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diff --git a/old/60584-0.txt b/old/60584-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 1cba0ac..0000000 --- a/old/60584-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5134 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aromatics and the Soul, by Dan McKenzie - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Aromatics and the Soul - A Study of Smells - -Author: Dan McKenzie - -Release Date: October 28, 2019 [EBook #60584] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AROMATICS AND THE SOUL *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, ellinora, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - AROMATICS AND THE SOUL - - - - - DISEASES OF - THE THROAT, NOSE, - AND EAR - - - By DAN MCKENZIE, M.D., F.R.C.S.E. - Royal 8vo. 650 pages. 2 Coloured - Plates and 198 Illustrations. - =42s.= net. - - _Times Literary - Supplement._—“There is probably - no better book on this branch of - medicine and surgery in - existence.” - - - LONDON - WILLIAM HEINEMANN - (MEDICAL BOOKS) LTD. - - - - - AROMATICS AND THE SOUL - A STUDY OF SMELLS - - - BY - DAN McKENZIE, M.D. (GLASG.) - FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, EDINBURGH - - “Natura rerum quae sit odoribus intenta sunt....” - _Q. Horatii Flacci Carminum_, Lib. V. - - “There are whose study is of smells” - _R. Kipling’s version of the same_ - -[Illustration] - - LONDON - WILLIAM HEINEMANN - (MEDICAL BOOKS) LTD. - 1923 - - - - - INSCRIBED TO - - DR. V. H. WYATT WINGRAVE - - IN ADMIRATION - - OF - - AN INDOMITABLE SPIRIT - - - _Printed in Great Britain._ - - - - - PREFACE - - -Having, as I thought, completed this book—bar the Preface, which is, of -course, always the last chapter—I sent it in manuscript to an old friend -of mine for his opinion. - -He let me have it. - -“Your brochure,” he wrote, “is remarkable more perhaps for what it omits -than for what it contains. For example, there is no mention whatever -made of the _vomero-nasal organ, or organ of Jacobson_.” - -Then, after drastically sweeping away the much that seems to him -redundant in the body of the work, he closes his general criticism -(which I omit) with “I should like to have heard your views on the -vomero-nasal organ. Parker devotes a whole chapter to it.” - -A carpenter, according to the adage, is known by his chips. And it was -by the simple removal of some superfluous marble, as everyone knows, -that the Venus of Milo was revealed to the world—which is only another -way of saying the same thing. - -But what sort of a carpenter is he who leaves among his chips the -mouldings of his door? And what should we say of the sculptor, even in -these days, who would treat as a superfluity his lady’s chin? - -No mention of the vomero-nasal or Jacobson’s organ! A serious, nay! a -damning, defect. - -So here am I trying to atone for the sin of omission by giving the -neglected item place of honour in my Preface. “The stone which the -builders rejected....” - -But my motive for erecting it here, in the gateway to my little pagoda -of the perfumes, is not quite so simple as I am pretending. The fact is -that in my capacity as creator I predetermined, I actually foredained, -the omission from my text of the structure to which “Parker devotes a -whole chapter.” - -I am sorry in some ways. But as the Aberdeen minister so consolingly -said: “There are many things the Creator does in His offeecial capacity -that He would scorn to do as a private indiveedual.” - -You see, I had a feeling about it. One of those feelings artists are -subject to. (But a scientific writer an artist?—Certainly! Why not?) - -I felt, to be quite frank, that if I were to interpolate a description -and a discussion of this _minutia_ my book would ... would.... Quite so. -The artist will understand. - -I came, in short, to look upon this “organ,” this nose within a nose, as -a touchstone, so to speak. The thing became a Symbol. - -But here we plunge head over heels into the Subjective, on the other -side of which stream lie the misty shades of the Occult. For that is -what happens to you when you begin talking about Symbols. - -However, we shall not be crossing to the other side on this occasion, my -symbolism being after all but a humdrum affair.—Merely this, that to me -this organ of Jacobson is the symbol of the Exhaustive—of the minute, -punctilious, unwearying, laboured comprehensiveness, Teutonic in its -over and under and through, that characterises the genuine, the -reliable, scientific treatise and renders it so desperately full of -interest—to examinees. - -Imagine, if you can, the indignation of kindly Sir Walter were the news -ever to reach him in Valhalla that urchins now at school are not only -forced to study his light-hearted romances as holiday tasks, but are -actually examined upon them! - -So, comparing small things with great, let me say: “_Absit omen_.” - - -My faith in the spoken charm of that phrase is, however, none too -robust. Heaven helps the man who helps himself. And so, by way of -reinforcing the Powers in their efforts to divert professorial attention -from this essay of mine, I am leaving it, by a careful act of -carelessness, incomplete. - -Here, then, you have the real reason for my exclusion of the organ of -Jacobson (and the like). It is merely a dodge to prevent the book ever -becoming a task in any way, for any one, at any time. - -He who runs may read herein, then, without slackening pace—or he may -refrain from reading, just as he pleases, seeing that he can never be -under the compulsion of remembering a single word I have written. - -This, if I may say so, is, in my opinion, the only kind of book worth -reading. At all events, it is the only kind I ever enjoy reading, and I -say if a book is not enjoyable it is already placed upon the only Index -Expurgatorius that is worth a ... an anathema. - - D. M. - - - - - TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - CHAP. PAGE - - PREFACE v - - I. OLFACTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH 1 - - II. THE SENSE OF OLFACTION IN LOWER ANIMALS 21 - - III. OLFACTORY MEMORY 43 - - IV. SMELL AND SPEECH 59 - - V. SMELL IN FOLK-LORE, RELIGION, AND HISTORY 66 - - VI. THE ULTIMATE 79 - - VII. SMELL AND THE PERSONALITY 87 - - VIII. THEORIES OF OLFACTION 98 - - IX. DUST OF THE ROSE PETAL 140 - - - - - AROMATICS AND THE SOUL - - - - - CHAPTER 1 - OLFACTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH - - -I sing of smells, of scents, perfumes, odours, whiffs and niffs; of -aromas, bouquets and fragrances; and also, though temperately and -restrainedly I promise you, of effluvia, reeks, fœtors, stenches, and -stinks. - - -A few years ago I stood before the public singing another song. By no -means a service of praise it was, but something of the order of a -denunciatory psalm, wherein I invoked the wrath of the high gods upon -such miscreants as make life hideous with din. - -You must not think that imprecations cannot be sung. All emotional -utterance is song, said Carlyle; only he said it not quite so briefly. -And, leaving on one side the vituperations of his enemies by King David -(if he it was who wrote the Psalms) which we still chant upon certain -days of the Christian year, it may be remembered that in bygone times -when the medical practitioner was a wizard (or a witch) and uttered his -(or her) spell to stay the arrows of Apollo, it not infrequently -contained a denunciation of some brother (or sister) practitioner of the -art (how times are changed!), and it was known, in Rome at all events, -as a _carmen_, a song. Hence, say the etymologists, the English word -“charm,” which still, of course, characterises the modern witch, if not -the modern wizard—neither of whom, we may add, is nowadays a medical -practitioner. - -Besides, denunciations are, of course, grunted and growled with more or -less of a semblance of singing in modern opera. To substantiate my words -I need only mention that interminable scene—or is it an act?—of gloom -and evil plottings by Telramund and Ortrud in _Lohengrin_. - -But if I am again singing, this time, I trust, my voice will sound in -the ears of my hearers less shrill, less strident, less of a shriek. -For, in sooth, the present theme is one upon which we are justly -entitled, in so far as England and Scotland at all events are concerned, -to raise what would be a _Nunc Dimittis_ of praise and thanksgiving, -were it not that the price of cleanly air like that of liberty is -eternal vigilance, seeing that our nostrils are no longer offended by -the stenches our forefathers had to put up with. That they endured such -offences philosophically, cheerfully even, laughing at the -unpleasantness as men do at a bad smell, is true. Nevertheless most -people in those days probably felt as much objection to a vile odour as -Queen Elizabeth, for example, did, the sharpness of whose nose, her -biographers tell us, was only equalled by the sharpness of her tongue. - - -Irishmen who do me the honour of tasting this light omelette of -scientific literature will have noticed, I am sure, that I have not -included the sister isle in my olfactory paradise. And indeed, I -hesitated long before passing it over, because I am a man of peace—at -any price where the Land of Ire is concerned. But alas! I am by nature -truthful and only by art mendacious. And there sticks horrible to my -memory the fumous and steamy stench of parboiled cabbage that filled the -restaurant-car of the train for Belfast—yes! Belfast, not Dublin—one -evening as I landed at Kingstown. The sea had been—well! it was the -Irish Sea, and I stepped on to the train straight from the mail-boat, so -that ... in a word, I remember that luscious but washy odour too vividly -to bestow upon Ireland the white flower of a stenchless life. - -In these remarks I have been careful to observe that the train was not -the Dublin train, but if any one feels moved to defend the capital city, -let him first of all take a stroll down by the Liffey as it flows -fermenting and bubbling under its bridges, and then ... if he can.... - -Let me, however, in justice to that grief-stricken country, spray a -little perfume over my too pungent observations. I can also recall after -many years a warm and balmy evening in the town of Killarney, the -peaceful close to a day of torrential rain. The setting sun, glowing -love through its tears, was reddening the sky and the dark green hills -around, those hills of Ireland where surely, if anywhere on this earth, -heaven is foreshadowed. And linked in memory with that evening’s glory -there comes, like the gentle strain of a long-forgotten song, the rich, -pungent smell of turf-smoke eddying blue from low chimneys into the soft -air of the twilight. Ireland! Ireland! What an atmosphere of love and -grief that name calls up! Surely the surf that beats upon the strands of -Innisfail far away is more salt, more bitter, and perhaps for that very -reason more sweet, than the waters of any of the other beaches that -ocean bathes! - -Thence also comes a memory of heliotrope. It grew by a cottage just -beyond a grey granite fishing-harbour in Dublin Bay, and brings also, -with its faint, ineffable fragrance, the same inseparable blending of -emotions that clings, itself a never-dying odour, to the memory of -holidays in Ireland. There is a phrase in a song, simple, sentimental, -even silly if you like, that prays for “the peace of mind dearer than -all.” - -“But what,” I remember asking the mother of our party—“what is meant by -‘peace of mind’?” Her wistful smile seemed to me to be a very inadequate -reply to my question—which, by the way, I am still asking. - - -It is an historical fact that the movement which rendered England the -pioneer country in the matter of Public Health received its first -impulse from, and even now owes its continued existence to, the simple -accident that the English public has grown intolerant of over-obtrusive -odours. Stenches have attained to the dignity of a legal topic of -interest, and are now by Act of Parliament become “nuisances” in law as -well as in nature, with the result that they have been, for the most -part, banished from the face of the land and the noses of its -inhabitants. - -The reason assigned by the man in the street for this reform was, and -indeed still is, that stenches breed epidemic diseases. In a noisome -smell people imagine a deadly pestilence, probably because patients -affected with such epidemic diseases as smallpox, typhus, and -diphtheria, give off nauseating odours. Now, bad smells from drains and -cesspools do not of themselves induce epidemic disease. Nevertheless, -there is this much of truth in the superstition, that where you have bad -smells you have also surface accumulations of filth, and these, soaking -through soil and subsoil, contaminate surface wells, until it only -requires the advent of a typhoid or other “carrier” to set a widespread -epidemic a-going. Further, as recent investigators have shown us, the -loathsome and deadly typhus fever, known for years to be a -“filth-disease,” is carried by lice, which pests breed and flourish -where bodily cleanliness is neglected and personal odours are strong. - -So that in this, as in most superstitions, there is a substratum of -truth. - -But the point is, that the objection to bad smells preceded all those -scientific discoveries and had, in the beginning, but a slender support -from rationalism. Our forebears builded better than they knew. Their -objection was in reality intuitive. It may be true that all nations -occupying a corresponding level of civilisation will manifest the same -instinctive abhorrences, but it has been left to the practical genius of -the English race to give effect to the natural repugnance and to -translate its urgings into practice. - -The interesting question now arises: How and when did this intuition or -instinct, this blind feeling, arise, and what transformed it from a mere -individual objection, voiced here and there, to a mass-movement leading -to a general popular reformation? - -The first explanation that is likely to occur to us is, that it was due -to the refinement of feeling that accompanies high civilisation -operating in a community quick to respond and to react when a public -benefit is anticipated. One of the results of culture is an increase in -the delicacy of the senses. When men and women strive after refinement, -they achieve it, becoming refined, in spite of what pessimists and -so-called realists preach, not only in their outward behaviour, but also -in their innermost thoughts and feelings, and this internal refinement -implies among other things a quickening of the sense of disgust. There -is naturally a close and intimate connection between the sense of smell -and the nerve-centres which, when stimulated, evoke the feeling of -nausea in the mind—and the bodily acts that follow it. We are here -dealing, in fact, with a primitive protective impulse to ensure that -evil-smelling things shall not be swallowed, and the means adopted by -Nature to prevent that ingestion, or, if it has accidentally occurred, -to reverse it, are prompt. And successful. There is no compromise with -the evil thing. - -Like all other nerve-reactions, this particular reflex can be educated: -either up or down. It can be blunted and degraded, or it can be rendered -more acute, more prompt to react. Now, one of the effects of civilised -life, of town life, is to abbreviate the period of all reflex action. -And if this applies to knee-jerks and to seeing jokes, it is even more -noticeable in the particular reflex we are here considering. - -A citizen of Cologne in Coleridge’s days, for example, must have been -anosmic to most of the seven-and-twenty stenches that offended the -Englishman, and in my own time I have counted as many as ten -objectionable public perfumes, yea! even in Lucerne, the “Lovely -Lucerne” of the railway posters. Several of these, perhaps, did not -amount to more than a mere whiff, just the suspicion of a something -unpleasant, no more (but no less) disturbing than, say, one note a -semitone flat in a major chord; two or three of them, however, to the -sensitive, thin-winged organ of an English school-ma’am, would have -attained to the rank of a “smell,” a word on her lips as emphatic as an -oath on yours or mine; four of them, at the least, were plain stenches, -and so beyond _her_ vocabulary altogether; and one was—well! beyond even -mine, but only too eloquent itself of something ugly and bloated, some -mess becoming aerial just round the corner. I did not turn that corner. - -Now, the people of Lucerne could never have smelled them, or at all -events they could never have appreciated those perfumes as I did, or the -town would have been evacuated. Their olfactory sense compared with mine -must have been a stupid thing, dense to begin with, and cudgelled by use -and wont into blank insensibility. Because, it is obvious, delicacy in -this, as in all the senses, can only be acquired by avoiding habitual -overstimulation. And that avoidance is only possible in a country where -odours are fine, etherealised, rare. - - -Even in France, France the enlightened, the sensitive, the refined, -primitive odours pervade the country, as our Army knows very well. Not -only is the farm dunghill given place of honour in the farm courtyard, -close to doors and windows, but even in the mansions of the wealthy the -cesspool still remains—not outside, but inside, the house, the -water-carriage system, even the pail-system (if that can be called a -system), being unknown. So that our Army authorities had to send round a -peculiar petrol-engine, known to the Tommies as “Stinking Willie,” to -empty those pools of corruption. Some of the monasteries used by us as -hospitals were, at the beginning of the war, even worse. - -From this we may surmise that the olfactory sense of our neighbours is -not yet so sensitive as is ours. - -But in this matter Western Europe, at its worst—say, in one of the -corridor-trains to Marseilles—is a mountain-top to a pigstye compared -with the old and gorgeous East. “The East,” ejaculated an old Scotsman -once—“the East is just a smell! It begins at Port Said and disna stop -till ye come to San Francisco, ... if there!” he added after a pause. -From his sweeping condemnation we must, however, exempt Japan. - -Who can ever forget the bazaar smells of India, the mingled must and -fust with its background of garlic and strange vices, or the still more -mysterious atmospheres of China with their deep suggestion of musk? - -Naturally the air of a cold country is clearer of obnoxious vapours than -that of tropical and subtropical climes, but in spite of that, the first -whiff of a Tibetan monastery, like that of an Eskimo hut, grips the -throat, they say, like the air over a brewing vat. - -So that, after making every allowance for the favour of Nature, we are -still entitled to claim that the relative purity of England, and of -English cities, towns and even villages, is an artificial achievement. - -I may therefore, with justice, raise a song of praise to our fathers who -have had our country thus swept and garnished, swept of noxious vapours -and emanations, and garnished with the perfume of pure and fresh air, to -the delight and invigoration of our souls. - -And yet the change has only recently been brought about. Up to the -beginning of the nineteenth century the city of London - - “was certainly as foul as could be. The streets were unpaved or - paved only with rough cobble stones. There were no side walks. The - houses projected over the roadway, and were unprovided with - rain-water gutters, and during a shower rain fell from the roofs - into the middle of the street. These streets were filthy from - constant contributions of slops and ordure from animals and human - beings. There were no underground drains, and the soil of the town - was soaked with the filth of centuries. This sodden condition of the - soil must have affected the wells to a greater or less extent.” - (“London, Sanitary and Medical,” by G. V. Poore. 1889.) - -Moreover, the nineteenth century was well on its way before the last of -the private cesspools disappeared from the dwelling-houses of London. - -Edinburgh during the Middle Ages was, we are told, fresher and cleaner -upon its wind-swept ridge than London, but with the erection of lofty -houses in the High Street and Haymarket of the northern capital its -atmosphere became much worse than that of London. The reason for this -was that while the London houses remained low, and the population -therefore, for a city, widely distributed, in those of Edinburgh, on the -other hand, a large community of all classes of society was -concentrated, from the noble lord and lady to the beggarly caddie and -quean. And the whole stew was quite innocent of what we call drainage. -Quite. Yet the waste-products of life, the lees and offscourings of -humanity, all that housemaids call “slops,” had to be got rid of. Very -simple problem this to our worthy Edinburgh forefathers. After dark the -windows up in these “lands” were thrust open, and with a shrill cry of -“Gardy-loo” (_Gardez l’eau_) the cascade of swipes and worse fell into -the street below with a splash and an od—. “Ha! ha!” laughed Dr. Johnson -to little Boswell; “I can smell you there in the dark!” - -The hygienic reformation of Britain, although adumbrated by sundry laws -made at intervals from the fifteenth century onwards, was not seriously -taken in hand until as late as the sixties of last century, and -Disraeli’s famous Act defining a bad smell as a “nuisance” became law in -1875. - - -But although we may justly congratulate ourselves upon the hygienic -achievements of England, one result of which has been the minimising of -unpleasant odours, nevertheless, as a wider consideration of the facts -will show us, the task of cleansing the air of England is not yet -entirely completed. It is doubtless true that what we may term domestic -stenches have for the most part been dispelled, but as regards public -fœtors there are still, I regret to say, a few that abide with us, -seemingly as nasty as ever they were. - -One deplorable instance you will encounter at the Paddington terminus of -the Great Western Railway no less, at a certain platform of which -station, lying in wait for our fresh country cousins on their arrival in -London, there lurks a livid concoction of ancient milk, horse-manure, -live stock, dead stock, and, in the month of July, fermenting -strawberries, as aggressive and unashamed as the worst Lucerne has to -offer. I commend it to the attention of the Medical Officer of Health -for Paddington. - -Nay more! This West London efflorescence does not lie blooming alone. It -is by no means the last rose of summer. On the east side of the great -city, another, a rival upas-tree, spreads its nauseating blight. This is -a mess that, oozing from a soap factory near Stratford-atte-Bow, -envelops in its oleaginous cloud several hundred yards of the main line -of the Great Eastern Railway. And the world we live in is so arranged -that the trains, particularly in summer, are held up by signal for -several minutes in this neighbourhood, so that, as the greasy slabs of -decomposing fats slump in at the open carriage windows, an early -opportunity is afforded to our Continental visitors of becoming -acquainted with the purifying properties of English soap. - -I am blushing now for what I have been saying about Ireland, Cologne, -Lucerne, France, and even the East. - -This last instance, however, opens up a large subject, that, namely, of -malodorous industries. Of these there is a great number, too great -indeed for me to do more than make a passing allusion to them. The -proximity of evil-smelling works and factories to human habitations is, -as a matter of fact, prohibited by the Public Health Acts, but it is -naturally impossible to remove them entirely from the knowledge of -mankind inasmuch as the workers frequently carry the atmosphere about -with them. Fortunately for them, but unfortunately for us, by reason of -the rapid exhaustion of the olfactory sense (which we are about to deal -with in the following section), they are, for the most part, not -incommoded by the objectionable airs they work in. - -Perhaps the worst of all are the bone-manure factories, malodorous mills -which are almost invariably situated at a distance of several miles from -any dwelling-house, as it would be impossible for any one but the -workers themselves to live in their neighbourhood. These unfortunate -people, many of whom are women, carry, as I have already remarked, the -stench about with them on their clothing and persons, and I have -observed that, being themselves insensitive to the odour, they cannot -rid themselves of it even on Sundays and holidays. - -In this class also we must place tanneries, glueworks, and size -factories, a visit to which is a severe trial for any one unaccustomed -to them. Dyeworks, likewise, by reason of the organic sulphur compounds -they disseminate through the spongy air, are unpleasant neighbours. In -cotton mills, also, the sizing-rooms are objectionable, and here, -curiously enough, the operatives do not seem to become accustomed to the -smell, as it is insinuatingly rather than bluntly offensive, and grows -worse with use. So much so, indeed, that but few of the girls, I am -told, are able to remain in that particular occupation for more than a -few weeks at a time. - - -At this stage, albeit early in our disquisition, we may appropriately -turn to consider the curious fact that of all our senses that of smell -is perhaps the most easily exhausted. The olfactory organ, under the -continued stimulation of one particular odour, quite quickly becomes -insensitive to it. Perhaps this is the reason, or one of the reasons, -why reform was so long delayed. - -There are, however, in this respect great differences between odours. -With some the smell is lost in a few seconds, while with others we -continue to be aware of it for a much longer time. Curiously enough, -odours seem, in this matter, to follow the general law of the feelings -in that the pleasant are lost sooner than the unpleasant. It is the -first breath of the rose that makes the fullest appeal, when the whole -being becomes for a moment suffused with the loveliest of all perfumes. -But only for a moment. All too soon the door of heaven closes and the -richness thins away into the common airs of this our lower world. - -On the other hand, the aversion we all feel from substances like -iodoform, or, what is worse, scatol, owes not the least part of its -strength to the fact that both of those vile smells are very persistent. -As was once said to a surgeon applying iodoform to a wound in a -patient’s nose: “This patient will certainly visit you again, sir, -but—it will not be to consult you!” - -To this more or less rapid exhaustion of the sense is due the merciful -dispensation that no one is aware of his own particular aura. We are -only cognisant of odours that are strange to us. The Chinese and -Japanese find the neighbourhood of Europeans highly objectionable, and -we return the compliment. It is the stranger to the Island who remarks -the “very ancient and fish-like smell.” - -Fatigue and then exhaustion of a sense-organ, rendering it finally -irresponsive to a particular stimulus, is, of course, familiar to us -also in the case of vision, as the soap advertisement of our boyhood -with its complementary colours taught us. Taste manifests the same -phenomenon, for which reason (so he says) the cheese-taster in Scotland -swallows a little whisky after each of the different samples he tries. -But, curiously enough, the healthy ear is not thus dulled save by a very -loud, persistent noise, and then there is the risk of permanent damage -to the hearing organ. Some forms of tactile sensation, also, would seem -to remain ever sensitive, for, although it may be possible to become so -inured to pain as to ignore it, yet that is probably a mental act, and -it is said, moreover, that men have been tortured to death by the -tickling of the soles of their feet. - -But, as we have already seen, of all the senses none so quickly becomes -inert under stimulation as olfaction. Why it would be hard to say, -unless, like the exhaustion of colour-vision, it is due to the using up -of some chemical reagent in the sense-organ. At all events, if you wish -to appreciate the full intensity of a smell, you should arrange to come -upon it from the open air. - -I wonder if this, or something like it, is the reason why England was -the first country in the world to wage war against its stenches. For the -English are of all races the most addicted to fresh air. Consequently, -they are the most likely to keep habitually their olfactory sense -unspoiled and virgin. This, I admit, is only pushing the matter a step -further back, and we are still left with the question: Why is it that -the English are so fond of the open? Largely, I imagine, because their -climate is so damp that an indoor atmosphere is always a little -oppressive to them. - -Whatever may be the reason, however, there is no doubt that the keen, -clean chill of an English April day, especially when the wind is in the -east (_pace_ Mr. Jarndyce), brings to us an exaltation of spirit that -surpasses the exhilaration of wine, and at the same time renders us -impatient with mustiness and fustiness, intolerant of domestic -stuffiness, and frankly disgusted with the pungent, prickly vapours of -intimate humanity in the mass. The wind on the hilltop is our -aspiration, our ideal. Hence, maybe, the Public Health Acts, and also -the national tub. - -The use of the domestic bath is, we must not forget, a social revolution -of our own day and generation. Our grandfathers ventured upon a bath -only when it seemed to be called for—by others. Our grandmothers, with -their clean, white cotton or linen undergarments, had, or thought they -had, even less need for it. Besides, in their prim and bashful eyes the -necessary denudation antecedent to total immersion would have amounted, -even when they were alone, to something like gross indecency. Before -their time, again, in the eighteenth century, matters were even worse, -for the society ladies of that day painted their faces _instead_ of -washing them, and mitigated the effects of seldom-changed underclothing -by copiously drenching themselves with musk and other reliable perfumes. -(I am told, however, that even to-day fashionable ladies refrain from -washing their faces!) - -The domestic bathroom is the direct offspring of the gravitation -water-supply and the modern system of drainage. Buy an old house, and -you will have to convert one of the bedrooms into your bathroom, and, to -this day, you must carry your bath with you if you go to reside in -certain of the Oxford colleges. - - -I can myself remember in my younger days in Scotland an old doctor -having his first bath in the palatial surroundings of a modern bathroom. -Not in his own house, needless to say! After a patient and particular -inspection of all the glittering taps of “shower,” “spray,” “plunge,” -and what not, he commended his spirit to the Higher Powers—or rather, I -fear, according to his wont, for he was not of the Holy Willie -persuasion, to the keeping of those of the Nether Regions. Then he -proceeded gingerly to insert into the steaming water first of all his -toes, then his feet, next his ankles, and so bit by bit, until, greatly -daring, he had committed his entire body to the deep—to emerge as soon -as possible! He was no coward, let me tell you, in the ordinary run of -life. But this was his first bath in the altogether since his primal -post-natal plunge. His first bath! And his last! It nearly killed him, -he said; never in all his life had he felt so bad, and not for a -thousand pounds would he repeat the experiment! - - -One more tale. Cockney this time. A gentleman of my acquaintance was one -day discussing with an old-fashioned baker the modern making of bread by -machinery. Both agreed that the older method made the better bread. The -new was not so good. “It seems,” said my friend, “as if nowadays bread -lacks something, but what that something is I cannot tell.” - -“You are puffickly right, sir,” returned the baker. “It does lack -something, and wot that something is I can tell you—it lacks the aromer -of the ’uman ’and!” - - - - - CHAPTER II - THE SENSE OF OLFACTION IN LOWER ANIMALS - - -Olfaction is generally felt to be the lowest, the most animal, of the -senses, so much so that in polite society it is scarcely good manners to -mention smells, and I am well aware of the risks I run in writing a book -on the subject. And yet this feeling is by no means false modesty, -because it is, first and foremost, to the animal in us that smell makes -its appeal. None of the other senses brings so frankly to notice our -kinship with the brute. - -Olfaction is, indeed, one of the primitive senses of animal life. And in -man, as it happens, while vision has constructed for itself a highly -complicated camera-like end-organ, and hearing has produced an apparatus -even more elaborate, the olfactory organ, on the other hand, remains -primitive, its essential structure having undergone no apparent -evolutionary change from the simplest and earliest type. - -This, perhaps, is scarcely the proper way of expressing the situation. -Evolutionary change has, as a matter of fact, occurred, but it reaches -its highest development not in man, but in terrestrial mammals otherwise -inferior to him—in the dog, for example. - -For once, man does not occupy the apex of the evolutionary pyramid. - -Olfactory development, high or low, is linked up with the natural habits -of the different species. Thus, mammals which go about on all fours, -whose visual outlook is restricted and whose muzzle is near the ground, -are the most highly gifted; those, again, like the seals, porpoises, -whales, and walruses, which have reverted from a terrestrial to an -aqueous environment, where smell is of less value to them, show poorly -developed olfactory organs; and finally, the apes and man, living -habitually above the ground, the former in trees, the latter on his hind -legs, and relying chiefly upon vision, also show a decline from the high -point reached by four-footed mammalians. - -The animals of this kingdom are thus divided into macrosmatic and -microsmatic groups. To the latter man belongs, but we must add that his -olfactory sense has not yet degenerated so completely as that of certain -other species (porpoises, etc.). - -It is, of course, common knowledge that in most of the animals we are -closely acquainted with the sense of smell is infinitely more delicate -and acute than ours, so much so, indeed, that the imagination can on -occasion scarcely conceive theirs to be of the same nature. As a matter -of fact, many authorities incline to the belief that not only mammalians -and other vertebrates, but also insects, must be guided to their food -and to their love-mates by some kind of perception, by some mysterious -sense, of which we are totally devoid. - -As this is a division of our subject of the highest interest, and one to -which we shall have occasion to recur at intervals throughout this -treatise, we shall discuss the matter as fully as the space at our -disposal will permit. - - -The unit of the olfactory sense-organ is the olfactory cell. This, which -does not vary in structure from one end of the animal kingdom to the -other, is microscopically seen to consist of an elongated body like a -tiny rod, bearing on its free end a small enlargement or prominence, on -the surface of which is a cluster of extremely fine protoplasmic -filaments, the olfactory hairs. These hairs project into and are -immersed in a thin layer of mucus, at all events in air-breathing -animals, an environment which is necessary for their functional -activity, because, if the nose becomes desiccated, as it does in some -diseases, the sense of smell is lost (anosmia). The hairs are, without -doubt, the true receptive elements of the olfactory cells. It is these -which come into contact with and are stimulated by odours—whatever the -nature of Odour may be. - -The deep (proximal) end of the rod-like olfactory cell tapers into a -nerve-fibre, which passes by way of the olfactory nerve to a special -lobe of the brain—the olfactory lobe—in the vertebrates, or to a -nerve-ganglion in the invertebrates. - -Olfactory cells in man are only found in the upper—the olfactory—region -of the nose, spread over a surface of about one square inch, the -olfactory area—part lying on the outer (lateral) wall of each nasal -passage and part on the septum, or partition between the nasal passages. -In macrosmatic animals the olfactory area is relatively greater than in -man, but there is apparently no other difference between them. - -Olfactory cells are held in place by ordinary epithelial cells—the -sustentacular cells—which contain pigment. Olfactory cells are found in -animals as low in the scale as the sea-anemone. They occur in the -integument of the animal, and their structure is the same as in man, the -only difference evolution has brought about being that in the higher -animals they are protected by lodgment in a _cul-de-sac_. Their function -in the sea-anemone is probably limited to the sensing of food, but we do -not yet know much about this particular organism. - - -It is otherwise with the olfaction of insects. Here the work of -painstaking observers like Lubbock, Fabre, and Forel, has supplied us -with a mass of information of the utmost interest, which we shall now -proceed to discuss in some detail, commencing with the work of that -remarkable French naturalist, Fabre, whose interest in the subject was -aroused by an accident—the accident of which the genius of observation -knows so well how to take advantage. - - -Having by chance a living female Great Peacock moth captive in his -house, Fabre was surprised one night by the advent of some forty others -of the same species—males in search of a mate. At once the question -arose in his mind: How was it that they had been attracted? - -Sight could not have guided them, because, apart from the comparative -rarity of this moth in that particular district, the night of their -arrival was dark and stormy, his house was screened by trees and shrubs, -and the female was ensconced under a gauze cover. He observed, besides, -that the males did not make straight for their objective, as is -characteristic of movement when directed by sight. They blundered and -went astray, some of them wandering into rooms other than that in which -the female was lying. They behaved, that is to say, as we ourselves do -when we are trying to locate the source of a sound or a smell. But sound -was ruled out by the fact that they must have been summoned from -distances of a mile or a mile and a half. - -Olfaction remains, and with this in his mind Fabre undertook several -experiments, some of which, as it happens, support, while others oppose, -the theory of an olfactory cause. - -When the female was sequestered under the gauze cover, and in drawers or -in boxes with loosely-fitting lids, the males always succeeded in -discovering her. But when she was placed under a glass cover, or in a -sealed receptacle, no male at all appeared. Further, Fabre found that -cotton-wool stuffed into the openings and cracks of her receptacle was -also sufficient to prevent the summons reaching the males. This last -observation should be borne in mind in view of further discussion later -on regarding the nature of the lure. - -Similar observations and experiments were made on the Lesser Peacock, -with very much the same kind of result. But in dealing with this moth -Fabre made an observation which, if it was accurate, tells against the -theory of olfaction, or at least against such olfaction as we ourselves -experience. At the time when he was carrying out his experiments the -mistral was blowing hard from the north, and as nevertheless males -arrived, they must all have come with the wind; no moth ever hatched -could beat up against the mistral. But then, if the guide is an odour, -the wind, blowing it to the south, would have prevented it ever reaching -the males! Here, then, we have a circumstance which leaves us groping -for an explanation. - -In watching the behaviour of the third moth on his list, the Banded -Monk, on the other hand, Fabre discerned a circumstance very strongly -suggestive of the operation of an odorous lure. He found that, if the -female was left for a time in contact with some absorbent material and -was afterwards shifted, the males were attracted, not to her new -situation, but to the place where she had originally been lying. -Subsequent experiment showed that a period of about half an hour was -necessary to lead to the impregnation of the neighbourhood with the -effluvium she elaborated. - -The obvious test was employed of trying to drown the supposed odour of -the female by filling the room she was in with powerful aromas, like -naphthaline, paraffin, the alkaline sulphides, and the like. But in -spite of the presence of these stenches, in our experience overwhelming -to fainter exhalations, the males still continued to arrive in droves. -This result led Fabre to doubt whether it could really have been an -odour that attracted them. But surely this negative conclusion ignores -the possibility of the moths being anosmic to these gross scents while -highly specialised for one particular olfactory stimulus to which, as a -matter of fact, we ourselves are wholly insensitive. - - -Apart from this particular problem, however, to which we return below, -biologists agree that insects undoubtedly possess an olfactory sense -capable of appreciating the same kind of odours as ours does. Lubbock, -for example, demonstrated that ants give signs of perceiving the -presence of musk and other perfumes. There is no doubt, indeed, that the -olfactory sense plays a great, it may be a preponderating part in their -life-activity. - -The olfactory organ of insects is situated at the bottom of little -crypts in the antennæ and in the palpi of the mouth apparatus, more -particularly in the antennæ. And those insects, like bees, wasps, -butterflies and moths, that frequent flowers, are attracted to them by -their perfumes as well as by their colours. It has been found, for -example, that covering up flowers from view does not put a stop to the -visits of insects. Some naturalists go so far, indeed, as to say that -odour is their principal guide. At all events, the sarcophagic and -stercophagic insects are attracted to their food chiefly, if not -entirely, by odour. Fabre has recorded how such insects are lured to -their death by certain insectivorous plants which exhale a smell like -that of putrid beef. - -In this connection I may interpolate here an experience which shows that -this class of insect may be attracted solely by odour. Incidentally, it -also manifests how the olfactory sense of insects can be utilised in the -matter of hygiene. - - A clever plumber of my acquaintance was once called to a large - drapery establishment in the West End of London, because the - dressmakers at work in one of the rooms were making complaints of an - evil smell that haunted the place. So much had they been troubled, - indeed, that several of them had been made ill by it. On examining - the workroom my friend found everything apparently faultless. It was - a large, well-lighted and airy apartment, and he himself was unable - to detect anything amiss in the atmosphere. Plans were consulted, - but no evidence could be found of any possible source of unpleasant - odour. His opinion therefore was, that the ladies were—ladies, that - is to say, fanciful, and the matter was dropped. But the ladies were - not consenting parties to this opinion, and the complaints - continued. More of the assistants fell ill as a consequence, they - said, of the smell, so that he was again sent for. On this occasion, - it being the height of summer, he called, on his way to the draper’s - emporium, at a butcher’s shop, and much to that man’s surprise, - asked permission to capture a few of his bluebottle flies. These he - took with him to the draper’s, and, the suspected room having been - emptied of furniture and occupants, he closed all the windows and - doors and released his flies. After waiting patiently for some time, - he observed that these amateur detectives of his had all made for - one part of the room, where they were settling on the wall. Here he - had an opening made, and found hidden behind the plaster an open - drain-pipe, old and foul, which had formerly been connected with a - lavatory, and had been enclosed and forgotten during some - alterations made on the building several years before. - -The olfactory sense of insects has been credited with perhaps even more -wonderful powers than those we have just been writing about. For -instance, both Lubbock and Forel have shown that the extraordinary -aptitude ants possess for finding their way back to their nest after -their peregrinations in the mazy labyrinth of their world depends upon -the sense of smell. On their return to the nest they follow the scent -left by their own footsteps. - -This “homing” instinct, or “orientation,” which is found in many species -of insects and animals, has long been a matter of interest to scientific -naturalists. The subject is, however, much too large for us to enter -fully into on the present occasion. - -Winged insects like bees and wasps manifest also the homing instinct. In -their case the return to the nest or hive is effected probably -altogether under the guidance of vision. This is what we should expect, -as elevation in the air secures for these creatures a wide and unimpeded -view of their world. Circumstances are obviously different in the case -of ants and other creeping things, whose immediate outlook, like that of -four-footed mammals, is circumscribed to an area of but a few inches or -feet at the most. - -Investigating the orientation of ants, Forel found, first of all, that -while the covering of their eyes with an opaque varnish “embarrassed” -them to some extent, they went hopelessly astray when their antennæ were -removed. - -He also repeated Lubbock’s well-known experiments of supplying the ants -with bridges over obstacles in the neighbourhood of their nests, noting -their behaviour when the bridges were changed, removed, or reversed, -with the result that he came to credit the olfactory system of ants with -much greater powers than the more cautious Lubbock would have believed. - -These insects, says Forel, exploring with their mobile antennæ the -fields of odour they encounter, form in their memory a kind of “chemical -topography.” - -Thus when an ant sets out from her nest she distinguishes the various -odours and varying strengths of odours she comes upon, noting and -memorising them as in two main fields, one on her left side, the other -on her right. In order to find her way back again all she has to do is -to unwind, so to speak, the roll in her memory, transposing right and -left, and this successfully accomplished will bring her back to the -point she started from. - -If, he concludes, we ourselves were endowed with such a perfect -olfactory mechanism situated in long, flexible whip-lashes, which we -could move and tap with each step, the world for us would be -transformed. Odour would become a sense of forms. Thus the orientation -of ants can be explained without assuming the existence of an unknown -sense. (It has recently been suggested, by the way, that bats owe the -exquisite power they manifest of steering their flight among obstacles -to the use of their squeaks, the echoes from which enable them to form -“sound-pictures” of their environment. In the same way a blind man in -the street tapping the pavement with his stick forms a more or less -well-defined sound-picture of the walls, doorways, and alleys about -him.) - - -In the immediately foregoing paragraphs we have been dealing with the -ability of insects to smell the smells that we smell. But Fabre’s -experiments have familiarised us also with the notion that there are -insects which can smell smells we cannot smell. - -We shall see in the following section that the same may also be true of -some of the higher animals. - - -In fish olfaction is, unlike that of air-breathing animals, effected by -odorous material in solution. Whether or not their olfactory sense is as -acute it is impossible in the present state of our knowledge to say. -Anatomically the end-organ of fishes is simpler, but there are some -species, the dog-fishes for example, which possess a large olfactory -lobe in the brain; and this certainly suggests that they, at all events, -are gifted with an olfactory sense of relatively high development. - -Experiment on fish is difficult, nevertheless it has been definitely -proved that they do smell, and it seems probable that the sense is used -by them for food-perception. Moreover, that it may be highly sensitive -seems likely from the fact that sharks (which belong to the same order -as dog-fish) can be attracted from great distances to putrid meat thrown -into the water as bait, the high dilution of which resembles the -behaviour of odour in an air medium. - -The belief that life in water, however, is less favourable than life on -land to the fullest development of the sense is supported by the fact we -have already mentioned that mammals living in water are extremely -microsmatic. - - -In the macrosmatic terrestrial animals not only is the olfactory sense -relatively highly organised, but it is absolutely the predominant sense. -Vision is subsidiary to it. In their brains the olfactory region -constitutes by far the largest component. (The same, by the way, is true -of the Reptilia.) - -In other words, it is upon the olfactory sense that these animals -chiefly depend for their knowledge of the world. By it they are directed -to their food, warned of their enemies, and attracted to their mates. -Their universe is a universe of odour. - -In order to become more intimate with the details of this part of our -subject, we shall pass in review some of the olfactory habits and -characteristics of the macrosmatic animal most familiar to us, namely, -the dog. - -There can be no doubt of the all-important part that smell plays in the -life of the dog. Every one is familiar with it, and yet we do not often -stop to think what its meaning is for the canine brain and -understanding. One of the mysteries that must, one would suppose, for -ever remain hidden from us, is what aspect the world we both share in -company bears to this our closest animal friend. Who can tell what is -passing through his mind as he sniffs at us? He can recognise his master -by sight, no doubt, yet, as we know, he is never perfectly satisfied -until he has taken stock also of the scent, the more precisely to do so -bringing his snout into actual contact with the person he is examining. -It is as if his eyes might deceive him, but never his nose. - -The greyhound courses by sight, but all other dogs hunt by scent, and -the speed and certainty of foxhounds in full cry bear a new significance -when we recollect that it is scent that is directing them. Could vision -be any more swift and sure? - -We may heartily wish, as a child once remarked to a friend of mine, that -Rover had a prettier way of saying “How d’ye do?” to his canine friends. -But that and other even more objectionable habits do not prevent his -_entrée_ into the most exclusive circles of human society. He is taken -at his own valuation, and that, to be sure, is considerable. But the -minute, the meticulous, olfactory scrutiny he makes of other dogs is but -one more example of the predominance of this sense in his brain. (See -also later.) - - -When you take him for a walk also, how busy his nose makes him! -Burrowing here and there among the grass and undergrowth, picking up an -interesting trail that leads him a little way, until it crosses another, -fresher, perhaps, or more interesting, that has to be taken up—here a -cat’s, there a rat’s, further on a rabbit’s, and then, with short -squeals, scrapings in the ground, and buryings of his muzzle, a -weasel’s!