11 



cold alcohol, the alcohol is evaporated, and the product is the 

 " quintessence " of the flowers. (3) Hot maceration, a method 

 employing hot melted lard in which the flowers are continually 

 paddled about until exhausted. The lard is then freed from the 

 flowers by filtration and pressure. This process gives " quintes- 

 sence " of roses, orange-flowers, and violets. (4) The fourth and 

 most modern method — applicable to all flowers alike — is that 

 employing light petroleum spirit to dissolve the essences, which, 

 after the evaporation of the spirit in a vacuum, are left in solid 

 form. 



With any one flower the quantity and quality of the essence 

 varies greatly according to the method used — a pound of violet 

 essence, for instance, being worth ^163 when extracted by dis- 

 tillation through steam, while a pound extracted through lard is 

 worth $1,363. With most flowers extraction through lard gives 

 the most perfume. It is an interesting fact that flowers continue 

 to produce perfume after death — probably through the catalytic 

 action of certain enzymes within the flower which results in 

 setting free perfumes previously held in inodorous compounds. 

 In all such technical questions as this this the Grassois are inter- 

 ested. Not resting content with leading the world in the purity 

 and volume of their products, nor with the ;$6,ooo,ooo that 

 yearly rewards their toil, they are continually looking deeper 

 into the science of each detail of their process. This is due 

 largely to natural progressiveness and love of their work, but 

 more and more of late due, too, to a desire to arm themselves 

 to meet the onset of commercial chemistry and the second 

 industry concerned with odorous materials. There is a struggle 

 between the land and the laboratory. Let us consider briefly 

 what the laboratory has accomplished. 



In competing with the land, the laboratory has recourse to 

 three expedients: (i) The synthetic production of the actual 

 natural substance ; (2) the successful imitation of the product of 

 the land ; (3) the production of entirely new substances with 

 netv properties. 



By the first process, the pure essence is reproduced simply by 

 makint/ the in""redients of the natural oil and mixing them in the 



