THE ANIMAL SUBSTANCES USED IN PERFUMERY.
While the vegetable kingdom offers us an abundance of aromatic odors
the end of which it is impossible to foresee, the animal kingdom
contains absolutely no substance which may be called sweet-scented in
the strict sense of the term. If we find nevertheless a few animal
substances generally used in perfumery, they should be considered
rather as excellent means for fixing subtle vegetable odors than as
fragrant bodies in the true sense. By themselves, indeed, they have
an odor, but to most persons it is not agreeable even if properly
diluted. Thus far only five substances of animal origin are employed in
perfumery, namely: ambergris, castor, hyraceum, musk, and civet.
AMBERGRIS.
_Latin_—Ambra grisea; _French_—Ambregris; _German_—Ambra.
This is a substance whose origin is still doubtful; many facts
indicate that it is a secretion—whether normal or morbid may be left
undecided—of the largest living mammal, namely, of the pot-whale
(Physeter macrocephalus). Ambergris is found in the intestines of this
animal or, more frequently, floating about in the sea; the shores of
the continents bordering the Indian Ocean furnish the largest amount of
this peculiar substance.
Ambergris is a grayish-white fatty substance which occurs in commerce
in pieces of various sizes—those as large as a fist are rare—of a
penetrating, decidedly disagreeable odor. It is soluble in alcohol, and
when properly diluted the odor becomes pleasant and it is so permanent
that a piece of linen moistened with it smells of it even after being
washed with soap. By itself, ambergris is not much used; it finds its
chief application in combination with other odors or as an addition to
some perfumes in order to make them lasting.
CASTOR.
_Latin_—Castoreum; _French_—Castoreum; _German_—Castoreum.
This is a secretion of the beaver (Castor fiber); it accumulates in two
pear-shaped bags on the abdomen of the animal, both male and female.
The hunters remove these bags from the body of the dead animal and in
this form they are brought into commerce. These sacs are the length of
a finger, at the thickest point the diameter of a thumb, and contain
a greasy mass of yellowish-brown, reddish-brown, or blackish color,
according to the nourishment of the animal. This mass constitutes
castor; it has a strong, disagreeable odor, a bitter, balsamic taste,
becomes soft when heated, is combustible, and almost entirely soluble
in alcohol. It is probable that this secretion in its composition
has some relation to the nourishment of the beavers which feed by
preference on resinous vegetable substances. In commerce Canadian and
Siberian castor are distinguished; the latter is more valuable and has
almost disappeared from the market. It possesses a peculiar tarry,
Russian-leather odor, probably due to a substance present in birch
bark, upon which the Siberian animals feed almost exclusively. Canadian
castor has an odor more nearly resembling pine resin. In perfumery
castor is rarely used, usually only for fixing other odors.
HYRACEUM.
The substance occurring in commerce under this name, the excrement of
an animal found in Capeland, the rock badger or rock rabbit (Hyrax
capensis), is very similar in its properties to castor, and according
to comparative experiments made by us can be used in place of the
latter.
MUSK.
_Latin_—Moschus; _French_—Musc; _German_—Moschus.
Of animal substances, musk is most frequently used in perfumery, and
possesses the most agreeable odor of them all. Moreover, the odor of
musk is the most intense that we know, actually imponderable quantities
of it being sufficient to impart to a large body of air the strong odor
of musk. This substance is derived from a deer which attains the size
of a small goat and, like the chamois of the Alps, lives on the highest
mountains of the Himalayas. Only the male animal (Moschus moschiferus)
produces musk, which is secreted in a sac or rather gland near the
sexual organ. Musk being subject to the worst adulterations owing to
its high price, we append a description of the substance as well as of
the sac or bag in which it appears in commerce.
The musk bag cut by the hunter from the body of the animal has the size
and shape of half a walnut. On the side by which it was attached to the
body of the animal it is membranous and nearly smooth; on the external
surface it is more or less hemispherical and covered with light brown
or dark brown hair, according to the season at which the animal was
killed. The hair assumes a circular arrangement around an opening
situated in the centre of the bag. This opening, the efferent duct
of the gland, is formed by a ring-shaped muscle which yields to the
pressure of a pointed object and permits the introduction of the point
of the finger. Internally the musk bag consists of several layers of
membrane which surround the musk itself. It is probable that the musk
is secreted by these membranes, for when the animal is dissected, no
direct communication of the musk gland with the body can be detected.
It has been surmised that the secretion of musk bears some relation
to the food; at least it has been asserted that the animals eat,
among other things, sumbul root with great avidity; and this root, it
will be remembered, has a very intense odor of musk. However, though
this appears probable at first sight, it is contradicted by the fact
that the females and the young males likewise eat the root without
manifesting any odor of musk nor do they secrete the substance, while
the older males produce it even when they are fed with hay only.
