Shade of Munchausen! must I refute this by calling your attention to the fact that in the south of France more than 80,000 persons are employed, directly and indirectly, in the cultivation of flowers, and in the extraction of their odors for the use of perfumers? that Italy cultivates flowers for the same purpose to an extent employing land as extensive as the whole of some English counties? that tracts of flower-farms exist in the Balkan, in Turkey, more extensive than the whole of Yorkshire? Our own flower-farms at Mitcham, in Surrey, need not be mentioned in comparison, although important. These, sir, are the main sources of perfumes. There are other sources at Thibet, Tonquin, and in the West Indies; but enough has been said, I hope, to refute the cow-house story. This story is founded on the fact that Benzoic acid _can be_ obtained from the draining of stables, and that Benzoic acid has rather a pleasant odor. Some of the largest wholesale perfumers use five or six pounds of gum benzoin per annum, but none use the benzoic acid. The lozenge-makers consume the most of this article when prepared for commercial purposes; as also the fruit essences. Those of your readers interested in what _really is used_ in perfumery, are referred to the last six numbers of the "Annals of Pharmacy and Practical Chemistry," article "Perfumery." Your obedient servant, SEPTIMUS PIESSE. CHEMISTRY AND PERFUMERY.[P] SIR, The discussion about chemistry and perfumery, in reality amounts to this: Mr. Septimus Piesse confines the term "perfumery" to such things as Eau de Cologne, &c.; perfumed soaps, groceries, &c., he does not appear to class as "perfumery." Now the artificial scents are as yet chiefly used for the latter substances, which in common language, and, I should say, in a perfumer's nomenclature also, would be included in perfumery. The authority for cows' urine being used for perfumery is to be found in a little French work called, I believe, "La Chimie de l'Odorat" in which a full description is given of the collection of fresh urine and its application to this purpose. I need scarcely say, that it is the benzoic acid of the urine which is the odoriferous principle. Your obedient servant, A PERFUMER. [When benzoic acid is prepared by any of the wet processes, it is _free from the fragrant volatile oil_ which accompanies it when prepared by sublimation from the resin, and to which oil the acid of commerce owes its peculiar odor. This fact completely nullifies the above assertion.--SEPTIMUS PIESSE.] CHEMISTRY AND PERFUMERY.[Q] Sir,