104 
PHARMACY AT THE DUBLIN EXHIBITION. 
Perfumery has several representatives in the Exhibition, but the more nrac- 
tical shop view of the manufacture has in most cases been preferred to any 
attempt at the scientific illustration of the art. If there is any exception to 
this rule, it is in the case of Mr. S. Piesse (29), who has certainly done a ^reat 
deal in many ways to popularize a knowledge of the principles upon which the 
extraction of flower-scents depends, and has also given not a little information to 
those who best know how to apply it. Mr. Piesse does not, however, show any 
novelties ; what he does exhibit is for the most part a number of large bottles 
containing the principal^ simple odours which are used by the perfumer as 
Jasmin, Lassie, Pose Violet, Musk, Vanilla , etc. One of these is extract of 
Civet a perfume which is not I think, much used in actual practice. In this case 
are also Cachet Powders , and examples of some compound perfumes. It has 
wi Til f tr / UCk me as a worthy of being settled by actual experiment, 
whether (seeing that by distillation all odours are more or less modified_that 
or example, the perfume of otto of rose bears but a distant resemblance to that 
of t„e flower, and the scent of the finest neroli is as unlike that of orange-flower 
pomade as is bitter almond oil to nitro-benzol) some of the perfumes for the 
extraction of which we at present depend alone upon distillation, might not be 
more advantageously prepared by the process of enfleurage. It is not at all 
improbable that there would be as much difference between “lavender water ” 
spirit of peppermint,’’ or Aqua Sambuci thus obtained, and the products 
: f e iir fl aCCUSt0med t0 ’ au 1 consequently a nearer approach to the actual 
odour of the flowers, as in any of the instances I have adduced. 
VV e should have to learn one thing, however, before we could do this. Thanks 
1 nf L P / eSSe an( ? ° th T’ We know most of the details of the enfleurage process 
—at least, enough, perhaps, to carry it out successfully in this country; but we 
do not know how to prepare scentless fats. Until this can be done, any attempt 
of the kind would be futile. Any one who can tell us how the flower-farmers 
x UC J? er fi Ume , rS 0 1 lc< ? and p rasse prepare the odourless grease which is used 
I? the finest P omma des will be conferring a positive benefit on pharmacy, for 
the non-permanence of ointments is certainly one of the many things for which 
we have yet to find remedies. & 
p lm ' liel ( 38 ) has ’ is scarcely necessary to say, a handsome case, 
e shows Perfumes, Toilet Soaps, Perfumed Bouquets of artificial flowers, and 
Perfume Vaporizers. ’ 
The other exhibitors of perfumery in the British Department are Bewley and 
Draper (12), Bewley and Hamilton (40), and F. Lewis (24). J 
fni ,T 7 ng 1 ]( Ja-pharmaceutical products of direct chemical interest, the beauti- 
tul Coloured Starches shown by Messrs. J. and J. Coleman (39) deserve notice. 
S f mP ^ [J a ord l na ry starch deficately tinted with the aniline dyes: 
but the effect produced by their tasteful arrangement in the thin glass vases 
to lhOH f h 16y ^ °T iS Very b f autiful - They are intended for Application 
to light fabrics, as muslin, etc., and fulfil the double duty of stiffening and of 
? a x 1 pleas l ng tmt to the sur faces to which they are applied. I 
call attention to them here for two different reasons : one is that tlmy are ex- 
+W ?L° f u he m ° St iecen< i ad a ptation of these exquisite colours ; and the other, 
Bon 7 • VG s 7 uggested t0 me a possible application of starch to the prepara! 
Z tCm i extracts . °f de fi nite length. A liquid extract can always 
be made to contain m a given volume, the same amount of the soluble princi- 
p es of tie vegetable substance which it represents, and is, as a rule, more to be 
depended upon than one which has perhaps beeA more’or less aW by the 
heat required to give it a solid consistence. The consistence of a solid extract is 
moreover quite arbitrary, and is not capable of being expressed by reference to 
any fixed standard. But if a fluid extract of known strength were dried upon a 
\ en weight of starch at a low temperature, a dry powder at once, of definite 