—the whole intermixed and intermingled with whiffs of something -like old decayed bones, or of another and an unfriendly dog, or of some -ardent lady-love who has passed this way but shortly since!—is not this -a richer, a fuller, a more attractive, world than ours, with its fickle -sunlight, its pallid greys, its mournful purples, its unattainable -horizon-blue? For our life is primarily one of vision. - -I am sure his dreams, also, are compounded of the gorgeous odours of -some other world, such odours as even our woods in autumn know nothing -of. - - -But we must return again to science and Fabre. This time we shall -accompany him on an excursion with the wonderful dog who is trained to -discover for the _gourmet_ the truffles that are growing deep in the -soil. - -Left to his own devices, we learn, the truffle-hunting dog indicates the -position not only of truffles, but also of all manner of hypogean -(underground) fungi, “the large and the small, the fresh and the putrid, -the scented and the unscented, the fragrant and the stinking.” Only, he -never at any time indicates the presence of the ordinary mushroom, not -even while it is still underground, before it sprouts up as the fungus -we know. And yet to our nostrils the mushroom has the same smell as many -of the hypogean fungi he does indicate. Consequently, therefore, the dog -is not guided to the deep fungi by what may be called the general odour -common to all fungi. He must be able, that is to say, to distinguish the -hypogean varieties by some quality which is not odour, or, at least, not -odour as we understand it. - -There is, as it happens, something like a truffle-hunter among the -insects also, what is known as the Bolboceros beetle. This little -creature feeds on the _hydnocystis arenaria_, a hypogean fungus. Fabre, -having captured some of these insects, placed them on earth in which he -had buried the fungus at depths of six or seven inches. It was found -that the beetles, without making any trial bores, sank vertical shafts -through the soil direct to their food. - -We may insert here also, as bearing upon the problem which is now -emerging into clearness, an observation and a suggestion similar, as we -shall see, to that of Fabre, on the badger by Mr. Douglas Gordon -(_Spectator_, August 6th, 1921): - - “The real damage wrought by the badger is microscopic. His diet - mainly consists of roots, green herbs, mice, frogs, and insects. - Like the fox, he has a great partiality for whorts and blackberries - when in season, and he is particularly fond of grubs. For the sake - of these he will dig out every wasp’s nest he can find. A - considerable number of rabbit ‘stops’ also fall to his share, and in - unearthing the latter he practises a somewhat remarkable piece of - woodcraft. The hole which contains the nest may run to the depth of - several feet, and the nest itself be situated ten feet from any - entrance, but this does not trouble the badger. He makes no attempt - to follow the tortuous passage, as a man when digging would be - obliged to do. His unerring nose locates the exact spot where the - young rabbits lie, and from the most convenient point he bores for - them. Should it be a ‘ground-burrow,’ he sinks a vertical shaft. In - the case of a steep bank he drives a horizontal tunnel, and, shallow - or deep, with unvarying accuracy. - - “Not long ago I saw a striking case of this on Haldon Hill, near - Exeter. The burrow opened on to a little gully, and ran back some - distance under the heath. At least five paces from the nearest hole - was the badger’s freshly cut shaft, about three feet deep, and - around it were littered the ruins of the nest—the little tale of - bloodstained fur so eloquent of tragedy. There on the earth drawn - from the shaft the raider’s spoor was plain enough, but no imprint - of his pads could I find upon the impressionable mould anywhere near - the holes. This meant that he must have found the nest while - traversing the heather—sensed it beneath him, in fact. And here an - interesting point arises. What sense did he employ? Could he - possibly ‘smell’ the rabbits through three feet of packed mould? - Earth is a potent deodoriser. Do certain animals possess a sixth - sense—a sympathy something akin to that of the divining rod? If so, - this goes farther to explain the much-discussed principle of scent - than anything yet suggested.” - -Is this sense, then, as we see it in operation in the badger, in the -truffle-hunting dog, in the Bolboceros beetle, and still more -wonderfully in the Peacock and Banded Monk moths, drawn to their mates -“from the edge of the horizon,” and, it may be, against the wind—is this -sense the same as our own sense of olfaction, only much more acute? -Fabre finds some difficulty in believing that it can really be the same. -“Odour,” he argues, “is molecular diffusion.” But nothing material, -nothing our senses can perceive, is emitted by these moths, and yet they -can summon their mates from relatively enormous distances. However fine -may be the divisibility of matter, Fabre’s mind refuses to entertain the -suggestion that this far-flung summons is addressed to a sense of smell -of the same nature as ours. It would be tantamount, he says, “to -reddening a lake with an atom of carmine, to filling immensity with -nothing.” - -It is impossible not to sympathise with this opinion, but caution -compels us to say that for the most striking of these observations, that -of the calling of the males against a high wind, we should like to have -confirmation by some independent observer. - -Besides, I think perhaps Fabre would have hesitated to express his -scepticism regarding the power of insect olfaction had he known more of -the marvels of the human sense. - -Vanillin, for example, is perceptible by us as a smell when it amounts -to no more than 0·000000005 gram in a litre of air; and we can perceive -mercaptan, a substance with a garlicky odour, in a dilution of -1/460,000,000 of a milligram in fifty cubic centimetres of air -(approximately 0·0000000026 of a grain in a little over three cubic -inches of air!) (See also p. 108.) - -What is this but immensity filled with nothing? And yet we, even we, -microsmatic though we are, can perceive that “nothing.” - -But we must pick up again the thread of Fabre’s argument. Baffled as he -feels himself to be when he regards olfaction in the light of these -observations of his, he goes on: “For emission substitute undulation, -and the problem of the Great Peacock is explained. Without losing any of -its substance a luminous point shakes the ether with its vibrations and -fills a circle[1] of indefinite width with light.... - -Footnote 1: - - A sphere rather. - -“It does not emit molecules; it vibrates; it sets in motion waves -capable of spreading to distances incompatible with a real diffusion of -matter. - -“In its entirety smell would thus seem to have two domains: that of -particles dissolved in the air and that of ethereal waves. The first -alone is known to us.... - -“The second, which is far superior in its range through space, escapes -us altogether, because we lack the necessary sensory equipment. The -Great Peacock and the Banded Monk know it at the time of the nuptial -rejoicings. And many others must share it in various degrees according -to the exigencies of their mode of life.” - -In criticism of this conclusion of Fabre, however, we must again draw -attention to the fact that in the case of the Greater Peacock he found -that a plug of cotton-wool was sufficient to prevent the emanation -leaving the immediate neighbourhood of the female, a circumstance -strongly in favour of some material exhalation which was caught and held -by the cotton-wool filter. Again, in the case of the Banded Monk, the -suggestion of odour is unmistakable in the tainting, as it were, of -substances in her vicinity with her emanation. Further, if the guide to -the males were something like a luminous undulation we should expect -that, like the Bolboceros beetle and the badger, there would have been -no blundering and going astray; they would have precipitated themselves -straight on to the female, or as near to her as they could get. - -Moreover, although we are ourselves unable to detect any odorous -emanation, may not our inability be due simply to the fact that our -olfactory hairs are not susceptible to this particular stimulus? It may -be of the same nature as odour, and yet we may be unable to perceive it, -just as the moths themselves seemed anosmic to what we would call the -stenches Fabre filled his room with. - - -These critical questions seem to me to be difficult to answer. -Nevertheless, our imagination is certainly staggered by the fact of a -tiny creature like a moth being able to disseminate in the immensity of -atmospheric space an odour capable of perception at such great distances -as a mile or a mile and a half. Hero, with the Great Peacock’s power, -could have summoned Leander from a hundred miles away. - -Apart, however, from such considerations for and against his opinions, -one of the modern theories of odour, and of odour belonging to Fabre’s -first, or material, order, is, as we shall see later on, that even it is -a vibratory and not a material quality. - -But leaving that development aside, and admitting for the moment the -validity of Fabre’s contentions, I am bold enough to ask: Are we human -beings so ignorant of the second domain of olfaction as he supposes? Is -it true that we are, as he says, lacking in the equipment necessary for -the exploration of that mysterious region? To answering these questions -we shall presently address ourselves. In the meantime, I may forestall -what I shall then say by remarking that I count it a very remarkable -circumstance, if not, indeed, a significant coincidence, that, before I -had become acquainted with Fabre’s writings, I had, considering the -phenomena of human olfaction and psychology alone, actually asked myself -the same question as he asks, and had come to very much the same -conclusion. - - - - - CHAPTER III - OLFACTORY MEMORY - - -The predominant special senses in man are vision and hearing, olfaction -occupying a quite unimportant position in the scale. - -Smell and taste, by the way, are usually regarded not only as allied -senses, but also as if they were akin in their nature and function. -Allied they are, undoubtedly, seeing that both subserve the function of -food-perception. But the resemblance ends there. For, of the two, smell -is at once the more delicate and the more extensive in capacity, and, as -they differ widely in their anatomical structure, there can be no doubt -but that in physiological action also they are dissimilar. - -The taste-bulbs are capable of appreciating four sensations only, and -these quite simple, while the capacity of the olfactory organ, as we -shall see more fully later on, is practically unlimited. All the -subtlety of “taste,” all that we call “flavour,” is an olfactory -sensation. Thus, people devoid of the sense of smell cannot discern the -finer savours. They would be unable to distinguish, say, a vanilla from -a strawberry ice. All they could tell would be that both were cold and -sweet. - -The popular phrase which refers the appreciation of the finer shades of -taste to the “palate” we may therefore look upon as an attempt to -express the feeling that delicate flavours are sensed somewhere higher -up than in the mouth. So that a “man of taste” is really a man of smell, -and all the literary eloquence in praise of wine and dainty food, to say -nothing of the more prosy cookery books, is, in reality, a general hymn -of adulation offered unwittingly to the nose! - - -Compared with sight and hearing, however, smell in man is only one of -the minor senses. But, as if to make up for a position so inferior, it -is remarkable as being the most subtle of all our senses, possibly, as -some hold, because of the ancestral appeal to our (more or less -repressed) animal nature. So subtle is it, indeed, that I am persuaded -its stimuli may not, on occasion, emerge into consciousness at all. They -remain below the threshold. So that, although subjected to their -influence, we may remain ignorant of the cause of that influence. For -smell often operates powerfully, not only in surreptitiously enriching -and invigorating the mental impression of an event, but also in -directing at times the flow of ideas into some particular channel -independent of the will. The influence of the perfume of a woman’s hair -in unexpectedly arousing a feeling of intimacy will appeal to the male -reader as a good example of this upsurging interference with the placid -flow of normal ideation. - -Perhaps, also, this is the explanation of a strange and rather -unpleasant ghost-story I once heard. I dare not vouch for the truth of -it, but as it bears upon the subject we are considering, I give it here, -not without misgiving, for what it is worth. For the sake of -verisimilitude I shall relate it pretty much in the narrator’s own -words: - - “The evening he came back I was sitting in my room alone. I had just - got back from the play, the subject of which had been, it so - happened, the influence of people recently dead upon those left - behind. I suppose that’s what turned my mind to my sorrow of the - previous year when I lost him. It is my husband I am talking about. - - - “I was sitting gazing at the fire, and I expect you will say I had - fallen asleep. Perhaps I had. It doesn’t matter really. - - “We had been happy enough together, he and I. Just an ordinary - married couple, you might say. But now and then a terrible longing - would come over me just to see him once more, ... to hear him - speak, ... to touch him.... I know it is selfish, and maybe unwise, - to give way to those feelings, ... but never mind that! Well, on the - night I am telling you about, there came to my recollection some of - the silly cantrips those Spiritualist people used to carry on. Oh, - yes, it is quite true: I had gone once or twice to see them, and had - even taken part in their services—séances, I should say—in James’s - lifetime, I mean, before he died. Indeed I went with him.... I never - went after.... I don’t know.... It seemed to me like trifling - somehow. Anyhow I have never gone since. - - “All the same there came into my head a curious jingling rhyme I had - heard them repeat once or twice, because they said somebody called - Plato or Plautus or something had used it. It would bring back the - dead, so they used to say, if you recited it alone at midnight, and - accompanied it with certain gestures. The words are nothing but - gibberish, a jumbled sort of.... No, I’m not going to repeat - them.... Let me go on. - - “Before I had realised what I was doing, without stopping to think, - I uttered the words aloud, moving my arms so as to follow the - ritual. Scarcely were the syllables out of my mouth—it closes with - the name and the clock was striking twelve as I spoke it—scarcely, I - say, were the words out of my mouth when—God! the pang comes yet - when I think of it!—I heard the latch-key going into the hall door, - and the door slowly opening—I was alone in the flat, and—oh! I can - never tell you! I felt dreadful!—I didn’t know how to undo the - thing, and yet I knew it was wrong—wicked—I never for a moment - thought.—Perhaps it had been my longing so much.—The hall door - opened.—The chain wasn’t up.—I heard a step,—a cough—oh! the usual - sounds he used to make when he came in.—What would he be - like?—What...? what...? - - “Then the door of the room opened, and there he stood, swinging - himself backwards and forwards, half toes, half heels, in a way he - had, and replacing his jingling keys in his trouser-pocket—I could - only stare at him speechless, and gasp—till suddenly he stretched - out his hand and pointed at me with a ... a sort of snarl. - - “‘Good heavens, Jane!’—the words sounded so commonplace that every - trace of the unearthly was dissipated at the first syllable.—‘Good - heavens, Jane! Go and change that frock!—How often have I told you - what a fright you look in mauve.—A mill-girl on a holiday!—Come! Get - along and change it!’ - - “It seems silly, I daresay, and all that, but, do you know, no - sooner did I hear him growling and grumbling and finding fault with - colours he had a dozen times at least admired and praised than—I - couldn’t help it!—I forgot everything—everything. And all I could - say was: - - “‘James! You’ve been eating onions again!’ - - “‘Not my fault, I assure you, my dear,’ he snapped back; ‘that - damned cook always will put garlic in the nectar! You must get rid - of her.’ - - - “... I suppose I must have fainted then, for I remember no more till - I found myself lying on the floor with my head on the fender. I - picked myself up very puzzled as to what had happened. Then I - remembered my ... dream, with a shock rather of amusement than fear, - when suddenly—suddenly I smelled the nauseating stench of strong - garlic! That finished me entirely. How I got out of the place I - cannot tell. Out I did get. And I have never gone back.” - -This lady evidently would not have subscribed to the old teaching of -Salerno: - - “Six things that heere in order shall issue - Against all poisons have a secret poure. - Peares, Garlick, reddish-roots, Nuts, Rape and Rew, - But Garlick cheese, for they that it devoure - May walk in ways infected every houre; - Sith Garlick then hath poure to save from death - Bear with it though it make unsavoury breath: - And scorne not Garlick, like to some that think - It only makes men wink, and drinke, and stink.” - -(It may be remembered, by the way, that Wilkie Collins’s “Haunted Hotel” -was haunted by a smell.) - -Although we may agree with Shelley that - - “Odours when sweet violets sicken - Live within the sense they quicken,” - -yet we must admit that the memory of an odour cannot be reproduced in -our mind with the same clearness as a vanished scene or an old tune. - -It may be found on trial that by concentrating the attention strongly -upon some familiar smell, particularly if at the same time we stimulate -the memory by picturing in our mind’s eye a scene in which that odour -figured as a feature in the sensory landscape, we are sometimes able to -recall its actual sensation. But the recollection lacks the intimate -reality of visual and auditory images. Without doubt the mind’s eye and -mind’s ear, when consciously aroused, are consistently more acute and -their representations are more vivid than those of the mind’s olfactory -organ. - -When, for instance, I call to memory the drawing-room of my boyhood -days, I can once more catch a faint reminiscence of the acid-sweet -rose-leaves that filled it with perennial fragrance, but not until I -have first of all recalled its pale greys and blues and its over-bright -windows, not until I have listened once more to “The March of the -Troubadours” my mother is playing on the old rosewood piano, like a call -to some life greater, grander, and, above all, more simple than this -bewildering affair! - -People, Ribot has ascertained, vary considerably in their power of -resuscitating dead perfumes. According to his statistics, 40 per cent. -could not revive any image at all; 48 per cent. could recall some, but -not all; and only 12 per cent. could recall all or nearly all at -pleasure. The odours most easy to bring back were pinks, musk, violet, -heliotrope, carbolic acid, the smell of the country, grass, and so on. -Many, as in my own case, have to evoke the visual image first. - - -But if the recollection of a scene can only with difficulty, or not at -all, revive the sensation of an odour, the converse is most startlingly -true. For odours have an extraordinary, an inexplicable, power of -spontaneously and suddenly presenting a forgotten scene to the mind, and -with such nearness to reality that we are translated bodily, being -caught up by the spirit, as it were, like St. Philip, to be placed once -more in the midst of the old past life, where we live the moment over -again with the full chord of its emotions vibrating our soul and -startling our consciousness. There are, it is true, certain sounds which -wield the same miraculous power over our being— - - “... the chime familiar of a bell - Last heard at sea, but now on homely ground, - Can, with the sprites that deep in memory dwell, - Create the world anew with stroke of sound, - Transforming daisied fields to foaming seas, - And changing vales from summer calm serene - To warring tides round wintry Hebrides - That fling and toss in wat’ry hillocks green”— - -but I do not think they operate in this way so frequently as do smells. - -This strange revival of bygone days by olfaction is, as I have said, -automatic. It is most clearly and completely to be realised when the -inciting odour comes upon us unawares, and then as in a dream the whole -of the long-forgotten incident is displayed, even although it may have -been an incident in which the odour itself was not specially obtrusive. -Yet the display is not only a spectacle, for we become, as I have -already laboured to point out, once more actors in the old life-drama. - -Now memory can nearly always be recognised as memory. There is about its -representations a dulling in colour, a haziness in outline, a vagueness -in detail, that serves to distinguish it from the harder, clearer -pictures of the imagination. Its figures and their doings are like -ghosts; through them you can see the solid furniture of to-day. But from -the olfactory miracle we are now considering the effect of time, the -fraying effect of time and superimposed incident, is absent. That is -still fresh, still, as we might say, in process of elaboration, the -manifold and complicated experiences we have undergone since its -occurrence being blotted for the moment out of the mind. - -Curiously enough, although Ribot finds that about 60 per cent. of people -experience the “spontaneous” revival of odour in memory, and so -presumably are subject to this arresting phenomenon, it does not seem to -have been mentioned by writers in general until about our own time. At -all events, the earliest allusion I can find to it is in “Les Fleurs du -Mal” of Baudelaire: - - “Lecteur, as-tu quelquefois respiré - Avec ivresse et lente gourmandise - Ce grain d’encens qui remplit une église - Ou d’un sachet le musc invétéré? - - “Charme profond, magique, dont nous grise - Dans le présent le passé restauré”.... - -Shortly after Baudelaire’s time Bret Harte, on the other side of the -Atlantic, imported it into “The Newport Romance”: - - “But the smell of that subtle, sad perfume, - As the spiced embalmings, they say, outlast - The mummy laid in his rocky tomb, - Awakes my buried past. - - “And I think of the passion that shook my youth, - Of its aimless loves and its idle pains, - And am thankful now of the certain truth - That only the sweet remains.” - -But the most precise and definite allusion to this curious power of -odours seems to have first been made by Oliver Wendell Holmes in “The -Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.” Here is what he says, and it will be -noted that he makes as high a claim for the power of olfaction as I have -done: - - “Memory, imagination, old sentiments and associations, are more - readily reached through the sense of SMELL than by almost any other - channel.” - - “Phosphorus fires this train of associations in an instant; its - luminous vapours with their penetrating odour throw me into a - trance; it comes to me in a double sense, ‘trailing clouds of - glory.’” - - “Perhaps the herb _everlasting_, the fragrant _immortelle_ of our - autumn fields, has the most suggestive odour to me of all those that - set me dreaming. I can hardly describe the strange thoughts and - emotions that come to me as I inhale the aroma of the pale, dry, - rustling flowers. A something it has of sepulchral spicery, as if it - had been brought from the core of some great pyramid, where it had - lain on the breast of a mummied Pharaoh. Something, too, of - immortality in the sad, faint sweetness lingering so long in its - lifeless petals. Yet this does not tell why it fills my eyes with - tears and carries me in blissful thought to the banks of asphodel - that border the River of Life.” - -In introducing the subject, Holmes states that he has “occasionally met -with something like it in books, somewhere in Bulwer’s novels, ... and -in one of the works of Mr. Olmstead.” - - -When one considers the obvious poetic appeal of this psychic phenomenon -as exemplified in the touching expressions we have just quoted, it seems -strange that the older writers made no use of it. - -Even omniscient Shakespeare, although odorous images and allusions are -not uncommon in his works, seems to have overlooked this sportive trick -of the sense. Otherwise we might have had Lady Macbeth sleep-walking -because her nightposset exhaled the vapour of the draught she had -drugged Duncan’s guards with. - -Several seventeenth century writers make a general reference to odours -as “strengthening the memory.” Here is one for which I am indebted to my -friend F. W. Watkyn-Thomas: - - “OLFACTUS (_loq._)— - Hence do I likewise minister perfume - Unto the neighbour brain, perfume of force, - To cleanse your head, and make your fancy bright - To refine wit and sharp invention, - _And strengthen memory_: from whence it came - That old devotion incense did ordain - To make man’s spirit more apt for things divine....” - - (“Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue and the Five Senses,” - Act IV., Sc. 5, Anthony Brewer (_circa_ 1600): Dodsley’s “Old - Plays,” Vol. V., p. 179, 1825.) - -And Montaigne may be alluding to it when he says: - - “Physicians might (in my opinion) draw more use and good from odours - than they do. For myself have often perceived, that according unto - their strength and qualitie, _they change and alter, and move my - spirit, and worke strange effects in me_: Which makes me approve the - common saying, that invention of incense and perfumes in Churches, - so ancient and so far-dispersed throughout all nations and - religions, had an especiall regard to rejoyce, to comfort, to - quicken and to rowze and to purifie our senses, ...” - -The Jacobean herbalists and therapeutists in general, as we shall see -later on, frequently credit aromatics with the power of strengthening -the memory. But, so far as my reading goes, I have failed to find a -clear and unmistakable description of this peculiar phenomenon in any -writer prior to the nineteenth century. It is, of course, difficult to -prove a negative, and so it would not be surprising if some such -allusion were to be dug up. But even then the wonder would remain that -it had attracted little, if any, attention from others. As a matter of -fact, mental happenings of this order did not interest our forebears -much. Shakespeare is the exception to this statement, and that is one of -his claims to greatness. - - -Moreover, quite apart from this particular, the writings of the old -English poets and of such French and German authors as I am acquainted -with, seem curiously deficient in references to all but the more gross -and obvious phenomena of olfaction, and these are most frequently of the -farcical order, a little too gross and obvious for modern readers. - -Since Dickens’s time, however, we have had almost too much literary -odour. - -I do not agree with the purists who deny to Dickens the glory of a great -writer of English prose. Dickens was an impressionist, perhaps the first -and certainly the greatest of this school, and as such he was a master. -Few equal and none surpass him in the rare vigour of scene, and -portrait-painting. And it is significant to find him using the aroma of -the place and also of the person to impart life and reality to his -description. - -Take for example, to cite but one out of many olfactory references in -his books, the humorous analysis of the smells in various London -churches in “The Uncommercial Traveller.” One congregation furnishes “an -agreeable odour of pomatum,” while in the others “rat and mildew and -dead citizens” seemed to be the fundamentals, to which in some -localities was added “in a dreamy way not at all displeasing” the staple -character of the neighbourhood. “A dry whiff of wheat” circulated about -Mark Lane, and he “accidentally struck an airy sample of barley out of -an aged hassock” in another. The reader’s throat begins at once to feel -dry. - -Then note how Mr. E. W. B. Childers starts from the page the moment his -creator breathes into our nostrils a breath of his life:—“a smell of -lamp oil, straw, orange-peel, horses’ provender, and sawdust.” - -I could fill this book with olfactory citations from Dickens alone. But -to come to contemporary writers, those of Rudyard Kipling are almost as -plentiful, the smell that brings places to the mind being a favourite -with him. But I have always wondered how it came about that the highly -sensitive nose of Mr. Kipling permitted Imray’s corpse on the rafters -above the ceiling-cloth to remain undiscovered for as long as three -months. This in India. The bungalow, we gather, was haunted. It would -be. - -Nevertheless, in spite of the keen olfaction of both of those writers, -neither of them, as far as I can remember, weaves the memory-reviving -power of olfaction into a plot. We come across it, however, in foreign -literature, as in the suggestive play made with the smell of lamp-oil in -Dostoievsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” - -The more recent English and foreign writers, however, give us a surfeit -of odours—as if to prove their superiority in this as in all else. - - -It seems strange, moreover, that the theatre should have overlooked this -avenue to the memory and imagination of its audiences. The ancient -Romans, to be sure, during the gladiatorial games, used to perfume the -atmosphere of the Colosseum, whether to counteract the raw smell of -dust, blood, and sweat, it were hard to say, as these rank odours play -their part, again subtly, in stimulating the slaughterous passions of -mankind. - -But our modern theatre, which a prominent Scots ecclesiastic of the -nineteenth century characterised as redolent only of “orange-peel, -sawdust, and vice,” has not yet risen to anything higher than a -continuous discharge of incense during spectacular dramas depicting the -(theatrical) East. - -Why not go further? Think how the appeal of a love-scene would be -strengthened by an invisible cloud of roses blown into the house through -the ventilating shafts! The villain would be heralded by an olfactory -_motif_ of a brimstony flavour mingled, if he was of the usual swarthy -countenance, with a _soupçon_ of garlic. The hero, well groomed and -clean-limbed, would waft a delicate suggestion of Brown Windsor to the -love-sick maidens in the dress-circle. The heavy father would radiate -snuff with his red pocket-handkerchief. The large-eyed foreign -adventuress would permeate the auditorium on wings of patchouli. The -dear broken-hearted old mother would disseminate that most respectable -of perfumes (for there is a caste-system among smells) eau de Cologne—a -scent that always evokes in my mind a darkened room, tiptoes, hushed -voices, raised forefingers, and Somebody in bed with a—headache. - -And so on. Here is a new way of “putting it over.” - -Critics will object that, as the influence of eau de Cologne on my own -mind shows, the particular odours so supplied would defeat their purpose -by calling up a thousand different and incongruous images in the -thousand minds of the audience. But such mischances could easily be -avoided by conventionalising the odours after the manner already -familiar in the stock gesticulations of our players, all of whom enter, -sit down, pull off their gloves, blow their noses, utter defiance, shed -tears, launch curses, make love, live, die, and are buried, according to -an inveterate, cast-iron ritual. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - SMELL AND SPEECH - - -That the effect of odour upon the mind is largely concealed is further -illustrated by the curious fact that our native language does not -possess a terminology descriptive of smells. We never name an odour; we -only say it has a “smell like” something or another. As a matter of -fact, the same remark was made regarding French by P. P. Poncelet as -long ago as 1755. - -In this defect smell is unique among the senses. Even the sense that -governs equilibration, of which the consciousness in normal conditions -is never aware, has furnished us with “giddy” and “dizzy.” - -Vision is represented by hundreds of words. We have, for instance, names -not only for the primary colours red, yellow, and blue, but also for -many of their combinations. (In these remarks we are not including the -modern names given to the many shades of the synthetic colours.) - -If we take red as an example, we find scarlet, crimson, vermilion, and -pink. This colour, indeed, is ranked above all others in the vulgar -tongue as having shades, doubtless because red, being the colour of -blood and so of danger, always makes a strong appeal to the mind, an -appeal which, among the responses, has led to special names being given -to four of its tones. - -The sense of hearing again, upon which speech is wholly dependent, has -given rise to a multitude of words, many of them closely imitative of -the sound, or onomatopoetic, with which words English, like the related -German, is richly adorned. - -Touch also has produced a number of descriptive epithets—“hot,” “cold,” -“wet,” “dry,” “moist,” “clammy,” “rough,” “smooth,” as well as those -like “heavy” and “light,” from the deep tactile sensibility. - -Even taste has its vocabulary, a complete one, as it happens, since each -of the four varieties of taste has its own appropriate name—“sweet,” -“sour,” “bitter,” and “salt.” - -But smell is speechless. We can truthfully say that in our native -English language there is not a single word characterising any one of -all the myriad odours in the world. - -No doubt there are many words that we do apply to smells. But they are -either borrowed from the vocabulary of one of the other senses, in order -to describe a state of mind induced by the smell, or else they originate -from some known odoriferous object. - -Thus in the opening paragraph of this book we encountered a large number -of olfactory words. But they are all vague; some applying to pleasant, -some to unpleasant, odours. Many of them are very expressive, for -disgust begets strong language. But although our olfactory vocabulary -may be forceful, it is not discriminative. In other words, it is an -emotional, not an intellectual, vocabulary. - -These considerations will become more obvious as we deal with olfactory -epithets in detail. - -Thus smells may be “faint” or “strong,” but so may any other sensation. -And to call a smell “sweet” leaves it but vague, while at the same time -the epithet is borrowed from the vocabulary of taste, where its meaning -is quite precise. “Pungent” is also a transposition, this time from -touch, as it is a Latin word signifying “prickly.” - -In addition to such terms as these we have a small number of words which -we are in the habit of applying to certain classes of odours. “Musty” is -one of these. This adjective certainly has the look of a pure English -word about it, but, as it indicates a smell like that of mould, it is -probably derived from the Latin _mucidus_, mouldy; we cannot, therefore, -claim it to be English any more than we can claim it to be definite. -Perhaps the puff-balls of our autumn woods supply the best example of a -musty smell. - -“Mawkish,” however, is certainly English, as it is derived from an old -word, still used, by the way, in Scotland—“mauk,” a maggot. “Dank,” -again, means moist, and is the smell of damp, cold places. “Stuffy” -also, which is a modern application to a smell, is the odour of a close, -badly ventilated room, where we feel oppressed, as if half stifled. - -But these words—and there are not many more of them—are only applied -vaguely and to general classes of odours. We never say of any one in -particular that, _e.g._, “This is the smell called ‘dank,’” in the -precise way we can say: “That colour is green,” or “That sound is a -whistle.” - -We may even go further. We know that the flavour of things tasted is an -olfactory sensation. Now while language attains to precision in -characterising the sensations of pure taste, as we have just seen, it is -significant that flavours are left unnamed, except in the manner we have -just explained for olfactory epithets. - - -The scanty number of odorous terms in English has of late been copiously -added to by words borrowed from other languages, chiefly, it is said, -from the Persian. - -“Musk,” for instance, is Persian. “Aroma” is pure Greek, and if Liddell -and Scott’s suggested derivation of ἄρωμα (a spice) from the Sanscrit -_ghrâ_ (a smell) is correct, then the original meaning of “aromatic” is -merely “smelly.” “Mephitic,” not a popular word even now, comes from the -Latin _mephitis_, “a foul, pestilential exhalation from the ground, -often sulphury in character, as from volcanic regions.” The brimstone -odour of the devil—of which more anon—is mephitic. - -Now we must here discriminate. Etymologists, delving down among the -roots of our spoken language, come, so they say, to a point at which -even the simplest epithet, even the plainest description of a sensation, -is seen to derive from some object. Obviously this must be so in the -beginning, whether or not etymologists are always correct in their -particular ascriptions. An adjective describing, and later denoting, a -quality, is generalised from some object bearing that quality. A “stony” -countenance is a countenance rigid as stone. So in like manner, we are -told, even the names of colours, deeply embedded in the language though -they be, are ultimately referable to objects bearing that colour. -“Brown,” to take the least dubitable instance, is the colour of -burnt—“brunt”—things, while “blue,” according to authority, like the -Scots “blae,” means “livid” really, and is connected with “blow,” being -the colour left after a blow. (But we say “a black eye”!) - -Thus the descriptive epithets not only of smell, but also of sight, are -ultimately derived from objects. But there is this great difference -between them: the names of colours take us back to near the original -trunk from which the Aryan languages branch off, whereas the names of -odours, to this day still vague and indeterminate (at least in popular -phraseology), are derived from the spoken tongue of to-day, or, in some -cases, from foreign languages, and are, therefore, but recent additions. - -This delay in the naming of classes of odours justifies the statement -made at the outset of this section that smell is speechless. It shows, -in other words, that although, as we have seen, its influence upon the -mind may be profound, yet that influence does not extend as far as the -speech-centres. It remains largely in the subconsciousness. - - -We should be guilty of error, however, were we to conclude that the -scantiness of olfactory names is due to the lack of recognition by the -consciousness of early man of smell in general, or to a failure to -distinguish between different odours, because savages, in general less -discriminating and analytical than cultured races, have, there is every -reason to believe, a more acute and highly perfected olfactory sense. It -has been reported that the North American Indian was able to track his -enemy or his game by the scent alone, and Humboldt has recorded a -similar acuteness on the part of the Indians of Peru. While admitting -the marvellous skill of the American Indians in following up their -quarry, most of us will, I imagine, be inclined to doubt whether its -dependence upon smell is a true inference from the facts observed. Skill -in woodcraft can be brought to such marvellous perfection that it may -seem like magic to the onlooker—like magic, or like scent! - - -Further, although we are able to distinguish clearly enough between -different odours, the identification and the naming of odours does not -come easy to us. _Parfumeurs_ and druggists, no doubt, by the daily -education of the sense, attain to a high degree of skill in this art, -but those who have not cultivated their powers will find it very -difficult, as the amusing parlour-game of guessing the names of -concealed foodstuffs and spices shows. The difficulty is, like the -paucity of olfactory terms, probably due to an absence of ready -communication between the olfactory and speech centres in the brain. - - - - - CHAPTER V - SMELL IN FOLK-LORE, RELIGION, AND HISTORY - - -Evidence of olfactory influences is encountered in folk-lore not -infrequently, particularly in connection with primitive medicine, and -survivals of old olfactory methods of treatment are still extant, not -only in the doings of the wise women of our remoter country villages, -but also, as we shall see, in modern scientific medicine. - -Treatment by fumigation is perhaps the most widely prevalent of these. - -Probably the earliest motive for “smoking” a patient was merely the -replacing of an offensive by a pleasant odour, as we find it frequently -employed in malodorous conditions. Here the practice links up with -ancient ideas on epidemic diseases. - -Behind this rationale, however, there lies perhaps the idea of -association of death with the fœtor of decomposition and the expectation -that a pleasant aromatic odour will naturally “obviate the tendency to -death.” This view of the matter must have become strengthened among -nations like the ancient Egyptians, who had discovered that aromatic -substances might be relied upon to preserve the body after death. Even -in recent times and countries similar customs have prevailed. Scott in -“The Bride of Lammermoor” tells us that rosemary, southernwood, rue and -other plants were in Scotland strewn on the body after death, and were -“burned by way of fumigation in the chimney.” - -Be that as it may, we find fumigation employed all over the world as a -rite of purification, particularly during the menstrual and puerperal -periods, women being at those times regarded as unclean or taboo. - -Later, in the natural course of evolution, fumigation comes under the -category of anti-demoniac remedies. - -When disease was ascribed to the operation of demons in residence in the -patient’s body, a belief at one time world-wide in its distribution, the -treatment mostly relied upon to cure the disease, and, granting the -premises, a perfectly rational therapeutic method, was by various -devices to render the patient’s body too uncomfortable for the demon. -And among many other modes of securing this desirable end was the -smoking of the demon out by strong odours, fumes being generated around -the patient by burning horns, hair, and certain odoriferous woods and -plants. Among the Chippeway Indians, we are told, a species of cypress -was set on fire for this purpose, and the efficacy of the remedy was -heightened by the needle-shaped leaves of the tree flying off and -sticking in the spirit. - -Sometimes a medical man may feel disposed to smile when he sees the -priest in church “censing” the Bible in order to drive away the evil one -before he begins to read it. Yet fumigation has lingered on long in -medicine as well as in religion. During the severe epidemics of cholera -in Egypt not so many years ago, hundreds of pounds weekly were spent -upon bonfires of sulphur in the streets of Cairo, a method of -disinfection more likely to drive off demons than to destroy the comma -bacillus in the drinking-water! - -In mediæval, Jacobean, and Georgian medicine, fumigation was a favourite -remedy. Every one, for example, is familiar with the old-fashioned -treatment of fainting by burning feathers under the nose. And perfumes -and aromatics in general were widely used in the medicine of those days, -as the following extract from Salmon’s “Dispensatory” (1696) shows: - - “_Balsamum Apoplecticum Horstii_, Apoplectick Balsam of Horstius. - - “_Take of the Oils of Nutmegs_ ℥i, _of white Amber rectified_ ℥ʃ, - _Roses (commonly called Adeps Rosarum) of Cinnamon_ A. ℈i., _of - Lavender_, _of Marjoram_ A. grs. xv. _of Benjamin_, _of Rue_ A. ℈ʃ - _of Cloves_, _of Citrons_ A. grs. iv. _Mix all well together, then - add Ambergrise_ ʒʃ, _Oriental Civet_ ℈iv., _Choice Musk_ ʒi. _Mix - all according to Art, to the just consistence of a Balsam._ - - “_Salmon._ The Oil of Nutmegs is that made by expression, all the - rest are Chymical. _Horstius_ saith, that in the whole Republick of - Medicine, there is scarcely found an Apoplectick Balsam more - illustrious for Fame, more noble for Virtue, more worthy for Honour, - more ready for Help, and more fragrant for smell, than this. It - chears and comforts all the spirits, natural, vital, and animal, by - anointing the extremities of the Nostrils and the Pulses. It cures - Convulsions, Palsies, Numbness, and other Diseases proceeding of - cold.” - -The modern physician may think this Balsam “apoplectick” in a sense -never dreamt of by its author; nevertheless he must also sigh for the -faith that believed all those wonders. - -Here is another from the same source for “the strengthening of memory”: - - “_Balsamum Maemonicus_ (sic) _Sennerti_. Balsam for the loss of - Memory. - - “℞ _of the juices of Bawm_, _Basil_, _flowers of Sage_, _Lillies_, - _Primroses_, _Rosemary_, _Lavender_, _Borrage_, _Broom_, A. ℥ii.; - _Aqua Vitae_, _Water-lillies_, _Roses_, _Violets_, A. ℥i.; _Cubebs_, - _Cardamoms_, _Grains of Paradise_, _yellow Sanders_, _Corpo - balsamum_, _Orrice_, _Saffron_, _Savory_, _Peony_, _Tyme_, A. ℥ʃ; - _Storax liquid and Calamita_, _Opopanax_, _Bdellium_, _Galbanum_, - _Gum of Ivy_, _Labdanum_, A. ʒvi.; _Roots of Peony_, _long - Birthwort_, _Oils of Turpentine_, _Spike_, _Costus_, _Juniper_, - _Bays_, _Mastick_, _Baben_, _Lavender_, A. ʒv. _Pouder them that are - to be poudered, then mix and distil in an Alembick, with a gradual - fire; separate the Balsam from the Water._ - - “_Salmon._ In this we have put flowers of Sage instead of Mynica or - Tamarisk: otherwise it is _verbatim_. It is a truly noble Cephalick, - and it is reported to cause a perpetual memory, both Water and - Balsom are excellent good against all cold Diseases: you may anoint - the hinder part of the Head, the Nostrils and Ears therewith. Dose - gut. iii. ad vi. This is that Balsam which _Charles_, Duke of - _Burgundy_ bought of an English Doctor for 10000 