138 MODERN SCIENCE READER 



compound of already known odorous substances; and 

 although this was in a certain degree successful in the 

 case of jasmine oil, neroli oil, and even oil of roses, yet in 

 none of these cases was the real odor-bearer detected and 

 named with certainty. There was only a combination of 

 several substances, which, with manifold variations of their 

 compound perfume, imitated more or less perfectly the 

 fragrance of the orange blossom, the rose and the jasmine. 

 But Ferdinand Tiemann had already succeeded in produc- 

 ing, by pure scientific synthesis, the first characteristic 

 precious perfume, the substance whose delicate lustrous 

 crystal needles cover the pods of the vanilla bean, and give 

 it the delicious fragrance especially esteemed by northern 

 nations. This was recognized as the methyl-ether of the 

 aldehyde of protocatechu, and Tiemann produced it (an 

 enigma to the unscientific mind) from the sap or pitch of 

 our native pine. It was very soon employed technically. 

 In regard to the value of such substances, it is interesting 

 to know that this, on its appearance in commerce, was sold 

 for not less than six thousand marks per kilo. The price 

 long remained coiite high, but advancing technics soon 

 learned to replace the first method of its production by a 

 cheaper one, which is always the case when the composition 

 and decompositions of a chemical substance have once been 

 accurately learned and studied in all their bearings. To- 

 day vanillin is exclusively manufactured from eugenol, 

 abundantly present in the inexpensive oil of cloves and 

 chemically related to it. To the sorrow of all manufac- 

 turers and patentees, the price has gone down from six 

 thousand marks per kilo to sixty in a few years. A 

 hundred times as much can thus be had for the same 

 money as in the first years of its production, and the 

 use of vanilla for perfumes, foods and beverages is practic- 

 able to a degree formerly impossible. Similar changes 

 have taken place in the prices of other perfumes which 

 science has made accessible, as, for example, piperonal, or 

 heliotropin, the odorous principle of heliotrope, which 



