It seems, as yet, impossible to
assign any probable reason to the fact that many substances have
a pleasant odor. It may, however, be worth suggesting that
certain compounds, such as the volatile sulphides and the
indoles, have very unpleasant odors because they are normal
constituents of mammalian excreta and of putrefied animal
products; the repulsive odors may be simply necessary results of
evolutionary processes." (_Loc. cit._, _Nature_, December 27,
1900.)
Many of the perfumes in use are really combinations of a great
many different odors in varying proportions, such as oil of rose,
lavender oil, ylang-ylang, etc. The most highly appreciated
perfumes are often made up of elements which in stronger
proportion would be regarded as highly unpleasant.
In the study and manufacture of perfumes Germany and France have
taken the lead in recent times. The industry is one of great
importance. In France alone the trade in perfumes amounts to
L4,000,000.
It is doubtless largely owing to the essential and fundamental identity of
odors--to the chemical resemblances even of odors from the most widely
remote sources--that we find that perfumes in many cases have the same
sexual effects as are primitively possessed by the body odors.
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