^SSSI         Colognes  and  Toilet  Waters.  559 
synonym.  In  the  light  of  past  experience  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
under  no  consideration  should  any  substance  be  included  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  patent,  or  at  least  during  the  period  it  is  being 
actively  advertised. 
In  conclusion  the  writer  would  like  to  say  that  a  liberal  and 
honest  exchange  of  opinion  on  the  present  methods  of  introducing 
and  selling  new  remedies  may,  and  undoubtedly  will,  lead  to  a 
closer  adherence  to  accepted  codes  of  ethics,  both  by  the  pharma- 
cist as  well  as  the  physician.  For  the  latiier  it  will  be  an  incentive 
to  acquire  and  to  practice  a  system  of  rational  therapeutics,  learned 
from  accepted  text-books  and  treatises,  instead  of  depending  on  the 
information  contained  in  the  advertising  matter  of  manufacturing 
chemists.  For  us  pharmacists,  however,  it  will  be  a  stimulus  to  the 
adherence  to  and  practice  of  the  fundamentals  of  our  profession,  as 
illustrated  by  the  ideals  and  attainments  of  such  men  as  Procter, 
Maisch,  Squibb  and  Rice  in  our  own  time  and  country. 
COLOGNES  AND  TOILET  WATERS. 
By  Wilbur  Iy.  Scoviu,e. 
It  is  plainly  apparent  to  even  the  most  superficial  observer  that  a 
considerable  change  has  taken  place  in  late  years  in  the  composi- 
tion of  commercial  perfumes  and  toilet  waters.  This  is  due  in  part 
to  improvements  in  the  quality  and  variety  of  the  volatile  oils  used, 
and  to  chemical  investigations  which  have  made  close  imitations  of 
some  of  the  more  delicate  odors  possible  by  artificial  means ;  but  it 
is  due  even  more  to  better  methods  of  "  fixing "  the  odors  in  the 
perfume,  and  to  a  decreased  use  of  the  animal  fixing  agents. 
The  secret  of  perfumery  lies  mainly  in  the  choice  of  the  fixing 
agents,  i.  e.,  those  bodies  which  intensify  and  hold  the  floral 
odors.  The  agents  formerly  employed  were  musk,  civet  and  amber, 
gris — all  bodies  of  animal  origin,  and  having  a  heavy  and  dull 
animal  odor  which  is  the  direct  antithesis  of  a  floral  fragrance.  A 
free  use  of  these  bodies  must  inevitably  mean  a  perfume  which 
requires  a  label  to  tell  what  it  is  intended  for—to  say  nothing  of 
what  it  is.    Such  was  the  perfume  of  a  dozen  years  ago. 
To-day  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  last  of  these  (ambergris)  is 
being  used  at  all  in  the  newer  perfumes,  and  the  other  two  are 