Florentines.” - -It is to be noted, by the way, the odours do not “strengthen the memory” -as a whole; what they do is to revive special memories. - - -The use of perfumes like camphor to ward off infection has long been in -vogue. The pompous doctors of Hogarth’s time—just 200 years ago—carried -walking-sticks the hollow handle of which formed a receptacle for -camphor, musk, or other pungent substances, which they held to their -noses when visiting patients, to guard against the smells that to them -spelt infection. And the air of the Old Bailey used to be, and indeed -still is, sweetened with herbs strewn on the Bench, lest the prisoner -about to be condemned to death by the rope might return the compliment -and sentence his judge to death by gaol-fever. To this day, also, herbs -are strewn about the Guildhall on state and ceremonial occasions, an -interesting survival. - - -Demoniac possession was also largely responsible for the nauseous and -disgusting remedies of which early medicine, both among the folk and -among the more educated medical men, was very fond. - -Paracelsus was a great believer in such concoctions, one of which, -_zebethum occidentale_, was his own invention. Fortunately I am not -compelled to divulge the constitution of this remarkable remedy. All I -need say is that it was by no means the “cassia, sandal-buds, and -stripes of labdanum” of Browning’s “Paracelsus”! - -Those unspeakable medicaments were (and are still) sometimes applied -externally, sometimes administered internally. One of the most absurd -variants of this class was the holding of divers foulsmelling mixtures -under the patient’s nose for the cure of hysteria, the idea being that -the stench would repel the “mother” from the patient’s throat, whither -it had wandered through sheer boredom and lack of interest elsewhere. - -Nevertheless, out of these most absurd and to us meaningless methods of -treatment modern medicine has here and there selected remedies which -experiment and experience have proved to be of value; valerian, for -example, which is still largely employed for hysterical conditions, and -asafœtida (popularly named “devil’s dung”). - -As a matter of fact, many pungent, strong-smelling substances are -powerful cardiac and muscular stimulants. - - -Nor must we overlook the carminatives, the pleasantly smelling dill, -aniseed, rue and peppermint, the very names of which bring to our minds -the sweetness of old country places and the efforts, not always vain, to -quiet screaming country babies! Well are they named the _carminatives_, -acting as they do “like a charm.” - - -In the Æneid we are told how once upon a time his divine mother was -revealed to pious Æneas by a heavenly odour. And although Lucian -intimates that the gods themselves enjoyed the smell of incense, yet, -according to Elliot Smith, the real object of incense-burning was to -impart the body-odour of the god to his worshippers. Something of the -kind, whatever the primary motive may have been, must have been needed, -one would imagine, to drown the unpleasant smells from the abattoirs in -the temples where the sacrificial animals were slaughtered. - -The wrath of the Lord God of the Hebrews after the Flood, it will be -remembered, was appeased when he smelled the sweet savour of the burnt -offerings of Noah on his emergence from the Ark. The sacrifice was, of -course, the meal of the god, the flesh of bullocks, rams, doves, and -what not, being spiritualised by the flames and so transformed into food -a spirit could absorb. The Greek gods, it is true, refreshed themselves -with such ethereal delicacies as nectar and ambrosia, but they were by -no means indifferent to the square meal of roast beef so punctiliously -provided for them by human purveyors. Homer is always careful to mention -that, as often as a feast was toward, neither the gods nor the bards -were forgotten, the former being fed before and the latter after the -heroes themselves had been satisfied. - -When, following the Persian division of the unseen world of spirits into -good and bad, the idea of an evil-minded and consistently hostile god -became popular, his odour was naturally enough the opposite of that of -the kindly gods. And as in time he came to assume some of the attributes -of the Roman _di inferni_, he, like the dragons of an even greater -antiquity, sported the sulphury odour of his underground dwelling. - -The Northern nations of ancient Europe, Grimm tells us, believed that -hell was a place of burning pitch, whence arose an intolerable stench. -Our English word “smell” is obviously related to a German dialect word -for hell—_smela_—which in turn is itself akin to the Bohemian _smola_, -resin or pitch. - -The Christian “hell” was thus the lineal descendant of the subterranean -“Hades” of the pagans, and what its stench was like may be gathered from -that of the noxious fumes that rise out of clefts in volcanic rocks, -such fumes, we may suppose, as in earlier days threw the Oracle at -Delphi into her prophetic trances. (Some authorities, however, say that -it was the smoke of burning bay-leaves that the Oracle inhaled.) - -The offensive odour of hell adheres to all the devils right down to -modern times. In the Middle Ages you could always tell the Evil One by -his sulphurous stink, but, unfortunately for the tempted, it was not -usually observed until after his departure. - -But evil odours not only attended the devil himself: they were also -generated by the sins. For St. Joseph of Copertino, “seeing beneath the -envelope of the body,” was able to recognise the sins of the flesh by -their odour. And St. Paconi, so it was said, could even smell out -heretics in his day, presumably in the same way as witches are now -discovered in Africa. - -Moreover, as the devil and his minions are attended with a vile smell, -the odour of their infernal home, so naturally they detest what we call -sweet and aromatic perfumes and are repelled by them, as the following -tale from Sinistrari of Ameno shows. I give it _verbatim_ as it appears -in Sax Rohmer’s “Romance of Sorcery”: - - “In a certain monastery of holy nuns there lived as a boarder a - young maiden of noble birth who was tempted by an Incubus, that - appeared to her by day and by night, and with the most earnest - entreaties, the manners of a most passionate lover, incessantly - incited her to sin; but she, supported by the grace of God and the - frequent use of the Sacraments, stoutly resisted the temptation. But - all her devotions, fasts, and vows notwithstanding, despite the - exorcisms, the blessings, the injunctions showered by exorcists on - the Incubus that he should desist from molesting her, in spite of - the crowd of relics and other holy objects collected in the maiden’s - room, of the lighted candles kept burning there all night, the - Incubus none the less persisted in appearing to her as usual in the - shape of a very handsome young man. - - “At last among other learned men whose advice had been taken on the - subject was a very erudite Theologian, who, observing that the - maiden was of a thoroughly phlegmatic temperament, surmised that the - Incubus was an aqueous demon (there are in fact, as is testified by - Guaccius, igneous, aerial, phlegmatic, earthly, subterranean demons, - who avoid the light of day) and prescribed an uninterrupted - fumigation of the room. - - “A new vessel, made of glass like earth, was accordingly brought in, - and filled with sweet cane, cubeb seed, roots of both aristolochies, - great and small cardamom, ginger, long-pepper, caryophylleae, - cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmegs, calamite, storax, benzoin, aloes - wood and roots, one ounce of triapandalis, and three pounds of half - brandy and water; the vessel was then set on hot ashes in order to - distil the fumigating vapour, and the cell was kept closed. - - “As soon as the fumigation was done, the Incubus came, but never - dared enter the cell; only, if the maiden left it for a walk in the - garden or the cloister, he appeared to her, though invisible to - others, and, throwing his arms around her neck, stole or rather - snatched kisses from her, to her intense disgust. - - “At last, after a new consultation, the Theologian prescribed that - she should carry about her person pills made of the most exquisite - perfumes, such as musk, amber, chive, Peruvian balsam, etc. Thus - provided, she went for a walk in the garden, where the Incubus - suddenly appeared to her with a threatening face, and in a rage. He - did not approach her, however, but, after biting his finger as if - meditating revenge, disappeared, and was nevermore seen by her.” - - -On the other hand, the odour of sanctity in mediæval times was a much -more real perfume than that in which the Jackdaw of Reims died. It does -not seem, so far as I can make out from my reading, that the sweet smell -of the Saints was ever remarked in the early centuries of the Christian -era. The odour diffused around his pillar by St. Simeon Stylites, for -example, was by no means pleasant. But by A.D. 1000 the sweetness of the -Saints’ persons was beginning to pervade the religious atmosphere. -Writing about that time, Odericus Vitalis tells us that “from the -sepulchre of St. Andrew” (at Patras, Asia Minor) “manna like flour and -oil of an exquisite odour flow, which indicate to the inhabitants of -that country” what the crops will be like that year. And the example -thus set by this apostle is followed by all other saintly personages for -many centuries. - -In England, we read that when the Blessed Martyr Alban’s burial place on -the hill above Verulamium was opened, in obedience to a sign from heaven -in the shape of a flash of lightning, the good people were enraptured by -the delicious fragrance of the Saint’s remains, and the same -characteristic attended those of the later martyr Thomas à Becket. - -St. Thomas à Kempis is credited with the statement that the chamber of -the blessed Leduine was so charmingly odorous that people who were -privileged to enter it were delighted, and wishing to enjoy her perfume -to the full, were wont to approach their faces close to the bosom of the -Saint, “who seemed to have become a casket in which the Lord had -deposited His most precious perfumes.” After the death of St. Theresa a -salt-cellar which had been placed in her bed preserved for a long time a -most delicious odour. And so on indefinitely, some of the stories being, -as might be expected, a little too plain-spoken and artless for modern -readers. - - -It is difficult to account for the pleasant odour of Saints whose pride -it was to live without change of raiment, to harbour parasites, and to -abstain from washing. Nevertheless that certain persons exhale a -naturally pleasant aroma from their bodies is true. Alexander the Great -is noted by Plutarch as having so sweet an odour that his tunics were -soaked with aromatic perfume, and taking a flying leap through the pages -of history, we come to Walt Whitman, who had the same characteristic. -Indeed, a piny aromatic odour, of considerable strength, is occasionally -noticeable in certain people, and I can myself testify that it becomes -stronger on the approach of their death. - -We are not often told when historical heroes were unpleasant in this -respect, but in the case of Louis XIV. we have the authoritative -evidence of Madame Montespan, who after their “divorce, when having a -public set-to with her sun-god in the glittering _salles_ of Versailles, -discomfited that little, red-heeled, bewigged, and pompous mannikin with -the following broadside: - -“With all my imperfections, at least I do not smell as badly as you do!” - -His ancestor, “Lewis the Eleventh,” says Burton in “The Anatomy of -Melancholy,” “had a conceit everything did stink about him. All the -odoriferous perfumes they could get would not ease him, but still he -smelled a filthy stink.” - -A modern rhinologist would suspect this monarch of having been afflicted -with maxillary antrum suppuration. It will be noted, however, that there -is no record that the odour he himself perceived was perceptible to -others. The fœtor, as we say, was subjective, not objective, in which -respect it differed from that of another historical personage, Benjamin -Disraeli to wit, who was the subject probably of the disease known as -ozæna. (See later.) - - - - - CHAPTER VI - THE ULTIMATE - - -In a former chapter we dwelt upon the curious fact that memories aroused -by olfactory stimuli are independent of the will. Now there is yet -another way in which smell ignores the head of the cerebral hierarchy. - -Although on occasion confining its operations to the subconsciousness, -and exercising, so to speak, only a backstairs influence upon the mind, -olfaction much more frequently insists upon recognition, breaking in -upon our privacy, like a disreputable acquaintance, at most inopportune -moments. - -If you do not wish to see you can look the other way. When you would -rather not hear you can be inattentive. A proffered handshake you can -ignore. A dish you dislike you may decline. But you can’t help -smelling—no, not even if you turn up your nose. - -Olfaction is thus the great leveller among the senses, equality having -here a reality but rarely found elsewhere. For odour makes its way into -the nose of king and cadger, duke and drayman, lady and lout, -indifferently. Nay, by an ironical law of olfaction the fœtors are more -powerful than the fragrances, and vervain the feeble turns tail before -the onslaught of scatol (as well it might, indeed!), in which case there -is nothing to be done but to bear it (without the grin mostly); or to -follow the wise example of vervain; or to remove the offence, as we have -done in England these latter days, only to render ourselves, as I have -carefully pointed out in Chapter I., all the more sensitive to it when -it does come. - -To many of us it comes on the dog. - -This animal has a regrettable fondness for wallowing, diligently and -with forethought, in the Abominable, until his coat is thoroughly well -impregnated. For no other reason, I do verily believe, than, as he -thinks, to give his human friends for once some of the olfactory -pleasure he himself enjoys. A treat he thinks it, without any doubt. -Just look at the smirk of pride and satisfaction on his face as he trots -in and resumes his place on the drawing-room hearthrug and the amazement -with which he receives the sudden toe of your boot! - -And yet he rolls himself over on the odoriferous for the same reason -that a fashionable lady has orris-root put in her bath; namely, for the -pleasure and gratification of society at large. There are who say that -my lady’s perfume seems as vile to her Pekinese as his then does to her! -If so, he is the more tolerant animal of the two. - -Anyhow, he certainly has the knack of thrusting the Unmentionable upon -the attention of the most fastidious, and smell is no longer speechless. - - -Now, if we are to treat fully of things olfactory, we must at least take -cognisance of the Unmentionable. But to extend our notice would take us -across the garden to the muckrake and the dunghill. And such nearer -investigation and description I must decline, even although in these -days of outspokenness I may have to apologise for Victorian -squeamishness. To attain merit as a writer the advice now given you is: -Be frank! And if you disgust, why, so much the better! - -That may be so. I do not question the value of the advice, not for a -moment. All I say is that I prefer not to take it. And if somebody else -desires this particular laurel-crown, this crown of tainted laurel, he -shall wear it without arousing any envy upon my part, albeit, as I know -full well, this is a branch of the subject which illuminates many -obscurities and seeming eccentricities in human conduct. I know all -about that, but, as Herodotus so often says, I am not going to tell all -I know, although, I fear, an allusion or two may be necessary. - -We may take it as on the whole true that a repulsive odour is a -dangerous odour. Not invariably, however. Otherwise grouse in their -season would not be esteemed a dainty and Gorgonzola would everywhere be -buried. Nevertheless in these high realms palatability is limited to -quite a narrow streak. There is a level beyond which the boldest -gastronomic adventurer dare not climb. - -It is remarkable that the liking for half-decomposed food, although an -acquired taste, is found everywhere in the world, among savage and -civilised, rich and poor, high and low—but not among young and old. For -young people do not usually approve of such _recherché_ flavours. It -would be a mistake, however, to argue from that fact that these savoury -meats act as fillips to a sense jaded with age, because it is generally -agreed that neither smell nor taste declines in acuteness as we grow -old. On the contrary, they become more instructed, more particular, more -delicate. Appetite declines if you like, but taste and smell abide -increasingly unto the end. - -Nevertheless we can only look upon this particular liking as acquired, -since the high relish of one country but fills its neighbours with -disgust. - -It is worthy of remark, perhaps, that the last whiff, the final -sublimated breath of ripe Gorgonzola as it passes over, is a faint -suggestion of ammonia. Curiously enough, this always fills my -imagination with the sack of cities and the end of all things in smoke -and thunder. It may be because the penultimate phase of life itself is -ammonia. Fire, slaughter, and much more besides come quite promptly to -this gas for the City of Destruction, what there is left of the -remainder in dust and ashes being but a handful for the wind. - - -To the keen-sensed medical man certain morbid states can be recognised -by their exhalations. I have even heard of an enthusiast on the subject -who alluded to them as “both visible and tangible”; but that, I think, -must be exceptional. - -Physicians of the last generation used to speak of typhus fever as -having a close, mawkish odour, and the smell of smallpox is horrible. -But these, as well as the appalling stench of the hospitals in olden -days, are among the smells which have, for the most part, fled our -country. - -There are others, however, less powerful and repugnant, which are still -with us, and which we recognise as among the prominent characteristics -of certain maladies, the acid smell of acute rheumatism for one, and I -have sometimes thought I could detect a characteristic odour also in -acute nephritis, a smell resembling that of chaff. The odour of a big -hæmorrhage is unmistakable and, to obstetricians particularly, ominous. - -Then there is the smell of mice which attends upon the skin disease -known as favus. - -The breath of a chronic drunkard is familiar enough to everybody, and -the more delicate aroma in the circumambient atmosphere of the careful -tippler, ethereal and by no means unpleasant, will often reveal to the -physician the hidden cause of obscure symptoms. It is particularly -valuable when your patient is, as so many of these secret drinkers are, -a woman, it may be a woman of good social standing. - -A disease-odour of great value and significance is the sweet-smelling -breath caused by acetone poisoning in the later stages of diabetes. - -A sweet smell is also said by Bacon to attend plague: - - “The plague is many times taken without a manifest sense, as hath - been said. And they report that, where it is found, it hath the - scent of a smell of a mellow apple; and (as some say) of - May-flowers; and it is also received that smells of flowers that are - mellow and luscious are ill for the plague, as white lilies, - cowslips and hyacynth.” (Quoted by Creighton, “A History of British - Epidemics,” p. 685, f.n.) - - -Death sometimes heralds his approach by means of an odour, said in some -parts of the country to bring ravens about the house, which may well be -true, as it is apparently a summons of the same nature that calls the -Indian vulture in flocks from apparently untenanted skies. Birds in -general, however, seem to belong to the microsmatic group of animals, -relying chiefly upon their vision, which is often highly perfected, -particularly for distance. - - -Much has been made, too much perhaps, of the part played by olfaction in -the sex-life, and its undoubted prominence in the coupling of -four-footed animals is pointed to as an indication of its potency in -mankind also. But the reasoning is fallacious. Olfactory influences -predominate in these animals simply because olfaction is their principal -sense. - -Among birds, now, courtship and marriage are conducted without any -apparent aid from olfaction, and in no group of beings, not even in -mankind, is the poetic side of courtship, both before and after -marriage, so highly developed and so beautifully displayed. In their -love-making the birds appeal to each other through the ear in their -songs, and through the eye in the nuptial splendours of the male, -splendours which he parades with glorious pomp before what often seems -to be, indeed, but a lackadaisical and indifferent spouse. - -As we have already seen, this independence of olfactory stimuli is, so -far as obvious indications go, also the case with human lovers. True, we -have numerous references by poets to the sweetness of their ladies’ -breath, only one, as far as I know, being blunt enough to say: - - “And in some perfumes there is more delight - Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” - -But the sum and substance of Havelock Ellis’s exhaustive inquiry on this -point is undoubtedly this, that if a lover loves the aroma of his lady, -that is because of his love, not because of her inherent sweetness. In -other words, the attraction, subtle though it be, at least in the early -or romantic stage, is seldom or never obviously olfactory. It is the -suggestion of closer intimacy that constitutes the attraction of her -nearer environment, and this suggestion is the offspring of the lover’s -imagination. - -As to the influence of her personal emanation in the second, the -realistic, stage, there also, it would seem, its power is subsidiary, -certainly to that of touch, although more active than that of sight and -hearing, seeing that the holy of holies is only unveiled in darkness and -in silence. - -As for our opinion in everyday life, I think most people will subscribe -to the old adage “_Mulier bene olet dum nihil olet_.” - - - - - CHAPTER VII - SMELL AND THE PERSONALITY - - -Whatever of myth there may be in the quaint stories we related in -Chapter V., there is no doubt about this, that there is great variety -among different individuals in respect to their personal atmosphere. I -mean the natural atmosphere of the person, of course, not the artificial -airs that surround and envelop the beperfumed modern lady. - -There is no need to enlarge upon this branch of our subject. Those who -are curious about it may apply themselves to Havelock Ellis for more -detailed information. What I am concerned with here is something much -less commonplace and obvious, the question, namely, whether we -disseminate and receive, each of us, anything less material than the -odours we are conscious of. - -In addition to his other olfactory accomplishments, our friend the dog -seems to be able to distinguish by smell when a strange dog is to be -cultivated as a friend or wrangled with as a foe, and nothing is more -amusing to watch than the careful and even suspicious olfactory -investigation two dogs meeting for the first time make of each other’s -odours, during which exchange of credentials a state of armed neutrality -exists, to pass, apparently as a result of some mysterious olfactory -decision, either into frank, open, and unchangeable hostility, or into -friendship equally frank, open, and unchangeable. - -But what it is that makes one dog smell to another of enmity or of -friendship is as mysterious as—the mutual attraction or repulsion felt -for each other by two human beings, shall we say? For, of course, this -suspense of judgment on encountering a new-comer is a human no less than -a canine trait. There were physiognomists before Lavater, since we are -naturally influenced by what our senses, and especially our eyes and our -ears, tell us about a person we are meeting for the first time. We like -the look of the man, his expression, his smile, the character of his -movements, bodily as well as facial; we find the intonation of his -voice, his accent, his laugh, agreeable. Or we don’t. And our decision -is curiously independent of his moral character, even after we have got -to know that side of him. Now, this act of judgment seems to us to be -quite independent of any olfactory evidence. We rely upon our -predominant senses just as the dog relies upon his. Yet I sometimes -catch myself wondering whether olfaction, olfaction rarefied and refined -beyond imagining, does not without our knowledge play some part in our -estimate of the pros and cons in character. - -What is conveyed to us by the “personality” of a man? Here we have -apparently a complex of sense-impressions, for the most part vague, -which we are seldom able to analyse, even to ourselves. Still less can -we put it into words capable of conveying our impression to other -people. “There is _something_ about him that I like” is about the -sum-total of our attempts at description. - -And if this be true as between man and man, it is even more often -remarked as between man and woman. Meredith it is, I think, who says -that the surest way to a woman’s heart is through her eye. Fortunately -for most of us, his dictum is open to question. Otherwise the human race -would soon come to an end. Now, although, unlike Meredith, I cannot -claim the rank of a high-priest in the temple of Venus, yet so far as I -may dare to express an opinion upon a matter so recondite, not to say -mysterious, I should rather be inclined to say that the surest route is -by way of her ear, and I am fortified in my belief by an authority as -erudite in these matters as Meredith himself, Shakespeare to wit: - - “That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man - If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.” - -John Wilkes, they say, to all appearance a “most uninteresting-looking -man,” asked for only half an hour of a start to beat the handsomest -gentleman in England at the game of games. Women forgot what he was like -as soon as he began to talk. - -Who has not seen women turning sidelong glances, with that surreptitious -intentness we all know so well, towards some very ordinary man in whose -voice they, but not we, detect the indefinable something that has the -power of luring these shy creatures from their inaccessible retreats? -What man has not seen this play and puzzled over it? The quality—is it -perhaps something caressing, or something brutal and ultra-masculine, or -both at once? Who knows what it is that their intuition perceives? - -So we ask, we less favoured mortals, as we turn and look at him also, -hard and long, only to give it up with a shrug! - - -When I am one of a crowd under the spell of an orator—a rare bird, by -the way, in England—I feel his power less in what he says than in how he -says it. Gladstone, for example, swayed his audience by the fervour of -his personality, not by any beauty of word or thought in his rhetoric. -How meaningless his speeches seem to us nowadays as we vainly try to -read them, how involved, discursive, ambiguous, turgid. How dull! And -yet we know that these same involved, discursive, ambiguous, turgid and -dull speeches could and did rouse hard-bitten Scotsmen to a wildness of -enthusiasm that seems to us incredible. - - -Thus the personality is something that travels on the wings of sound. -But is that all? Is there not something more, something imperceptible -which yet exercises a secret power over our emotions and passions? Is -there an olfactory aura? - - “Why does the elevation of the Host in a Roman Catholic church bring - such an assurance of peace to the congregation?” writes a friend of - mine. “This remarkable sensation I have myself frequently - experienced and wondered at. Yet I am, as you know, a Scots - Presbyterian, and do not credit for a single moment the miraculous - change of bread and wine. And yet to this gracious and comforting - influence I have been subject on more than one occasion. It is for - all the world as if the constant pin-pricks of our normal life were - suspended for a moment or two. - - “It is present only during service, and then only at the culmination - of the rite. - - “As I do not believe in the miracle, the influence must come to me - from without, not from within myself. Indeed, I have actually come - to the conclusion that it is borne in upon me not by the church - atmosphere with its incense, nor by the solemn intonation of the - priest, nor by the whisper of the muted organ, nor yet by the - distant murmur of the choir, but—by the congregation itself! - - “It is from the kneeling worshippers that the mysterious influence - emanates, invisibly, inaudibly, intangibly, to suffuse with the - peace of some other world the spirit even of an unbeliever....” - -Is it possible that influences such as these may enter by the olfactory -door? - -This perhaps may seem to be rather a fanciful suggestion for a -scientifically trained writer to offer. But it is not wholly fanciful, -since it has some support at least from theory (whatever that may be -worth), and even from some considerations based upon solid fact. - -As to theory, we have already seen how Fabre arrived at the conclusion -that the olfactory sense of certain insects is capable of receiving -stimuli to which we are insensitive, stimuli which he surmised to be of -the nature of an ethereal vibration. Consider too the following facts. - -It is well known that there are people who have an instinctive dislike -of cats. The late Lord Roberts was one, and it is said of him that he -was aware of the presence of his _bête noire_ before he caught sight of -it. How was he made aware? - -The same instinctive aversion is felt by some people towards spiders. I -myself know of one, a young girl, who cannot sleep if her bedroom -contains one of these creatures. She, like Lord Roberts feels without -knowing how when a spider is near her. - -Here also is a letter to a newspaper from a correspondent telling the -same tale: - - “SIR, - - “I notice with interest that the official photographer who is to - accompany Sir Ernest Shackleton’s _Quest_ expedition has an intense - dislike of spiders. Can any of your readers explain this uncanny - horror, which I believe is shared by a large number of people? - - “I myself loathe and fear spiders—so much so that I have been known - on more than one occasion to go into a darkened room and to declare - the presence of one of these creatures, my pet abomination being - subsequently discovered.... - - “F. E.” - - -What sense-organ—because there must be one—enables F. E. and others like -him (or her) to detect the presence of a small creepy-crawly? - -We turn now to a series of medical cases which may throw some light upon -this peculiarity. - -There are people who suffer from asthma when they go near horses. To -enter a stable or to sit behind a horse is to them a certain means of -bringing on an attack. - -This susceptibility and the peculiar form taken by the reaction remind -us of hay fever. In sufferers from this troublesome complaint the pollen -of certain plants has an irritating effect upon the mucous surfaces of -the eyes, nose, and bronchial tubes. So in like manner recent -investigation has shown that there is in the blood of the horse a -proteid substance which acts as an irritant poison to those susceptible -people. Their asthma, therefore, is merely a manifestation of the -irritation produced by the poisonous body or its emanation when it is -borne to them through the air. Similarly we are justified in arguing -that cats and spiders may throw off an effluvium which is irritating to -those susceptible to it. - -But it is to be noted that the antipathy in these last instances -manifests itself, not in a tissue change, but in a feeling of the mind, -an emotion. Nay more, these people do not smell the cat or the spider, -except in the way that James I. “smelled” gunpowder. Nevertheless, the -irritant must travel through the air as an odour does, and it probably -enters the organism by the mucous membrane of the nose. - -But does it act upon the olfactory cells? Here we encounter, I must -confess, a serious obstacle to an acceptance of this theory. - -The interior of the nose is sensitive not only to odours, but also to -certain chemical irritants. Any one who has peeled a raw onion or has -taken a good sniff at a bottle of strong smelling-salts knows what I -mean. Now, the chemical irritant, in the latter case ammonia gas, -affects not the olfactory nerve, but certain naked nerve fibrils in the -mucous membrane belonging to what is known as the fifth cranial nerve, a -nerve of simple sensation.[2] And the simultaneous irritation of the -eyelids, and in the case of the pollen and horse effluvia the bronchial -tubes, shows that these resemble in their action the simple chemical -irritants, and not the odours. - -Footnote 2: - - The difference between those two sensations becomes clearly evident - when an anosmic person is peeling an onion. The usual irritation of - the eyes and nose is felt and manifested, but the patient is unaware - of any odour. - -It must be remembered, however, that, as we have said, the cat and the -spider effluvia induce an emotional effect simply, without local -irritation. And emotional change not only follows, it may also precede, -the perception of an odour. - -The following anecdote of Goethe, for example, shows how smell may -affect the personality before it is recognised as an odour by the -consciousness: - - “An air that was beneficial to Schiller acted on me like poison,” - Goethe said to Eckermann. “I called on him one day, and as I did not - find him at home, I seated myself at his writing-table to note down - various matters. I had not been seated long before I felt a strange - indisposition steal over me, which gradually increased, until at - last I nearly fainted. At first I did not know to what cause I - should ascribe this wretched, and to me unusual, state, until I - discovered that a dreadful odour issued from a drawer near me. When - I opened it I found, to my astonishment, that it was full of rotten - apples. I immediately went to the window, and inhaled the fresh air, - by which I was instantly restored. Meanwhile his wife came in, and - told me that the drawer was always filled with rotten apples, - because the scent was beneficial to Schiller, and he could not live - without it.” - -I wish to emphasise, for the sake of my argument, that Goethe underwent -a profound constitutional disturbance, with its attendant discomfort, -before he realised that its cause was an odour. - -If, then, an odour can induce such emotional changes without attracting -attention to itself, the suggestion is not, after all, so very -far-fetched that an emanation proceeding from the worshippers at the -moment of the elevation of the Host in a Roman Catholic church may be -transmitted to the bystanders through the olfactory door to induce in -them an emotion similar to that felt by the initiated. - -It may be objected that Goethe’s experience and that of my friend are -not alike, since Goethe plainly, though tardily, became aware of a real -odour. It must be remembered, however, that Goethe was a scientist and -naturally gifted, besides, with an unusual power of introspective -analysis. He found the cause of his disturbance because he sought for -it. - -Moreover, we learn from Havelock Ellis that during religious excitement -a real (and pleasant) odour is sometimes perceptible in the atmosphere -around the faithful. - -May it not also be the same kind of influence, transmitted in the same -way, that dominates the mind, in company with impressions received by -sight and hearing, when we are in the vicinity of other people? - - -Our study of smells has brought us, to be sure, into a strange region of -psychology, for it is possible that we have here one explanation of the -mysteries of crowd-psychology, of those unreasonable waves of passion -that sometimes sweep through masses of people and lead to all manner of -strange happenings, like crusades and holy wars; _autos-da-fé_; -witch-burnings; lynch-murders; State-prohibition; spiritualistic -manifestations; and other miracles. - - -(The somewhat uncanny “sense” we have when some one else is present in -what we suppose to be an empty room may be olfactory in origin, but it -has generally seemed to me that it is due rather to an alteration in the -echo of the room, a change in its normal sound-picture. If the room is a -strange one to us, I do not think we so readily become suspicious of the -presence of an unseen and unexpected visitor.) - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - THEORIES OF OLFACTION - (_The Pièce de Résistance_) - - -The anatomical structure of the olfactory end-organ in the nose is, as -we saw in Chapter II., simple. - -Contrast it with the eye. Here we have what is obviously an optical -instrument, with lens, iris diaphragm, dark walls, and sensitive plate -complete—a photographic camera, in a word. - -Contrast it also with the ear, which is an acoustic apparatus reminding -us in its detail of a recording gramophone leading to a closed box in -which are what look like a series of resonators, like the wires of a -piano. - -In the antechamber of each of those organs the physical vibrations to -which they respond undergo considerable modification before they reach -the sensory cells. - -In the antechamber of the olfactory organ, on the other hand, the amount -of modification necessary is evidently but slight, as the olfactory -region of the nasal chamber is merely a narrow, open passage. As far as -we know, all that takes place is that the incoming stimulus, the odorous -molecule, is warmed and received by the nasal mucus. - -Thus the very complexity of the structure both of the eye and of the ear -helps us to comprehend their function. - -But what can we deduce from a flat surface in which all we can see is a -collection of cells with minute protoplasmic hairs projecting from their -distal ends? Obviously, little or nothing. We are, in fact, confounded -by simplicity. It may be that we are here dealing with one of the -essential properties of all living matter, little, if at all, altered -from its primitive condition. - -To the physiologist, then, olfaction is the most mysterious of all the -senses. It still retains its secrets, and therein lies the fascination -of its study. - -Of late years, the exploration of this dark region of physiology has -been, and is still being, vigorously pushed, and we shall now proceed to -give what, however, can only be a brief and superficial account of the -progress made and of the opinions held. Even so we shall be compelled to -make an incursion into the high and dry realms of modern chemical and -physical theory. That may not be good hearing, but what is still worse -is that almost every single point we shall be discussing is a matter of -controversy. - -Let us commence with a few of the details, mostly unimportant, upon -which there is general agreement. - -Consider, first of all, the variety, the almost infinite variety, of -odours. We have, for example, all the odours of the world of Nature, the -emanations of inorganic matter, of the earth itself, its soil and its -minerals; to these we must add the multitudinous perfumes of the -vegetable kingdom, of barks, roots, leaves, flowers and fruits, -including those of growing herbaceous plants, which differ so widely -from one another that it is said of Rousseau, whose myopia was -compensated for by an unusually acute sense of smell, and who was, -moreover, no mean botanist, that he could have classified the plants -according to their smell had there been a sufficiency of olfactory terms -for the purpose; then we have the thousand effluvia, some pleasant and -others not so pleasant, of living animals, including the various races -of mankind; next come the—mostly repulsive—odours of decaying vegetable -and putrefying animal matter; and finally the products of man’s own -proud ingenuity and skill, such as the artificial perfumes and flavours -on the one hand and on the other coal-gas, acetylene, carbon disulphide, -and the like. - - -Parker notes it as worthy of remark that man has created, both -accidentally and intentionally, many new odours—smells, that is to say, -which have no fellow in the world of Nature—and he emphasises the fact -that the nose is nevertheless capable of appreciating such novel -sensations. - -In this connection we may mention that the art of modern perfumery can -imitate closely many of the natural perfumes, and more particularly the -natural flavours, by mixing together essences, or components, which in -no way resemble the final product. - -Thus the flavour of peaches can be compounded artificially of aldehyde, -acetate, formate, butyrate, valerianate, œnanthylate, and sebate of -ethyl, and salicylate of methyl, with glycerine, glycerine being added -to the fruit essences, as it is to wines, in order to restrain the -evaporation of the volatile bodies. (The fruit essences are used only in -the making of flavours. They cannot be employed as perfumes, as they are -too irritating to the nose.) - -The union of components to form a product different from any one of them -is found also in vision. When the colours of the spectrum, for example, -are commingled, the resultant white light is devoid of any colour. - -Thus the potential responsiveness of the olfactory organ seems to be -practically inexhaustible. So far, at all events, it has not yet reached -the limits of its capacity. - -The number and variety of recognised smells being so great, then, one -can readily understand how difficult it is to construct a classification -of odours. Many attempts have, in fact, been made, but, depending as -they do more or less upon subjective sensation, no two classifiers give -us the same classification. Indeed, a division of all smells into -“nice,” “neutral,” and “nasty” would be about as good as many much more -ambitious efforts. - -Zwaardemaker’s is the classification most usually followed at present, -and as it is to him we owe most of our knowledge of scientific -olfaction, we shall detail it here: - -(1) Ethereal or fruity odours; (2) aromatic, including as sub-classes -camphrous, herbaceous, anisic and thymic, citronous, and the bitter -almond group; (3) balsamic, with sub-groups floral, liliaceous, and -vanillar; (4) ambrosial or muscous; (5) garlicky (including garlic), -oniony, fishy, and the bromine type of odour; (6) empyreumatic -(guaiacol); (7) caprylic (valerianic acid); (8) disgusting; and (9) -nauseating. - -The subjective character of these classes is obvious, especially in the -last two groups, but, apart from that objection, most people will be -inclined to protest when they learn that chloroform and iodoform are put -into the first, the ethereal or fruity, group, while it is suggested, -though to be sure with a query, that coffee, bread, and burnt sugar may -belong to the “repulsive” (pyridine) group! - -The fact is that Zwaardemaker’s classification is based upon a chemical -foundation, that is to say, upon properties which, as we shall see later -on, do not necessarily correspond with the odours as we smell them. -That, no doubt, explains his inclusion of iodoform among the “fruity” -odours.—Iodoform fruity!