an agreeable odour, affecting the organ of smelling. The generality of perfumes are made up of musk, ambergrise, civet, rose and cedar-woods, orange-flowers, jasmine, jonquils, tuberoses, and other odoriferous flowers. Those drugs commonly called aromatics, such as ilorax, frankincense, benzoin, cloves, mace, &c., enter the composition of a perfume; some are also composed of aromatic herbs or leaves, as lavender, marjoram, sage, thyme, hyssop, &c.

Perfumes were anciently very much in use; but since people are become sensible of the harm they do to the head, they are generally disused among us; however, they are still common in Spain and Italy.