INTERESTING TO SINGERS 29 
value. If you are nervous and irritable, if the minute 
you take a book in hand, or bend over delicate fancy- 
work and fine stitching, you feel one of those dreadful 
threatening headaches, never be without a bottle of pure 
lavender perfume, as nothing is more soothing or quieting 
tothe nerves. For the sick room nothing can equal eau-de- 
Cologne. In hot crowded rooms it will often ward off 
an attack of faintness. Otto-of-roses and all scents in 
which Rose is the principal ingredient are highly tonic 
and invigorating, if of good quality. 
FLowers’ MysTerious PERFUME 
One of the most mysterious elements of flowers is the 
perfume, the essential action of which in plant life cannot 
be demonstrated by the wisest of our scientific men. 
Gas can be weighed, but not scent. “The smallest known 
insect that lives in the heart of a rose can be caught by 
a microscope lens and made to give up the secret of its 
organisation, but what it is that the warm summer brings 
us from the wild flowers of the hillsides or wafts to us 
from the choice exotics of the hothouse, no man has 
been able to determine. 5o fine, so subtle, so imponder- 
able, it eludes weights and measures. (wv. p. Io and IT.) 
INTERESTING TO SINGERS 
Singers and public speakers will do well to note the 
latest discovery of that wonderful instrument, the 
laryngoscope. It appears that in several cases, where 
tumefaction of the vocal chords had set in, it was found 
that this was caused by the use of violet perfume. ‘This 
and other discoveries of a similar nature have led most 
of the leading teachers of singing strictly to forbid their 
pupils to use any kind of perfume. So long as a flower 
has any odour, it is harmful; but, curiously enough, the 
greatest offender of all appears to be the Violet. 
