Aromatic Vinegars & Smelling Salts

Aromatic Vinegars are made in France by infusing various flowers, etc, in distilled or finest wine vinegars, with or without the addition of spirit. Others are made by distillation. As they are seldom required in this country, a few examples only will suffice

This is a compound of strong acetic acid with certain powerful essential oils.. To produce the finer qualities of aromatic vinegar, glacial acetic acid must alone be employed. Aromatic vinegar is used as a pungent and refreshing nasal stimulant in languor, faintness, nervous headaches, dimness of sight, etc.. For this purpose it is generally dropped on a small piece, of sponge placed in a stoppered bottle, or a vinaigrette, which is only smelt at. It forms a useful caustic for warts and corns. As it is highly corrosive, it.should be kept from contact with the skin and clothes. (Cooley.)

Smelling Salts

Sesquicarbonate of ammonia commonly passes under this name, and, with the addition of a few drops of essential oil, is frequently employed to fill smelling bottles. Its pungency, however, is neither so great nor so durable as that of the true or neutral carbonate of ammonia. The latter salt continues unchanged in composition, and preserves its pungency as long as a particle of it remains unvolatilized.

The portion only which flies off suffers decomposition as it volatilizes, separating into gaseous ammonia and carbonic acid. The pungency of the sesquicarbonate, on the other hand, depends solely on its gradual decomposition, in the solid state, into carbonate of ammonia, which flies off under exposure to the air; and into bicarbonate of ammonia, which is much less volatile and only slightly pungent, and which remains behind; the weight of the latter being far greater than one-half the weight of the original salt.

Carbonate of ammonia, and not the sesquicarbonate, should, therefore, be alone used in filling smelling bottles, if a strong, agreeable, and durable pungency be desired. It is employed, either directly or indirectly, by the makers of all the more esteemed smelling salts of the day; and their predecessors did the same, even long before the chemistry of the two salts, and the rationale of the properties which cause a preference for the one, were known. (Cooley.)

Vinegarettes/Vinaigrettes

 These are employed like smelling bottles and for similar purposes. Any inert Aromatic substance such as Orris or a mixture with Aromatic powdered drugs, may be saturated with Glacial Acetic Acid with which one-fourth the quantity of Bulk Perfume is mixed. The Toilet Vinegars mentioned further on, may also be employed for the same Purpose.

Ammoniated Perfumes

These are prepared by either adding strong liquor of ammonia to the liquid perfumes (eaux, esprits, etc..,) in sufficient quantity to impart to them a pungent ammoniacal odor, or by adding to the articles, before distillation, the ingredients that, by their mutual reaction, produce ammonia.

In the former case, 1/2 to l1/2 fluid ounces of liquor of ammonia (.880-.882), per pint, will be required, according to the nature of the preparation and the degree of pungency desired; and in general, when much essential oil is present, a spirit of higher strength than usual should be employed for the esprit, to compensate for its subsequent dilution by the ammonia.

In the other case, 4 to 5 drachms of sal ammoniac, and 7 to 8 drachms of carbonate of potash for each pint of the product intended to be drawn over, are mixed with the cold ingredients just before distillation. For this use the liquor of ammonia must be perfectly free from tarry or empyreumatic matter, and have a purely ammoniacal odor.

Recipes

Aromatic Spirit of Ammonia, Smelling Salts