58 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
vessel containing an absorbent such as vaseline or purified grease 
placed on perforated shelves. In this patent no arrangement is 
made for passing the same air a second time over the flowers, the 
inventor claiming to abstract the perfume in a condensed form in 
the refrigerator and in the grease at one operation. 
Another process, very similar to Piver’s inventions, was patented 
in England in 1888* by Hagemann of London. According to 
the Specification, carbonic acid or nitrogen gas is passed through 
a vessel containing the flowers, and becoming charged with the 
volatile particles is caused to pass through another receptacle into 
a substance suitable for fixing them, such substance to be one 
having little or no retaining action on the gas, such as purified fat, 
glycerine, or a strong solution of sugar. The gas, after being 
thus freed from the volatile bodies, is then caused to pass again 
through the flowers, and to circulate in this way until all the 
perfume is eliminated. The inventor claims that, as this opera- 
tion can be performed at a low temperature and as the circulating 
gas is practically innoxious to the flowers, the products obtained’ 
are in a high state of perfection. 
The reason why some strongly scented flowers yield no volatile 
oil by distillation, even by repeated cohobation with water, is 
partly because the quantity of oil contained in them is very minute 
or is very soluble in water or (which is very likely) it is apt to 
decompose by the combined action of heat, air, and water. Of 
such plants are the Narcissus, Hyacinth, Jonquille, Violet, 
Tubereuse, &c. From some of them it has been found possible to 
isolate the odoriferous principle. As far back as 1835 Robiquet + 
exhausted the fresh corollas of the Jonquille with ether in a com- 
pression-filter, separated the upper yellow ethereal stratum of 
liquid from the lower watery one, distilled the ether from the 
liquid at a gentle heat, and obtained a residue consisting of crys- 
taliine nodules together with a mother-liquid, which, when eva- 
porated in the air, gave off a strong and agreeable odour of the 
flowers. The crystalline nodules, when purified, formed an in- 
odorous camphor and appeared to be the odoriferous oil converted 
into camphor by exposure to the air. Buchner obtained similar 
results by applying Robiquet’s process to the flowers of Lilac, Lime, 
and Mignonette {. In 1855 further experiments were made by 
* No. 6851. + Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim. xxi. p. 334. 
t N. Br. Arch. viii. p. 70. 