—Shades of George Saintsbury and his “Cellar -Book”! - -A shorter classification is that of Heyninx, who, aiming at objectivity, -bases his arrangement, to some extent at all events, upon the spectrum -analysis of odorous molecules in the atmospheric medium, of which more -anon. His list is: acrid, rotten, fœtid, burning, spicy, vanillar or -ethereal, and garlicky. But here, also, the coupling of vanillar with -ethereal odours seems a little inappropriate. - -We stand, perhaps, on rather firmer ground when we turn to the -manufacturer’s classification, founded as it is frankly upon subjective -sensation, and therefore devoid of any surprises to the logical faculty. -Here is Rimmel’s arrangement: rose, jasmine, orange, tuberose, violet, -balsam, spice, clove, camphor, sandal-wood, lemon, lavender, mint, -anise, almond, musk, ambergris, fruit (pear). - -It may be objected, perhaps, that this is a catalogue merely, not a -scientific classification. That is quite true. But what is also true is -that the others we have quoted are little, if any, better. The fact is -that we do not yet possess the knowledge necessary to enable us to -arrange odours in classes. - -The manufacturers, of course, concern themselves with agreeable and -attractive odours only. To the great and growing company of the stinks -they pay no attention whatever. For that reason their contribution to -our knowledge is necessarily but partial and limited. - -In their own proper domain, however, they can point to several great -successes. They recognise, for practical purposes, about eighty -primitive scents. Many natural (to say nothing of many unnatural) -perfumes can now be prepared artificially, and some so prepared are said -to be even more powerful than the natural productions. Artificial musk, -for example, is one thousand times stronger than natural musk, Parker -tells us. Deite, on the other hand, says that the smell of artificial -musk is not equal to that of the natural! Indeed, according to this -authority, although synthetic perfumes play an important part in the -concocting of scents, there are only a few of them which can be used -instead of the natural product. What happens is that the artificial and -the natural are generally used in combination. Thus the “mignonette” of -the shops is prepared by passing geraniol, an artificial odorivector -made from citronella oil, over the natural mignonette flowers, the -resulting product being an essence smelling strongly of mignonette, and -not at all of geraniol. - -One or two, as we said, are purely artificial imitations; coumarin, for -example, the “new-mown hay” of sentimental memory, which used to be -obtained from the tonka bean, is now entirely made up by the synthetic -chemist. But for all the more subtle essences we have still to rely upon -Nature’s laboratory. The manufacturer steps in and distils the precious -essential oil certainly, but it is from flowers that he obtains it. -Attar of roses, for instance, contains, in addition to natural geraniol, -a number of other ingredients which have so far escaped analysis, a -hundred thousand roses supplying only an ounce of it. In like manner a -ton of orange blossom yields but thirty to forty ounces of the odorous -essential oil. - -Many of the costly plant perfumes come from tropical or semi-tropical -countries, such as Ceylon, Mexico, and Peru. But tropical perfumes, -though strong, lack the delicacy of those found in temperate climates. -Cannes, on the Riviera, gives us roses, acacias, jasmine and neroli; -from Nimes come thyme, rosemary, and lavender oil; from Nizza, on the -Italian Riviera, we get violets; from Sicily, oranges and lemons; from -Italy, iris and bergamot. English lavender, until quite recently the -most highly esteemed, came from the towns of Hitchin and Mitcham. But I -am informed that the growing of lavender in England is no longer pursued -with the same success as formerly, and we have to regret the -disappearance of this old and truly English industry. - -The natural musk, curiously enough, which comes from the musk-deer of -Tibet, is not used in making musk perfume. It is, however, widely -employed in the perfumer’s art, as it has the curious property of -enhancing the strength of other perfumes and of rendering them -permanent. Civet, also an animal product, being “the very uncleanly -flux” of the civet cat, has similar properties. It is added to other -perfumes to strengthen them (“to set them off,” as it were) and to -render them more stable. - -But the most curious, and also one of the most ancient of perfumes is -ambergris, which is a fatty, wax-like substance found floating in the -sea or washed ashore. It comes from places as far apart as the west -coast of Ireland, China, and South America. The origin of this substance -was for long a mystery. But we know now that it consists of the -undigested remnants of cephalopods (squids and octopuses) swallowed by -the spermaceti whale. Ambergris is used, like musk and civet, to render -other scents durable. - -But while the victory of the chemist is by no means so complete as it is -in the matter of the dyestuffs, research is steadily going on, and the -next few years will almost certainly witness an evergrowing conquest -over this department of natural chemistry. - -In the meantime chemists are applying themselves to the creation of new -varieties of perfume, and, if we may judge from those disseminated by -certain ladies in public places, with a success that startles and even -irritates us. Compared with them, the love-philtres of olden days must -have been but feeble things. - -“How d’you know you’re in the right ’bus?” asked the ’bus conductor of -the blind man who was confidently boarding his vehicle. - -“This is the Maida Vale ’bus,” was the contemptuous reply. “I knows it -by the smell o’ musk.” - - -The inexhaustible capacity of the olfactory organ, to which we alluded -above, is by no means its only marvel. It is also of the most wonderful -delicacy, equalling, even if it does not surpass, in this respect, the -sensitiveness of the eye to light. - -This property of the smell-organ has been scientifically estimated. -There are many ways of doing so, that by means of Zwaardemaker’s -olfactometer being perhaps the most popular: - - “This consists of two tubes that slide one within the other, and so - shaped that one end of the inner tube may be applied to the nostril. - The odorous material is carried on the inner surface of the outer - tube. When the inner tube, which is graduated, is slipped into the - outer one so as to cover completely its inner face, and air is drawn - into the nostril through the tube, the odorous surface, being - covered, gives out no particles, and no odour is perceived. By - adjusting the inner tube in relation to the outer one, whereby more - or less of the odorous surface is exposed, a point can be found - where minimum stimulation occurs. The amount of odorous substance - delivered under these circumstances to the air current has been - designated by Zwaardemaker as an olfactie, the unit of olfactory - stimulation. Having determined for a given substance the area - necessary for the delivery of one olfactie, doubling that surface by - an appropriate movement of the inner tube will produce a stimulus of - two olfacties, and so forth. Thus a graded series of measured - olfactory stimuli can easily be obtained. Further, by using outer - tubes carrying different odorous substances various comparisons can - be instituted as measured in olfacties” (Parker). - -Instruments more elaborate and of greater accuracy have, as a matter of -fact, been devised and used, but they need not detain us. - -The results obtained by these and other methods of determining the -minimum stimulus of olfaction are certainly astonishing, and reveal as -nothing else can the delicate acuteness of the sense. - -Fischer and Penzoldt found that they could plainly smell one milligram -of chlorphenol evaporated in a room of 230 cubic metres capacity. This -is equivalent to 1/230,000,000 of a milligram to each cubic centimetre -of air, or, assuming 50 cubic centimetres of air as the minimum needed -for olfaction, the amount of chlorphenol capable of exciting sensation -is 1/4,600,000 of the thousandth part of a gram—approximately -1/276,000,000 of a grain! - -Many other odours have been similarly tested, and although there is much -numerical discrepancy in the records made by different observers, all -agree as to the extreme delicacy of the sense. (For vanillin and -mercaptan, see p. 39.) - -Those experiments and estimations explain how it comes about that many -odours (musk, for example) may go on giving off their scent until they -part with the whole of it _without undergoing any appreciable loss of -weight_. - -Thus there is no chemical test known to us so delicate as olfaction. - -It has been found, for example, that over-assiduous efforts at filtering -and purifying the air used for ventilation so as to remove all noxious -chemical and bacterial ingredients defeat their own end. Such air, -although to our artificial tests absolutely clean and pure, seems to the -sense of smell to lack freshness. And the nose is right. The tests are -wrong. For sojourn in such an atmosphere induces lassitude and torpor of -mind, as members of the Houses of Parliament, where this method has been -tried, know to their cost—and ours. - -But albeit so highly sensitive to minute traces, the sense occasionally -fails to perceive a highly concentrated odour. - -For example, every one is aware that a bunch of violets which is filling -a room with its fragrance seems when held to the nose to have no smell -at all, or at the most to have but a vague, indefinable sort of odour. - -The effect, as a matter of fact, varies with the perfume employed. Some, -like violets, have no smell at all. Others give a different smell when -concentrated from what they give when dilute. Muskone, for one, the -essential constituent of musk, has an odour of pines when concentrated; -and storax, a delightful perfume when dilute, is disagreeable when too -powerful, and so on. - -It is to be noted that the disagreeable character of these last is not -due to the mental “cloying” or “sickening” of excessive sweetness; it is -a definite odour. Nor is the anosmia for concentrated violets due to the -exhaustion of the sense. - -Heyninx, comparing, as we shall see, olfaction with vision, believes the -indefinite odour of concentrated violets to be akin to the absence of -colour in white light. But this explanation seems to me to be -improbable, since the effect is due not to the combination of a number -of odours, as white light is the combination of all the colours of the -spectrum, but to the overpowering influence of a single odour. - -Indeed, none of the other senses shows the same phenomenon. If we happen -to catch a momentary glimpse of the noonday sun, we plainly see a disc -of intense light (it is pale blue in colour to my eye), surrounded by a -fiery halo, before it blinds us. In the same way, when a gun is fired -close to the ear, we hear the sound before we are deafened by it. - -It is for such reasons that perfumers never sniff at a bottle of scent; -they take a little, rub it on the back of the hand, and then wait until -the spirit has evaporated before they proceed to smell it. - - -The exquisite delicacy of the sense might lead us to suppose that the -olfactory organ must be quick at responding to its proper stimulus. But -such is not the case. It is, on the other hand, relatively “slow in the -uptake.” - -Gleg has estimated that the reaction time for auditory sensation is from -0·12 to 0·15 of a second, whereas the reaction time for smell is as much -as 0·5 of a second, only one sensory stimulus being slower, that of -pain, namely, which occupies 0·9 of a second. - - -Odours are conveyed to the olfactory end-organ in the air we breathe. -Before they can rise into the air from the odorivector (the odorous -body) and be transported they must, it is clear, pass into the vaporous -or gaseous state. (In the case of fish, of course, the odour must -undergo solution, that is pass into the liquid state.) Many of the -natural properties manifested by smells have been related to this -transformation into vapour. - -Everybody knows how rich garden scents become after a shower. It has -been claimed that this results from the lightening of the atmosphere by -the storm, in consequence of which the diffusion of odorous vapours, -following the law that governs the diffusibility of gases, is -facilitated. But some of the effect must be due, one would think, partly -to the impact of the raindrops breaking up and dispersing the halo of -perfumed air that surrounds each flower, and partly also to the -evaporation of the rain-water that has absorbed these floral emanations. - -We are told also that during the night and in the chill of early morning -the air is less charged with odours because cold checks the diffusion of -gases. This may be true enough for some odours, but I am inclined to -think that the fact is not stated with perfect accuracy, as there are -certain perfumes, that of the tobacco-plant for one and that of the -night-scented stock for another, which are most prevalent after -nightfall. And it has always seemed to me that Mother Earth is never so -nicely perfumed as on a cool September morning, although I should never -be inclined to call any morning “incense-breathing,” like Gray, for -anything less like incense could scarcely be imagined. - -There is no doubt, however, that frost seals up all odorivectors and -renders the air quite odourless. - -A physical law appertaining to gases is also invoked to explain the -“clinging” of odours. Many, if not all, solids and liquids when exposed -to air and other gases adsorb (cause to adhere) to their surfaces a -thin, dense layer or film of the gas. If now that gas happens to contain -an odour, or is itself odorous, the odour must also be adsorbed, and so -in the case of porous materials, such as fabrics, permeated by the -odour, it lingers tenaciously in their depths. - -Odorous bodies in the solid or powdered form are known to retain their -perfume for prolonged periods. Look how long a sandal-wood box remains -aromatic. This property is supposed to depend upon the lowered vapour -tension of the odorous molecules in the depths of the solid or powder, -in virtue of which they rise into the air, or evaporate, but slowly. - -It would seem to be natural to suppose that, as vaporisation plays such -an important part in the dissemination of odours, the volatile bodies -and liquids would be more odorous than the nonvolatile. But, as -Zwaardemaker has pointed out, this is by no means always the case. Many -substances of low volatility are nevertheless highly odorous, and _vice -versâ_. - - -We turn now for a moment to consider the behaviour of the odorous vapour -in the nose. - -As it passes through the nose the current of inspired air sweeps along -the lower and middle regions only; the upper or olfactory region is not -directly traversed. But almost certainly some of the air is diverted up -into the olfactory region in light eddies, and the act of sniffing, -which is a short inspiration abruptly begun and ended, and which we -instinctively resort to when trying to detect a faint odour, is -obviously of a nature to propel side-streams or eddies up into the -olfactory zone. One is reminded of the production of smoke rings from a -box. - -We smell not only during inspiration, however, but also during -expiration, the latter conveying to the olfactory region the flavours of -food and drink. - -Flavours, that is to say the olfactory elements of so-called “taste,” -are not appreciated to the full until after deglutition. To most of us, -although experts and connoisseurs can determine it by smelling the wine -in the glass, the bouquet of port has really no meaning until after it -is drunk, simply because the expiratory current of air as it ascends -through the throat into the nose receives the concentrated vapours of -the warmed volatile higher alcohols which are clinging about the fauces. - -We may here remark that although we are usually able to perceive that -the odour and the flavour of a sapid food or drink are akin to each -other, the sensation of the odour anticipating that of the flavour, yet -they are by no means always identical. They may strike us as do a plain -and a coloured version of the same print. Sometimes the flavour seems to -be the more powerful, sometimes the odour. Nearly all bouillons, for -example, possess a flavour more rich and full than the odour they give -off with their steam. On the other hand, valerian has a strong, -objectionable smell, which, strange to say, becomes subdued and -relatively tolerable when that medicine is being swallowed. - - -It is a curious fact, well known to expert “tasters,” that if the eyes -are kept closed during the test, the delicacy of appreciation of -flavours, and also of the smell of the wine in the glass, is entirely -lost. I cannot suggest any explanation for this curious phenomenon. - - -Anosmia, absence of smell, which is the next topic for our -consideration, is a not uncommon defect. It is generally the result of -some form of nasal obstruction, such as a bad “cold in the head,” as -Æsop’s fox was clever enough to remember. This type is temporary and -remediable. But there are other forms that are due to nerve-disease, and -for these nothing can be done. - -A congenital anosmia is occasionally met with, and a curious partial -anosmia, reminding us of colour-blindness or tone-deafness. I myself -know people who cannot smell coal-gas unless it is very strong, and I -once knew a cook,—a cook who couldn’t smell a bad egg! - -Albinos are said to be congenitally anosmic, and there was recorded many -years ago by Hutchison the case of a negro who, gradually losing all his -pigment, became anosmic in consequence (cited by Ogle). As the -sustentacular cells of the olfactory area contain granules of pigment -(see Chapter II.), we are forced to conclude that it must exercise a -highly important function in the perception of odours. We shall see -later on that its presence is supposed by some to support the theory -that odour is a specific ethereal vibration similar to light. - - -We turn now to discuss the real nature of odour, a section of our -subject which is still theoretical and highly problematical. - - -Having accomplished so much in the art of perfumery, the chemist ought, -one would think, to be able to tell us whether or not there is any -relationship or correspondence between odour and chemical constitution. - -When investigation of this point was begun, a hopeful fact came to -light, as it was pointed out that certain bodies of similar chemical -composition had all the same kind of smell. These were the compounds of -arsenic, bismuth, and phosphorus, all of which smell of garlic. But it -was soon realised that this fact was of little or no significance, as -the oxides of many of the metals, although quite different from the -former group, also smell of garlic. To these we may add the instance of -water and sulphuretted hydrogen, two substances which are related -chemically, as their formulæ show (H_{2}O and H_{2}S), and yet one of -them is odourless, While the other has a strong, unpleasant smell. -Finally, according to Deite, natural and artificial musk have nothing in -common but their smell. Chemically they are quite different. - -The property of odour, then, does not depend upon the Chemical -constitution of bodies. - -The next question that arises is: Do bodies exhaling the same kind of -odour resemble each other in the structure of their molecules? In other -words, can odour be related to molecular structure? - -To the chemist all matter is made up of atoms and molecules. The -elements, bodies which cannot be broken up by chemical action into any -simpler form, are composed of atoms. On the other hand, when elements -combine to form a compound, the unit of the new body, composed as it is -of two or more atoms of different elements linked together, is known as -a molecule. (Probably the elements also exist in the molecular state, -the atoms of which they are composed being linked together in groups.) -Both atoms and molecules are, of course, very minute in size. - - -For reasons we need not enter into here, the molecule is held to have a -certain structural form, which form is indicated by what is known as a -graphic formula. The graphic formula of water, one of the simplest, may -be written as H—O—H, and we may regard it as having a linear form. -(Modern views indicate that it is not a simple line, but in two planes.) - -Many molecules, however, particularly those of the organic compounds, -are highly complex, and their structural form must be very different -from that of water. - -The question, then, now before us is: Does odour bear any relationship -to the molecular structure of bodies? And again it has been maintained -that a clue to the problem of the real nature of odour lies here. - -There is a well-known series of chemical bodies known as the -“aromatics,” by reason of the fact that they possess strong smells more -or less similar in quality. With regard to this series, which is made up -of groups of what are known as radicles which occupy definite positions -on a molecule shaped like a ring—the benzene ring, as it is -called—Henning, a German observer, has expressed the opinion that the -odour depends, not upon the radicles as such, but upon the position they -occupy on the ring. - -Transferring his argument to odorous bodies in general, and taking six -groups as embracing all (spicy, flowery, fruity, resinous, burnt, and -foul), he associates each of these types with some feature in the -constitution of the molecule which is common to all the members of each -group. - -To enter more fully into this branch of the subject would carry us too -deeply into chemistry. I shall content myself therefore with saying that -Henning’s views have received considerable support from scientific -chemists and have led to several interesting and suggestive -developments. - - -Heyninx, however, criticising this theory, points out that hydrocyanic -(or prussic) acid and nitrobenzol, two substances with the same smell, -have each a molecular structure in no way resembling the other. - -The graphic formulæ of these bodies, which I give here, plainly show the -difference between them: - -H—C≡N (hydrocyanic acid) and - - H - C - HC C—NO_{2} - | || - HC CH (nitrobenzol). - \ / - C - H - -(T. H. Fairbrother, to whom I am indebted for much information on the -chemistry of olfaction, would dispose of this criticism of Hcyninx’s by -denying that the odours of those two substances are identical. See -later, p. 132.) - - -Chemistry, then, having, according to the critics, failed us, we turn to -the allied science of physics. Physics deals with matter in its ultimate -state, beginning, so to speak, where chemistry, with its work of changes -and combinations, ceases, and taking us deep into the heart of matter -independent of its chemical properties and behaviour. - -We have seen that, chemically speaking, elements and their compounds -exist as molecules made up of atoms. Now molecules may be minute, and -atoms even more minute, but in “electrons,” the name given to the last -divisible particle of matter known to the physicist, we are dealing with -minuteness inconceivable. Sir Oliver Lodge has said that if an atom -could be expanded to fill a space equal to that of the entire solar -system, the electrons composing it would each be the size of an orange! -There is supposed, indeed, to be an atomic “system” composed of a -central nucleus like the sun, with electrons revolving round it, the -nucleus having a positive, and the revolving particles a negative, -electric charge. Further (whether in virtue of these moving electrons or -otherwise is not quite clear), the molecule is supposed to be in a state -of constant vibration. - -The physical theory of odour, then, refers that quality to the vibration -of the molecule. It suggests that the molecules of an odorous body -passing in the gaseous or, in fishes, the liquid state into the -olfactory region of the nose, are there received by the film of mucus in -which the olfactory hairs lie, and stimulate these hairs by their -molecular vibration. No chemical change is supposed to take place, only, -as it were, a mechanical stimulation, comparable to the mechanical -stimulation of the retina by the waves of light. - -A recent development of the theory which we owe to Heyninx, a Belgian -scientist, brings the process very closely into harmony with what occurs -in the eye. According to this authority, olfaction is in reality a -perception of ethereal undulations of the same character as the -undulations of light, these undulations being provoked by the -intra-molecular vibrations of the odorous vapour in the nasal mucus and -transmitted to the olfactory hairs not by immediate contact, but through -the medium of the ether. - -We owe this last suggestion to the curious fact, but recently -discovered, that many odorous substances (in their gaseous form in the -air) absorb the rays of ultra-violet light. - -In order to make clear what this means, we must say a preliminary word -regarding the spectrum and spectrum analysis. - -The passage of a beam of white light through a glass prism breaks it up -into its component parts, beginning with red, then orange, yellow, -green, blue, and ending with violet. Beyond the violet end of the -spectrum we know there are rays invisible to us, but capable of acting -on a photographic plate. These are called the ultra-violet rays. - -In like manner, beyond the red end of the spectrum we know there are -also rays, likewise invisible to us, but perceptible by our tactile -sense as heat. These are called the infra-red rays. - -Now, the rate of vibration of all these different rays, visible and -invisible, has been estimated, and they increase in frequency from the -infra-red, which are the slowest, to the ultra-violet, which are the -most rapid. - -As we have already said, it has recently been shown that the odorous -vapours absorb certain ultra-violet rays. That is to say, when the beam -of light is directed through a chamber containing the odorous vapour -before entering the prism, what are known as absorption-bands—vertical -black lines in the white—appear in the photograph of the spectrum. - -Similar lines are seen, as a matter of fact, in the visible spectrum of -sunlight, and as these correspond in position with the spectrum given by -chemical elements in an incandescent gaseous state, it is supposed that -they are produced by the absorption of the corresponding light-rays by -these gases in the solar atmosphere. - -The physical explanation given of this phenomenon is that the molecules -of the gas in the sun absorb such light-rays as are equal in rate of -vibration to the rate of their own vibrating molecule. - -In the same way, Heyninx and others argue that the odorous vapour is -composed of molecules which are vibrating with a period equal to that of -the light-rays they absorb. - -Moreover, since the position of the absorption-band in the photograph -varies, lying in some cases nearer to the visible violet and in others -further away from it, and since this position varies with the particular -fundamental odour employed, it is suggested that not only do the -molecules vibrate with a period equal to that of the ultra-violet rays -they absorb, but as this vibration varies in rate, so it is to this -variation that we must ascribe the differences in odours. This is -analogous, of course, to the appreciation of colour by the eye. One -odorous molecule, that is to say, like the colour red, having a slower -rate of vibration, will give rise to one kind of smell; another, like -the colour yellow, with a more rapid rate, will give rise to another -kind of smell, and so on for all the fundamental odours. Heyninx, -indeed, goes so far as to fix the position in the olfactory gamut of all -fundamental odours, and to base upon it the classification we have -already considered. - -It is supposed, that is to say, that the vibrations of the odorous -molecule set up undulations in the ether, and that it is those ethereal -undulations that stimulate the olfactory hairs, just as ethereal -undulations emanating from a luminous source stimulate the retina. - -There is one great difference, however, between light and odour, a -difference admitted, we may mention, by the supporters of the undulatory -theory, but not emphasised by them. The difference is this: in the case -of visible light the ethereal undulations emanate from a source at a -distance (it may be like starlight at an enormous distance) from the -sensory end-organ, whereas in the case of odour the undulation is -supposed to be generated by the odorous molecule in close proximity to -the end-organ. - -The theory makes no attempt to explain how the olfactory hairs respond -to these hypothetical ethereal waves. - - -Finally, we have the question of the olfactory pigment to consider, and -in this matter we cannot do better than follow the exposition of William -Ogle, an English physician who wrote as long ago as 1870. As will be -seen, he forestalls the modern undulatory theory of olfaction in a -remarkable manner. - -Ogle contends that the presence of pigment must be of great importance -in the function for the following reasons: - -First, the epithelium of the olfactory region is pigmented, while that -of the rest of the nasal chamber and sinuses is devoid of colouring -matter. - -Secondly, there seems to be some correspondence between the degree of -pigmentation and the acuteness of smell, as the following facts -suggest:— - -In macrosmatic animals, such as the dog, cat, fox, sheep, and rabbit, -pigmentation extends over a larger space and is darker in tint than in -man. In these animals also the mucus covering the olfactory area of the -nose is itself pigmented. - -We have seen that human albinos are anosmic, and the same is probably -true of animal albinos. But care is necessary in making observations on -suspected albinos in animals, as even when they are altogether white a -certain amount of black pigment remains about the face and nose. - -The following reports, however, would lead us to conclude that as with -man, so with the animals, a relative deficiency of pigment is associated -with a dull olfactory sense. - -It is by smell that the herbivora detect and avoid plants which are -poisonous, and when poisoning does occur, it is usually a white animal -that suffers. In some parts of Virginia the farmers will only rear black -pigs, because, they say, the white ones eat and are poisoned by the -roots of _Lachtanthus tinctoria_. For the same reason in the Tarentino -only black sheep are reared. - -Thirdly, the dark-skinned human races have a keener sense of smell than -the lighter races. - -Fourthly, the sense grows more acute as we get older, as we have already -seen, and nasal pigmentation, it is said, also increases with age. - -As to the function of the olfactory pigment, Ogle remarks first of all -that odours are absorbed more readily by dark than by light materials. - -Pigment is also present in the labyrinth of the ear as well as in the -eye, and its presence in these organs seems to be essential to their -activity. - -It is to be noted that the pigment does not occur on the nerve structure -in any of those end-organs, but external, though contiguous to it. In -the eye, it lies in contact with the rods and cones of the retina; in -the nose, with the olfactory hairs; in the ear, with the terminal bodies -of the auditory nerve. - -Hence the pigment, he supposes, must be associated with the reception of -the sensory impressions. - -In the eye and the ear those impressions are undulatory in character. -That being so, he holds that the undulatory theory of olfaction also is -probably the correct one. - -Ogle finishes with the remark that the theory would be strengthened if -it could be shown that pigment was specially suited for the absorption -and modification of undulations. - -It is interesting to us to learn that claims are now being made that -pigment does possess the power necessitated by Ogle’s theory. At all -events, there is a theory of vision (Castelli’s) which claims for the -ocular pigment the power of absorbing and modifying light waves, and -Heyninx holds that the olfactory pigment possesses a similar property. - - -Summing the whole matter up, then, we may say that the undulatory theory -of olfaction is, that an odorivector gives off in the form of vapour (in -the aerial medium) extremely attenuated portions of its substance, too -minute to be weighed, and that this vapour, disseminated through the -air, enters the nose in respiration, and, being wafted up into the -olfactory region, is received by the mucus bathing the olfactory hairs, -where, in virtue of the ultra-violet radiations which proceed from its -molecules and are modified by the olfactory pigment, it acts on the -hairs, setting up changes (it may be also undulatory in nature) in them -and in their cells, which changes are transmitted thence by the -olfactory nerves to the neurones or nerve-cells of the olfactory bulb -(or lobe) of the brain. - - -The undulatory theory of olfaction, then, as will be evident to the -reader, has a good deal in its favour. And in addition to what we have -already said of it as accounting for the absorption by odorous vapours -of ultra-violet rays, and as giving a hint regarding the function of -pigment in the olfactory area, there are also a number of other -phenomena which it seems to explain. We have seen, for example, how one -odorivector, such as musk or civet, may have the property of enhancing -the power of another, and this is a property which is characteristic -also of certain luminous conditions (fluorescence, lumino-luminescence). - -Again, there is a harmony existing between certain of the manufacturers’ -primitive odours; “they go well together,” and are employed for that -reason in the art of perfumery. This resembles the harmony existing in -another class of undulations, the sound waves. - -On the other hand, just as one sound may silence another by the clashing -of their waves, so one odour may “kill” or neutralise another odour -(iodoform and coffee, _e.g._). - -There are several other minor phenomena which are in agreement with this -theory. They need not detain us. - - -We turn now to the criticism of the undulatory theory of odour. - -First of all, we shall dispose of an objection which, at first sight, -has a very serious aspect. - -It may seem difficult to understand how vibrations which appear to us -when of a certain rate to be light should when they are of another rate -become to us smell. How can one and the same physical condition produce -sensations so different? - -The same difference, however, is encountered when we pass to the rays at -the other end of the spectrum, the reds and infra-reds. On one side of -the dividing line we only perceive these as heat; on the other side they -also become light. - -Obviously, the difference can only be due to the different character of -the sensory end-organ, the receptor of these vibrations. As Head says: -“Each peripheral end-organ is a specific resonator attuned to some -particular kind of physical vibration”—reminding us not only of -soundresonators, but also of wireless receivers, which are “tuned” or -accommodated to particular wave-lengths. - -Thus, if red rays encounter certain tactile end-organs in the skin, they -are perceived by the mind as heat, and if they pass into the eye and -stimulate the retina, they are perceived as red light. In other words, -in whatsoever manner an end-organ is stimulated, it only induces its own -particular sensation. - -How it comes about that the various end-organs induce such different -sensations is not yet known. - - -The ultra-violet theory of olfaction, however, has to run the gauntlet -of much more serious criticism than the difficulty we have just disposed -of. - -One great objection to it (to my mind) is that it fails to account for -another absorption phenomenon of which I have not yet made any mention. -It was first observed by Tyndall nearly fifty years ago. - -On submitting odorous vapours to examination Tyndall found, not that -they absorbed ultra-violet rays, as this method is of quite recent -usage, but that they _absorbed heat-rays_, or the _infra-red rays_ of -the spectrum. So that, if it be correct to say that odours set up -ultra-violet rays in the ether, we must be equally ready to credit them -with setting up infra-red rays also! - -But there is another, and perhaps a stronger, objection to the -ultra-violet theory. - -In the interesting and highly instructive schema drawn up by Heyninx of -the wave-lengths of ultra-violet absorbed by odours, we find one or two -discrepancies of a serious character. - -For example, iodoform and cinnamic aldehyde show absorption-bands -occupying nearly the same position on the spectrum; and presumably, -therefore, these substances have the same molecular vibration-rate. Yet -their odours are not at all alike! - -Again, acetone-methylnonic and butyric acids have _precisely_ the same -absorption bands, and yet they also exhale totally different odours. - -But the most serious discrepancy remains. The absorption bands of -hydrocyanic acid and watery vapour (steam) have precisely the same -position in the spectrum, yet one of these has a highly characteristic -odour, and the other has none at all! - -It is rather difficult, in view of these findings, to believe that this -absorption phenomenon can have anything to do with the quality of odour. - -My friend Mr. T. H. Fairbrother writes regarding this controversy:— - - “Whilst I do not for one moment suggest that the whole phenomena of - smell can be explained entirely in terms of chemical constitution, I - do maintain that it has much to do with it, and I certainly think - that more valuable information about the cause of various odours has - been obtained from considerations of chemical constitution than from - the many extravagant physical theories which do not lead us very - far. In my view the physicists are begging the question, because - they usually postulate something which we cannot prove, and whilst - it is possible that the vibration of electrons causes smell, how - much wiser does that statement make us? One might easily say that it - was possible that the bombardment of electrons caused smell, etc. On - the chemical side, however, we are bound down to experimental facts, - and we do know that esterification of carboxylic acids does bring - about a fruity odour invariably, etc. Chemical constitution cannot - explain fully all these phenomena, because chemical formulæ - themselves are only approximations, but the effect of groups in a - nucleus has done much to help synthetic production of odorous - bodies. When the physicist can control the vibrations of his - electrons and make them rotate in accordance with his will, then he - may be able to synthesise new odours—till then we have no means of - testing his theories.” - - -The older view of olfaction—and many modern scientists, as we see, still -adhere to it—is that the odorous molecule acts as a chemical reagent -upon the olfactory hairs. And there is something to be said for this -opinion. - -To begin with, no one doubts nowadays that odours are material. They -pass through the air as vapours, and they are known to travel miles on -the wind. That is to say, apart from those hypothetical varieties of -odour (if we can call them odour at all) discussed by Fabre earlier in -this book, odours do not emanate from a point and disperse in all -directions as light and sound do. Why then drag in the ether? Is it not -more probable that the odorous molecule acts on the olfactory hairs by -direct material contact, and that it sets up chemical changes in them? - -We are asked to believe that the ultra-violet rays of odour stimulate -the olfactory hairs as visible light-rays stimulate the retina. But it -must not be forgotten that in the eye those rays may induce first of all -chemical changes in the retina, just as they would act on the silver -salt of a photographic plate, and that it may be by these changes that -the retina is stimulated. - -In the phenomenon of olfactory exhaustion, as we said in our first -chapter, we have a circumstance which suggests the presence of some -chemical reagent in the olfactory area. - -It may be, of course, that in the nose as well as in the eye the process -is a combination of chemical and physical changes. And in any case we -are here dealing with that obscure region where chemistry and physics -meet and mingle. - -We have now come to the end of our discourse upon the theories of odour, -and it must be confessed that we are still very much in the dark as to -the nature of the odorous, and as to the manner in which it excites the -olfactory organ to activity. - - -Still more mysterious, however, is the process by which the physical -quality of odour becomes the sensation of the mind we call smell. - -The transmutation of a physical quality into a sensation is indeed the -great mystery of all our senses. Olfaction is not the only one before -which we throw up our hands, and this in spite of the detailed and -voluminous information which modern physiology, neurology, and -psychology place at our disposal, perhaps less in spite of this -information than because of it, seeing that the further our knowledge -extends the wider seems the unknown realm beyond. Our science is an -ever-expanding sphere, no doubt, but it is expanding into the infinite. - -How is it that the rhythmic vibration of matter becomes what we call -“sound,” or the rhythmic vibration of the ether “light”? - -How does the physical pass into and become part of the psychic? - -According to recent teaching, the physical can be followed as such from -the sensory end-organ itself as far as the first synapse, or junction -with the neurone. But there something happens; ... then it reappears in -a new guise, vibration becomes sensation, the physical psychic, the -objective subjective, the real ideal, the dead alive! In that brief -tumble of time what a miraculous transformation! - -Modern science has cleared up much of the mystery of the objective -world, and although it may be far from the end of its search, although, -indeed, the search, one must think, can never entirely elucidate the -dense obscurity that envelops us on every side, dark as a starless night -around a candle, yet we already know this much, that the real world is -very different from the world depicted for us by our senses. - -Only a little imagination is needed to convey us out of the magic circle -into which we have been born, and what a strange universe do we then -find ourselves in! Entangled in a meshwork of space-time and permeated -by whirling maelstroms of varied and innumerable oscillations, we lose -all hold on reality in the very act of grasping it. - -But although we do possess some sort of vague notion as to the -constitution of the outer universe, before the inner we stand ignorant -and speechless. - -Regarded as a machine, the brain, it is true, like the world without, is -reluctantly yielding up its secrets one by one. We are learning how it -works as a chemical factory, as a physical power-house, so that already -we can surmise that here also we have probably to deal with a -multiplicity of vibrations, of exquisitely minute transformations of -energy, of involved intercommunications, of deft though intricate -associations, of rapid yet permanent recordings and registrations. - -We are now able to follow the undulations we term light, not only into -the eye, but into the brain itself, locating their central station in -the occipital lobe, whence their effects radiate all over the organism. -And in the case of olfaction Pawlow has taught us that its chief -vegetative function, the result of radiations from the olfactory central -station in the brain, is the arousing of the digestive glands to -activity. The first act of digestion is olfaction. But the routes which -the olfactory stimuli follow in the central nervous system and their -communications with other sensory paths are not yet known. - -The secrets of the brain which have been disclosed to us, however -wonderful they may be, concern only, we must remember, the machinery of -the nervous system, that part, namely, which is of the same nature and -order as the objective world, of which indeed it is a member. Hitherto -have we come, but no further: - - “The traveller hails. The echoing walls respond. - And there the matter ends. The wilds beyond - Are broken rock and desert where no foot - Can venture on to trace a further route, - For none hath trodden or shall ever tread - This hither limbus of the outer dread. - Cloven abrupt, the absolute abyss - Falls sheer beneath us, fathoms fathomless, - And still high o’er us heaves the unclimbed hill, - And the unanswered questions front us still.” - -The “thought” escapes us. Somewhere beyond the boundary of the physical -flits this elusive, this tantalising ghost. How it is acted upon and how -it reacts we know to some extent. But what the nature of its action may -be is more than we can determine. - -Nay! A moment ago we lightly spoke of passing out of the magic circle -into which we have been born, and we forthwith proceeded to talk as if -we had in reality escaped from this our prison. But there is no escape -for us, of course. No man can jump out of his skin. There undoubtedly -are such things as “waves,” or “undulations,” or “oscillations,” or -“vibrations,” or whatever we like to call them. But they are not what we -imagine them to be. There is, we may suppose, a four-dimensioned -universe of “space-time.” But it is beyond our conception. There is -“objective reality,” in a word. But it is no reality to us. Those very -expressions, glibly used though they be, are but metaphors—“pretendings” -a child would call them—attempts to bring the remote a little nearer to -us, to clothe the uncouth in the garments we ourselves wear; all of -which is nothing but Maya—illusion—shadowplay. - -Let us not deceive ourselves. Along with the recent revelations of -physical science there comes, say certain modern philosophers, the -suspicion that the universe is irrational. At every point we are brought -up short by the unknowable. - -For example, Einstein tells us that what we call the “ether” has no -existence. It is merely a “void.”—But how can we call that void which -contains something—undulations, to wit? - -“Nay!” you argue; “the undulations traverse the ether, but they are not -it. The ether is a non-entity. It has no existence. It is nothing.” - -To which I reply: “But ‘nothing’ is an absolute term. It means ‘no -thing.’ How, then, can undulations, or anything else for that matter, -pass through nothing?” - -“What nonsense!” you cry; “this kind of verbal poser is just the silly -old metaphysicians’ parlour game of playing with words.” - -I know it is. But the word-play has its uses. It demonstrates to us that -words, language, logic, all alike, fail our thought, not so much because -those instruments are limited in power as because the thought itself is -lacking in precision and comprehensiveness. - -It is when our word-play probes the expression that the vagueness of the -idea is made manifest. Our foil, even with the button on, goes clean -through the phantom. - -The mind, in short, has not absorbed, nor can it absorb, the _fact_. We -seize a glass of water to drain it, and presently, like Alice, we find -ourselves swimming about in an ocean! Obviously the universe _is_ beyond -our comprehension, a conclusion desperate if you like, yet undeniable. - -But how very annoying it is, after all our heavy labour, to hear the -ancient scoff of Zophar the Naamathite still ringing triumphant: - -“Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty -unto perfection?” - -(Still we mean to go on trying!) - - -Yet of all the senses none surely is so mysterious as that of smell. -For, as we have shown, the nature of the emanations that stir it to -activity is still unknown; the simple structure of its end-organ -confronts us, like a sphinx, with silence; and after the reception of -the stimulus in the olfactory lobe of the brain its further connections -and communications still remain unsurveyed, albeit, as I have already so -amply displayed, its effects upon the _psyche_ are both wide and deep, -at once obvious and subtle. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - DUST OF THE ROSE PETAL - - -By way of relief from the exacting mental strain of the last chapter, I -have thought that the reader who has got this length might be grateful -for something more simple, and so it is not altogether egotism that -leads me to finish up with a few of the olfactory pictures I cherish. - - -Before proceeding with the subject-matter proper of the chapter, -however, let me put in a plea for the conscious cultivation of the sense -of smell. But little more, I take it, is needed in this way than to pay -attention to the olfactory sensations that reach us, for the very fact -of taking note of them is sufficient probably to increase the power and -delicacy of olfaction, this being always the effect of the mental -process known as attention. - -Smell may thus be easily cultivated and improved, and with the increase -in its appreciation of the world comes an enriching of the other -sense-impressions that is quite surprising. - -It is possible that there is no substance in the natural world entirely -devoid of odour. At all events, after a time the amateur in smell may -find himself able, like Rousseau, to perceive perfumes when other people -do not notice any, and as a mark at which he can aim let it be said that -when he finds himself able to distinguish streets from each other by -their smell alone he has made some little progress in the art. - - -The innate acuteness of the sense varies widely in different people. -Some go through life blunt to all but the coarser smells, while others -are gifted with a sensitiveness as delicate almost as that of a -macrosmatic animal. This is scarcely an exaggeration. I am acquainted -with people—English people—who are able to recognise by olfaction not -only different races and the two sexes, but even different persons. One -of those sensitives informs me that to her the personal olfactory -atmosphere is every whit as characteristic and unmistakable as the play -of features or the carriage of the figure. - -Another remarkable feat within the capacity of human macrosmatics, and -one that seems almost incredible to the ordinary individual, is that of -being able to distinguish the clothing of different persons by its -aroma. Some can even recognise their own, a remarkable circumstance in -view of the almost universal rule that each is anosmic to his own -particular atmosphere. - -It is true that we can get on quite well without smelling. Probably -congenital anosmia is the least crippling of all sense-deprivations. But -how much it enters into our enjoyment of life when we have once -possessed it is shown by the blankness that attends its loss; we feel -then as if a tint had been bleached out of the world. - - -At this juncture we may stay a moment to allude to the action of tobacco -on olfaction. There are few people nowadays who would uphold King -Jamie’s “Counterblaste,” wherein he denounces smoking as— - - “a custome loathsome to the Eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to - the Braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the black stinking fume - thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit - that is bottomlesse.” - -But, in fact, regarding the influence of the tobacco-habit on the sense -there is a conflict of opinion. Some say it dulls olfaction; others, it -has no deleterious effect. My own experience would lead me to agree with -the former opinion. - - -We now proceed with our memories. - -Who does not become a boy again when the fragrance of a gardener’s -bonfire fills the air? In my own case when I smell it my eyes begin to -smart and to water, and I hear the laughter and shouts of my brothers -as, daring the wrath of Olympus, we leap over the blaze and land on the -white powdery ash that rises in clouds around us to the ruination of -boots and clothing. It is always evening, “’twixt the gloamin’ and the -mirk.” The moon, still golden, is hung low in the sky; the wind is sharp -with a touch of frost, but the glare and the glow of the embers reddens -and warms us—at least that part of us we turn to the fire. (Have you -ever felt the fierce pleasure of being at once scorched and frozen?) - -In those few country places in Scotland where the old Beltane fires of -midsummer or midwinter are still kindled, children are encouraged to -pass through the smoke, that being good for their health. The custom, -frankly pagan, is probably the maimed rite of a sacrifice of children to -the old gods. That may be quite true, and yet I concur in believing the -practice to be beneficial. At all events, the bonfires of so many years -ago have left with me a memory that has often recurred since, and always -with healing on its wings. - - -Again, the fainter, keener odour of burning pine-wood combined with the -fanning sensation on the face of the cold wind of the dawn always brings -back to me a summer morning at the Swiss frontier station of Pontarlier -after an evening when vin ordinaire had induced effects extraordinaire -upon a youth unaccustomed to that fiery beverage. Those, no doubt, were -the days when nothing mattered much. Nevertheless the fragrant coolness -of that morning after touches my aching brow to this day with the -soothing gentleness of a hand fraught with understanding and -forgiveness. - - -Then what sea-lover is there but responds to the salt pungency of -seaweed on an empty beach? - -It is an interesting fact that the smell of the sea may travel inland -for miles on a favouring breeze. With the south-west wind blowing moist, -I have in the heart of Lanarkshire repeatedly been stirred out of -everyday hebetude by the smell of the sea on the Ayrshire coast, some -thirty miles away. And Réné Bazin (in “Les Oberlé”) says you can even -smell it sometimes in Alsace, 250 miles from the Mediterranean. - -Once, indeed, at King’s Cross, London, I beheld monstrous -railway-stations and muddy streets, with their motor-’buses, dingy -wayfarers, yelling newsboys and all, melting away into the glimmer and -space of the sea in a sort of magical transformation, just as mist -low-lying in Russell Square will turn at times those garish hotels into -sea-girt palaces.... Only this time there was no mist. There was, -indeed, no need of mist. For the spell of power was a sudden whiff of -the sea from far across the bricks, slates, and sooty chimneys. - -But there is another sea-smell, equally powerful and much less romantic. -Can you endure the breath of hot oil and metal from the engines of a -steamer without a qualm? - - -If ever a boy has watched and helped the fishermen clean and tan their -nets, he will always after, as often as chance brings the smell to his -nostrils, revive again the pit in the ground and the gruff voices of the -heavy-booted men pulling the twisted net up and down, in and out. - - -Or the bean-flowers’ boon? - -This, as it happens, concerns also somebody else, but as she has long -since been lost in the crowd, I am not breaking any confidences in -recalling the scene. - -We are standing together beside the gate of a hill plantation, and I see -a tall lady’s delicately cut profile against the sombre green and brown -of the fir-trees. Although the flush of the sunset has almost entirely -faded from the sky, it seems to be lingering yet a while on her cheek as -if reluctant to leave her. As for me, I am as keen to every breath of -emotion as the little loch below is to the slightest stir of air. The -time is past for talk, and I am watching her in silence. So I see the -thin curved nostril dilate a little, at once to be quietly restrained, -as if even this little display of feeling on her part were out of -place,—and then I also turn to look at the butterfly bean-flowers in the -field at our feet. - -Now as often as the bean blooms, so does her memory. - - -How powerfully associations affect our olfactory likes and dislikes we -hinted on a former page, and in this matter of smell-memories we can -observe the same effect. Smells which to others seem offensive may, if -they arouse a pleasant memory, borrow from it a tinge that turns their -offence into a joy for ever. In my own case iodine and the rather -irritating odour of bleaching powder are always welcome and always -sweet. Yet they recall nothing more interesting than the days of -childhood to me! On the other hand, perfumes generally considered to be -pleasant will be objectionable to us if they arouse unhappy memories. - - -The most beautiful, however, are those which have been young with us, -and yet have never forsaken us, by continual refreshment keeping an -eternal youth. And of all the odours in life none surely is so rich both -in retrospect and in prospect as the smell of books to him who loves -them. The cosy invitation of a library! Not a public library, needless -to say, where the intimate appeal is lost in a jumble of smells—dust, -paste, ink and clammy overcoats. Such public mixtures the bookworm, that -solitary self-centred individual, must, by reason of his shyness, ever -consistently shun. But usher him into the private room of a private -house where books, many books, have reposed for many years. Then go away -and leave him to it. - -The smell of a room full of books is slow to form. Like the bouquet of -wine, it must ripen. You have to wait. But if you are able to wait, then -one fine day you will be welcomed there by the snuggest smell in all the -world, which, when once it comes, will for ever remain, like rooks in a -clump of elms. I know a few houses where this most seductive of all -perfumes has resided for untold years, and whence it will never depart -as long as our immemorial England endures. But alas! like most people, I -have only been a fleeting visitor to those nooks of enchantment, and -have had to wait myself not once, but many times, as often indeed as I -have shifted my roof-tree, for that ancient fusty atmosphere. There is, -I fear, no way of hastening the appearance of this beckoning finger to -oblivion. We need not linger over the analysis of this particular odour. -Book-lovers know it. Others don’t care. - -“You are a reader, I see,” said an observant doctor to me once. - -“How d’you know that?” I asked in surprise, as we had just met for the -first time. - -“I know it,” was his reply, “by the caressing way you took up that -book!” - -Your real bookworm loves all books. Like the modern genius, he is -amoral. But unlike the genius, his amorality, simple soul, is confined -within the four walls of a library. He could never, I am sure, bring -himself to agree with André Theuriet, who in “La Chanoinesse” depicts - - “les _Bijoux indiscrets_ auprès des œuvres de Duclos; _Candide_, - _Jacques la Fataliste_ et _le Sophia_ voisinant de _Restif de la - Brétonne_ à deux pas de _l’Emile_, et _les Aventures du Chevalier de - Faublas_—une nouveauté—non loin de _l’Histoire philosophique des - Indes_,” - -all of which books, by a kind of moral exercise of his imagination we -cannot sufficiently deplore, he found exhaling “une odeur de volupté -perverse, quelque chose comme le parfum aphrodisiac des seringes et des -tubereuses dans une chambre close.” - - -Every dwelling-house has its own peculiar atmosphere, sometimes -agreeable, sometimes not. But, whatever its quality, so characteristic -and persistent are some of them that I am sure a blind man would always -be able to tell them by the smell alone. Few of us may be gifted with -the analytical nose of a Charles Dickens to detect the ingredients that -make up a complex domiciliary atmosphere, but everybody must have -noticed that basement houses smell differently from bungalows, the -former greeting you with a harmonious blend of earthiness, soapsuds, and -sinks. - -Nay! The house you live in has a separate odour for each room: the -drawing-room with its chintzes; the snuggery with its stale tobacco, -and, perhaps, like an insinuating nudge, with a whiff of the stronger -alcohols; the bedrooms, if your housekeeper knows her business, with the -freshness of well-aired linen. - -The very days of the week have each its own particular olfactory mark, -dating from our childhood: Sundays (in Scotland), peppermint followed by -roast beef and richness; Mondays, pickles and soapsuds; Tuesday, the -damp airs from the washing hung up to dry; Wednesdays, warmth and -beeswax from the laundry, with ever and anon the thump of the flat iron; -Thursdays, bread new from the baker and the washing of floors with soft -soap—“Mind yer feet, now!”