138       '  Essential  Oil  Industry  in  Grasse.  {'^'"Mireh'iS?"'' 
Why  this  should  be,  appears  iDexplicable,  but  the  inapplicability  of 
paraffin  is  so  decided  that  even  the  addition  of  it  to  fat  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  pommades  by  the  foregoing  method  is  said  to  have  proved 
injurious.  Professor  Fliickiger  considers  this  point  worthy  of  further 
investigation,  and  remarks  that  results  obtained  by  himself,  some 
experiments  upon  a  small  scale  were  hardly  confirmatory  of  the  state- 
ments. 
In  the  incorporation  of  the  most  delicate  perfumes  with  fat  the  above 
method  of  that  of"  infusion  a  chaud  "  is  replaced  by  "  enfleurage."  For 
this  purpose,  light  square  wooden  frames,  about  18  inches  each  way, 
in  which  a  plate  of  glass  can  be  placed,  are  used.  All  the  frames  and 
glass  plates  are  of  the  same  size  ;  when  piled  up  one  upon  another, 
therefore,  they  form  small,  tolerably  well-closed  compartments.  Upon 
each  glass  is  spread  a  weighed  quantity  of  fat  in  a  thin  layer,  and  this 
is  strewn  thickly  with  flowers.  Sometimes,  however,  the  one  side  of 
the  glass  plate  is  covered  with  flowers  only,  and  the  layer  of  fat  is  con- 
fined to  the  other  glass  wall  of  each  compartment,  so  that  contact  of 
the  flowers  with  the  fat  is  avoided.  When  a  perfumed  oil  is  desired, 
use  may  be  made  of  cloths  saturated  with  oil  for  the  enfleurage.  The 
fat  is  kept  shut  up  in  these  glass  compartments  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
time  according  to  the  nature  of  the  flowers  and  the  qualities  of  the 
article  required  and  the  flowers  have  to  be  repeatedly  removed,  even 
as  often  as  every  day.  Many  kinds  of  pommades  require  some  weeks 
of  enfleurage. 
A  portion  of  the  pommades  obtained  by  these  methods  is  eventually 
used  in  the  preparation  of  the  odorous  "  extraits.''  This  is  the  name 
by  which  the  extracts  obtained  by  treatment  of  thesf;  preparations 
(and  other  odorous  substances)  with  strong  alcohol  are  known  in  French 
perfumery.  For  this  purpose  the  pommades  are  placed  in  copper 
drums,  where  by  means  of  powerful  stirrers  a  most  intimate  mixing  of 
the  alcohol  with  the  fat  is  continued  for  hours.  The  alcohol  takes  up 
scarcely  any  of  the  fat,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  odorous  substances. 
By  this  method  the  odorous  constituents,  whether  essential  oils  or  other 
compounds  is  not  known,  which  cannot  be  satisfactorily  obtained  by 
distillation,  are  transferred  in  a  pure  and  unaltered  form  to  the  alcohol. 
The  fat  takes  up  little  else  from  the  respective  flowers,  and  probably 
retains  a  small  quantity  of  matter  unconnected  with  the  perfume  which 
it  gives  up  very  pure  to  the  alcohol.  After  this  has  been  removed^ 
the  fat  is  placed  in  a  still  and  the  alcohol  recovered  for  further  use;  the 
