A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE MANUFACTURE OF PERFUMERY. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL NOTICE OF PERFUMERY. Nature has implanted in man the instinct of finding the odor accompanying decay and putrefaction insufferable, of fleeing from it, and of going in quest of fragrant odors. Hence, in ancient times, perfume substances were highly esteemed, and an offering of them was considered a sign of the most profound reverence and homage. The early nations of the Orient especially used perfume substances in such profusion that the consumption of them by the finest lady of to-day must be called a comparatively moderate one. This may, however, be readily explained, for, on the one hand, the majority of plants which produce the most agreeable perfumes in larger quantity are indigenous to the Orient; and, on the other, the excessive exhalations from the human body, caused by the hot climate, forced the people to search for means to remove, or at least to cover, the disagreeable odor arising therefrom. Since fragrant odors were agreeable to human beings, it was believed that they must be welcome also to the gods, and, to honor them, perfume substances were burned upon the altars. Besides, as an offering to the gods, perfume substances were extensively used by many nations, especially by the Egyptians, for embalming the dead, the process employed by the latter having been transmitted to us by the ancient authors Herodotus and Diodorus. Furthermore, a desire for ornamentation and to give to the face and body as pleasing an appearance as possible, is common to all mankind. To be sure, the ideas of what constitutes beauty in this respect have varied at different times and among the various nations. But, independent of the savage races, who consider painting and tattooing the body and face an embellishment, and taking into consideration only the earliest civilized nations, it is astonishing how many arts of the toilet have been preserved from the most ancient historical times up to the present. "In the most ancient historical times, people perfumed and painted, frizzed, curled, and dyed the hair as at present, and, in fact, the same cosmetics, only slightly augmented, which were in use hundreds, nay, thousands, of years ago are still employed to-day."[1] It is especially woman, who everywhere exercises the arts of the toilet, while, with the exception of perfumes and agents for the hair, man is but seldom referred to as making use of cosmetics. The young girls of ancient Egypt used red and white paints, colored their pale lips, and anointed their hair with sweet-scented oils; they dyed their eyelashes and eyelids black to impart a brighter lustre to the glance of the eye, and the mother of the wife of the first king of Egypt is said to have already composed a receipt for a hair-dye. [1] Paschkis, Kosmetik für Aerzte. Wien, 1890.