—Fridays, jam-boiling and the -never-to-be-forgotten aroma of oat-cakes on the girdle; Saturdays—but -Saturday is a day of wind and banging doors, of tops and dust; all its -smells are out of doors. - - -Shops, too! What of the coffee-shop?—Who does not pause a moment at that -door when the beans are roasting? One of the richest of all odours that; -curious how you lose it in the beverage! Then there is the ironmonger’s, -where the sharp smell of steel strikes, by some strange reflex, the -upper incisor teeth and gums; the oil and colour shop, with its putty, -turpentine, and general clamminess; and, last and best of all, the -druggist’s! - -What about the fried fish-shop? Faugh! I once for a reason connected -with my calling had cause to spend a whole night in a room above a -fish-shop—once only. The next time (there never will be a next time, she -swears, but there always is)—the next time I happened, curiously enough, -to arrive late! - -But although houses and rooms and, as we hinted, streets also, all smell -differently, each town and city has its own peculiar fundamental odour. -There is a town in Yorkshire that smells of “mungo.” I know another that -smells of mineral oil, and many that exhale the dank smell of the -coal-mine. - -London has a smell of its own, a fundamental familiar odour, which, by -the way, has changed of late. Twenty years ago it was faintly acid with -a background of horses and harness. To-day it is a mixture of tar and -burned lubricating oil, by no means so pleasant. In addition to these, -however, there is another and less prominent odour characteristic of the -London atmosphere, which I confess I cannot describe. - - “Once upon a time, some forty years ago, there lived at Highgate, - which then still retained some of the characters of a village, a - lady who declared that when a yellow fog drifted up from London she - could detect the smell of tobacco smoke in it. To most people the - odour is flatly that of coal smoke, which is perhaps always more or - less to be perceived in London air. This at any rate would seem to - have been the opinion of Edward Jenner, if we may trust a note made - by Farington in his diary for 1809, which is being printed in the - _Morning Post_. Farington’s note is as follows: - - “‘Dr. Jenner observed to Lawrence that He could by smelling at His - Handkerchief on going out of London ascertain when he came into an - atmosphere untainted by the London air. His method was to smell at - His Handkerchief occasionally, and while He continued within the - London atmosphere He could never be sensible of any taint upon it; - but, for instance, when He approached Blackheath and took His - Handkerchief out of His pocket where it had not been exposed to the - better air of that situation—His sense of smelling having become - more pure he could perceive the taint. His calculation was that the - air of London affected that in the vicinity to the distance of three - miles’” (_The Lancet_). - -Paris, in like manner, has its own peculiar aroma. Lord Frederick -Hamilton analyses it correctly into “one-half wood-smoke, one-quarter -roasting coffee, and one-quarter drains.” But for myself the Paris air -always brings a curious half-suppressed feeling of excitement, part of -it pleasure, part apprehension, as if something tremendous were about to -happen. But here perhaps we cross the border-line between conscious -sensation and subconscious stimulation. - -Rome is a city of candles and incense mingled with the dry mustiness of -crumbling skeletons. - -In Edinburgh you encounter here and there the smell of old Scotland. -Thatch enters into its make-up, why I cannot tell you. But the cold grey -metropolis still preserves the soul of the thatch, a cosy sensation that -is prone to bring tears to the eyes of the returning exile. - -In Glasgow damp soot struggles with the smell of the Bromielaw for the -mastery. - -Dublin mingles the warm, rich aroma of Guinness’s Brewery with the cold -smell of a corpse from the Liffey. - -Those are the cities I know best myself. But I have often been told, and -can quite believe it, that every city has its own particular atmosphere. - - -Some days, both in a city and in the country, are as rich and full of -odours as a Turner picture is rich and various in colour. Other days -bring us but a grey Whistlerian monotone, in which, nevertheless, the -trained sense delights to distinguish an infinity of tender shades, -unobserved by the casual. - - -I used to think that country smells were particularly dear to the -country-born only, and that their charm lay in their evocation of -childish memories. But that is not the whole of the story. They attract -us by their own inherent beauty. I have known town-bred lads linger -about a stable because the smell, I was told, was “so sweet.” And most -of us are, to be sure, sufficiently horsey to enjoy that smell of straw -and ammonia. We linger near it as bees haunt clover or cats valerian. -And we are all horse-lovers sitting behind a smart cob on a hot day when -the smell of the harness is mingling with the horse-odour. But these now -old-world odours are being every day more and more ousted by the less -pleasant smells of the motor-car, petrol, lubricating oil, and -acetylene—a pure stink this last. - - -But the farm is an olfactory museum, a library, a symphony! How warm and -comforting is the smell of a byre full of cows! Plunge into it from the -cool of the evening and listen again to the sudden swish of the warm -milk into the pail, the uncompleted low of the sober cattle and the -rattle of the chain as they turn to look at the new-comer. A gentle -relaxation of the spirit attends the visit like the relief of the limbs -from a cramped position, and we readily fall into that mood, so rare -these latter days, when attention disperses and the reins drop on the -neck of the mind so that it wanders on at its will up and down the lanes -and by-ways of fancy. These paths are dangerous, to be sure, leading as -they do to the Castle of Indolence, where you may dream your life away -and be none the wiser. - -Yet there must be many who have so wandered regardless, and have wakened -up too late to recapture the days they have lost in dreaming, if they -ever do want to recapture them, which is doubtful. If we really intended -happiness in life—as we do not; what we intend, and ensure, too, for -that matter, is excitement—but if we really intended happiness, here is -where we should find it, in and about a farmyard as hangers-on. Not as -the farmer, needless to say, to whose mind these olfactory stimuli are -stimulant, not anodyne. So that there can be no greater contrast than -that between him and us. Every one knows how the idler idling irritates -the worker working. And so we are brought back to reality all too soon -by the slap of fate, waking up from a bank of thyme and dreams to the -pavement of worry and hard work. - -But it is sweet while it lasts, and if you can acquire, or are lucky -enough to have been born with, pachydermia of the soul, then it may last -for a lifetime—unless, that is to say, fate, as aforesaid, in the shape -of the farmer, brings you back a-bump to earth with a clout on the side -of the head and an order to take the hook and cut down thistles. - -Stevenson has told us that idling is no loss of time. Perhaps not, if we -happen to be geniuses. But the mischief is that the rest of your family -deny (with oaths) the major premiss, and the prophet-without-honour -consolation prize is but a poor substitute for the loss of comfortable -eternities dozed away beside the lazy kine. - - -Some time in the ’eighties of last century a French professor (Jaccoud) -recommended the air of a byre as beneficial in phthisis. - -I have known worse cures. - - -Why do not the perfume-makers present us with more of these gateways to -Paradise, short cuts beside which De Quincey’s laudanum in the -waistcoat-pocket is but a by-path to hell? We might be given odours of -peace and contentment—think of them in the hands of a clever wife! We -might make libraries of them as people make libraries of gramophone -records. So far all we have are flower scents, like roses, lilies, -violets, and outlandish Eastern aromata, redolent rather of vice and its -excitements than of virtue and its placidity. - - -Then there is the scent of thyme and roses in the farm garden. This -brings to me old Sundays and ladies passing the open garden-gate on -their way to church, with their Bible carefully wrapped up in a clean -pocket-handkerchief, bearing with them also what somebody in Scotland -calls “the odour of sanctity”—peppermints, to wit—and all the time the -bees are humming in the warm air a deep note to the trills and runs of -the skylark lost in the blue. - -But I could wander on for an eternity with these smell memories and -pictures. One more, and I have done with the farm, and that is the cool -smell of the milk-house. It is dark there after the blaze outside, and -the stone flags strike cold to a boy’s bare feet wandering in from the -burning cobbles of the courtyard. As your eyes become accustomed to the -dimness you can see on the floor the wide, shallow milk coolers, silvery -as full moons in that twilight, the only light that enters coming -through the long slit of a narrow unglazed window where blistery leaves -of green docken, springing rank from the unkempt garden without, show a -splash of sunlight. The smell is sourish and cold, if we may speak, as I -think we may, of the temperature of a smell. This is forbidden land to -boys for obvious reasons, but so strong is the impression that I have -never forgotten my one and only visit to that secluded chamber. - - -What is it that gives to a dungeon its characteristic smell? Emphatic as -a blow. Obviously, we have here a combination of several sense -impressions, tactile, visual, olfactory: tactile, for the air is damp -and chilly; visual, for it is a blank, a negative, and yet a powerful -influence; olfactory, smelling ominous and of death. Old dried bones -emit precisely the same exhalation. In a subtle way, too, the presence -of mould is perceptible, all blending into the horrible and grisly -atmosphere of despair; the Valse Triste and the Dance of Death. - -Smell can bring as certainly and as irresistibly as music emotions of -all sorts to the mind. - -In this same category we may place the dusty smell of a dry hay-loft, -which is curiously like that of bitter almonds and hydrocyanic acid. It -has a sensation like ghostly fingers fumbling about your neck with a -threat, half playful, half serious, of suffocation. And, curiously -enough, the mental feeling of throttling fingers is not amiss. Prussic -acid kills by paralysing the respiratory centres. - - -Let us get out into fresh air again! The sun is shining. A gentle breeze -from the west is snowing the lawn with fragrant hawthorn blossoms. I -catch a whiff of delicate lilac, and see coming towards me over the -grass a slender figure in white.... - -And so we close with the perfumes of the spring, sunshine, and beauty. - - - - - ACKNOWLEDGMENTS - - -The impulse of which this study of olfaction is the outcome emanated -from Sir St. Clair Thomson, who three years ago handed me for my -edification and growth in knowledge the _Essai d’Olfactique -Physiologique_, a _Thèse de Bruxelles_, by _A. Heyninx_, dated 1919. - -In addition to that work the following have been utilised, for the -scientific side of the subject at all events:— - - _Poncelet, P. P._ Chimie du Goût et de l’Odorat, etc. Paris. 1755. - - _Parker, G. H._ Smell, Taste, and Allied Senses in the Vertebrates. - n.d. - - _Deite, C._ Manual of Toilet Soap-Making. Eng. Trans., 2nd ed. London. - 1921. - - _Ogle, Wm._ Medico-Chir. Trans., Vol. LIII., p. 263. - - _Bonvier, E. L._ The Psychic Life of Insects. Eng. Trans. London. - 1922. - -In Heyninx’s book there is a good bibliography, but the English reader -will find an excellent _résumé_ of recent scientific literature in -_Osmics_, by Mr. J. H. Kenneth, published by Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh. - -It is impossible in the space at my disposal to print a bibliography -dealing with the historical aspect of olfaction. - -In addition to my debt to books, I am also under deep obligation to Dr. -Wyatt Wingrave, Dr. Arnold Renshaw, Mr. Archer Ryland, Mr. F. W. -Watkyn-Thomas, and Mr. T. H. Fairbrother, for many valuable hints and -criticisms, as well as for much useful information, and I take this -opportunity of offering my thanks to them for their kind interest. - - - - - INDEX - - - Acetone poisoning, Odour of, 84 - - Adsorption of odours, 113 - - Æneid, The, Odour in, 72 - - Albinos, Anosmia of, 116, 126 - - Alcoholism, Odour of, 84 - - Alexander the Great, 77 - - Ambergris, 106 - - Ammonia, 94 - - Animals, Lower, Olfaction in, 21 - - Aniseed, 71 - - Anosmia, 23, 115, 142 - - Anti-demoniac treatment by fumigation, 67 - - Ants, Olfaction in, 28 - - Apoplectick, Balsam of Horstius, 69 - - Aromatics, The, 119 - - Asthma from horses, 93 - - Asafœtida, 71 - - Aura, Olfactory, 91 - - - Bacon, Francis, 84 - - Badger, Olfaction in, 37 - - Bat and sound-pictures, 32 - - Bath, The domestic, 18 - - Baudelaire, 51 - - Bay, 73 - - Bazin, Réné, 144 - - Bean-flowers, Fragrance of, 145 - - Beltane fires, 143 - - Bolboceros beetle, 37 - - Books, Smell of, 146 - - Brain, Olfactory Routes in, Unknown, 136 - - Brewer, Anthony, 53 - - Browning, Robert, 71 - - Burton, Robert, 78 - - - Cairo, Cholera in, 68 - - Camphor as disinfectant, 70 - - Carminatives, 71 - - Castelli’s theory of vision, 127 - - Cats, Aversion towards, 92 - - Cities and towns, Smells of, 150 - - Civet, 106 - - Collins, Wilkie, 47 - - Colosseum, Perfumes in the, 56 - - Coumarin, 105 - - Creighton, 84 - - Crowd-psychology and Odour, 97 - - - Death, Odour of, 84 - - Deite, 104, 117 - - Devil, Odour of the, 63, 73 - - Dickens, Charles, 54, 148 - - Disease, Epidemic, and Stenches, 5, 66 - Odours of, 83 - - Disraeli, Benj., 12 - - Dog, The, and the Abominable, 80 - Olfaction in the, 34, 87 - truffle-hunter, the, 34 - - Dostoievsky, 56 - - Dwelling-houses, Odours of, 148 - - - Eau de Cologne, 57 - - Einstein and the ether, 138 - - Ellis, Havelock, 86, 87, 96 - - Equilibration, Vocabulary of, 59 - - - Fabre, 25, 29, 36, 92 - Olfaction in dogs, 36 - insects, 25 - on nature of odour, 38 - - Fairbrother, T. H., 120, 132 - - Farington’s Diary, 151 - - Farm, Smells of, 153 - - Favus, Smell of, 84 - - Fischer and Penzoldt, 108 - - Fish, Olfaction in, 32 - - Flavour an odour, 43, 114 - - Flavours, High, 82 - compounding of, 101 - - Flowers, Perfumes of, Diffusion of, after rain, 112 - and insects, 28 - - Folk-lore, Smell in, 66 - - Forel, Olfaction in insects, 25, 30 - - Fumigation, treatment by, 66 - for cholera, in modern times, 68 - - - Garlic, 45, 57 - - Geraniol, 105 - - Gladstone, W. E., 90 - - Goethe, 95 - - Gordon, Douglas, and olfaction in badger, 37 - - - Hæmorrhage, Odour of, 83 - - Hamilton, Lord Frederick, 151 - - Harte, Bret, 51 - - Hay fever, 93 - - Head, Henry, 130 - - Health, Public, and Olfaction, 1 - - Hearing, End organ of, 98 - Exhaustion of, 17 - Vocabulary of, 60 - - Hell, Odour of, 73 - - Henning, 119 - - Heyninx, 110, 119 - Classification of odours, 103, 124 - Undulatory theory of odour, 121 - - History, Smell in, 77 - - Hogarth, 70 - - Holmes, Oliver Wendell, and Olfactory memory, 51 - - Homer, 73 - - Homing instinct, 30 - - Hospitals of olden days, of, 83 - - Humboldt, 64 - - Hutchison, 116 - - Hydrocyanic acid, 119, 131, 157 - - Hysteria, Treatment of, by stenches, 71 - - - Incense, 51, 53, 56, 68, 72 - - Incubus repelled by aromatics, 74 - - Industries, Malodorous, 14 - - Infra-red light rays, 122, 129 - absorption by odorous vapours, 131 - - Insects, Olfaction in, 25 - and hygiene, 29 - - Iodoform, 16, 103, 129, 131 - - Ireland, Odours in, 3, 152 - - - James I., “Counterblaste,” 142 - - Jenner, Edward, 151 - - - Kipling, Rudyard, 55 - - - Lavender, English, 106 - - Lodge, Sir Oliver, 121 - - London, Smells of, 150 - - Louis XI., 78 - - Louis XIV., 77 - - Love and Olfaction, 85 - - Lubbock, Sir John, 25, 30 - - - Macrosmatic animals, 22 - - Memory, Olfactory, 43 - Strengthening of, by Odours, 53, 69, 70 - - Mercaptan, 39 - - Meredith, George, 89 - - Microsmatic animals, 22 - - Mignonette, 105 - - Molecular structure of odorous bodies, 117 - - Molecules, Vibration of, 121 - - Montaigne, 53 - - Moths, Olfaction in, 25 - - Mummification by aromatics, 67 - - Musk, 28, 75, 104, 106, 107, 109, 110, 117 - - - Nauseous remedies, 70 - - Nephritis, Acute, Smell of, 83 - - Nerve, Fifth Cranial, 94 - Olfactory, 23 - - Nitrobenzol, 119 - - Nose, Olfactory Region of, 114 - Pigment in, 116 - - - Odericus Vitalis, 76 - - Odours, Clashing of, 129 - Classifications of, 102 - Clinging of, 113 - Concentrated, Anosmia for, 110 - Diffusion of, 39, 108, 112 - Effect of cold on, 112 - of Disease, 83 - Harmony between, 129 - Identification of, 65 - Nature of, 38, 98 _et seq._ - Novel, 101 - Personal, 76 - Physical theory of, 42, 116 - of poisonous herbs, 126 - Recollection of, 47 - Repulsive, 79 - in water, 33 - Theories of, 98 - Chemical, 116, 132 - Undulatory theory of, 42, 116, 120 - Criticism of, 129 - Varieties of, 100 - - Ogle, 116 - - Olfaction. _See also_ SMELL. - Allusions to, in literature, 51 _et seq._ - and digestion, 136 - a primitive sense, 21 - Evolution of, 21 - in fish, 33 - in insects, 25 - in the lower animals, 21 - in the sex-life, 85 - Theories of, 98 _et seq._ - and ventilation, 17, 109 - - Olfactory cells, 23 - hairs, 23, 121 - memory, 43 - organ, 23 - of insects, 28 - pictures, 140 _et seq._ - pigment, 24, 116, 125 - region of nose, 114 - - Onions, effect of, 94 f.n. - - Orientation. _See_ Homing Instinct. - - - Paracelsus, 70 - - Paris, Smell of, 151 - - Parker, G. H., 100, 104, 108 - - Pawlow, 136 - - Peppermint, 71 - - Perfumes, Classification of, 103 - New varieties of, 107 - Sources of, 105 - - Pigment, Olfactory, 24, 125 - - Pinewood, Odour of burning, 143 - - Plague, Sweet smell of, 84 - - Poncelet, P. P., 59 - - - Queen Elizabeth, 3 - - - Reality, Objective, 137 - - Religion, Smell in, 72 - - Remedies, Nauseous, 70 - Olfactory, 66 - - Rheumatism, Acute, Acid smell of, 83 - - Ribot and olfactory memory, 48, 50 - - Rimmel, Classification of odours, 103 - - Roberts, Lord, and cats, 92 - - Rohmer, Sax, 74 - - Rose perfume, 57, 105 - and exhaustion, 16 - - Roses, Attar of, 105 - - Rousseau, 100, 141 - - - Sacrifice, Savour of, 72 - - Saints, Odour of the, 74 - - Saintsbury, George, 103 - - Salerno, Teaching of, on garlic, 47 - - Salmon’s Dispensatory, Fumigation in, 68 - - Sandal-wood, 113 - - Scatol, 16, 80 - - Scott, Sir Walter, 67 - - Sea, Smell of, 144 - - Sea-anemone, Olfactory cells of, 24 - - Sensation, Nature of, 134 - Tactile. _See_ Touch. - - Sensory end-organ, Specific reaction of, 130 - - Shakespeare, 52, 86–89 - - Shelley, 47 - - Shops, Smell of, 149 - - Sinistrari of Ameno, 74 - - Sins, Odour of the, 74 - - Small-pox, Smell of, 83 - - Smell and the Emotions, 91, 95, 142 _et seq._ - in Folk-Lore, Religion, and History, 66 - and the Personality, 74, 87, 141 - Exhaustibility of, 15, 133 - Sensation of, 134 - Sense of, Acuteness of, in man, 141 - Cultivation of, 140 - in old age, 82, 126 - in uncivilised man, 64 - mystery of, 139 - Reaction-time of, 111 - Sense Organ of, 23, 101, 107 - Delicacy of, 107 - Potential responsiveness of, 101 - and Speech, 59 - Subtlety of, in man, 44, 56 - Vocabulary of, Emotional, 61 - Etymology of, 61 _et seq._ - - Smith, Elliot, 72 - - Spectrum analysis of odours, 123 - - Speech and smell, 59 - - Spiders, Aversion towards, 92 - - Stenches a nuisance in law, 12 - in Cologne, 8 - in the East, 10 - in Edinburgh, 11 - in France, 9 - in London, 11, 13 - in Lucerne, 8 - Industrial, 14 - - Subconsciousness, Smell and the, 44, 56, 64, 65, 79, 91, 95, 139 - - Sulphur compounds, Organic, 15 - - - Taste and smell contrasted, 43 - Exhaustion of, 17 - Vocabulary of, 60 - - Tasting wine with closed eyes, 115 - - Terminology, Olfactory, Scanty, 59 _et seq._ - - Theatre, The, Perfumes in, 56 - - Theuriet, André, 148 - - Tobacco, Effect of, on olfactory sense, 142 - - Touch, Vocabulary of, 60 - - Truffle-hunter, The, 36 - - Tyndall, 130 - - Typhus fever, Odour of, 83 - - - Ultra-violet light rays, 122 - absorbed by odorous bodies, 122 - - Unconscious, The. _See_ Subconsciousness. - - - Valerian, 71, 115 - - Vanillin, 39 - - Ventilation and sense of smell, 17, 109 - - Vervain, 80 - - Violets, 110 - - Vision, End organ of, 98 - Vocabulary of, 59 - - Vocabulary of Smell, Scanty, 59 _et seq._ - - Volatility and odours, 113 - - - Walking-stick, Medical, 70 - - Watkyn-Thomas, F. W., 53 - - Wilkes, John, 90 - - Whitman, Walt, 77 - - - Zebethum occidentale, 71 - - Zwaardemaker, 114 - Classification of odours, 102 - Olfactometer, 107 - - - PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE WHITEFRIARS PRESS, LTD., LONDON AND - TONBRIDGE. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES - - - 1. Silently corrected typographical errors. - 2. All spelling errors were left uncorrected. - 3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers. - 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. - 5. 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- border:1px solid silver; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; font-family: Georgia, serif; - } - .covernote { visibility: hidden; display: none; } - div.tnotes p { text-align:left; } - @media handheld { .covernote { visibility: visible; display: block;} } - blockquote {margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0em; - margin-right: 0em; font-size: .9em; } - .section { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } - .ol_1 li {font-size: .9em; } - @media handheld {.ol_1 li {padding-left: 1em; text-indent: 0em; } } - body {font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: justify; } - table {font-size: .9em; } - .footnote {font-size: .9em; } - div.footnote p {text-indent: 2em; margin-bottom: .5em; } - div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; } - div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } - .ph1 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; - margin: .67em auto; page-break-before: always; } - .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; - page-break-before: always; } - .bbox {border-style: solid; border-width: medium; padding: 1em; margin: 0em; - max-width: 50%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } - </style> - </head> - <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Aromatics and the Soul, by Dan McKenzie - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Aromatics and the Soul - A Study of Smells - -Author: Dan McKenzie - -Release Date: October 28, 2019 [EBook #60584] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AROMATICS AND THE SOUL *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, ellinora, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class='tnotes covernote'> - -<p class='c000'><b>Transcriber’s Note:</b></p> - -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class='section ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>AROMATICS AND THE SOUL</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='bbox'> - -<div class='section ph2'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>DISEASES OF</div> - <div>THE THROAT, NOSE,</div> - <div>AND EAR</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<p class='c003'>By <span class='sc'>Dan McKenzie</span>, M.D., -F.R.C.S.E. Royal 8vo. 650 -pages. 2 Coloured Plates and -198 Illustrations. <b>42s.</b> net.</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c004'><cite>Times Literary Supplement.</cite>—“There is -probably no better book on this branch of -medicine and surgery in existence.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c005'> - <div>LONDON</div> - <div>WILLIAM HEINEMANN</div> - <div>(MEDICAL BOOKS) LTD.</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='titlepage'> - -<div> - <h1 class='c006'>AROMATICS AND THE SOUL<br /> <span class='large'>A STUDY OF SMELLS</span></h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c007'> - <div><span class='small'>BY</span></div> - <div><span class='xlarge'>DAN McKENZIE, M.D. (<span class='sc'>Glasg.</span>)</span></div> - <div><span class='small'>FELLOW OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, EDINBURGH</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Natura rerum quae sit odoribus intenta sunt....</span>”</div> - <div class='line in14'><cite>Q. Horatii Flacci Carminum</cite>, Lib. V.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“There are whose study is of smells”</div> - <div class='line in17'><cite>R. Kipling’s version of the same</cite></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='figcenter id001'> -<img src='images/i_title.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div><span class='large'>LONDON</span></div> - <div><span class='xlarge'>WILLIAM HEINEMANN</span></div> - <div><span class='large'>(MEDICAL BOOKS) LTD.</span></div> - <div><span class='large'>1923</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>INSCRIBED TO</div> - <div class='c009'><span class='sc'>Dr.</span> V. H. WYATT WINGRAVE</div> - <div class='c009'>IN ADMIRATION</div> - <div class='c009'>OF</div> - <div class='c009'>AN INDOMITABLE SPIRIT</div> - <div class='c007'><em>Printed in Great Britain.</em></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> - <h2 class='c010'>PREFACE</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Having, as I thought, completed this book—bar -the Preface, which is, of course, always the -last chapter—I sent it in manuscript to an old -friend of mine for his opinion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He let me have it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Your brochure,” he wrote, “is remarkable -more perhaps for what it omits than for what it -contains. For example, there is no mention -whatever made of the <em>vomero-nasal organ, or organ -of Jacobson</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Then, after drastically sweeping away the much -that seems to him redundant in the body of the -work, he closes his general criticism (which I -omit) with “I should like to have heard your -views on the vomero-nasal organ. Parker devotes -a whole chapter to it.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>A carpenter, according to the adage, is known -by his chips. And it was by the simple removal -of some superfluous marble, as everyone knows, -that the Venus of Milo was revealed to the world—which -is only another way of saying the same -thing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But what sort of a carpenter is he who leaves -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>among his chips the mouldings of his door? -And what should we say of the sculptor, even in -these days, who would treat as a superfluity his -lady’s chin?</p> - -<p class='c012'>No mention of the vomero-nasal or Jacobson’s -organ! A serious, nay! a damning, defect.</p> - -<p class='c012'>So here am I trying to atone for the sin of -omission by giving the neglected item place of -honour in my Preface. “The stone which the -builders rejected....”</p> - -<p class='c012'>But my motive for erecting it here, in the gateway -to my little pagoda of the perfumes, is not -quite so simple as I am pretending. The fact is -that in my capacity as creator I predetermined, I -actually foredained, the omission from my text of -the structure to which “Parker devotes a whole -chapter.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>I am sorry in some ways. But as the Aberdeen -minister so consolingly said: “There are many -things the Creator does in His offeecial capacity -that He would scorn to do as a private indiveedual.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>You see, I had a feeling about it. One of those -feelings artists are subject to. (But a scientific -writer an artist?—Certainly! Why not?)</p> - -<p class='c012'>I felt, to be quite frank, that if I were to interpolate -a description and a discussion of this -<em>minutia</em> my book would ... would.... Quite -so. The artist will understand.</p> - -<p class='c012'>I came, in short, to look upon this “organ,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>this nose within a nose, as a touchstone, so to -speak. The thing became a Symbol.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But here we plunge head over heels into the -Subjective, on the other side of which stream lie -the misty shades of the Occult. For that is what -happens to you when you begin talking about -Symbols.</p> - -<p class='c012'>However, we shall not be crossing to the other -side on this occasion, my symbolism being after -all but a humdrum affair.—Merely this, that to -me this organ of Jacobson is the symbol of the -Exhaustive—of the minute, punctilious, unwearying, -laboured comprehensiveness, Teutonic in its -over and under and through, that characterises -the genuine, the reliable, scientific treatise and -renders it so desperately full of interest—to -examinees.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Imagine, if you can, the indignation of kindly -Sir Walter were the news ever to reach him in -Valhalla that urchins now at school are not only -forced to study his light-hearted romances as -holiday tasks, but are actually examined upon -them!</p> - -<p class='c012'>So, comparing small things with great, let me -say: “<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Absit omen</span></i>.”</p> - -<p class='c011'>My faith in the spoken charm of that phrase is, -however, none too robust. Heaven helps the -man who helps himself. And so, by way of reinforcing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>the Powers in their efforts to divert professorial -attention from this essay of mine, I am -leaving it, by a careful act of carelessness, incomplete.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Here, then, you have the real reason for my -exclusion of the organ of Jacobson (and the like). -It is merely a dodge to prevent the book ever -becoming a task in any way, for any one, at any -time.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He who runs may read herein, then, without -slackening pace—or he may refrain from reading, -just as he pleases, seeing that he can never be -under the compulsion of remembering a single -word I have written.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This, if I may say so, is, in my opinion, the only -kind of book worth reading. At all events, it is -the only kind I ever enjoy reading, and I say -if a book is not enjoyable it is already placed upon -the only Index Expurgatorius that is worth -a ... an anathema.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>D. M.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span> - <h2 class='c010'>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary=''> - <tr> - <th class='c013'><span class='small'>CHAP.</span></th> - <th class='c014'> </th> - <th class='c015'><span class='small'>PAGE</span></th> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'> </td> - <td class='c014'>PREFACE</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_v'>v</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>I.</td> - <td class='c014'>OLFACTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>II.</td> - <td class='c014'>THE SENSE OF OLFACTION IN LOWER ANIMALS</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>III.</td> - <td class='c014'>OLFACTORY MEMORY</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_43'>43</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>IV.</td> - <td class='c014'>SMELL AND SPEECH</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>V.</td> - <td class='c014'>SMELL IN FOLK-LORE, RELIGION, AND HISTORY</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>VI.</td> - <td class='c014'>THE ULTIMATE</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>VII.</td> - <td class='c014'>SMELL AND THE PERSONALITY</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>VIII.</td> - <td class='c014'>THEORIES OF OLFACTION</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_98'>98</a></td> - </tr> - <tr><td> </td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='c013'>IX.</td> - <td class='c014'>DUST OF THE ROSE PETAL</td> - <td class='c015'><a href='#Page_140'>140</a></td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='section ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c001'> - <div>AROMATICS AND THE SOUL</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER 1<br /> <span class='large'>OLFACTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>I sing of smells, of scents, perfumes, odours, -whiffs and niffs; of aromas, bouquets and -fragrances; and also, though temperately and -restrainedly I promise you, of effluvia, reeks, -fœtors, stenches, and stinks.</p> - -<p class='c011'>A few years ago I stood before the public -singing another song. By no means a service of -praise it was, but something of the order of a -denunciatory psalm, wherein I invoked the wrath -of the high gods upon such miscreants as make life -hideous with din.</p> - -<p class='c012'>You must not think that imprecations cannot be -sung. All emotional utterance is song, said -Carlyle; only he said it not quite so briefly. And, -leaving on one side the vituperations of his enemies -by King David (if he it was who wrote the Psalms) -which we still chant upon certain days of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>Christian year, it may be remembered that in -bygone times when the medical practitioner was a -wizard (or a witch) and uttered his (or her) spell -to stay the arrows of Apollo, it not infrequently -contained a denunciation of some brother (or -sister) practitioner of the art (how times are -changed!), and it was known, in Rome at all events, -as a <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">carmen</span></i>, a song. Hence, say the etymologists, -the English word “charm,” which still, of course, -characterises the modern witch, if not the modern -wizard—neither of whom, we may add, is nowadays -a medical practitioner.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Besides, denunciations are, of course, grunted -and growled with more or less of a semblance of -singing in modern opera. To substantiate my -words I need only mention that interminable -scene—or is it an act?—of gloom and evil plottings -by Telramund and Ortrud in <cite>Lohengrin</cite>.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But if I am again singing, this time, I trust, my -voice will sound in the ears of my hearers less -shrill, less strident, less of a shriek. For, in sooth, -the present theme is one upon which we are justly -entitled, in so far as England and Scotland at all -events are concerned, to raise what would be a -<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Nunc Dimittis</span></i> of praise and thanksgiving, were it -not that the price of cleanly air like that of liberty -is eternal vigilance, seeing that our nostrils are no -longer offended by the stenches our forefathers -had to put up with. That they endured such -<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>offences philosophically, cheerfully even, laughing -at the unpleasantness as men do at a bad smell, is -true. Nevertheless most people in those days -probably felt as much objection to a vile odour as -Queen Elizabeth, for example, did, the sharpness -of whose nose, her biographers tell us, was only -equalled by the sharpness of her tongue.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Irishmen who do me the honour of tasting this -light omelette of scientific literature will have -noticed, I am sure, that I have not included the -sister isle in my olfactory paradise. And indeed, I -hesitated long before passing it over, because I am -a man of peace—at any price where the Land of -Ire is concerned. But alas! I am by nature -truthful and only by art mendacious. And there -sticks horrible to my memory the fumous and -steamy stench of parboiled cabbage that filled the -restaurant-car of the train for Belfast—yes! -Belfast, not Dublin—one evening as I landed at -Kingstown. The sea had been—well! it was -the Irish Sea, and I stepped on to the train straight -from the mail-boat, so that ... in a word, I -remember that luscious but washy odour too -vividly to bestow upon Ireland the white flower -of a stenchless life.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In these remarks I have been careful to observe -that the train was not the Dublin train, but if any -one feels moved to defend the capital city, let him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>first of all take a stroll down by the Liffey as it -flows fermenting and bubbling under its bridges, -and then ... if he can....</p> - -<p class='c012'>Let me, however, in justice to that grief-stricken -country, spray a little perfume over my too -pungent observations. I can also recall after many -years a warm and balmy evening in the town of -Killarney, the peaceful close to a day of torrential -rain. The setting sun, glowing love through its -tears, was reddening the sky and the dark green -hills around, those hills of Ireland where surely, -if anywhere on this earth, heaven is foreshadowed. -And linked in memory with that evening’s glory -there comes, like the gentle strain of a long-forgotten -song, the rich, pungent smell of turf-smoke -eddying blue from low chimneys into the -soft air of the twilight. Ireland! Ireland! -What an atmosphere of love and grief that name -calls up! Surely the surf that beats upon the -strands of Innisfail far away is more salt, more -bitter, and perhaps for that very reason more -sweet, than the waters of any of the other beaches -that ocean bathes!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thence also comes a memory of heliotrope. It -grew by a cottage just beyond a grey granite -fishing-harbour in Dublin Bay, and brings also, -with its faint, ineffable fragrance, the same -inseparable blending of emotions that clings, itself -a never-dying odour, to the memory of holidays -<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>in Ireland. There is a phrase in a song, simple, -sentimental, even silly if you like, that prays for -“the peace of mind dearer than all.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“But what,” I remember asking the mother of -our party—“what is meant by ‘peace of mind’?” -Her wistful smile seemed to me to be a very -inadequate reply to my question—which, by the -way, I am still asking.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is an historical fact that the movement which -rendered England the pioneer country in the -matter of Public Health received its first impulse -from, and even now owes its continued existence -to, the simple accident that the English public -has grown intolerant of over-obtrusive odours. -Stenches have attained to the dignity of a legal -topic of interest, and are now by Act of Parliament -become “nuisances” in law as well as in nature, -with the result that they have been, for the most -part, banished from the face of the land and the -noses of its inhabitants.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The reason assigned by the man in the street -for this reform was, and indeed still is, that -stenches breed epidemic diseases. In a noisome -smell people imagine a deadly pestilence, probably -because patients affected with such epidemic -diseases as smallpox, typhus, and diphtheria, give -off nauseating odours. Now, bad smells from -drains and cesspools do not of themselves induce -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>epidemic disease. Nevertheless, there is this -much of truth in the superstition, that where you -have bad smells you have also surface accumulations -of filth, and these, soaking through soil and -subsoil, contaminate surface wells, until it only -requires the advent of a typhoid or other “carrier” -to set a widespread epidemic a-going. Further, as -recent investigators have shown us, the loathsome -and deadly typhus fever, known for years to be a -“filth-disease,” is carried by lice, which pests -breed and flourish where bodily cleanliness is -neglected and personal odours are strong.</p> - -<p class='c012'>So that in this, as in most superstitions, there is -a substratum of truth.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But the point is, that the objection to bad smells -preceded all those scientific discoveries and had, -in the beginning, but a slender support from -rationalism. Our forebears builded better than -they knew. Their objection was in reality -intuitive. It may be true that all nations occupying -a corresponding level of civilisation will -manifest the same instinctive abhorrences, but it -has been left to the practical genius of the English -race to give effect to the natural repugnance and -to translate its urgings into practice.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The interesting question now arises: How and -when did this intuition or instinct, this blind -feeling, arise, and what transformed it from a mere -individual objection, voiced here and there, to a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>mass-movement leading to a general popular -reformation?</p> - -<p class='c012'>The first explanation that is likely to occur to -us is, that it was due to the refinement of feeling -that accompanies high civilisation operating in a -community quick to respond and to react when a -public benefit is anticipated. One of the results -of culture is an increase in the delicacy of the -senses. When men and women strive after refinement, -they achieve it, becoming refined, in spite -of what pessimists and so-called realists preach, -not only in their outward behaviour, but also in -their innermost thoughts and feelings, and this -internal refinement implies among other things a -quickening of the sense of disgust. There is -naturally a close and intimate connection between -the sense of smell and the nerve-centres which, -when stimulated, evoke the feeling of nausea in -the mind—and the bodily acts that follow it. We -are here dealing, in fact, with a primitive protective -impulse to ensure that evil-smelling things shall -not be swallowed, and the means adopted by -Nature to prevent that ingestion, or, if it has -accidentally occurred, to reverse it, are prompt. -And successful. There is no compromise with -the evil thing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Like all other nerve-reactions, this particular -reflex can be educated: either up or down. It -can be blunted and degraded, or it can be rendered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>more acute, more prompt to react. Now, one of -the effects of civilised life, of town life, is to -abbreviate the period of all reflex action. And if -this applies to knee-jerks and to seeing jokes, it is -even more noticeable in the particular reflex we -are here considering.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A citizen of Cologne in Coleridge’s days, for -example, must have been anosmic to most of -the seven-and-twenty stenches that offended the -Englishman, and in my own time I have counted -as many as ten objectionable public perfumes, -yea! even in Lucerne, the “Lovely Lucerne” of -the railway posters. Several of these, perhaps, -did not amount to more than a mere whiff, just -the suspicion of a something unpleasant, no more -(but no less) disturbing than, say, one note a semitone -flat in a major chord; two or three of them, -however, to the sensitive, thin-winged organ of an -English school-ma’am, would have attained to the -rank of a “smell,” a word on her lips as emphatic -as an oath on yours or mine; four of them, at -the least, were plain stenches, and so beyond -<em>her</em> vocabulary altogether; and one was—well! -beyond even mine, but only too eloquent itself of -something ugly and bloated, some mess becoming -aerial just round the corner. I did not turn that -corner.