552        ON  THE  MANUFACTURES  OF  GRASSE  AND  CANNES. 
of  the  glass  having  been  thus  coated,  the  other  is  coated  in  like 
manner ;  and  the  chassis  is  ready  to  receive  the  flowers.  These 
are  now  thinly  sprinkled,  or  rather  laid  one  by  one  upon  the 
surface  of  the  fat,  where  they  are  allowed  to  remain  until  the 
next  day  or  day  after,  when  they  are  removed  and  fresh  flowers 
supplied.  The  chassis,  charged  with  fat  and  flowers,  are  stacked 
one  upon  the  other,  forming  in  fact  a  number  of  little  rectangu- 
lar chambers,  the  upper  and  lower  surfaces  of  each  of  which,  are 
of  glass  covered  with  a  thin  layer  of  fat  sprinkled  with  flowers, 
the  sides  being  of  wood.  In  one  manufactory  which  I  inspected, 
only  one  surface  of  each  chassis  was  coated  with  fat,  the  jessa- 
mine flowers  being  placed  in  an  abundant  layer  upon  the  other 
surface  :  in  another  establishment,  flowers  of  mignonette  were 
being  similarly  treated.  In  this  arrangement  the  flowers  do  not, 
of  course,  come  in  contact  with  the  fat,  but  the  latter  is  simply 
suspended  above  them  to  receive  and  absorb  their  odor.  The 
flowers  require  changing  either  daily  or  every  other  day  for  forty 
or  fifty  days  before  the  pomade  is  sufficiently  impregnated  with 
their  odor.  It  is  essential  that  all  flowers  employed  in  this  pro- 
cess should  be  collected  during  dry  weather. 
When  oil  has  to  be  impregnated  with  the  odor  of  flowers,  a 
chassis  is  used  which  is  of  larger  size,  and  has  a  diaphragm  of 
coarse  wirework  instead  of  glass.  Upon  this  diaphragm  is  laid 
a  coiton  cloth  of  a  peculiar,  thick,  absorbent  texture,  soaked  with 
oil ;  flowers  are  then  spread  upon  it,  and  renewed  daily  until  the 
requisite  odor  has  been  obtained.  The  oil  is  then  pressed  from 
the  cloth  and  filtered  :  each  cloth  imbibes  about  2  lbs.  of  oil. 
The  preparations  called  by  the  perfumers  Extracts  are  made 
by  treating  the  highly-scented  oil  or  pomade  with  spirit  of  wine, 
so  as  to  dissolve  out  the  essential  oil  which  either  may  have  ab- 
sorbed from  the  flowers  with  which  it  has  been  placed.  This 
process  is  more  usually  conducted  by  the  general  perfumer  than 
by  the  distiller  and  manufacturer  of  Grasse  or  Cannes,  the  busi- 
ness of  the  latter  being  more  particularly  with  what  he  terms 
the  matieres  premieres.  The  pomade  or  oil,  after  having  yielded 
to  spirit  the  greater  portion  of  its  odor,  is  yet  valuable  for  other 
purposes  to  which  the  manufacturing  perfumer  can  readily 
apply  it. — London  Pharm.  Journ.,  Sept.  1,  1857. 
