194 NATURE AND LIFE. 
factured, wholly from elements, in laboratories, are abso- 
lutely identical with the products extracted from plants. 
The speculations of theory on the arrangements of atoms, 
sometimes condemned as useless, do not merely aid in giy- 
ing us a clearer comprehension of natural laws, which is 
something of itself, but they do more, as real instances 
prove: they often give us the key to brilliant and valuable 
inventions. Piria, an Italian chemist, who was employed 
in Paris in 1838, was the first who imitated by art a 
natural aromatic principle. By means of reactions sug- 
gested by theory, he prepared a salicilic aldehyde, which 
turned out to be the essence of meadow-sweet, so delicate 
and subtile in its odor. A few years later, in 1843, Ca- 
hours discovered methylsalicilic ether, and showed that it 
is identical with the essence of wintergreen. A year after, 
Wertheim composed essence of mustard, while believing 
himself to be making only allylsulphocyanic ether. These 
discoveries produced a sensation. Nowadays the chemist 
possesses the means of creating many other natural es- 
sences. Common camphor, essence of bitter-almonds, that of 
cummin and of cinnamon, which are aldehydes, as we have 
seen, may be prepared without camphor-leaves or almonds, 
without cumminor cinnamon. Besides these ethers and al- 
dehydes whose identity with essences of vegetable origin 
has been proved, there exist, among the new bodies known 
to organic chemistry, a certain number of products formed 
by the union of common alcohol or amylic alcohol with 
different acids, that is to say, of ethers, which have aromatic 
odors more or less resembling those of some fruits, but as 
to which it cannot yet be affirmed that the odors are due to 
the same principles in both cases. However this may be, 
perfumers and confectioners, more’ industrious and wide- 
awake than chemists, immediately made good use of 
these properties. Artificial aromatic oils made their first 
appearance at the World’s Fair of London in 1851. There 

