PLANT ANALYSIS AS AN APPLIED SCIENCE 187 



and washing are conducted with great care. The stability 

 of the fat is increased by its digestion with benzoin. The 

 "infusion" is effected in large jacketed boilers, in which 

 the fat is warmed by steam heat and the flowers are added. 

 In the month of May over 10,000 kilos of rose or bigarade 

 flowers pass daily for many successive days into the boilers of 

 the factory of one house alone. The fat is diligently stirred by 

 female workers; the expression by means of hydraulic presses 

 is done by men. After the clearing of the fat, the finished 

 "pommade" is at once weighed and stored in tin boxes. 



In the case of the more delicate perfumes, the above method 

 of "infusion a chaud" is replaced by "enfleurage." For this 

 purpose light square wooden frames, about eighteen inches 

 each way, in which a plate of glass can be placed, are used. 

 Upon each glass is spread a quantity of fat in a thin layer, 

 and this is strewn thickly with flowers. Sometimes contact 

 with the fat is avoided, and the layer of fat is confined to the 

 other glass wall of each compartment. When a perfumed oil 

 is desired, cloths saturated with oil for the "enfleurage" may 

 be used. The flowers are shut up in these glass compartments 

 for a longer or shorter time, and are repeatedly renewed and 

 replaced by fresh ones. The perfumed fat is mixed with 

 alcohol by means of powerful stirrers. The alcohol takes up 

 scarcely any of the fat, but the greater part of the odorous 

 substances. 



From several trials, I think these processes of extraction 

 may be applied to extract the delicate odors of barks and other 

 substances which would be destroyed by distillation, and have 

 escaped detection up to this time. 



Among the chemical substances recently introduced into 

 the field of chemical industry l may be mentioned cholesterin, 

 or lanolin, CzeH^O + H 2 O. Commercially, this substance 

 is obtained from animal sources; but its wide distribution 

 through the vegetable kingdom warrants its mention in this 

 place. The singular property of this substance and its prom- 



1 "Notes on Chemical Substances Recently introduced into the Field of 

 Chemical Industry," by J. Levinstein. Jour. Soc. Chem. Industry, Nov. 29, 

 1886. 



