54 SCIENCE REMAKING THE WORLD 



the wide variety of soft drinks that are gi adually weaning 

 the American people away from hard liquor. Four 

 billion pints of bottled soda are consumed annually in 

 the United States, not counting what is sold from foun- 

 tains. 



Another indication of the popular trend toward a 

 gayer taste is the use of chemical compounds with intent 

 to increase the attractiveness of the naturally more at- 

 tractive sex. The people of the United States are now 

 spending about one hundred million dollars a year-on 

 perfumes and cosmetics. We are importing four times 

 as much of these, measured by cost, as we were before 

 the war and we are exporting ten times as much. 



I will not attempt to apply here the syllogistic chain 

 used above, for experimental evidence is almost alto- 

 gether lacking. Since odours are known to have a 

 profound influence upon the emotions, the effects of the 

 wider use of perfumes and the introduction of new scents 

 cannot be negligible, although they may be indetermin- 

 able. 



In the manufacture of fine odours the chemist is rapid- 

 ly catching up with the flowers; in fact has already sur- 

 passed them in some lines. Let not the reader stick 

 up his nose at synthetic perfumes. We could not get 

 along without them. In fact we are altogether de- 

 pendent upon them for certain popular forms of per- 

 fumery, for many flowers do not give up their scent 

 satisfactorily and so the perfumer has to imitate it as 

 best he can. For instance, the perfumes sold under the 

 names of arbutus, sweet peas, mayflower, cyclamen, 

 magnolia, phlox, honeysuckle, lilac, and lily of the valley 



