Watertown Republican

PERFUME AFFECTS MARRIAGE.
Theory of a Famous German Doctor--Scents to Avoid.

At a time when so many women, young and attractive, are left lonely, and deploring the fact that the men of the day are not matrimonially inclined, it may not be amiss to mention one of the causes for this celibacy as assumed by a learned professor from that country whence comes so much light and learning.

Professor Jaeger, that famous German hygienic prophet, informs us that as long ago as the eighteenth century it was discovered that the scent of musk had been known to have dire effects, being particularly disliked by men, and that, coming from one beloved, it had even been proved to change affection into aversion.

He quotes a case in which two passionate lovers had actually been eternally separated as a consequence of a little musk on the lady's handkerchief.

It is a matter of regret that this subject should not have come before the public before, for the heart saddens when it considers the thousands of maidens doomed all for the want of a little guidance in the choice of what was once known as "toilet water."

Dr. Jaeger cites another case also which may throw a new and astonishing light on the persistent demands of the day for judicial separation between husbands and wives, and the increasing growth of divorce cases.

A young German couple loved one another in that rapturous style which makes "the honeymoon and how not to conduct it" an object lesson for all Europe.

Suddenly the absorbing devotion of Carl for his Dorothea cooled (and this before even pessimists would allow the possibility), changed to indifference, and ended in evident repulsion.

Neither could understand the cause. Carl would gaze at Dorothea, and wonder why her flaxen hair no longer looked to him gold, why her pale blue eyes no longer seemed to resemble violets, and why her plump, short figure appeared no more to be the model for a pocket Venus.

Dorothea wept her pretty eyes out, and tried with various feminine arts to win back the errant fancy of her lord and master. The traces of crying she hid with a new face powder, and put on her smartest frock. Notwithstanding, the bridegroom's repulsion was growing to violent hatred, when accident revealed the cause.

Going to a wardrobe in which his wife kept musk, the sensitive bridegroom fainted away. A doctor was called, and it was found that Dorothea had been using perfume in which musk predominated, and that this was also largely used in the face powder.

Toilet accessories were given up, and Carl and Dorothea were once more the loving couple of old. On such small things does the happiness of a lifetime hang.

The reason given by Dr. Jaeger for the peculiar dislike most men have to musk is that only vegetable scents, such as rose, violet, lily, etc., are agreeable to the masculine mind; while others, such as ambergris, civet, castor, known as animal perfumes, are particularly repugnant.

No odor is so potent as musk, and its power of penetration is such that polished metal enclosed with it in a box, yet not even touching it, will become strongly impregnated, while a few drops of musk placed on a sensitive scale will in a year or so fill a large hall.

While considering the question of perfume, it may be as well to remind inventors that there is a fortune waiting for him who can reproduce the refreshing briny odor of the sea, the grateful and healing fragrance of the pine woods, or that peculiarly delightful sweet breath which Mother Earth yields after warm rain.--London Express.