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THE ART OF PERFUMERY.

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY.

SECTION I.

“By Nature’s swift and secret working hand
The garden glows, and fills the liberal air
With lavish odors. 
There let me draw
Ethereal soul, there drink reviving gales,
Profusely breathing from the spicy groves
And vales of fragrance.”—­Thomson.

Among the numerous gratifications derived from the cultivation of flowers, that of rearing them for the sake of their perfumes stands pre-eminent.  It is proved from the oldest records, that perfumes have been in use from the earliest periods.  The origin of this, like that of many other arts, is lost in the depth of its antiquity; though it had its rise, no doubt, in religious observances.  Among the nations of antiquity, an offering of perfumes was regarded as a token of the most profound respect and homage.  Incense, or Frankincense, which exudes by incision and dries as a gum, from Arbor-thurifera, was formerly burnt in the temples of all religions, in honor of the divinities that were there adored.  Many of the primitive Christians were put to death because they would not offer incense to idols.

“Of the use of these luxuries by the Greeks, and afterwards by the Romans, Pliny and Seneca gives much information respecting perfume drugs, the method of collecting them, and the prices at which they sold.  Oils and powder perfumery were most lavishly used, for even three times a day did some of the luxurious people anoint and scent themselves, carrying their precious perfumes with them to the baths in costly and elegant boxes called NARTHECIA.”

In the Romish Church incense is used in many ceremonies, and particularly at the solemn funerals of the hierarchy, and other personages of exalted rank.

Pliny makes a note of the tree from which frankincense is procured, and certain passages in his works indicate that dried flowers were used in his time by way of perfume, and that they were, as now, mixed with spices, a compound which the modern perfumer calls pot-pourri, used for scenting apartments, and generally placed in some ornamental Vase.

It was not uncommon among the Egyptian ladies to carry about the person a little pouch of odoriferous gums, as is the case to the present day among the Chinese, and to wear beads made of scented wood.  The “bdellium” mentioned by Moses in Genesis is a perfuming gum, resembling frankincense, if not identical with it.