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now, the people of Lucerne could never have -smelled them, or at all events they could never -<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>have appreciated those perfumes as I did, or the -town would have been evacuated. Their olfactory -sense compared with mine must have been a -stupid thing, dense to begin with, and cudgelled -by use and wont into blank insensibility. Because, -it is obvious, delicacy in this, as in all the senses, -can only be acquired by avoiding habitual overstimulation. -And that avoidance is only possible -in a country where odours are fine, etherealised, -rare.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Even in France, France the enlightened, the -sensitive, the refined, primitive odours pervade -the country, as our Army knows very well. Not -only is the farm dunghill given place of honour in -the farm courtyard, close to doors and windows, -but even in the mansions of the wealthy the cesspool -still remains—not outside, but inside, the -house, the water-carriage system, even the pail-system -(if that can be called a system), being -unknown. So that our Army authorities had to -send round a peculiar petrol-engine, known to the -Tommies as “Stinking Willie,” to empty those -pools of corruption. Some of the monasteries -used by us as hospitals were, at the beginning of -the war, even worse.</p> - -<p class='c012'>From this we may surmise that the olfactory -sense of our neighbours is not yet so sensitive as -is ours.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>But in this matter Western Europe, at its -worst—say, in one of the corridor-trains to Marseilles—is -a mountain-top to a pigstye compared -with the old and gorgeous East. “The East,” -ejaculated an old Scotsman once—“the East is -just a smell! It begins at Port Said and disna stop -till ye come to San Francisco, ... if there!” he -added after a pause. From his sweeping condemnation -we must, however, exempt Japan.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Who can ever forget the bazaar smells of India, -the mingled must and fust with its background of -garlic and strange vices, or the still more mysterious -atmospheres of China with their deep suggestion -of musk?</p> - -<p class='c012'>Naturally the air of a cold country is clearer of -obnoxious vapours than that of tropical and subtropical -climes, but in spite of that, the first whiff -of a Tibetan monastery, like that of an Eskimo hut, -grips the throat, they say, like the air over a brewing -vat.</p> - -<p class='c012'>So that, after making every allowance for the -favour of Nature, we are still entitled to claim that -the relative purity of England, and of English -cities, towns and even villages, is an artificial -achievement.</p> - -<p class='c012'>I may therefore, with justice, raise a song of -praise to our fathers who have had our country -thus swept and garnished, swept of noxious -vapours and emanations, and garnished with the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>perfume of pure and fresh air, to the delight and -invigoration of our souls.</p> - -<p class='c012'>And yet the change has only recently been -brought about. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth -century the city of London</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c016'>“was certainly as foul as could be. The streets were -unpaved or paved only with rough cobble stones. There -were no side walks. The houses projected over the roadway, -and were unprovided with rain-water gutters, and during a -shower rain fell from the roofs into the middle of the street. -These streets were filthy from constant contributions of -slops and ordure from animals and human beings. There -were no underground drains, and the soil of the town was -soaked with the filth of centuries. This sodden condition of -the soil must have affected the wells to a greater or less -extent.” (“London, Sanitary and Medical,” by G. V. -Poore. 1889.)</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>Moreover, the nineteenth century was well on -its way before the last of the private cesspools -disappeared from the dwelling-houses of London.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Edinburgh during the Middle Ages was, we are -told, fresher and cleaner upon its wind-swept -ridge than London, but with the erection of lofty -houses in the High Street and Haymarket of the -northern capital its atmosphere became much -worse than that of London. The reason for this -was that while the London houses remained low, -and the population therefore, for a city, widely -distributed, in those of Edinburgh, on the other -hand, a large community of all classes of society -was concentrated, from the noble lord and lady -<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>to the beggarly caddie and quean. And the -whole stew was quite innocent of what we call -drainage. Quite. Yet the waste-products of life, -the lees and offscourings of humanity, all that -housemaids call “slops,” had to be got rid of. -Very simple problem this to our worthy Edinburgh -forefathers. After dark the windows up in these -“lands” were thrust open, and with a shrill cry -of “Gardy-loo” (<em>Gardez l’eau</em>) the cascade of -swipes and worse fell into the street below with a -splash and an od—. “Ha! ha!” laughed Dr. -Johnson to little Boswell; “I can smell you there -in the dark!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The hygienic reformation of Britain, although -adumbrated by sundry laws made at intervals from -the fifteenth century onwards, was not seriously -taken in hand until as late as the sixties of last -century, and Disraeli’s famous Act defining a bad -smell as a “nuisance” became law in 1875.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But although we may justly congratulate ourselves -upon the hygienic achievements of England, -one result of which has been the minimising of -unpleasant odours, nevertheless, as a wider consideration -of the facts will show us, the task of -cleansing the air of England is not yet entirely -completed. It is doubtless true that what we may -term domestic stenches have for the most part been -dispelled, but as regards public fœtors there are -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>still, I regret to say, a few that abide with us, -seemingly as nasty as ever they were.</p> - -<p class='c012'>One deplorable instance you will encounter at -the Paddington terminus of the Great Western -Railway no less, at a certain platform of which -station, lying in wait for our fresh country cousins -on their arrival in London, there lurks a livid concoction -of ancient milk, horse-manure, live stock, -dead stock, and, in the month of July, fermenting -strawberries, as aggressive and unashamed as the -worst Lucerne has to offer. I commend it to the -attention of the Medical Officer of Health for -Paddington.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nay more! This West London efflorescence -does not lie blooming alone. It is by no means the -last rose of summer. On the east side of the great -city, another, a rival upas-tree, spreads its nauseating -blight. This is a mess that, oozing from a -soap factory near Stratford-atte-Bow, envelops -in its oleaginous cloud several hundred yards of -the main line of the Great Eastern Railway. And -the world we live in is so arranged that the trains, -particularly in summer, are held up by signal for -several minutes in this neighbourhood, so that, as -the greasy slabs of decomposing fats slump in at -the open carriage windows, an early opportunity -is afforded to our Continental visitors of becoming -acquainted with the purifying properties of English -soap.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>I am blushing now for what I have been saying -about Ireland, Cologne, Lucerne, France, and even -the East.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This last instance, however, opens up a large -subject, that, namely, of malodorous industries. -Of these there is a great number, too great indeed -for me to do more than make a passing allusion -to them. The proximity of evil-smelling works -and factories to human habitations is, as a matter of -fact, prohibited by the Public Health Acts, but it -is naturally impossible to remove them entirely -from the knowledge of mankind inasmuch as the -workers frequently carry the atmosphere about -with them. Fortunately for them, but unfortunately -for us, by reason of the rapid exhaustion -of the olfactory sense (which we are about to deal -with in the following section), they are, for the -most part, not incommoded by the objectionable -airs they work in.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Perhaps the worst of all are the bone-manure -factories, malodorous mills which are almost -invariably situated at a distance of several miles -from any dwelling-house, as it would be impossible -for any one but the workers themselves to live in -their neighbourhood. These unfortunate people, -many of whom are women, carry, as I have already -remarked, the stench about with them on their -clothing and persons, and I have observed that, -being themselves insensitive to the odour, they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>cannot rid themselves of it even on Sundays and -holidays.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In this class also we must place tanneries, glueworks, -and size factories, a visit to which is a severe -trial for any one unaccustomed to them. Dyeworks, -likewise, by reason of the organic sulphur -compounds they disseminate through the spongy -air, are unpleasant neighbours. In cotton mills, -also, the sizing-rooms are objectionable, and here, -curiously enough, the operatives do not seem to -become accustomed to the smell, as it is insinuatingly -rather than bluntly offensive, and grows -worse with use. So much so, indeed, that but few -of the girls, I am told, are able to remain in that -particular occupation for more than a few weeks -at a time.</p> - -<p class='c011'>At this stage, albeit early in our disquisition, we -may appropriately turn to consider the curious -fact that of all our senses that of smell is perhaps -the most easily exhausted. The olfactory organ, -under the continued stimulation of one particular -odour, quite quickly becomes insensitive to it. -Perhaps this is the reason, or one of the reasons, -why reform was so long delayed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There are, however, in this respect great -differences between odours. With some the smell -is lost in a few seconds, while with others we continue -to be aware of it for a much longer time. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>Curiously enough, odours seem, in this matter, to -follow the general law of the feelings in that the -pleasant are lost sooner than the unpleasant. It is -the first breath of the rose that makes the fullest -appeal, when the whole being becomes for a -moment suffused with the loveliest of all perfumes. -But only for a moment. All too soon the door of -heaven closes and the richness thins away into the -common airs of this our lower world.</p> - -<p class='c012'>On the other hand, the aversion we all feel from -substances like iodoform, or, what is worse, scatol, -owes not the least part of its strength to the fact -that both of those vile smells are very persistent. -As was once said to a surgeon applying iodoform -to a wound in a patient’s nose: “This patient will -certainly visit you again, sir, but—it will not be to -consult you!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>To this more or less rapid exhaustion of the -sense is due the merciful dispensation that no one -is aware of his own particular aura. We are only -cognisant of odours that are strange to us. The -Chinese and Japanese find the neighbourhood of -Europeans highly objectionable, and we return -the compliment. It is the stranger to the Island -who remarks the “very ancient and fish-like -smell.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Fatigue and then exhaustion of a sense-organ, -rendering it finally irresponsive to a particular -stimulus, is, of course, familiar to us also in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>case of vision, as the soap advertisement of our -boyhood with its complementary colours taught -us. Taste manifests the same phenomenon, for -which reason (so he says) the cheese-taster in -Scotland swallows a little whisky after each of the -different samples he tries. But, curiously enough, -the healthy ear is not thus dulled save by a very -loud, persistent noise, and then there is the risk of -permanent damage to the hearing organ. Some -forms of tactile sensation, also, would seem to -remain ever sensitive, for, although it may be -possible to become so inured to pain as to ignore it, -yet that is probably a mental act, and it is said, -moreover, that men have been tortured to death -by the tickling of the soles of their feet.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But, as we have already seen, of all the senses -none so quickly becomes inert under stimulation -as olfaction. Why it would be hard to say, unless, -like the exhaustion of colour-vision, it is due to the -using up of some chemical reagent in the sense-organ. -At all events, if you wish to appreciate the -full intensity of a smell, you should arrange to -come upon it from the open air.</p> - -<p class='c012'>I wonder if this, or something like it, is the -reason why England was the first country in the -world to wage war against its stenches. For the -English are of all races the most addicted to fresh -air. Consequently, they are the most likely to -keep habitually their olfactory sense unspoiled and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>virgin. This, I admit, is only pushing the matter -a step further back, and we are still left with the -question: Why is it that the English are so fond -of the open? Largely, I imagine, because their -climate is so damp that an indoor atmosphere is -always a little oppressive to them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Whatever may be the reason, however, there is -no doubt that the keen, clean chill of an English -April day, especially when the wind is in the east -(<em>pace</em> Mr. Jarndyce), brings to us an exaltation of -spirit that surpasses the exhilaration of wine, and -at the same time renders us impatient with mustiness -and fustiness, intolerant of domestic stuffiness, -and frankly disgusted with the pungent, prickly -vapours of intimate humanity in the mass. The -wind on the hilltop is our aspiration, our ideal. -Hence, maybe, the Public Health Acts, and also -the national tub.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The use of the domestic bath is, we must not -forget, a social revolution of our own day and -generation. Our grandfathers ventured upon a -bath only when it seemed to be called for—by -others. Our grandmothers, with their clean, -white cotton or linen undergarments, had, or -thought they had, even less need for it. Besides, -in their prim and bashful eyes the necessary -denudation antecedent to total immersion would -have amounted, even when they were alone, to -something like gross indecency. Before their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>time, again, in the eighteenth century, matters -were even worse, for the society ladies of that -day painted their faces <em>instead</em> of washing them, -and mitigated the effects of seldom-changed -underclothing by copiously drenching themselves -with musk and other reliable perfumes. (I am -told, however, that even to-day fashionable ladies -refrain from washing their faces!)</p> - -<p class='c012'>The domestic bathroom is the direct offspring -of the gravitation water-supply and the modern -system of drainage. Buy an old house, and you -will have to convert one of the bedrooms into -your bathroom, and, to this day, you must carry -your bath with you if you go to reside in certain -of the Oxford colleges.</p> - -<p class='c011'>I can myself remember in my younger days in -Scotland an old doctor having his first bath in the -palatial surroundings of a modern bathroom. Not -in his own house, needless to say! After a patient -and particular inspection of all the glittering taps -of “shower,” “spray,” “plunge,” and what not, -he commended his spirit to the Higher Powers—or -rather, I fear, according to his wont, for he was -not of the Holy Willie persuasion, to the keeping -of those of the Nether Regions. Then he proceeded -gingerly to insert into the steaming water -first of all his toes, then his feet, next his ankles, -and so bit by bit, until, greatly daring, he had -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>committed his entire body to the deep—to emerge -as soon as possible! He was no coward, let me -tell you, in the ordinary run of life. But this was -his first bath in the altogether since his primal -post-natal plunge. His first bath! And his last! -It nearly killed him, he said; never in all his life -had he felt so bad, and not for a thousand pounds -would he repeat the experiment!</p> - -<p class='c011'>One more tale. Cockney this time. A gentleman -of my acquaintance was one day discussing -with an old-fashioned baker the modern making -of bread by machinery. Both agreed that the -older method made the better bread. The new -was not so good. “It seems,” said my friend, -“as if nowadays bread lacks something, but what -that something is I cannot tell.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are puffickly right, sir,” returned the -baker. “It does lack something, and wot that -something is I can tell you—it lacks the aromer -of the ’uman ’and!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER II<br /> <span class='large'>THE SENSE OF OLFACTION IN LOWER ANIMALS</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Olfaction is generally felt to be the lowest, -the most animal, of the senses, so much so that -in polite society it is scarcely good manners to -mention smells, and I am well aware of the risks -I run in writing a book on the subject. And yet -this feeling is by no means false modesty, because -it is, first and foremost, to the animal in us that -smell makes its appeal. None of the other senses -brings so frankly to notice our kinship with the -brute.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Olfaction is, indeed, one of the primitive senses -of animal life. And in man, as it happens, while -vision has constructed for itself a highly complicated -camera-like end-organ, and hearing has -produced an apparatus even more elaborate, the -olfactory organ, on the other hand, remains -primitive, its essential structure having undergone -no apparent evolutionary change from the simplest -and earliest type.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This, perhaps, is scarcely the proper way of -expressing the situation. Evolutionary change -has, as a matter of fact, occurred, but it reaches -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>its highest development not in man, but in -terrestrial mammals otherwise inferior to him—in -the dog, for example.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For once, man does not occupy the apex of the -evolutionary pyramid.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Olfactory development, high or low, is linked -up with the natural habits of the different species. -Thus, mammals which go about on all fours, -whose visual outlook is restricted and whose -muzzle is near the ground, are the most highly -gifted; those, again, like the seals, porpoises, -whales, and walruses, which have reverted from -a terrestrial to an aqueous environment, where -smell is of less value to them, show poorly -developed olfactory organs; and finally, the apes -and man, living habitually above the ground, the -former in trees, the latter on his hind legs, and -relying chiefly upon vision, also show a decline -from the high point reached by four-footed -mammalians.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The animals of this kingdom are thus divided -into macrosmatic and microsmatic groups. To -the latter man belongs, but we must add that his -olfactory sense has not yet degenerated so completely -as that of certain other species (porpoises, -etc.).</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is, of course, common knowledge that in -most of the animals we are closely acquainted with -the sense of smell is infinitely more delicate and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>acute than ours, so much so, indeed, that the -imagination can on occasion scarcely conceive -theirs to be of the same nature. As a matter of -fact, many authorities incline to the belief that -not only mammalians and other vertebrates, but -also insects, must be guided to their food and -to their love-mates by some kind of perception, -by some mysterious sense, of which we are totally -devoid.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As this is a division of our subject of the -highest interest, and one to which we shall have -occasion to recur at intervals throughout this -treatise, we shall discuss the matter as fully as -the space at our disposal will permit.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The unit of the olfactory sense-organ is the -olfactory cell. This, which does not vary in -structure from one end of the animal kingdom to -the other, is microscopically seen to consist of an -elongated body like a tiny rod, bearing on its -free end a small enlargement or prominence, on -the surface of which is a cluster of extremely fine -protoplasmic filaments, the olfactory hairs. These -hairs project into and are immersed in a thin -layer of mucus, at all events in air-breathing -animals, an environment which is necessary for -their functional activity, because, if the nose -becomes desiccated, as it does in some diseases, -the sense of smell is lost (anosmia). The hairs -<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>are, without doubt, the true receptive elements of -the olfactory cells. It is these which come into -contact with and are stimulated by odours—whatever -the nature of Odour may be.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The deep (proximal) end of the rod-like -olfactory cell tapers into a nerve-fibre, which -passes by way of the olfactory nerve to a special -lobe of the brain—the olfactory lobe—in the -vertebrates, or to a nerve-ganglion in the invertebrates.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Olfactory cells in man are only found in the -upper—the olfactory—region of the nose, spread -over a surface of about one square inch, the -olfactory area—part lying on the outer (lateral) -wall of each nasal passage and part on the septum, -or partition between the nasal passages. In -macrosmatic animals the olfactory area is relatively -greater than in man, but there is apparently -no other difference between them.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Olfactory cells are held in place by ordinary -epithelial cells—the sustentacular cells—which -contain pigment. Olfactory cells are found in -animals as low in the scale as the sea-anemone. -They occur in the integument of the animal, and -their structure is the same as in man, the only -difference evolution has brought about being -that in the higher animals they are protected by -lodgment in a <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">cul-de-sac</span></i>. Their function in the -sea-anemone is probably limited to the sensing of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>food, but we do not yet know much about this -particular organism.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is otherwise with the olfaction of insects. -Here the work of painstaking observers like -Lubbock, Fabre, and Forel, has supplied us with -a mass of information of the utmost interest, -which we shall now proceed to discuss in some -detail, commencing with the work of that remarkable -French naturalist, Fabre, whose interest in -the subject was aroused by an accident—the -accident of which the genius of observation knows -so well how to take advantage.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Having by chance a living female Great Peacock -moth captive in his house, Fabre was surprised -one night by the advent of some forty others of -the same species—males in search of a mate. At -once the question arose in his mind: How was it -that they had been attracted?</p> - -<p class='c012'>Sight could not have guided them, because, -apart from the comparative rarity of this moth in -that particular district, the night of their arrival -was dark and stormy, his house was screened by -trees and shrubs, and the female was ensconced -under a gauze cover. He observed, besides, that -the males did not make straight for their objective, -as is characteristic of movement when directed -by sight. They blundered and went astray, some -<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>of them wandering into rooms other than that in -which the female was lying. They behaved, that -is to say, as we ourselves do when we are trying -to locate the source of a sound or a smell. But -sound was ruled out by the fact that they must -have been summoned from distances of a mile or -a mile and a half.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Olfaction remains, and with this in his mind -Fabre undertook several experiments, some of -which, as it happens, support, while others oppose, -the theory of an olfactory cause.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When the female was sequestered under the -gauze cover, and in drawers or in boxes with -loosely-fitting lids, the males always succeeded in -discovering her. But when she was placed under -a glass cover, or in a sealed receptacle, no male at -all appeared. Further, Fabre found that cotton-wool -stuffed into the openings and cracks of her -receptacle was also sufficient to prevent the -summons reaching the males. This last observation -should be borne in mind in view of further -discussion later on regarding the nature of the lure.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Similar observations and experiments were -made on the Lesser Peacock, with very much the -same kind of result. But in dealing with this -moth Fabre made an observation which, if it -was accurate, tells against the theory of olfaction, -or at least against such olfaction as we ourselves -experience. At the time when he was carrying -<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>out his experiments the mistral was blowing hard -from the north, and as nevertheless males arrived, -they must all have come with the wind; no moth -ever hatched could beat up against the mistral. -But then, if the guide is an odour, the wind, -blowing it to the south, would have prevented it -ever reaching the males! Here, then, we have a -circumstance which leaves us groping for an -explanation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In watching the behaviour of the third moth -on his list, the Banded Monk, on the other -hand, Fabre discerned a circumstance very strongly -suggestive of the operation of an odorous lure. -He found that, if the female was left for a time in -contact with some absorbent material and was -afterwards shifted, the males were attracted, not -to her new situation, but to the place where she -had originally been lying. Subsequent experiment -showed that a period of about half an hour -was necessary to lead to the impregnation of the -neighbourhood with the effluvium she elaborated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The obvious test was employed of trying to -drown the supposed odour of the female by -filling the room she was in with powerful aromas, -like naphthaline, paraffin, the alkaline sulphides, -and the like. But in spite of the presence of these -stenches, in our experience overwhelming to -fainter exhalations, the males still continued to -arrive in droves. This result led Fabre to doubt -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>whether it could really have been an odour that -attracted them. But surely this negative conclusion -ignores the possibility of the moths being -anosmic to these gross scents while highly -specialised for one particular olfactory stimulus -to which, as a matter of fact, we ourselves are -wholly insensitive.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Apart from this particular problem, however, -to which we return below, biologists agree that -insects undoubtedly possess an olfactory sense -capable of appreciating the same kind of odours -as ours does. Lubbock, for example, demonstrated -that ants give signs of perceiving the -presence of musk and other perfumes. There is -no doubt, indeed, that the olfactory sense plays -a great, it may be a preponderating part in their -life-activity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The olfactory organ of insects is situated at the -bottom of little crypts in the antennæ and in the -palpi of the mouth apparatus, more particularly -in the antennæ. And those insects, like bees, -wasps, butterflies and moths, that frequent -flowers, are attracted to them by their perfumes as -well as by their colours. It has been found, for -example, that covering up flowers from view does -not put a stop to the visits of insects. Some -naturalists go so far, indeed, as to say that odour -is their principal guide. At all events, the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>sarcophagic and stercophagic insects are attracted -to their food chiefly, if not entirely, by odour. -Fabre has recorded how such insects are lured to -their death by certain insectivorous plants which -exhale a smell like that of putrid beef.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In this connection I may interpolate here an -experience which shows that this class of insect may -be attracted solely by odour. Incidentally, it also -manifests how the olfactory sense of insects can -be utilised in the matter of hygiene.</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>A clever plumber of my acquaintance was once called to -a large drapery establishment in the West End of London, -because the dressmakers at work in one of the rooms were -making complaints of an evil smell that haunted the place. -So much had they been troubled, indeed, that several of -them had been made ill by it. On examining the workroom -my friend found everything apparently faultless. It was a -large, well-lighted and airy apartment, and he himself was -unable to detect anything amiss in the atmosphere. Plans -were consulted, but no evidence could be found of any -possible source of unpleasant odour. His opinion therefore -was, that the ladies were—ladies, that is to say, fanciful, -and the matter was dropped. But the ladies were not consenting -parties to this opinion, and the complaints continued. -More of the assistants fell ill as a consequence, they said, of -the smell, so that he was again sent for. On this occasion, -it being the height of summer, he called, on his way to the -draper’s emporium, at a butcher’s shop, and much to that -man’s surprise, asked permission to capture a few of his -bluebottle flies. These he took with him to the draper’s, -and, the suspected room having been emptied of furniture -and occupants, he closed all the windows and doors and -released his flies. After waiting patiently for some time, -he observed that these amateur detectives of his had all -made for one part of the room, where they were settling on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>the wall. Here he had an opening made, and found hidden -behind the plaster an open drain-pipe, old and foul, which -had formerly been connected with a lavatory, and had been -enclosed and forgotten during some alterations made on the -building several years before.</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>The olfactory sense of insects has been credited -with perhaps even more wonderful powers than -those we have just been writing about. For -instance, both Lubbock and Forel have shown that -the extraordinary aptitude ants possess for finding -their way back to their nest after their peregrinations -in the mazy labyrinth of their world depends -upon the sense of smell. On their return to the -nest they follow the scent left by their own -footsteps.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This “homing” instinct, or “orientation,” -which is found in many species of insects and -animals, has long been a matter of interest to -scientific naturalists. The subject is, however, -much too large for us to enter fully into on the -present occasion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Winged insects like bees and wasps manifest -also the homing instinct. In their case the return -to the nest or hive is effected probably altogether -under the guidance of vision. This is what we -should expect, as elevation in the air secures for -these creatures a wide and unimpeded view of -their world. Circumstances are obviously different -in the case of ants and other creeping things, -whose immediate outlook, like that of four-footed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>mammals, is circumscribed to an area of but -a few inches or feet at the most.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Investigating the orientation of ants, Forel -found, first of all, that while the covering of their -eyes with an opaque varnish “embarrassed” -them to some extent, they went hopelessly astray -when their antennæ were removed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>He also repeated Lubbock’s well-known experiments -of supplying the ants with bridges over -obstacles in the neighbourhood of their nests, -noting their behaviour when the bridges were -changed, removed, or reversed, with the result -that he came to credit the olfactory system of -ants with much greater powers than the more -cautious Lubbock would have believed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>These insects, says Forel, exploring with their -mobile antennæ the fields of odour they encounter, -form in their memory a kind of “chemical topography.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus when an ant sets out from her nest she -distinguishes the various odours and varying -strengths of odours she comes upon, noting and -memorising them as in two main fields, one on her -left side, the other on her right. In order to find -her way back again all she has to do is to unwind, -so to speak, the roll in her memory, transposing -right and left, and this successfully accomplished -will bring her back to the point she started from.</p> - -<p class='c012'>If, he concludes, we ourselves were endowed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>with such a perfect olfactory mechanism situated -in long, flexible whip-lashes, which we could move -and tap with each step, the world for us would be -transformed. Odour would become a sense of -forms. Thus the orientation of ants can be -explained without assuming the existence of an -unknown sense. (It has recently been suggested, -by the way, that bats owe the exquisite power they -manifest of steering their flight among obstacles -to the use of their squeaks, the echoes from which -enable them to form “sound-pictures” of their -environment. In the same way a blind man in the -street tapping the pavement with his stick forms -a more or less well-defined sound-picture of the -walls, doorways, and alleys about him.)</p> - -<p class='c011'>In the immediately foregoing paragraphs we -have been dealing with the ability of insects to -smell the smells that we smell. But Fabre’s -experiments have familiarised us also with the -notion that there are insects which can smell smells -we cannot smell.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We shall see in the following section that the -same may also be true of some of the higher -animals.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In fish olfaction is, unlike that of air-breathing -animals, effected by odorous material in solution. -Whether or not their olfactory sense is as acute it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>is impossible in the present state of our knowledge -to say. Anatomically the end-organ of fishes is -simpler, but there are some species, the dog-fishes -for example, which possess a large olfactory lobe -in the brain; and this certainly suggests that they, -at all events, are gifted with an olfactory sense of -relatively high development.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Experiment on fish is difficult, nevertheless it -has been definitely proved that they do smell, and -it seems probable that the sense is used by them -for food-perception. Moreover, that it may be -highly sensitive seems likely from the fact that -sharks (which belong to the same order as dog-fish) -can be attracted from great distances to -putrid meat thrown into the water as bait, the high -dilution of which resembles the behaviour of odour -in an air medium.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The belief that life in water, however, is less -favourable than life on land to the fullest development -of the sense is supported by the fact we have -already mentioned that mammals living in water -are extremely microsmatic.</p> - -<p class='c011'>In the macrosmatic terrestrial animals not only -is the olfactory sense relatively highly organised, -but it is absolutely the predominant sense. Vision -is subsidiary to it. In their brains the olfactory -region constitutes by far the largest component. -(The same, by the way, is true of the Reptilia.)</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>In other words, it is upon the olfactory sense -that these animals chiefly depend for their knowledge -of the world. By it they are directed to their -food, warned of their enemies, and attracted to -their mates. Their universe is a universe of odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In order to become more intimate with the -details of this part of our subject, we shall pass in -review some of the olfactory habits and characteristics -of the macrosmatic animal most familiar -to us, namely, the dog.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There can be no doubt of the all-important part -that smell plays in the life of the dog. Every one -is familiar with it, and yet we do not often stop to -think what its meaning is for the canine brain and -understanding. One of the mysteries that must, -one would suppose, for ever remain hidden from -us, is what aspect the world we both share in company -bears to this our closest animal friend. Who -can tell what is passing through his mind as he -sniffs at us? He can recognise his master by sight, -no doubt, yet, as we know, he is never perfectly -satisfied until he has taken stock also of the scent, -the more precisely to do so bringing his snout into -actual contact with the person he is examining. -It is as if his eyes might deceive him, but never his -nose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The greyhound courses by sight, but all other -dogs hunt by scent, and the speed and certainty -of foxhounds in full cry bear a new significance -<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>when we recollect that it is scent that is directing -them. Could vision be any more swift and sure?</p> - -<p class='c012'>We may heartily wish, as a child once remarked -to a friend of mine, that Rover had a prettier way -of saying “How d’ye do?” to his canine friends. -But that and other even more objectionable -habits do not prevent his <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">entrée</span></i> into the most -exclusive circles of human society. He is taken -at his own valuation, and that, to be sure, is considerable. -But the minute, the meticulous, olfactory -scrutiny he makes of other dogs is but one more -example of the predominance of this sense in his -brain. (See also later.)</p> - -<p class='c011'>When you take him for a walk also, how busy -his nose makes him! Burrowing here and there -among the grass and undergrowth, picking up an -interesting trail that leads him a little way, until -it crosses another, fresher, perhaps, or more -interesting, that has to be taken up—here a cat’s, -there a rat’s, further on a rabbit’s, and then, with -short squeals, scrapings in the ground, and buryings -of his muzzle, a weasel’s!—the whole intermixed -and intermingled with whiffs of something -like old decayed bones, or of another and an unfriendly -dog, or of some ardent lady-love who has -passed this way but shortly since!—is not this a -richer, a fuller, a more attractive, world than ours, -with its fickle sunlight, its pallid greys, its mournful -<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>purples, its unattainable horizon-blue? For our -life is primarily one of vision.</p> - -<p class='c012'>I am sure his dreams, also, are compounded of -the gorgeous odours of some other world, such -odours as even our woods in autumn know -nothing of.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But we must return again to science and Fabre. -This time we shall accompany him on an excursion -with the wonderful dog who is trained to discover -for the <em>gourmet</em> the truffles that are growing deep -in the soil.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Left to his own devices, we learn, the truffle-hunting -dog indicates the position not only of -truffles, but also of all manner of hypogean (underground) -fungi, “the large and the small, the fresh -and the putrid, the scented and the unscented, the -fragrant and the stinking.” Only, he never at any -time indicates the presence of the ordinary mushroom, -not even while it is still underground, before -it sprouts up as the fungus we know. And yet to -our nostrils the mushroom has the same smell as -many of the hypogean fungi he does indicate. -Consequently, therefore, the dog is not guided to -the deep fungi by what may be called the general -odour common to all fungi. He must be able, -that is to say, to distinguish the hypogean varieties -by some quality which is not odour, or, at least, -not odour as we understand it.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>There is, as it happens, something like a truffle-hunter -among the insects also, what is known as -the Bolboceros beetle. This little creature feeds -on the <em>hydnocystis arenaria</em>, a hypogean fungus. -Fabre, having captured some of these insects, -placed them on earth in which he had buried the -fungus at depths of six or seven inches. It was -found that the beetles, without making any trial -bores, sank vertical shafts through the soil direct -to their food.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We may insert here also, as bearing upon the -problem which is now emerging into clearness, an -observation and a suggestion similar, as we shall -see, to that of Fabre, on the badger by Mr. Douglas -Gordon (<cite>Spectator</cite>, August 6th, 1921):</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“The real damage wrought by the badger is microscopic. -His diet mainly consists of roots, green herbs, mice, frogs, -and insects. Like the fox, he has a great partiality for -whorts and blackberries when in season, and he is particularly -fond of grubs. For the sake of these he will dig -out every wasp’s nest he can find. A considerable number -of rabbit ‘stops’ also fall to his share, and in unearthing the -latter he practises a somewhat remarkable piece of woodcraft. -The hole which contains the nest may run to the -depth of several feet, and the nest itself be situated ten feet -from any entrance, but this does not trouble the badger. -He makes no attempt to follow the tortuous passage, as a -man when digging would be obliged to do. His unerring -nose locates the exact spot where the young rabbits lie, and -from the most convenient point he bores for them. Should -it be a ‘ground-burrow,’ he sinks a vertical shaft. In the -case of a steep bank he drives a horizontal tunnel, and, -shallow or deep, with unvarying accuracy.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>“Not long ago I saw a striking case of this on Haldon -Hill, near Exeter. The burrow opened on to a little gully, -and ran back some distance under the heath. At least five -paces from the nearest hole was the badger’s freshly cut -shaft, about three feet deep, and around it were littered the -ruins of the nest—the little tale of bloodstained fur so -eloquent of tragedy. There on the earth drawn from the -shaft the raider’s spoor was plain enough, but no imprint of -his pads could I find upon the impressionable mould anywhere -near the holes. This meant that he must have found -the nest while traversing the heather—sensed it beneath -him, in fact. And here an interesting point arises. What -sense did he employ? Could he possibly ‘smell’ the -rabbits through three feet of packed mould? Earth is a -potent deodoriser. Do certain animals possess a sixth -sense—a sympathy something akin to that of the divining -rod? If so, this goes farther to explain the much-discussed -principle of scent than anything yet suggested.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>Is this sense, then, as we see it in operation in -the badger, in the truffle-hunting dog, in the -Bolboceros beetle, and still more wonderfully in -the Peacock and Banded Monk moths, drawn to -their mates “from the edge of the horizon,” and, -it may be, against the wind—is this sense the same -as our own sense of olfaction, only much more -acute? Fabre finds some difficulty in believing -that it can really be the same. “Odour,” he -argues, “is molecular diffusion.” But nothing -material, nothing our senses can perceive, is -emitted by these moths, and yet they can summon -their mates from relatively enormous distances. -However fine may be the divisibility of matter, -Fabre’s mind refuses to entertain the suggestion -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>that this far-flung summons is addressed to a -sense of smell of the same nature as ours. It -would be tantamount, he says, “to reddening a -lake with an atom of carmine, to filling immensity -with nothing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is impossible not to sympathise with this -opinion, but caution compels us to say that for -the most striking of these observations, that of -the calling of the males against a high wind, we -should like to have confirmation by some independent -observer.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Besides, I think perhaps Fabre would have -hesitated to express his scepticism regarding the -power of insect olfaction had he known more of -the marvels of the human sense.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Vanillin, for example, is perceptible by us as -a smell when it amounts to no more than -0·000000005 gram in a litre of air; and we can -perceive mercaptan, a substance with a garlicky -odour, in a dilution of 1/460,000,000 of a milligram -in fifty cubic centimetres of air (approximately -0·0000000026 of a grain in a little over -three cubic inches of air!) (See also p. <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.)</p> - -<p class='c012'>What is this but immensity filled with nothing? -And yet we, even we, microsmatic though we are, -can perceive that “nothing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>But we must pick up again the thread of Fabre’s -argument. Baffled as he feels himself to be when -he regards olfaction in the light of these observations -<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>of his, he goes on: “For emission substitute -undulation, and the problem of the Great Peacock -is explained. Without losing any of its substance -a luminous point shakes the ether with its vibrations -and fills a circle<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c017'><sup>[1]</sup></a> of indefinite width with -light....</p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f1'> -<p class='c012'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. A sphere rather.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>“It does not emit molecules; it vibrates; it -sets in motion waves capable of spreading to -distances incompatible with a real diffusion of -matter.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“In its entirety smell would thus seem to have -two domains: that of particles dissolved in the -air and that of ethereal waves. The first alone is -known to us....</p> - -<p class='c012'>“The second, which is far superior in its range -through space, escapes us altogether, because we -lack the necessary sensory equipment. The Great -Peacock and the Banded Monk know it at the -time of the nuptial rejoicings. And many others -must share it in various degrees according to the -exigencies of their mode of life.