“I believe that doctors could make more use of odours than they do, because I have often noticed that they change me and affect my spirits, whatever they may be.” These words were written by Michel de Montaigne in 1588. They have been long forgotten. Most of our hospitals and clinics smell, if they smell of anything, of solvent or something less pleasant. Perfumes make up little of our modern pharmacopoeia. Which is strange. In the Middle Ages perfumes were endowed with the ability to cure many human ailments.