678 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



told bim that we had been drinking cider. We called for more, and. 

 recognized the " curious " bouquet at once. 



The manufacture of bouquets has made great progress of late, and 

 they are much cheaper than formerly. Their chief source is coal-tar, 

 the refuse from gas-works. That most easily produced is the essence 

 of bitter-almonds, which supplies a " nutty " flavor and bouquet. Any- 

 body may make it by simply adding benzole (the most volatile portion 

 of the coal-tar), in small portions at a time, to warm, fuming nitric 

 acid. On cooling and diluting the mixture, a yellow oil, which solidi- 

 fies at a little above the freezing-point of water, is formed. It may 

 be purified by washing first with water, and then with a weak solution 

 of carbonate of soda to remove the excess of acid. It is now largely 

 used in flavoring as essence of bitter-almonds. Its old perfumery name 

 was essence of mirbane. 



By more elaborate operations on the coal-tar product, a number of 

 other essences and bouquets of curiously imitative character are pro- 

 duced ; one of the most familiar of these is the essence of jargonelle 

 pears, which flavors the " pear-drops " of the confectioner so cunning- 

 ly ; another is raspberry flavor, by the aid of which a mixture of fig- 

 seeds and apple-pulp, duly colored, may be converted into a raspberry 

 jam that would deceive our prime minister. I do not say that it now 

 is so used, though I believe it has been, for the simple reason that 

 wholesale jam-makers now grow their own fruit so cheaply that the 

 genuine article costs no more than the sham. Raspberries can be 

 grown and gathered at a cost of about twopence per pound. 



With wine at sixty shillings to one hundred shillings per dozen the 

 case is different. This price leaves an ample margin for the conversion 

 of " Italian reds," Catalans, and other sound, ordinary wines into any 

 fancy brands that may happen to be in fashion. Such being the case, 

 the mere fact that certain emperors or potentates have bought up the 

 whole produce of the chateau that is named on the labels does not 

 interfere with the market supply, which is strictly regulated by the 

 demand. 



Visiting a friend in the trade, he offered me a glass of the wine 

 that he drank himself when at home, and supplied to his own famil}^ 

 He asked my opinion of it. I told him that I thought it was genuine 

 grape-juice, resembling that which I had been accustomed to drink at 

 country inns in the Cote d'Or (Burgundy) and in Italy. He told me 

 that he imported it directly from a district near to that I first named, 

 and could supply it at twelve shillings per dozen, with a fair profit. 

 Afterward, when calling at his place of business in the West End, he 

 told me that one of his best customers had just been tasting the various 

 dinner-wines then remaining on the table, some of them expensive, 

 and that he had chosen the same as I had ; but what was my friend to 

 do ? Had he quoted twelve shillings per dozen, he would have lost 

 one of his best customers, and sacrificed his reputation as a high-class 



