with oil, and then washing with sorrel and myrobalan is recommended. For promoting the growth of the hair, the use of dried frogs, lizards, etc., rubbed to a powder, is prescribed. Means for making the hair long and soft and curly are also given, and others recommended for eyebrows and eyelashes. As depilatories lime and orpiment are prescribed. Paints are also classed among general cosmetics. Their use became at this time more and more fashionable, and not only the face, but also the breast and neck were painted.
Catherine of Medici and Margaret of Valois introduced these arts of the toilet into France. That country soon became the leader in this respect, and for many years the greatest luxury in perfumes and cosmetics prevailed there. The golden age for these articles lasted from the commencement of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, during which time the mouche or beauty patch also flourished. "There were at that time hundreds of pastes, essences, cosmetics, a white balsam, a water to make the face red, another to make a coarse complexion delicate, one to preserve the fine complexion of lean persons and again one to make the face like that of a twenty-year old girl, an Eau pour nourir et laver les teints corrodés and Eau de chair admirable pour teints jaunes et bilieux, etc. Then there were Mouchoirs de Venus, further bands impregnated with wax to cleanse and smooth the forehead; gold leaf was even heated in a lemon over a fire in order to obtain a means which should impart to the face a supernatural brightness. For the hair, teeth and nails there were innumerable receipts, ointments, etc. However, of special importance were the paints, chemical white, blue for the veins, but, chief of all, the red or rouge, mineral, vegetable, or cochineal. The application of rouge was at that time no small affair, it was not only to be rouged, but the rouge had also to express something—Le grand point est d'avoir un rouge qui dise quelque chose. The rouge had to characterize its wearer; a lady of rank did not wear the rouge like a lady of the court, and the rouge of the wife of the bourgeois was not like either of them nor like that of the courtesan. At court a more intense rouge was worn, the intensity of which was still increased on the day of presentation, it being then Rouge d'Espagne and Rouge de Portugal en tasse. It may seem incredible, but for eight days a violet paint was used and then for a change Rouge de Serkis. Ladies, when retiring for the night applied a light rouge (un demi rouge), and even small girls wore rouge, such being the decree of fashion. The ladies dyed their eyebrows and eyelashes, and powdered their hair, both natural and false, for, about 1750, they commenced wearing wigs and chignons. Powdering was done partially for the purpose of dying the hair after dressing, and partially for decoration; white, gray, red and fiery red powders were in vogue."
To that time fashion also ordained an ever-varying routine in the employment of perfumes; so that the royal apartments were one day fragrant with the scent of the tuberose and the next with that of amber and cloves; and so on consecutively, each succeeding day bringing a change of the reigning odor. In that luxurious age the personal use of perfumes was not confined to the fair sex, but the effeminate gallants of the day gloried in perfuming themselves with the favorite scents of their mistresses or of prominent belles; so that the allegiance was recognized, not as in more chivalrous times by the knight wearing the colors of the fair one who had enslaved him, but by his smelling of the particular odor which she had consecrated to herself.
Philip Augustus, in 1190, granted a charter to the French perfumers, who had formed a guild. This charter was, in 1357, confirmed by John, and in 1582 by Henry III., and remained in force until 1636. The importance of the craft in France is shown by the fact that under Colbert the perfumers or "parfumeurs-gantiers," as they were called, were granted patents which were registered in Parliament. In the seventeenth century Montpellier was the chief seat of the French perfumery industry; to-day it is Paris, and over fifty millions of francs' worth of perfumery are annually sold there. The parfumeurs-gantiers had the privilege of selling gloves of all possible kinds of material, as well as the leather required for them; they had the further privilege of perfuming gloves and selling all kinds of perfumes. Perfumed leather for gloves, purses, etc., was at that time imported from Spain. This leather was very expensive and fashionable, but on account of its penetrating odor its use for gloves was finally abandoned.
In England perfumes were not in general use before the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when they soon became fashionable. Elizabeth had an especially finely developed sense of smell and nothing was more repugnant to her than a disagreeable odor. She had a cloak of perfumed Spanish leather, and even her shoes were perfumed. Perfumed gloves were also fashionable. The city soon imitated the practices of the court, and that an extravagant use was made of perfumeries and cosmetics is plainly seen from the works of the authors of that time, as well as from an act of Parliament passed in 1770. By the latter it is ordained that any woman, no matter of what age or rank, be she maid or widow, who deceives a man and inveigles him into matrimony by the use of perfumeries, false hair, Crépons d'Espagne (a paint), corsets, hooped petticoats, shoes with high heels, and false hips, shall suffer the penalty of the law for procuring, and the marriage shall be null and void.
CHAPTER II.
THE PERFUME-MATERIALS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PERFUMERY.
Most of the perfume-materials employed by the perfumer are derived from the vegetable kingdom; a few are of animal origin, whilst some are artificially prepared.
Of animal substances only four are used, namely: musk, castor or castoreum, civet, and ambergris; the separation of their characteristic odoriferous substances has, however, not yet been accomplished. The odor of plants is generally due to volatile substances called volatile or essential oils. Their occurrence is not limited to special parts, they being found in the flower, seed, wood, bast, bark, leaves, and root. However, in every plant the oil occurs chiefly in certain organs, and it even happens that the oil differs with the part of the plant whence it is derived. The odors exist already formed in the living plant, or else are generated, as in the instance of bitter almonds, by some reaction between the elements which takes place during fermentation or distillation.
From the strength of the odor of a plant no conclusion can be drawn as to the quantity of volatile oil present. If this were the case, the hyacinth, for instance, would contain more oil than the coniferae, whilst in fact it contains so little that it can be separated only with the greatest difficulty. The odor does not depend on the quantity, but on the quality of the oil; a plant may diffuse but little odor and still contain much volatile oil. Of the various families of plants, the labiatae, umbelliferae, and coniferae are richest in volatile oils.
In every climate plants diffuse odor, those growing in tropical latitudes being more prolific in this respect than the plants of colder regions, which, however, yield the most delicate perfume.