French perfumery, like the German, had its origin in Italy, when
Catherine de' Medici came to Paris as the bride of Henri II. She
brought with her, among other artists, her perfumer, Sieur Toubarelli,
who established himself in the flowery land of Grasse. Here for four
hundred years the industry has remained rooted and the family formulas
have been handed down from generation to generation. In the city of
Grasse there were at the outbreak of the war fifty establishments making
perfumes. The French perfumer does not confine himself to a single
sense. He appeals as well to sight and sound and association. He adds to
the attractiveness of his creation by a quaintly shaped bottle, an
artistic box and an enticing name such as "Dans les Nues," "Le Coeur de
Jeannette," "Nuit de Chine," "Un Air Embaumé," "Le Vertige," "Bon Vieux
Temps," "L'Heure Bleue," "Nuit d'Amour," "Quelques Fleurs," "Djer-Kiss."

The requirements of a successful scent are very strict. A perfume must
be lasting, but not strong. All its ingredients must continue to
evaporate in the same proportion, otherwise it will change odor and
deteriorate. Scents kill one another as colors do. The minutest trace of
some impurity or foreign odor may spoil the whole effect. To mix the
ingredients in a vessel of any metal but aluminum or even to filter
through a tin funnel is likely to impair the perfume. The odoriferous
compounds are very sensitive and unstable bodies, otherwise they would
have no effect upon the olfactory organ. The combination that would be
suitable for a toilet water would not be good for a talcum powder and
might spoil in a soap. Perfumery is used even in the "scentless" powders
and soaps. In fact it is now used more extensively, if less intensively,
than ever before in the history of the world. During the Unwashed Ages,
commonly called the Dark Ages, between the destruction of the Roman
baths and the construction of the modern bathroom, the art of the