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>In criticism of this conclusion of Fabre, however, -we must again draw attention to the fact that -in the case of the Greater Peacock he found that -a plug of cotton-wool was sufficient to prevent -the emanation leaving the immediate neighbourhood -of the female, a circumstance strongly in -favour of some material exhalation which was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>caught and held by the cotton-wool filter. Again, -in the case of the Banded Monk, the suggestion -of odour is unmistakable in the tainting, as it were, -of substances in her vicinity with her emanation. -Further, if the guide to the males were something -like a luminous undulation we should expect that, -like the Bolboceros beetle and the badger, there -would have been no blundering and going astray; -they would have precipitated themselves straight -on to the female, or as near to her as they could get.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Moreover, although we are ourselves unable to -detect any odorous emanation, may not our -inability be due simply to the fact that our -olfactory hairs are not susceptible to this particular -stimulus? It may be of the same nature -as odour, and yet we may be unable to perceive -it, just as the moths themselves seemed anosmic -to what we would call the stenches Fabre filled -his room with.</p> - -<p class='c011'>These critical questions seem to me to be -difficult to answer. Nevertheless, our imagination -is certainly staggered by the fact of a tiny -creature like a moth being able to disseminate -in the immensity of atmospheric space an odour -capable of perception at such great distances as -a mile or a mile and a half. Hero, with the Great -Peacock’s power, could have summoned Leander -from a hundred miles away.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>Apart, however, from such considerations for -and against his opinions, one of the modern -theories of odour, and of odour belonging to -Fabre’s first, or material, order, is, as we shall see -later on, that even it is a vibratory and not a -material quality.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But leaving that development aside, and admitting -for the moment the validity of Fabre’s -contentions, I am bold enough to ask: Are we -human beings so ignorant of the second domain -of olfaction as he supposes? Is it true that we -are, as he says, lacking in the equipment necessary -for the exploration of that mysterious region? -To answering these questions we shall presently -address ourselves. In the meantime, I may forestall -what I shall then say by remarking that I -count it a very remarkable circumstance, if not, -indeed, a significant coincidence, that, before I -had become acquainted with Fabre’s writings, I -had, considering the phenomena of human olfaction -and psychology alone, actually asked myself -the same question as he asks, and had come to -very much the same conclusion.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER III<br /> <span class='large'>OLFACTORY MEMORY</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The predominant special senses in man are -vision and hearing, olfaction occupying a quite -unimportant position in the scale.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Smell and taste, by the way, are usually regarded -not only as allied senses, but also as if they were -akin in their nature and function. Allied they are, -undoubtedly, seeing that both subserve the function -of food-perception. But the resemblance -ends there. For, of the two, smell is at once the -more delicate and the more extensive in capacity, -and, as they differ widely in their anatomical -structure, there can be no doubt but that in -physiological action also they are dissimilar.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The taste-bulbs are capable of appreciating -four sensations only, and these quite simple, -while the capacity of the olfactory organ, as we -shall see more fully later on, is practically unlimited. -All the subtlety of “taste,” all that we -call “flavour,” is an olfactory sensation. Thus, -people devoid of the sense of smell cannot discern -the finer savours. They would be unable to -distinguish, say, a vanilla from a strawberry ice. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>All they could tell would be that both were cold -and sweet.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The popular phrase which refers the appreciation -of the finer shades of taste to the “palate” -we may therefore look upon as an attempt to -express the feeling that delicate flavours are -sensed somewhere higher up than in the mouth. -So that a “man of taste” is really a man of smell, -and all the literary eloquence in praise of wine -and dainty food, to say nothing of the more prosy -cookery books, is, in reality, a general hymn of -adulation offered unwittingly to the nose!</p> - -<p class='c011'>Compared with sight and hearing, however, -smell in man is only one of the minor senses. -But, as if to make up for a position so inferior, it -is remarkable as being the most subtle of all -our senses, possibly, as some hold, because of -the ancestral appeal to our (more or less repressed) -animal nature. So subtle is it, indeed, that I am -persuaded its stimuli may not, on occasion, -emerge into consciousness at all. They remain -below the threshold. So that, although subjected -to their influence, we may remain ignorant of the -cause of that influence. For smell often operates -powerfully, not only in surreptitiously enriching -and invigorating the mental impression of an -event, but also in directing at times the flow of -ideas into some particular channel independent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>of the will. The influence of the perfume of a -woman’s hair in unexpectedly arousing a feeling -of intimacy will appeal to the male reader as a -good example of this upsurging interference with -the placid flow of normal ideation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Perhaps, also, this is the explanation of a strange -and rather unpleasant ghost-story I once heard. I -dare not vouch for the truth of it, but as it bears -upon the subject we are considering, I give it here, -not without misgiving, for what it is worth. For -the sake of verisimilitude I shall relate it pretty -much in the narrator’s own words:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“The evening he came back I was sitting in my room -alone. I had just got back from the play, the subject of -which had been, it so happened, the influence of people -recently dead upon those left behind. I suppose that’s -what turned my mind to my sorrow of the previous year -when I lost him. It is my husband I am talking about.</p> - -<p class='c011'>“I was sitting gazing at the fire, and I expect you will say -I had fallen asleep. Perhaps I had. It doesn’t matter -really.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“We had been happy enough together, he and I. Just -an ordinary married couple, you might say. But now and -then a terrible longing would come over me just to see him -once more, ... to hear him speak, ... to touch him.... -I know it is selfish, and maybe unwise, to give way to those -feelings, ... but never mind that! Well, on the night I -am telling you about, there came to my recollection some of -the silly cantrips those Spiritualist people used to carry on. -Oh, yes, it is quite true: I had gone once or twice to see -them, and had even taken part in their services—séances, -I should say—in James’s lifetime, I mean, before he died. -Indeed I went with him.... I never went after.... I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>don’t know.... It seemed to me like trifling somehow. -Anyhow I have never gone since.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“All the same there came into my head a curious jingling -rhyme I had heard them repeat once or twice, because they -said somebody called Plato or Plautus or something had -used it. It would bring back the dead, so they used to say, -if you recited it alone at midnight, and accompanied it with -certain gestures. The words are nothing but gibberish, a -jumbled sort of.... No, I’m not going to repeat them.... -Let me go on.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Before I had realised what I was doing, without stopping -to think, I uttered the words aloud, moving my arms so as -to follow the ritual. Scarcely were the syllables out of my -mouth—it closes with the name and the clock was striking -twelve as I spoke it—scarcely, I say, were the words out of -my mouth when—God! the pang comes yet when I think -of it!—I heard the latch-key going into the hall door, and -the door slowly opening—I was alone in the flat, and—oh! -I can never tell you! I felt dreadful!—I didn’t know how -to undo the thing, and yet I knew it was wrong—wicked—I -never for a moment thought.—Perhaps it had been my -longing so much.—The hall door opened.—The chain wasn’t -up.—I heard a step,—a cough—oh! the usual sounds he -used to make when he came in.—What would he be like?—What...? -what...?</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Then the door of the room opened, and there he stood, -swinging himself backwards and forwards, half toes, half -heels, in a way he had, and replacing his jingling keys in his -trouser-pocket—I could only stare at him speechless, and -gasp—till suddenly he stretched out his hand and pointed -at me with a ... a sort of snarl.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“‘Good heavens, Jane!’—the words sounded so commonplace -that every trace of the unearthly was dissipated at the -first syllable.—‘Good heavens, Jane! Go and change that -frock!—How often have I told you what a fright you look -in mauve.—A mill-girl on a holiday!—Come! Get along -and change it!’</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It seems silly, I daresay, and all that, but, do you know, -no sooner did I hear him growling and grumbling and finding -fault with colours he had a dozen times at least admired -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>and praised than—I couldn’t help it!—I forgot everything—everything. -And all I could say was:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“‘James! You’ve been eating onions again!’</p> - -<p class='c012'>“‘Not my fault, I assure you, my dear,’ he snapped back; -‘that damned cook always will put garlic in the nectar! -You must get rid of her.’</p> - -<p class='c011'>“... I suppose I must have fainted then, for I remember -no more till I found myself lying on the floor with my head on -the fender. I picked myself up very puzzled as to what had -happened. Then I remembered my ... dream, with a -shock rather of amusement than fear, when suddenly—suddenly -I smelled the nauseating stench of strong garlic! -That finished me entirely. How I got out of the place I -cannot tell. Out I did get. And I have never gone back.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>This lady evidently would not have subscribed -to the old teaching of Salerno:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Six things that heere in order shall issue</div> - <div class='line'>Against all poisons have a secret poure.</div> - <div class='line'>Peares, Garlick, reddish-roots, Nuts, Rape and Rew,</div> - <div class='line'>But Garlick cheese, for they that it devoure</div> - <div class='line'>May walk in ways infected every houre;</div> - <div class='line'>Sith Garlick then hath poure to save from death</div> - <div class='line'>Bear with it though it make unsavoury breath:</div> - <div class='line'>And scorne not Garlick, like to some that think</div> - <div class='line'>It only makes men wink, and drinke, and stink.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>(It may be remembered, by the way, that Wilkie -Collins’s “Haunted Hotel” was haunted by a -smell.)</p> - -<p class='c012'>Although we may agree with Shelley that</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Odours when sweet violets sicken</div> - <div class='line'>Live within the sense they quicken,”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c016'>yet we must admit that the memory of an -odour cannot be reproduced in our mind with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>the same clearness as a vanished scene or an -old tune.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It may be found on trial that by concentrating -the attention strongly upon some familiar smell, -particularly if at the same time we stimulate the -memory by picturing in our mind’s eye a scene in -which that odour figured as a feature in the sensory -landscape, we are sometimes able to recall its -actual sensation. But the recollection lacks the -intimate reality of visual and auditory images. -Without doubt the mind’s eye and mind’s ear, -when consciously aroused, are consistently more -acute and their representations are more vivid -than those of the mind’s olfactory organ.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When, for instance, I call to memory the -drawing-room of my boyhood days, I can once -more catch a faint reminiscence of the acid-sweet -rose-leaves that filled it with perennial fragrance, -but not until I have first of all recalled its pale -greys and blues and its over-bright windows, not -until I have listened once more to “The March of -the Troubadours” my mother is playing on the -old rosewood piano, like a call to some life greater, -grander, and, above all, more simple than this -bewildering affair!</p> - -<p class='c012'>People, Ribot has ascertained, vary considerably -in their power of resuscitating dead perfumes. -According to his statistics, 40 per cent. could not -revive any image at all; 48 per cent. could recall -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>some, but not all; and only 12 per cent. could -recall all or nearly all at pleasure. The odours -most easy to bring back were pinks, musk, violet, -heliotrope, carbolic acid, the smell of the country, -grass, and so on. Many, as in my own case, have -to evoke the visual image first.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But if the recollection of a scene can only with -difficulty, or not at all, revive the sensation of an -odour, the converse is most startlingly true. For -odours have an extraordinary, an inexplicable, -power of spontaneously and suddenly presenting a -forgotten scene to the mind, and with such nearness -to reality that we are translated bodily, being -caught up by the spirit, as it were, like St. Philip, -to be placed once more in the midst of the old past -life, where we live the moment over again with the -full chord of its emotions vibrating our soul and -startling our consciousness. There are, it is true, -certain sounds which wield the same miraculous -power over our being—</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“... the chime familiar of a bell</div> - <div class='line'>Last heard at sea, but now on homely ground,</div> - <div class='line'>Can, with the sprites that deep in memory dwell,</div> - <div class='line'>Create the world anew with stroke of sound,</div> - <div class='line'>Transforming daisied fields to foaming seas,</div> - <div class='line'>And changing vales from summer calm serene</div> - <div class='line'>To warring tides round wintry Hebrides</div> - <div class='line'>That fling and toss in wat’ry hillocks green”—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c016'>but I do not think they operate in this way so -frequently as do smells.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>This strange revival of bygone days by olfaction -is, as I have said, automatic. It is most clearly and -completely to be realised when the inciting odour -comes upon us unawares, and then as in a dream -the whole of the long-forgotten incident is displayed, -even although it may have been an incident -in which the odour itself was not specially obtrusive. -Yet the display is not only a spectacle, for -we become, as I have already laboured to point -out, once more actors in the old life-drama.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now memory can nearly always be recognised -as memory. There is about its representations a -dulling in colour, a haziness in outline, a vagueness -in detail, that serves to distinguish it from the -harder, clearer pictures of the imagination. Its -figures and their doings are like ghosts; through -them you can see the solid furniture of to-day. -But from the olfactory miracle we are now considering -the effect of time, the fraying effect of -time and superimposed incident, is absent. That -is still fresh, still, as we might say, in process of -elaboration, the manifold and complicated experiences -we have undergone since its occurrence being -blotted for the moment out of the mind.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Curiously enough, although Ribot finds that -about 60 per cent. of people experience the “spontaneous” -revival of odour in memory, and so -presumably are subject to this arresting phenomenon, -it does not seem to have been mentioned -<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>by writers in general until about our own time. -At all events, the earliest allusion I can find to it is -in “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Les Fleurs du Mal</span>” of Baudelaire:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Lecteur, as-tu quelquefois respiré</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Avec ivresse et lente gourmandise</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ce grain d’encens qui remplit une église</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Ou d’un sachet le musc invétéré?</span></div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Charme profond, magique, dont nous grise</span></div> - <div class='line'><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Dans le présent le passé restauré</span>”....</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>Shortly after Baudelaire’s time Bret Harte, on -the other side of the Atlantic, imported it into -“The Newport Romance”:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“But the smell of that subtle, sad perfume,</div> - <div class='line in2'>As the spiced embalmings, they say, outlast</div> - <div class='line'>The mummy laid in his rocky tomb,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Awakes my buried past.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And I think of the passion that shook my youth,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Of its aimless loves and its idle pains,</div> - <div class='line'>And am thankful now of the certain truth</div> - <div class='line in4'>That only the sweet remains.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>But the most precise and definite allusion to this -curious power of odours seems to have first been -made by Oliver Wendell Holmes in “The Autocrat -of the Breakfast Table.” Here is what he -says, and it will be noted that he makes as high -a claim for the power of olfaction as I have -done:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“Memory, imagination, old sentiments and associations, -are more readily reached through the sense of <span class='fss'>SMELL</span> than -by almost any other channel.”</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>“Phosphorus fires this train of associations in an instant; -its luminous vapours with their penetrating odour throw me -into a trance; it comes to me in a double sense, ‘trailing -clouds of glory.’”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Perhaps the herb <em>everlasting</em>, the fragrant <em>immortelle</em> -of our autumn fields, has the most suggestive odour to me -of all those that set me dreaming. I can hardly describe -the strange thoughts and emotions that come to me as I -inhale the aroma of the pale, dry, rustling flowers. A something -it has of sepulchral spicery, as if it had been brought -from the core of some great pyramid, where it had lain on -the breast of a mummied Pharaoh. Something, too, of -immortality in the sad, faint sweetness lingering so long in -its lifeless petals. Yet this does not tell why it fills my eyes -with tears and carries me in blissful thought to the banks of -asphodel that border the River of Life.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>In introducing the subject, Holmes states that -he has “occasionally met with something like it in -books, somewhere in Bulwer’s novels, ... and -in one of the works of Mr. Olmstead.”</p> - -<p class='c011'>When one considers the obvious poetic appeal -of this psychic phenomenon as exemplified in the -touching expressions we have just quoted, it seems -strange that the older writers made no use of it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Even omniscient Shakespeare, although odorous -images and allusions are not uncommon in his -works, seems to have overlooked this sportive -trick of the sense. Otherwise we might have had -Lady Macbeth sleep-walking because her nightposset -exhaled the vapour of the draught she had -drugged Duncan’s guards with.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Several seventeenth century writers make a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>general reference to odours as “strengthening the -memory.” Here is one for which I am indebted -to my friend F. W. Watkyn-Thomas:</p> - -<blockquote> -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span class='sc'>Olfactus</span> (<em>loq.</em>)—</div> - <div class='line in2'>Hence do I likewise minister perfume</div> - <div class='line in2'>Unto the neighbour brain, perfume of force,</div> - <div class='line in2'>To cleanse your head, and make your fancy bright</div> - <div class='line in2'>To refine wit and sharp invention,</div> - <div class='line in2'><em>And strengthen memory</em>: from whence it came</div> - <div class='line in2'>That old devotion incense did ordain</div> - <div class='line in2'>To make man’s spirit more apt for things divine....”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c018'>(“Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue and the -Five Senses,” Act IV., Sc. 5, Anthony Brewer -(<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">circa</span></i> 1600): Dodsley’s “Old Plays,” Vol. V., -p. 179, 1825.)</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c016'>And Montaigne may be alluding to it when he -says:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“Physicians might (in my opinion) draw more use and -good from odours than they do. For myself have often -perceived, that according unto their strength and qualitie, -<em>they change and alter, and move my spirit, and worke strange -effects in me</em>: Which makes me approve the common saying, -that invention of incense and perfumes in Churches, so -ancient and so far-dispersed throughout all nations and -religions, had an especiall regard to rejoyce, to comfort, to -quicken and to rowze and to purifie our senses, ...”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>The Jacobean herbalists and therapeutists in -general, as we shall see later on, frequently -credit aromatics with the power of strengthening -the memory. But, so far as my reading -goes, I have failed to find a clear and unmistakable -description of this peculiar phenomenon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>in any writer prior to the nineteenth century. It -is, of course, difficult to prove a negative, and so -it would not be surprising if some such allusion -were to be dug up. But even then the wonder -would remain that it had attracted little, if any, -attention from others. As a matter of fact, mental -happenings of this order did not interest our forebears -much. Shakespeare is the exception to -this statement, and that is one of his claims to -greatness.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Moreover, quite apart from this particular, the -writings of the old English poets and of such -French and German authors as I am acquainted -with, seem curiously deficient in references to all -but the more gross and obvious phenomena of -olfaction, and these are most frequently of the -farcical order, a little too gross and obvious for -modern readers.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Since Dickens’s time, however, we have had -almost too much literary odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>I do not agree with the purists who deny to -Dickens the glory of a great writer of English -prose. Dickens was an impressionist, perhaps the -first and certainly the greatest of this school, and -as such he was a master. Few equal and none -surpass him in the rare vigour of scene, and -portrait-painting. And it is significant to find -him using the aroma of the place and also of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>the person to impart life and reality to his -description.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Take for example, to cite but one out of many -olfactory references in his books, the humorous -analysis of the smells in various London churches -in “The Uncommercial Traveller.” One congregation -furnishes “an agreeable odour of -pomatum,” while in the others “rat and mildew -and dead citizens” seemed to be the fundamentals, -to which in some localities was added “in a -dreamy way not at all displeasing” the staple -character of the neighbourhood. “A dry whiff of -wheat” circulated about Mark Lane, and he -“accidentally struck an airy sample of barley out -of an aged hassock” in another. The reader’s -throat begins at once to feel dry.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Then note how Mr. E. W. B. Childers starts -from the page the moment his creator breathes -into our nostrils a breath of his life:—“a smell of -lamp oil, straw, orange-peel, horses’ provender, -and sawdust.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>I could fill this book with olfactory citations -from Dickens alone. But to come to contemporary -writers, those of Rudyard Kipling are almost as -plentiful, the smell that brings places to the mind -being a favourite with him. But I have always -wondered how it came about that the highly -sensitive nose of Mr. Kipling permitted Imray’s -corpse on the rafters above the ceiling-cloth to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>remain undiscovered for as long as three months. -This in India. The bungalow, we gather, was -haunted. It would be.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nevertheless, in spite of the keen olfaction of -both of those writers, neither of them, as far as I -can remember, weaves the memory-reviving power -of olfaction into a plot. We come across it, -however, in foreign literature, as in the suggestive -play made with the smell of lamp-oil in Dostoievsky’s -“Crime and Punishment.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>The more recent English and foreign writers, -however, give us a surfeit of odours—as if to prove -their superiority in this as in all else.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It seems strange, moreover, that the theatre -should have overlooked this avenue to the memory -and imagination of its audiences. The ancient -Romans, to be sure, during the gladiatorial -games, used to perfume the atmosphere of the -Colosseum, whether to counteract the raw smell -of dust, blood, and sweat, it were hard to say, -as these rank odours play their part, again subtly, -in stimulating the slaughterous passions of -mankind.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But our modern theatre, which a prominent -Scots ecclesiastic of the nineteenth century -characterised as redolent only of “orange-peel, -sawdust, and vice,” has not yet risen to anything -higher than a continuous discharge of incense -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>during spectacular dramas depicting the (theatrical) -East.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Why not go further? Think how the appeal of -a love-scene would be strengthened by an invisible -cloud of roses blown into the house through the -ventilating shafts! The villain would be heralded -by an olfactory <em>motif</em> of a brimstony flavour -mingled, if he was of the usual swarthy countenance, -with a <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">soupçon</span></i> of garlic. The hero, well -groomed and clean-limbed, would waft a delicate -suggestion of Brown Windsor to the love-sick -maidens in the dress-circle. The heavy father -would radiate snuff with his red pocket-handkerchief. -The large-eyed foreign adventuress would -permeate the auditorium on wings of patchouli. -The dear broken-hearted old mother would disseminate -that most respectable of perfumes (for -there is a caste-system among smells) eau de -Cologne—a scent that always evokes in my mind a -darkened room, tiptoes, hushed voices, raised -forefingers, and Somebody in bed with a—headache.</p> - -<p class='c012'>And so on. Here is a new way of “putting it -over.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Critics will object that, as the influence of eau -de Cologne on my own mind shows, the particular -odours so supplied would defeat their purpose by -calling up a thousand different and incongruous -images in the thousand minds of the audience. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>But such mischances could easily be avoided by -conventionalising the odours after the manner -already familiar in the stock gesticulations of our -players, all of whom enter, sit down, pull off their -gloves, blow their noses, utter defiance, shed tears, -launch curses, make love, live, die, and are buried, -according to an inveterate, cast-iron ritual.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER IV<br /> <span class='large'>SMELL AND SPEECH</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>That the effect of odour upon the mind is -largely concealed is further illustrated by the -curious fact that our native language does not -possess a terminology descriptive of smells. We -never name an odour; we only say it has a “smell -like” something or another. As a matter of fact, -the same remark was made regarding French by -P. P. Poncelet as long ago as 1755.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In this defect smell is unique among the senses. -Even the sense that governs equilibration, of which -the consciousness in normal conditions is never -aware, has furnished us with “giddy” and -“dizzy.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Vision is represented by hundreds of words. -We have, for instance, names not only for the -primary colours red, yellow, and blue, but also for -many of their combinations. (In these remarks -we are not including the modern names given to -the many shades of the synthetic colours.)</p> - -<p class='c012'>If we take red as an example, we find scarlet, -crimson, vermilion, and pink. This colour, -indeed, is ranked above all others in the vulgar -<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>tongue as having shades, doubtless because red, -being the colour of blood and so of danger, always -makes a strong appeal to the mind, an appeal -which, among the responses, has led to special -names being given to four of its tones.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The sense of hearing again, upon which speech -is wholly dependent, has given rise to a multitude -of words, many of them closely imitative of the -sound, or onomatopoetic, with which words -English, like the related German, is richly adorned.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Touch also has produced a number of descriptive -epithets—“hot,” “cold,” “wet,” “dry,” -“moist,” “clammy,” “rough,” “smooth,” as -well as those like “heavy” and “light,” from the -deep tactile sensibility.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Even taste has its vocabulary, a complete one, as -it happens, since each of the four varieties of taste -has its own appropriate name—“sweet,” “sour,” -“bitter,” and “salt.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>But smell is speechless. We can truthfully say -that in our native English language there is not a -single word characterising any one of all the -myriad odours in the world.</p> - -<p class='c012'>No doubt there are many words that we do -apply to smells. But they are either borrowed -from the vocabulary of one of the other senses, in -order to describe a state of mind induced by the -smell, or else they originate from some known -odoriferous object.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>Thus in the opening paragraph of this book we -encountered a large number of olfactory words. -But they are all vague; some applying to pleasant, -some to unpleasant, odours. Many of them are -very expressive, for disgust begets strong language. -But although our olfactory vocabulary may be -forceful, it is not discriminative. In other words, -it is an emotional, not an intellectual, vocabulary.</p> - -<p class='c012'>These considerations will become more obvious -as we deal with olfactory epithets in detail.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus smells may be “faint” or “strong,” but -so may any other sensation. And to call a smell -“sweet” leaves it but vague, while at the same -time the epithet is borrowed from the vocabulary -of taste, where its meaning is quite precise. -“Pungent” is also a transposition, this time from -touch, as it is a Latin word signifying “prickly.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>In addition to such terms as these we have a -small number of words which we are in the habit -of applying to certain classes of odours. “Musty” -is one of these. This adjective certainly has the -look of a pure English word about it, but, as it -indicates a smell like that of mould, it is probably -derived from the Latin <em>mucidus</em>, mouldy; we -cannot, therefore, claim it to be English any more -than we can claim it to be definite. Perhaps the -puff-balls of our autumn woods supply the best -example of a musty smell.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Mawkish,” however, is certainly English, as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>it is derived from an old word, still used, by the -way, in Scotland—“mauk,” a maggot. “Dank,” -again, means moist, and is the smell of damp, cold -places. “Stuffy” also, which is a modern -application to a smell, is the odour of a close, -badly ventilated room, where we feel oppressed, -as if half stifled.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But these words—and there are not many more -of them—are only applied vaguely and to general -classes of odours. We never say of any one in -particular that, <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">e.g.</span></i>, “This is the smell called -‘dank,’” in the precise way we can say: “That -colour is green,” or “That sound is a whistle.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>We may even go further. We know that the -flavour of things tasted is an olfactory sensation. -Now while language attains to precision in -characterising the sensations of pure taste, as we -have just seen, it is significant that flavours are left -unnamed, except in the manner we have just -explained for olfactory epithets.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The scanty number of odorous terms in English -has of late been copiously added to by words -borrowed from other languages, chiefly, it is said, -from the Persian.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Musk,” for instance, is Persian. “Aroma” -is pure Greek, and if Liddell and Scott’s suggested -derivation of <span lang="grc" xml:lang="grc">ἄρωμα</span> (a spice) from the Sanscrit -<em>ghrâ</em> (a smell) is correct, then the original meaning -<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>of “aromatic” is merely “smelly.” “Mephitic,” -not a popular word even now, comes from the -Latin <em>mephitis</em>, “a foul, pestilential exhalation -from the ground, often sulphury in character, as -from volcanic regions.” The brimstone odour of -the devil—of which more anon—is mephitic.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now we must here discriminate. Etymologists, -delving down among the roots of our spoken -language, come, so they say, to a point at which -even the simplest epithet, even the plainest -description of a sensation, is seen to derive from -some object. Obviously this must be so in the -beginning, whether or not etymologists are always -correct in their particular ascriptions. An adjective -describing, and later denoting, a quality, is generalised -from some object bearing that quality. A -“stony” countenance is a countenance rigid as -stone. So in like manner, we are told, even the -names of colours, deeply embedded in the language -though they be, are ultimately referable to objects -bearing that colour. “Brown,” to take the least -dubitable instance, is the colour of burnt—“brunt”—things, -while “blue,” according to -authority, like the Scots “blae,” means “livid” -really, and is connected with “blow,” being the -colour left after a blow. (But we say “a black -eye”!)</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus the descriptive epithets not only of smell, -but also of sight, are ultimately derived from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>objects. But there is this great difference between -them: the names of colours take us back to near -the original trunk from which the Aryan languages -branch off, whereas the names of odours, to this -day still vague and indeterminate (at least in -popular phraseology), are derived from the spoken -tongue of to-day, or, in some cases, from foreign -languages, and are, therefore, but recent additions.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This delay in the naming of classes of odours -justifies the statement made at the outset of this -section that smell is speechless. It shows, in -other words, that although, as we have seen, its -influence upon the mind may be profound, yet -that influence does not extend as far as the speech-centres. -It remains largely in the subconsciousness.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We should be guilty of error, however, were we -to conclude that the scantiness of olfactory names -is due to the lack of recognition by the consciousness -of early man of smell in general, or to a failure -to distinguish between different odours, because -savages, in general less discriminating and analytical -than cultured races, have, there is every -reason to believe, a more acute and highly perfected -olfactory sense. It has been reported that -the North American Indian was able to track his -enemy or his game by the scent alone, and Humboldt -has recorded a similar acuteness on the part -<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>of the Indians of Peru. While admitting the -marvellous skill of the American Indians in following -up their quarry, most of us will, I imagine, be -inclined to doubt whether its dependence upon -smell is a true inference from the facts observed. -Skill in woodcraft can be brought to such marvellous -perfection that it may seem like magic to the -onlooker—like magic, or like scent!</p> - -<p class='c011'>Further, although we are able to distinguish -clearly enough between different odours, the -identification and the naming of odours does not -come easy to us. <em>Parfumeurs</em> and druggists, no -doubt, by the daily education of the sense, attain -to a high degree of skill in this art, but those who -have not cultivated their powers will find it very -difficult, as the amusing parlour-game of guessing -the names of concealed foodstuffs and spices shows. -The difficulty is, like the paucity of olfactory -terms, probably due to an absence of ready communication -between the olfactory and speech -centres in the brain.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER V<br /> <span class='large'>SMELL IN FOLK-LORE, RELIGION, AND HISTORY</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Evidence of olfactory influences is encountered -in folk-lore not infrequently, particularly in connection -with primitive medicine, and survivals of -old olfactory methods of treatment are still extant, -not only in the doings of the wise women of our -remoter country villages, but also, as we shall see, -in modern scientific medicine.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Treatment by fumigation is perhaps the most -widely prevalent of these.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Probably the earliest motive for “smoking” a -patient was merely the replacing of an offensive -by a pleasant odour, as we find it frequently -employed in malodorous conditions. Here the -practice links up with ancient ideas on epidemic -diseases.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Behind this rationale, however, there lies perhaps -the idea of association of death with the -fœtor of decomposition and the expectation that a -pleasant aromatic odour will naturally “obviate -the tendency to death.” This view of the matter -must have become strengthened among nations -like the ancient Egyptians, who had discovered that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>aromatic substances might be relied upon to -preserve the body after death. Even in recent -times and countries similar customs have prevailed. -Scott in “The Bride of Lammermoor” -tells us that rosemary, southernwood, rue and -other plants were in Scotland strewn on the body -after death, and were “burned by way of fumigation -in the chimney.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Be that as it may, we find fumigation employed -all over the world as a rite of purification, particularly -during the menstrual and puerperal -periods, women being at those times regarded as -unclean or taboo.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Later, in the natural course of evolution, -fumigation comes under the category of anti-demoniac -remedies.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When disease was ascribed to the operation of -demons in residence in the patient’s body, a belief -at one time world-wide in its distribution, the -treatment mostly relied upon to cure the disease, -and, granting the premises, a perfectly rational -therapeutic method, was by various devices to -render the patient’s body too uncomfortable for -the demon. And among many other modes of -securing this desirable end was the smoking of the -demon out by strong odours, fumes being generated -around the patient by burning horns, hair, and -certain odoriferous woods and plants. Among -the Chippeway Indians, we are told, a species of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>cypress was set on fire for this purpose, and the -efficacy of the remedy was heightened by the -needle-shaped leaves of the tree flying off and -sticking in the spirit.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Sometimes a medical man may feel disposed to -smile when he sees the priest in church “censing” -the Bible in order to drive away the evil one before -he begins to read it. Yet fumigation has lingered -on long in medicine as well as in religion. During -the severe epidemics of cholera in Egypt not so -many years ago, hundreds of pounds weekly were -spent upon bonfires of sulphur in the streets of -Cairo, a method of disinfection more likely to -drive off demons than to destroy the comma -bacillus in the drinking-water!</p> - -<p class='c012'>In mediæval, Jacobean, and Georgian medicine, -fumigation was a favourite remedy. Every one, -for example, is familiar with the old-fashioned -treatment of fainting by burning feathers under -the nose. And perfumes and aromatics in general -were widely used in the medicine of those days, -as the following extract from Salmon’s “Dispensatory” -(1696) shows:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“<em>Balsamum Apoplecticum Horstii</em>, Apoplectick Balsam -of Horstius.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“<em>Take of the Oils of Nutmegs</em> ℥i, <em>of white Amber rectified</em> -℥ʃ, <em>Roses (commonly called Adeps Rosarum) of Cinnamon</em> A. -℈i., <em>of Lavender</em>, <em>of Marjoram</em> A. grs. xv. <em>of Benjamin</em>, <em>of -Rue</em> A. ℈ʃ <em>of Cloves</em>, <em>of Citrons</em> A. grs. iv. <em>Mix all well -together, then add Ambergrise</em> ʒʃ, <em>Oriental Civet</em> ℈iv., <em>Choice -<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>Musk</em> ʒi. <em>Mix all according to Art, to the just consistence -of a Balsam.</em></p> - -<p class='c012'>“<em>Salmon.</em> The Oil of Nutmegs is that made by expression, -all the rest are Chymical. <em>Horstius</em> saith, that in the -whole Republick of Medicine, there is scarcely found an -Apoplectick Balsam more illustrious for Fame, more noble -for Virtue, more worthy for Honour, more ready for Help, -and more fragrant for smell, than this. It chears and -comforts all the spirits, natural, vital, and animal, by -anointing the extremities of the Nostrils and the Pulses. -It cures Convulsions, Palsies, Numbness, and other Diseases -proceeding of cold.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>The modern physician may think this Balsam -“apoplectick” in a sense never dreamt of by its -author; nevertheless he must also sigh for the -faith that believed all those wonders.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Here is another from the same source for “the -strengthening of memory”:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“<em>Balsamum Maemonicus</em> (sic) <em>Sennerti</em>. Balsam for -the loss of Memory.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“℞ <em>of the juices of Bawm</em>, <em>Basil</em>, <em>flowers of Sage</em>, <em>Lillies</em>, -<em>Primroses</em>, <em>Rosemary</em>, <em>Lavender</em>, <em>Borrage</em>, <em>Broom</em>, A. ℥ii.; -<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Aqua Vitae</span></i>, <em>Water-lillies</em>, <em>Roses</em>, <em>Violets</em>, A. ℥i.; <em>Cubebs</em>, -<em>Cardamoms</em>, <em>Grains of Paradise</em>, <em>yellow Sanders</em>, <em>Corpo -balsamum</em>, <em>Orrice</em>, <em>Saffron</em>, <em>Savory</em>, <em>Peony</em>, <em>Tyme</em>, A. ℥ʃ; -<em>Storax liquid and Calamita</em>, <em>Opopanax</em>, <em>Bdellium</em>, <em>Galbanum</em>, -<em>Gum of Ivy</em>, <em>Labdanum</em>, A. ʒvi.; <em>Roots of Peony</em>, <em>long Birthwort</em>, -<em>Oils of Turpentine</em>, <em>Spike</em>, <em>Costus</em>, <em>Juniper</em>, <em>Bays</em>, -<em>Mastick</em>, <em>Baben</em>, <em>Lavender</em>, A. ʒv. <em>Pouder them that are to be -poudered, then mix and distil in an Alembick, with a gradual -fire; separate the Balsam from the Water.</em></p> - -<p class='c012'>“<em>Salmon.</em> In this we have put flowers of Sage instead -of Mynica or Tamarisk: otherwise it is <em>verbatim</em>. It is a -truly noble Cephalick, and it is reported to cause a perpetual -memory, both Water and Balsom are excellent good against -all cold Diseases: you may anoint the hinder part of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>Head, the Nostrils and Ears therewith. Dose gut. iii. ad vi. -This is that Balsam which <em>Charles</em>, Duke of <em>Burgundy</em> -bought of an English Doctor for 10000 Florentines.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>It is to be noted, by the way, the odours do not -“strengthen the memory” as a whole; what they -do is to revive special memories.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The use of perfumes like camphor to ward off -infection has long been in vogue. The pompous -doctors of Hogarth’s time—just 200 years ago—carried -walking-sticks the hollow handle of which -formed a receptacle for camphor, musk, or other -pungent substances, which they held to their noses -when visiting patients, to guard against the smells -that to them spelt infection. And the air of the -Old Bailey used to be, and indeed still is, sweetened -with herbs strewn on the Bench, lest the prisoner -about to be condemned to death by the rope -might return the compliment and sentence his -judge to death by gaol-fever. To this day, also, -herbs are strewn about the Guildhall on state and -ceremonial occasions, an interesting survival.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Demoniac possession was also largely responsible -for the nauseous and disgusting remedies of -which early medicine, both among the folk and -among the more educated medical men, was very -fond.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Paracelsus was a great believer in such concoctions, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>one of which, <em>zebethum occidentale</em>, was -his own invention. Fortunately I am not compelled -to divulge the constitution of this remarkable -remedy. All I need say is that it was by no -means the “cassia, sandal-buds, and stripes of -labdanum” of Browning’s “Paracelsus”!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Those unspeakable medicaments were (and are -still) sometimes applied externally, sometimes -administered internally. One of the most absurd -variants of this class was the holding of divers foulsmelling -mixtures under the patient’s nose for the -cure of hysteria, the idea being that the stench -would repel the “mother” from the patient’s -throat, whither it had wandered through sheer -boredom and lack of interest elsewhere.