Another fact is of interest, namely, that other ruminants, too, for
instance, cattle, diffuse a marked though faint odor of musk which
occurs also in their excrements, exactly as in the case of the musk
deer. Alligators likewise produce a musk-like substance which has
actually been made use of in place of musk for coarser purposes.
The musk present in the glands differs in appearance with the season
and the age of the animal. Musk deers killed in spring have in their
musk bag an unctuous soft mass of a reddish-brown color with the
strongest odor; at other seasons the mass is darker in color, almost
black, and granular; the size of the grains ranges from that of a
millet-seed to that of a large pea.
That the secretion of musk belongs to the sexual functions appears
probable from the fact that it can be found only in the bags of males
more than two years old; that of younger animals contains only a
substance of a milky consistence, whose odor has no resemblance to that
of musk. The quantity of musk present in a bag varies with the season
and the age of the animal; the smallest quantity may be assumed at
about six drachms, though some bags contain as much as one and a half
ounces.
The hunters dry the bags either on hot stones or in the air, or they
dip them into hot oil. In commerce musk occurs either in bags under the
name moschus in vesicis, “musk in pods,” or free, moschus in granis,
moschus ex vesicis, “grain musk.” According to its origin four sorts
are distinguished: Chinese or Tonquin musk, Siberian or Russian musk,
Assam or Bengal musk, and finally Bokharian musk. The latter two
varieties, however, rarely reach this market. Chinese musk (Tonquin or
Thibet musk) occurs in small boxes containing twenty to thirty bags,
each wrapped in Chinese tissue paper; on which Chinese characters
are printed. This is considered the best quality. Assam musk occurs
in boxes lined with tin which contain as many as two hundred or more
bags; its value is about two-thirds that of the former. Russian musk
is packed in various ways and is worth about one-fourth that of the
Chinese; a special variety of it, of a weaker and rather urinous odor,
is known as Cabardine musk; of least value is Bokharian musk which is
of a grayish black color, with a faint odor.
Musk is adulterated in an almost incredible manner; at times so-called
musk bags are met with which are artificially constructed of animal
membranes and filled with dried blood, earth, etc., and slightly
scented with genuine musk. But even the genuine musk bags are often
tampered with; musk being removed from the opening and the space filled
with earth, dried blood, animal excrement, or perhaps pieces of copper
and lead.
Pure musk reacts quite characteristically toward caustic alkalies such
as caustic potash and soda or solution of ammonia, and these substances
are used for testing the purity of musk. If a dilute alkaline solution
is poured over musk, a marked increase of the odor is observed after
a short time; if the alkaline solution is concentrated or hot, the
odor of musk disappears completely and the fluid develops the caustic
odor of pure ammonia. Hot water dissolves about eighty per cent of
the total weight of musk; strong alcohol dissolves about one-tenth
of it; when heated in an open porcelain capsule, musk burns with a
disgusting empyreumatic odor and leaves a considerable amount of ash,
about one-tenth of its weight. Besides the above-named substances which
destroy the musk odor by the decomposition of the aromatic constituent,
there are other bodies, whose action we do not know at present, which
have the peculiar property of completely extinguishing this most
penetrating of all odors: to deodorize a vessel completely which has
contained musk, it is sufficient to rub in it some bitter almonds
moistened with water or some camphor with alcohol.
In an extremely dilute condition musk is used for perfuming the finest
soaps and sachets, and even in the manufacture of the most expensive
and best perfumes, owing to its property of imparting permanence
to very volatile odors. In the last-mentioned class, however, the
quantity of musk must always be so small that its presence is not
distinctly observed, since many persons find the pure odor of musk
very disagreeable, while they praise the fragrance of such perfumes as
contain an amount of this substance too small to be perceived by the
olfactory nerves.
CIVET.
_Latin_—Civetta; _French_—Civette; _German_—Zibeth.
This substance bears some resemblance to musk with reference to its
derivation and the rôle it plays in the life of the animal from which
it is obtained. The Viverridæ, a class of carnivora related to the
cats and weasels, found in Asia and Africa, furnish this substance.
It is obtained chiefly from the civet cat (Viverra Civetta) and the
musk rat (Viverra Zibetha) which are kept in captivity for the purpose
of abstracting from them from time to time the civet which is always
formed anew.
Civet is the secretion of a double gland present both in the male and
the female near the sexual organs. Fresh civet is a whitish-yellow mass
of the consistence of butter or fat, and becomes thicker and darker
on exposure to the air. Similar to musk, it has a strong odor which
becomes pleasant on being diluted and is used both alone and for fixing
other odors.