Revenue from eau de Cologne manufactured out of England, say 20,000 flacons at 8_d._ = 8,000_l._ annually.

The total revenue derived from various sources, even upon this low scale of duties, from the substances with which “Britannia perfumes her pocket handkerchief,” cannot be estimated at less than 40,000_l._ per annum.  This, of course, includes the duty upon the spirits used in the home manufacture of perfumery.

SECTION IV.

PERFUMES OF ANIMAL ORIGIN.

In the previous articles we have only spoken of the odors of plants; we now enter upon those materials used in perfumery of an animal origin.  The first under our notice is—­

AMBERGRIS.—­This substance is found in the sea, floating near the islands of Sumatra, Molucca, and Madagascar; also on the coasts of America, Brazil, China, Japan, and the Coromandel.  The western coast of Ireland is often found to yield large pieces of this substance.  The shores of the counties of Sligo, Mayo, Kerry, and the isles of Arran, are the principal places where it has been found.  In the “Philosophical Transactions” there is an account of a lump found on the beach of the first-mentioned county, in the year 1691, which weighed 52 oz., and was bought on the spot for 20_l._, but which afterwards was sold in London for more than 100_l._ (Philos.  Trans.  No. 227, p. 509).  We are quite within limit in stating that many volumes concerning the origin of ambergris have been written, but the question respecting it is still at issue.  It is found in the stomachs of the most voracious fishes, these animals swallowing, at particular times, everything they happen to meet with.  It has been particularly found in the intestines of the spermaceti whale, and most commonly in sickly fish, whence it is supposed to be the cause or effect of the disease.

Some authors, and among them Robert Boyle, consider it to be of vegetable production, and analogous to amber; hence its name amber-gris (gray) gray amber.  It is not, however, within the province of this work to discuss upon the various theories about its production, which could probably be satisfactorily explained if our modern appliances were brought to bear upon the subject.  The field is open to any scientific enthusiast; all recent authors who mention it, merely quoting the facts known more than a century ago.

A modern compiler, speaking of ambergris, says, “It smells like dried cow-dung.”  Never having smelled this latter substance, we cannot say whether the simile be correct; but we certainly consider that its perfume is most incredibly overrated; nor can we forget that HOMBERG found that “a vessel in which he had made a long digestion of the human faeces had acquired a very strong and perfect smell of ambergris, insomuch that any one would have thought that a great quantity of essence of ambergris had been made in it.  The perfume (odor!) was so strong that the vessel was obliged to be moved out of the laboratory.” (Mem.  Acad.  Paris, 1711.)