Scientific and other notes on essential oils. 25 



August 6 th , 1916, in Le Reveil National at Lyons, an article which cannot remain 

 unchallenged. It is for the sake of truth, which virtue seems to have died years 

 ago in that part of the world now hostile to us, especially in the so-called chival- 

 rous France, that some of the very coarsest lies and distortions of said article 

 are here impressed upon the public. 



The heading gives us to understand, and the article enlarges upon the idea, that 

 lavender oil is sold at the Leipzig fair and that the coming Lyons fair will bring 

 about a change in this direction. The author knows, no doubt, in how far he may 

 trust the ignorance of his readers, else he would not dare to build up the whole 

 article on a fiction, for: lavender oil is not offered and sold at all at the Leipzig fair. 



Another untruth, which the author uses as a weapon against German industry, 

 is the assertion that German enterprises tried to monopolize lavender oil and to 

 get hold of the French lavender crop: "ces fleurs des Alpes, dont les Bodies 

 cherchaient avant la guerre a accaparer les essences, afin de oattre les parfumeurs 

 de Grasse sur le marche mondial". The writer thus, quite unconsciously, lays 

 himself and his countrymen open to ridicule and, besides, the matter is quite 

 different. The firm of Schimmel § Co., Miltitz near Leipzig, which Mr. Galfard 

 focusses quite specially in his chauvinistic tirades, was compelled by dire necessity, 

 not induced by inclination, to distil lavender oil in the South of France, having 

 found out by the experience of several decades that the Grasse factories were 

 quite unable to supply it with the required quantities of pure oil. The firm's 

 analytical records give clear evidence as to date, name of the suppliers, and all 

 other details, showing why Schimmel 8j Co. finally had to arrive at the decision 



to start distilling lavender oil in the producing districts simply because 



the adulterations, practiced systematically by the Grasse people, had taken such 

 proportions as to make it more and more difficult to get pure lavender oil at all. 

 It is superfluous to mention that Schimmel § Co. did not make a fortune there, 

 a fact proved beyond doubt by the relative book-keeping. From the beginning, 

 however, the firm met with a systematic press campaign of all the French pro- 

 vincial papers. At first it was said that the Germans pushed the prices, in order 

 to get flowers and oil in their own hands. In consequence, the Grasse people 

 offered ever increasing prices in order to cut off the supplies of the new under- 

 taking. As then Schimmel 8j Co. withdrew from the flower market and put up 

 ambulant distilleries in order to obtain in this way part of the oil required, leaving 

 the flower dealers aside, so as to induce them to make more reasonable prices, 

 the sensational press went into another rage. There it was to be seen, it was 

 said, how certain people had installed themselves in the lavender districts in order 

 to worry the poor peasants by cutting the prices to such an extent as to make 

 it unprofitable to gather the flowers. On the world's markets, the rumour was 

 spread, one year, that Schimmel $ Co. pushed the prices, Schimmel fy Co. were 

 responsible for the bull movement. The next year, Schimmel § Co. were the 

 cause of the bear tendency, and so forth; in short: whatsoever Schimmel 8j Co. 

 might do or omit, the journalists of the chivalrous nation always met them with 

 misrepresentations or suppression of the true state of affairs, never with truth, 

 their motives being envy and chauvinism. 



And withal the whole management of Schimmel's branch establishments was 

 in French hands up to the last day of peace. There was no other desire but to 

 produce the quantities of lavender oil needed by the firm in its own business. 

 Hinc illce laerimce! 