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nevertheless, out of these most absurd and to us -meaningless methods of treatment modern medicine -has here and there selected remedies which -experiment and experience have proved to be of -value; valerian, for example, which is still largely -employed for hysterical conditions, and asafœtida -(popularly named “devil’s dung”).</p> - -<p class='c012'>As a matter of fact, many pungent, strong-smelling -substances are powerful cardiac and -muscular stimulants.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Nor must we overlook the carminatives, the -pleasantly smelling dill, aniseed, rue and peppermint, -the very names of which bring to our minds -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>the sweetness of old country places and the efforts, -not always vain, to quiet screaming country babies! -Well are they named the <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">carminatives</span></i>, acting as -they do “like a charm.”</p> - -<p class='c011'>In the Æneid we are told how once upon a time -his divine mother was revealed to pious Æneas -by a heavenly odour. And although Lucian -intimates that the gods themselves enjoyed the -smell of incense, yet, according to Elliot Smith, -the real object of incense-burning was to impart -the body-odour of the god to his worshippers. -Something of the kind, whatever the primary -motive may have been, must have been needed, -one would imagine, to drown the unpleasant smells -from the abattoirs in the temples where the sacrificial -animals were slaughtered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The wrath of the Lord God of the Hebrews -after the Flood, it will be remembered, was -appeased when he smelled the sweet savour of the -burnt offerings of Noah on his emergence from -the Ark. The sacrifice was, of course, the meal of -the god, the flesh of bullocks, rams, doves, and -what not, being spiritualised by the flames and so -transformed into food a spirit could absorb. The -Greek gods, it is true, refreshed themselves with -such ethereal delicacies as nectar and ambrosia, -but they were by no means indifferent to the square -meal of roast beef so punctiliously provided for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>them by human purveyors. Homer is always -careful to mention that, as often as a feast was -toward, neither the gods nor the bards were -forgotten, the former being fed before and the -latter after the heroes themselves had been -satisfied.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When, following the Persian division of the -unseen world of spirits into good and bad, the idea -of an evil-minded and consistently hostile god -became popular, his odour was naturally enough -the opposite of that of the kindly gods. And as in -time he came to assume some of the attributes of -the Roman <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">di inferni</span></i>, he, like the dragons of an -even greater antiquity, sported the sulphury odour -of his underground dwelling.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Northern nations of ancient Europe, Grimm -tells us, believed that hell was a place of burning -pitch, whence arose an intolerable stench. -Our English word “smell” is obviously -related to a German dialect word for hell—<em>smela</em>—which -in turn is itself akin to the Bohemian -<em>smola</em>, resin or pitch.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The Christian “hell” was thus the lineal -descendant of the subterranean “Hades” of the -pagans, and what its stench was like may be -gathered from that of the noxious fumes that -rise out of clefts in volcanic rocks, such fumes, -we may suppose, as in earlier days threw the -Oracle at Delphi into her prophetic trances. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>(Some authorities, however, say that it was the -smoke of burning bay-leaves that the Oracle -inhaled.)</p> - -<p class='c012'>The offensive odour of hell adheres to all the -devils right down to modern times. In the Middle -Ages you could always tell the Evil One by his -sulphurous stink, but, unfortunately for the -tempted, it was not usually observed until after -his departure.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But evil odours not only attended the devil -himself: they were also generated by the sins. -For St. Joseph of Copertino, “seeing beneath the -envelope of the body,” was able to recognise the -sins of the flesh by their odour. And St. Paconi, -so it was said, could even smell out heretics in his -day, presumably in the same way as witches are -now discovered in Africa.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Moreover, as the devil and his minions are -attended with a vile smell, the odour of their -infernal home, so naturally they detest what -we call sweet and aromatic perfumes and are -repelled by them, as the following tale from -Sinistrari of Ameno shows. I give it <em>verbatim</em> -as it appears in Sax Rohmer’s “Romance of -Sorcery”:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“In a certain monastery of holy nuns there lived as a -boarder a young maiden of noble birth who was tempted by -an Incubus, that appeared to her by day and by night, and -with the most earnest entreaties, the manners of a most -passionate lover, incessantly incited her to sin; but she, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>supported by the grace of God and the frequent use of the -Sacraments, stoutly resisted the temptation. But all her -devotions, fasts, and vows notwithstanding, despite the -exorcisms, the blessings, the injunctions showered by -exorcists on the Incubus that he should desist from molesting -her, in spite of the crowd of relics and other holy objects -collected in the maiden’s room, of the lighted candles kept -burning there all night, the Incubus none the less persisted -in appearing to her as usual in the shape of a very handsome -young man.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“At last among other learned men whose advice had been -taken on the subject was a very erudite Theologian, who, -observing that the maiden was of a thoroughly phlegmatic -temperament, surmised that the Incubus was an aqueous -demon (there are in fact, as is testified by Guaccius, igneous, -aerial, phlegmatic, earthly, subterranean demons, who -avoid the light of day) and prescribed an uninterrupted -fumigation of the room.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“A new vessel, made of glass like earth, was accordingly -brought in, and filled with sweet cane, cubeb seed, roots of -both aristolochies, great and small cardamom, ginger, long-pepper, -caryophylleae, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmegs, -calamite, storax, benzoin, aloes wood and roots, one ounce -of triapandalis, and three pounds of half brandy and water; -the vessel was then set on hot ashes in order to distil the -fumigating vapour, and the cell was kept closed.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“As soon as the fumigation was done, the Incubus came, -but never dared enter the cell; only, if the maiden left it -for a walk in the garden or the cloister, he appeared to her, -though invisible to others, and, throwing his arms around -her neck, stole or rather snatched kisses from her, to her -intense disgust.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“At last, after a new consultation, the Theologian prescribed -that she should carry about her person pills made of -the most exquisite perfumes, such as musk, amber, chive, -Peruvian balsam, etc. Thus provided, she went for a walk -in the garden, where the Incubus suddenly appeared to her -with a threatening face, and in a rage. He did not approach -her, however, but, after biting his finger as if meditating -revenge, disappeared, and was nevermore seen by her.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>On the other hand, the odour of sanctity in -mediæval times was a much more real perfume -than that in which the Jackdaw of Reims died. It -does not seem, so far as I can make out from my -reading, that the sweet smell of the Saints was ever -remarked in the early centuries of the Christian -era. The odour diffused around his pillar by St. -Simeon Stylites, for example, was by no means -pleasant. But by A.D. 1000 the sweetness of the -Saints’ persons was beginning to pervade the -religious atmosphere. Writing about that time, -Odericus Vitalis tells us that “from the sepulchre -of St. Andrew” (at Patras, Asia Minor) “manna -like flour and oil of an exquisite odour flow, which -indicate to the inhabitants of that country” what -the crops will be like that year. And the example -thus set by this apostle is followed by all other -saintly personages for many centuries.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In England, we read that when the Blessed -Martyr Alban’s burial place on the hill above -Verulamium was opened, in obedience to a sign -from heaven in the shape of a flash of lightning, -the good people were enraptured by the delicious -fragrance of the Saint’s remains, and the same -characteristic attended those of the later martyr -Thomas à Becket.</p> - -<p class='c012'>St. Thomas à Kempis is credited with the statement -that the chamber of the blessed Leduine was -so charmingly odorous that people who were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>privileged to enter it were delighted, and wishing -to enjoy her perfume to the full, were wont to -approach their faces close to the bosom of the -Saint, “who seemed to have become a casket in -which the Lord had deposited His most precious -perfumes.” After the death of St. Theresa a -salt-cellar which had been placed in her bed preserved -for a long time a most delicious odour. -And so on indefinitely, some of the stories being, -as might be expected, a little too plain-spoken and -artless for modern readers.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is difficult to account for the pleasant odour -of Saints whose pride it was to live without change -of raiment, to harbour parasites, and to abstain -from washing. Nevertheless that certain persons -exhale a naturally pleasant aroma from their bodies -is true. Alexander the Great is noted by Plutarch -as having so sweet an odour that his tunics were -soaked with aromatic perfume, and taking a flying -leap through the pages of history, we come to -Walt Whitman, who had the same characteristic. -Indeed, a piny aromatic odour, of considerable -strength, is occasionally noticeable in certain -people, and I can myself testify that it becomes -stronger on the approach of their death.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We are not often told when historical heroes -were unpleasant in this respect, but in the case of -Louis XIV. we have the authoritative evidence of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>Madame Montespan, who after their “divorce, -when having a public set-to with her sun-god in -the glittering <em>salles</em> of Versailles, discomfited that -little, red-heeled, bewigged, and pompous mannikin -with the following broadside:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“With all my imperfections, at least I do not -smell as badly as you do!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>His ancestor, “Lewis the Eleventh,” says -Burton in “The Anatomy of Melancholy,” “had -a conceit everything did stink about him. All the -odoriferous perfumes they could get would not -ease him, but still he smelled a filthy stink.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>A modern rhinologist would suspect this -monarch of having been afflicted with maxillary -antrum suppuration. It will be noted, however, -that there is no record that the odour he himself -perceived was perceptible to others. The fœtor, -as we say, was subjective, not objective, in which -respect it differed from that of another historical -personage, Benjamin Disraeli to wit, who was the -subject probably of the disease known as ozæna. -(See later.)</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER VI<br /> <span class='large'>THE ULTIMATE</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>In a former chapter we dwelt upon the curious -fact that memories aroused by olfactory stimuli -are independent of the will. Now there is yet -another way in which smell ignores the head of the -cerebral hierarchy.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Although on occasion confining its operations to -the subconsciousness, and exercising, so to speak, -only a backstairs influence upon the mind, olfaction -much more frequently insists upon recognition, -breaking in upon our privacy, like a disreputable -acquaintance, at most inopportune -moments.</p> - -<p class='c012'>If you do not wish to see you can look the other -way. When you would rather not hear you can -be inattentive. A proffered handshake you can -ignore. A dish you dislike you may decline. But -you can’t help smelling—no, not even if you -turn up your nose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Olfaction is thus the great leveller among the -senses, equality having here a reality but rarely -found elsewhere. For odour makes its way into -the nose of king and cadger, duke and drayman, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>lady and lout, indifferently. Nay, by an -ironical law of olfaction the fœtors are more -powerful than the fragrances, and vervain the -feeble turns tail before the onslaught of scatol -(as well it might, indeed!), in which case there -is nothing to be done but to bear it (without the -grin mostly); or to follow the wise example of -vervain; or to remove the offence, as we have done -in England these latter days, only to render ourselves, -as I have carefully pointed out in Chapter I., -all the more sensitive to it when it does come.</p> - -<p class='c012'>To many of us it comes on the dog.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This animal has a regrettable fondness for -wallowing, diligently and with forethought, in the -Abominable, until his coat is thoroughly well -impregnated. For no other reason, I do verily -believe, than, as he thinks, to give his human -friends for once some of the olfactory pleasure he -himself enjoys. A treat he thinks it, without any -doubt. Just look at the smirk of pride and satisfaction -on his face as he trots in and resumes his -place on the drawing-room hearthrug and the -amazement with which he receives the sudden toe -of your boot!</p> - -<p class='c012'>And yet he rolls himself over on the odoriferous -for the same reason that a fashionable lady has -orris-root put in her bath; namely, for the -pleasure and gratification of society at large. -There are who say that my lady’s perfume seems -<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>as vile to her Pekinese as his then does to her! -If so, he is the more tolerant animal of the two.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Anyhow, he certainly has the knack of thrusting -the Unmentionable upon the attention of the -most fastidious, and smell is no longer speechless.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Now, if we are to treat fully of things olfactory, -we must at least take cognisance of the Unmentionable. -But to extend our notice would -take us across the garden to the muckrake and the -dunghill. And such nearer investigation and -description I must decline, even although in these -days of outspokenness I may have to apologise for -Victorian squeamishness. To attain merit as a -writer the advice now given you is: Be frank! -And if you disgust, why, so much the better!</p> - -<p class='c012'>That may be so. I do not question the value of -the advice, not for a moment. All I say is that -I prefer not to take it. And if somebody else -desires this particular laurel-crown, this crown of -tainted laurel, he shall wear it without arousing -any envy upon my part, albeit, as I know full well, -this is a branch of the subject which illuminates -many obscurities and seeming eccentricities in -human conduct. I know all about that, but, as -Herodotus so often says, I am not going to tell all -I know, although, I fear, an allusion or two may -be necessary.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>We may take it as on the whole true that a -repulsive odour is a dangerous odour. Not -invariably, however. Otherwise grouse in their -season would not be esteemed a dainty and -Gorgonzola would everywhere be buried. Nevertheless -in these high realms palatability is limited -to quite a narrow streak. There is a level beyond -which the boldest gastronomic adventurer dare -not climb.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is remarkable that the liking for half-decomposed -food, although an acquired taste, is found -everywhere in the world, among savage and -civilised, rich and poor, high and low—but not -among young and old. For young people do not -usually approve of such <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">recherché</span></i> flavours. It -would be a mistake, however, to argue from that -fact that these savoury meats act as fillips to a -sense jaded with age, because it is generally agreed -that neither smell nor taste declines in acuteness -as we grow old. On the contrary, they become -more instructed, more particular, more delicate. -Appetite declines if you like, but taste and smell -abide increasingly unto the end.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nevertheless we can only look upon this particular -liking as acquired, since the high relish of -one country but fills its neighbours with disgust.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is worthy of remark, perhaps, that the last -whiff, the final sublimated breath of ripe Gorgonzola -as it passes over, is a faint suggestion of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>ammonia. Curiously enough, this always fills my -imagination with the sack of cities and the end of -all things in smoke and thunder. It may be -because the penultimate phase of life itself is -ammonia. Fire, slaughter, and much more besides -come quite promptly to this gas for the City of -Destruction, what there is left of the remainder -in dust and ashes being but a handful for the wind.</p> - -<p class='c011'>To the keen-sensed medical man certain morbid -states can be recognised by their exhalations. -I have even heard of an enthusiast on the subject -who alluded to them as “both visible and tangible”; -but that, I think, must be exceptional.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Physicians of the last generation used to speak -of typhus fever as having a close, mawkish odour, -and the smell of smallpox is horrible. But these, -as well as the appalling stench of the hospitals in -olden days, are among the smells which have, for -the most part, fled our country.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There are others, however, less powerful and -repugnant, which are still with us, and which we -recognise as among the prominent characteristics -of certain maladies, the acid smell of acute -rheumatism for one, and I have sometimes -thought I could detect a characteristic odour also -in acute nephritis, a smell resembling that of chaff. -The odour of a big hæmorrhage is unmistakable -and, to obstetricians particularly, ominous.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>Then there is the smell of mice which attends -upon the skin disease known as favus.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The breath of a chronic drunkard is familiar -enough to everybody, and the more delicate aroma -in the circumambient atmosphere of the careful -tippler, ethereal and by no means unpleasant, will -often reveal to the physician the hidden cause of -obscure symptoms. It is particularly valuable -when your patient is, as so many of these secret -drinkers are, a woman, it may be a woman of good -social standing.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A disease-odour of great value and significance -is the sweet-smelling breath caused by acetone -poisoning in the later stages of diabetes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A sweet smell is also said by Bacon to attend -plague:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“The plague is many times taken without a manifest -sense, as hath been said. And they report that, where it is -found, it hath the scent of a smell of a mellow apple; and -(as some say) of May-flowers; and it is also received that -smells of flowers that are mellow and luscious are ill for the -plague, as white lilies, cowslips and hyacynth.” (Quoted -by Creighton, “A History of British Epidemics,” p. 685, -f.n.)</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c011'>Death sometimes heralds his approach by means -of an odour, said in some parts of the country to -bring ravens about the house, which may well be -true, as it is apparently a summons of the same -nature that calls the Indian vulture in flocks from -apparently untenanted skies. Birds in general, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>however, seem to belong to the microsmatic group -of animals, relying chiefly upon their vision, -which is often highly perfected, particularly for -distance.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Much has been made, too much perhaps, of the -part played by olfaction in the sex-life, and its -undoubted prominence in the coupling of four-footed -animals is pointed to as an indication of its -potency in mankind also. But the reasoning is -fallacious. Olfactory influences predominate in -these animals simply because olfaction is their -principal sense.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Among birds, now, courtship and marriage are -conducted without any apparent aid from olfaction, -and in no group of beings, not even in mankind, -is the poetic side of courtship, both before -and after marriage, so highly developed and so -beautifully displayed. In their love-making the -birds appeal to each other through the ear in their -songs, and through the eye in the nuptial splendours -of the male, splendours which he parades -with glorious pomp before what often seems to -be, indeed, but a lackadaisical and indifferent -spouse.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As we have already seen, this independence of -olfactory stimuli is, so far as obvious indications -go, also the case with human lovers. True, we -have numerous references by poets to the sweetness -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>of their ladies’ breath, only one, as far as I -know, being blunt enough to say:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“And in some perfumes there is more delight</div> - <div class='line'>Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c016'>But the sum and substance of Havelock Ellis’s -exhaustive inquiry on this point is undoubtedly -this, that if a lover loves the aroma of his lady, that -is because of his love, not because of her inherent -sweetness. In other words, the attraction, subtle -though it be, at least in the early or romantic stage, -is seldom or never obviously olfactory. It is the -suggestion of closer intimacy that constitutes the -attraction of her nearer environment, and this -suggestion is the offspring of the lover’s imagination.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As to the influence of her personal emanation -in the second, the realistic, stage, there also, it -would seem, its power is subsidiary, certainly to -that of touch, although more active than that of -sight and hearing, seeing that the holy of holies is -only unveiled in darkness and in silence.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As for our opinion in everyday life, I think most -people will subscribe to the old adage “<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mulier -bene olet dum nihil olet</span></i>.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER VII<br /> <span class='large'>SMELL AND THE PERSONALITY</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>Whatever of myth there may be in the quaint -stories we related in Chapter V., there is no doubt -about this, that there is great variety among -different individuals in respect to their personal -atmosphere. I mean the natural atmosphere of -the person, of course, not the artificial airs that -surround and envelop the beperfumed modern -lady.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There is no need to enlarge upon this branch of -our subject. Those who are curious about it may -apply themselves to Havelock Ellis for more -detailed information. What I am concerned with -here is something much less commonplace and -obvious, the question, namely, whether we disseminate -and receive, each of us, anything less -material than the odours we are conscious of.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In addition to his other olfactory accomplishments, -our friend the dog seems to be able to distinguish -by smell when a strange dog is to be -cultivated as a friend or wrangled with as a foe, -and nothing is more amusing to watch than the -careful and even suspicious olfactory investigation -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>two dogs meeting for the first time make of each -other’s odours, during which exchange of credentials -a state of armed neutrality exists, to pass, -apparently as a result of some mysterious olfactory -decision, either into frank, open, and unchangeable -hostility, or into friendship equally frank, -open, and unchangeable.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But what it is that makes one dog smell to -another of enmity or of friendship is as mysterious -as—the mutual attraction or repulsion felt for -each other by two human beings, shall we say? -For, of course, this suspense of judgment on -encountering a new-comer is a human no less -than a canine trait. There were physiognomists -before Lavater, since we are naturally influenced -by what our senses, and especially our eyes and our -ears, tell us about a person we are meeting for the -first time. We like the look of the man, his -expression, his smile, the character of his movements, -bodily as well as facial; we find the intonation -of his voice, his accent, his laugh, agreeable. -Or we don’t. And our decision is curiously -independent of his moral character, even after we -have got to know that side of him. Now, this act -of judgment seems to us to be quite independent -of any olfactory evidence. We rely upon our predominant -senses just as the dog relies upon his. -Yet I sometimes catch myself wondering whether -olfaction, olfaction rarefied and refined beyond -<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>imagining, does not without our knowledge play -some part in our estimate of the pros and cons in -character.</p> - -<p class='c012'>What is conveyed to us by the “personality” -of a man? Here we have apparently a complex -of sense-impressions, for the most part vague, -which we are seldom able to analyse, even to -ourselves. Still less can we put it into words -capable of conveying our impression to other -people. “There is <em>something</em> about him that I -like” is about the sum-total of our attempts at -description.</p> - -<p class='c012'>And if this be true as between man and man, it -is even more often remarked as between man and -woman. Meredith it is, I think, who says that the -surest way to a woman’s heart is through her eye. -Fortunately for most of us, his dictum is open to -question. Otherwise the human race would soon -come to an end. Now, although, unlike Meredith, -I cannot claim the rank of a high-priest in the -temple of Venus, yet so far as I may dare to express -an opinion upon a matter so recondite, not to say -mysterious, I should rather be inclined to say that -the surest route is by way of her ear, and I am -fortified in my belief by an authority as erudite in -these matters as Meredith himself, Shakespeare to -wit:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man</div> - <div class='line'>If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>John Wilkes, they say, to all appearance a “most -uninteresting-looking man,” asked for only half an -hour of a start to beat the handsomest gentleman -in England at the game of games. Women forgot -what he was like as soon as he began to talk.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Who has not seen women turning sidelong -glances, with that surreptitious intentness we all -know so well, towards some very ordinary man in -whose voice they, but not we, detect the indefinable -something that has the power of luring these shy -creatures from their inaccessible retreats? What -man has not seen this play and puzzled over it? -The quality—is it perhaps something caressing, -or something brutal and ultra-masculine, or -both at once? Who knows what it is that their -intuition perceives?</p> - -<p class='c012'>So we ask, we less favoured mortals, as we turn -and look at him also, hard and long, only to give -it up with a shrug!</p> - -<p class='c011'>When I am one of a crowd under the spell of an -orator—a rare bird, by the way, in England—I feel -his power less in what he says than in how he says -it. Gladstone, for example, swayed his audience -by the fervour of his personality, not by any beauty -of word or thought in his rhetoric. How meaningless -his speeches seem to us nowadays as we vainly -try to read them, how involved, discursive, -ambiguous, turgid. How dull! And yet we -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>know that these same involved, discursive, ambiguous, -turgid and dull speeches could and did -rouse hard-bitten Scotsmen to a wildness of -enthusiasm that seems to us incredible.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Thus the personality is something that travels -on the wings of sound. But is that all? Is there -not something more, something imperceptible -which yet exercises a secret power over our -emotions and passions? Is there an olfactory aura?</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“Why does the elevation of the Host in a Roman -Catholic church bring such an assurance of peace to the -congregation?” writes a friend of mine. “This remarkable -sensation I have myself frequently experienced and -wondered at. Yet I am, as you know, a Scots Presbyterian, -and do not credit for a single moment the miraculous change -of bread and wine. And yet to this gracious and comforting -influence I have been subject on more than one occasion. -It is for all the world as if the constant pin-pricks of our -normal life were suspended for a moment or two.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is present only during service, and then only at the -culmination of the rite.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“As I do not believe in the miracle, the influence must -come to me from without, not from within myself. Indeed, -I have actually come to the conclusion that it is borne in -upon me not by the church atmosphere with its incense, -nor by the solemn intonation of the priest, nor by the -whisper of the muted organ, nor yet by the distant murmur -of the choir, but—by the congregation itself!</p> - -<p class='c012'>“It is from the kneeling worshippers that the mysterious -influence emanates, invisibly, inaudibly, intangibly, to -suffuse with the peace of some other world the spirit even -of an unbeliever....”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>Is it possible that influences such as these may -enter by the olfactory door?</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>This perhaps may seem to be rather a fanciful -suggestion for a scientifically trained writer to -offer. But it is not wholly fanciful, since it has -some support at least from theory (whatever that -may be worth), and even from some considerations -based upon solid fact.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As to theory, we have already seen how Fabre -arrived at the conclusion that the olfactory sense -of certain insects is capable of receiving stimuli to -which we are insensitive, stimuli which he surmised -to be of the nature of an ethereal vibration. -Consider too the following facts.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is well known that there are people who have -an instinctive dislike of cats. The late Lord -Roberts was one, and it is said of him that he was -aware of the presence of his <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">bête noire</span></i> before he -caught sight of it. How was he made aware?</p> - -<p class='c012'>The same instinctive aversion is felt by some -people towards spiders. I myself know of one, a -young girl, who cannot sleep if her bedroom contains -one of these creatures. She, like Lord -Roberts feels without knowing how when a spider -is near her.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Here also is a letter to a newspaper from a -correspondent telling the same tale:</p> - -<blockquote> -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<span class='sc'>Sir</span>,</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>“I notice with interest that the official photographer who -is to accompany Sir Ernest Shackleton’s <em>Quest</em> expedition -has an intense dislike of spiders. Can any of your readers -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>explain this uncanny horror, which I believe is shared by a -large number of people?</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I myself loathe and fear spiders—so much so that I have -been known on more than one occasion to go into a darkened -room and to declare the presence of one of these creatures, -my pet abomination being subsequently discovered....</p> - -<div class='lg-container-r'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“F. E.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -</blockquote> - -<p class='c011'>What sense-organ—because there must be -one—enables F. E. and others like him (or -her) to detect the presence of a small creepy-crawly?</p> - -<p class='c012'>We turn now to a series of medical cases which -may throw some light upon this peculiarity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There are people who suffer from asthma when -they go near horses. To enter a stable or to sit -behind a horse is to them a certain means of -bringing on an attack.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This susceptibility and the peculiar form taken -by the reaction remind us of hay fever. In -sufferers from this troublesome complaint the -pollen of certain plants has an irritating effect upon -the mucous surfaces of the eyes, nose, and bronchial -tubes. So in like manner recent investigation -has shown that there is in the blood of the -horse a proteid substance which acts as an irritant -poison to those susceptible people. Their asthma, -therefore, is merely a manifestation of the irritation -produced by the poisonous body or its -emanation when it is borne to them through the -air. Similarly we are justified in arguing that cats -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>and spiders may throw off an effluvium which is -irritating to those susceptible to it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But it is to be noted that the antipathy in these -last instances manifests itself, not in a tissue change, -but in a feeling of the mind, an emotion. Nay -more, these people do not smell the cat or the -spider, except in the way that James I. “smelled” -gunpowder. Nevertheless, the irritant must travel -through the air as an odour does, and it probably -enters the organism by the mucous membrane of -the nose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But does it act upon the olfactory cells? Here -we encounter, I must confess, a serious obstacle -to an acceptance of this theory.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The interior of the nose is sensitive not only to -odours, but also to certain chemical irritants. -Any one who has peeled a raw onion or has taken -a good sniff at a bottle of strong smelling-salts -knows what I mean. Now, the chemical irritant, -in the latter case ammonia gas, affects not the -olfactory nerve, but certain naked nerve fibrils in -the mucous membrane belonging to what is known -as the fifth cranial nerve, a nerve of simple -sensation.<a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c017'><sup>[2]</sup></a> And the simultaneous irritation of the -eyelids, and in the case of the pollen and horse -effluvia the bronchial tubes, shows that these -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>resemble in their action the simple chemical -irritants, and not the odours.</p> - -<div class='footnote' id='f2'> -<p class='c012'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. The difference between those two sensations becomes clearly -evident when an anosmic person is peeling an onion. The usual -irritation of the eyes and nose is felt and manifested, but the patient -is unaware of any odour.</p> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>It must be remembered, however, that, as we -have said, the cat and the spider effluvia induce an -emotional effect simply, without local irritation. -And emotional change not only follows, it may -also precede, the perception of an odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The following anecdote of Goethe, for example, -shows how smell may affect the personality before -it is recognised as an odour by the consciousness:</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“An air that was beneficial to Schiller acted on me like -poison,” Goethe said to Eckermann. “I called on him -one day, and as I did not find him at home, I seated myself -at his writing-table to note down various matters. I had -not been seated long before I felt a strange indisposition -steal over me, which gradually increased, until at last I -nearly fainted. At first I did not know to what cause I -should ascribe this wretched, and to me unusual, state, until -I discovered that a dreadful odour issued from a drawer -near me. When I opened it I found, to my astonishment, -that it was full of rotten apples. I immediately went to the -window, and inhaled the fresh air, by which I was instantly -restored. Meanwhile his wife came in, and told me that the -drawer was always filled with rotten apples, because the -scent was beneficial to Schiller, and he could not live -without it.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>I wish to emphasise, for the sake of my argument, -that Goethe underwent a profound constitutional -disturbance, with its attendant discomfort, -before he realised that its cause was an -odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>If, then, an odour can induce such emotional -<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>changes without attracting attention to itself, the -suggestion is not, after all, so very far-fetched that -an emanation proceeding from the worshippers at -the moment of the elevation of the Host in a -Roman Catholic church may be transmitted to the -bystanders through the olfactory door to induce in -them an emotion similar to that felt by the -initiated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It may be objected that Goethe’s experience and -that of my friend are not alike, since Goethe -plainly, though tardily, became aware of a real -odour. It must be remembered, however, that -Goethe was a scientist and naturally gifted, -besides, with an unusual power of introspective -analysis. He found the cause of his disturbance -because he sought for it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Moreover, we learn from Havelock Ellis that -during religious excitement a real (and pleasant) -odour is sometimes perceptible in the atmosphere -around the faithful.</p> - -<p class='c012'>May it not also be the same kind of influence, -transmitted in the same way, that dominates the -mind, in company with impressions received by -sight and hearing, when we are in the vicinity of -other people?</p> - -<p class='c011'>Our study of smells has brought us, to be sure, -into a strange region of psychology, for it is -possible that we have here one explanation of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>mysteries of crowd-psychology, of those unreasonable -waves of passion that sometimes -sweep through masses of people and lead to all -manner of strange happenings, like crusades and -holy wars; <i><span lang="pt" xml:lang="pt">autos-da-fé</span></i>; witch-burnings; lynch-murders; -State-prohibition; spiritualistic manifestations; -and other miracles.</p> - -<p class='c011'>(The somewhat uncanny “sense” we have -when some one else is present in what we suppose -to be an empty room may be olfactory in origin, -but it has generally seemed to me that it is due -rather to an alteration in the echo of the room, a -change in its normal sound-picture. If the room -is a strange one to us, I do not think we so readily -become suspicious of the presence of an unseen -and unexpected visitor.)</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER VIII<br /> <span class='large'>THEORIES OF OLFACTION</span><br /> (<i>The <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Pièce de Résistance</span></i>)</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The anatomical structure of the olfactory end-organ -in the nose is, as we saw in Chapter II., -simple.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Contrast it with the eye. Here we have what is -obviously an optical instrument, with lens, iris -diaphragm, dark walls, and sensitive plate complete—a -photographic camera, in a word.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Contrast it also with the ear, which is an -acoustic apparatus reminding us in its detail of a -recording gramophone leading to a closed box in -which are what look like a series of resonators, like -the wires of a piano.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the antechamber of each of those organs the -physical vibrations to which they respond undergo -considerable modification before they reach the -sensory cells.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the antechamber of the olfactory organ, on -the other hand, the amount of modification necessary -is evidently but slight, as the olfactory region -of the nasal chamber is merely a narrow, open -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>passage. As far as we know, all that takes place -is that the incoming stimulus, the odorous molecule, -is warmed and received by the nasal mucus.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus the very complexity of the structure both -of the eye and of the ear helps us to comprehend -their function.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But what can we deduce from a flat surface in -which all we can see is a collection of cells with -minute protoplasmic hairs projecting from their -distal ends? Obviously, little or nothing. We -are, in fact, confounded by simplicity. It may be -that we are here dealing with one of the essential -properties of all living matter, little, if at all, altered -from its primitive condition.</p> - -<p class='c012'>To the physiologist, then, olfaction is the most -mysterious of all the senses. It still retains its -secrets, and therein lies the fascination of its -study.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Of late years, the exploration of this dark -region of physiology has been, and is still being, -vigorously pushed, and we shall now proceed -to give what, however, can only be a brief -and superficial account of the progress made and -of the opinions held. Even so we shall be compelled -to make an incursion into the high and dry -realms of modern chemical and physical theory. -That may not be good hearing, but what is still -worse is that almost every single point we shall be -discussing is a matter of controversy.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>Let us commence with a few of the details, -mostly unimportant, upon which there is general -agreement.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Consider, first of all, the variety, the almost -infinite variety, of odours. We have, for example, -all the odours of the world of Nature, the emanations -of inorganic matter, of the earth itself, its -soil and its minerals; to these we must add the -multitudinous perfumes of the vegetable kingdom, -of barks, roots, leaves, flowers and fruits, including -those of growing herbaceous plants, which differ so -widely from one another that it is said of Rousseau, -whose myopia was compensated for by an unusually -acute sense of smell, and who was, moreover, -no mean botanist, that he could have classified the -plants according to their smell had there been a -sufficiency of olfactory terms for the purpose; -then we have the thousand effluvia, some pleasant -and others not so pleasant, of living animals, -including the various races of mankind; next -come the—mostly repulsive—odours of decaying -vegetable and putrefying animal matter; and -finally the products of man’s own proud ingenuity -and skill, such as the artificial perfumes and -flavours on the one hand and on the other coal-gas, -acetylene, carbon disulphide, and the like.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Parker notes it as worthy of remark that man -has created, both accidentally and intentionally, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>many new odours—smells, that is to say, which -have no fellow in the world of Nature—and he -emphasises the fact that the nose is nevertheless -capable of appreciating such novel sensations.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In this connection we may mention that the art -of modern perfumery can imitate closely many of -the natural perfumes, and more particularly the -natural flavours, by mixing together essences, or -components, which in no way resemble the final -product.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus the flavour of peaches can be compounded -artificially of aldehyde, acetate, formate, butyrate, -valerianate, œnanthylate, and sebate of ethyl, and -salicylate of methyl, with glycerine, glycerine being -added to the fruit essences, as it is to wines, in -order to restrain the evaporation of the volatile -bodies. (The fruit essences are used only in the -making of flavours. They cannot be employed -as perfumes, as they are too irritating to the -nose.)</p> - -<p class='c012'>The union of components to form a product -different from any one of them is found also in -vision. When the colours of the spectrum, for -example, are commingled, the resultant white light -is devoid of any colour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus the potential responsiveness of the olfactory -organ seems to be practically inexhaustible. -So far, at all events, it has not yet reached the limits -of its capacity.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>The number and variety of recognised smells -being so great, then, one can readily understand -how difficult it is to construct a classification of -odours. Many attempts have, in fact, been made, -but, depending as they do more or less upon subjective -sensation, no two classifiers give us the -same classification. Indeed, a division of all -smells into “nice,” “neutral,” and “nasty” -would be about as good as many much more -ambitious efforts.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Zwaardemaker’s is the classification most usually -followed at present, and as it is to him we owe -most of our knowledge of scientific olfaction, we -shall detail it here:</p> - -<p class='c012'>(1) Ethereal or fruity odours; (2) aromatic, -including as sub-classes camphrous, herbaceous, -anisic and thymic, citronous, and the bitter almond -group; (3) balsamic, with sub-groups floral, -liliaceous, and vanillar; (4) ambrosial or muscous; -(5) garlicky (including garlic), oniony, fishy, -and the bromine type of odour; (6) empyreumatic -(guaiacol); (7) caprylic (valerianic acid); -(8) disgusting; and (9) nauseating.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The subjective character of these classes is -obvious, especially in the last two groups, but, -apart from that objection, most people will be -inclined to protest when they learn that chloroform -and iodoform are put into the first, the ethereal or -fruity, group, while it is suggested, though to be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>sure with a query, that coffee, bread, and burnt -sugar may belong to the “repulsive” (pyridine) -group!</p> - -<p class='c012'>The fact is that Zwaardemaker’s classification is -based upon a chemical foundation, that is to say, -upon properties which, as we shall see later on, -do not necessarily correspond with the odours as -we smell them. That, no doubt, explains his -inclusion of iodoform among the “fruity” odours.—Iodoform -fruity!—Shades of George Saintsbury -and his “Cellar Book”!</p> - -<p class='c012'>A shorter classification is that of Heyninx, who, -aiming at objectivity, bases his arrangement, to -some extent at all events, upon the spectrum -analysis of odorous molecules in the atmospheric -medium, of which more anon. His list is: acrid, -rotten, fœtid, burning, spicy, vanillar or ethereal, -and garlicky. But here, also, the coupling of -vanillar with ethereal odours seems a little inappropriate.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We stand, perhaps, on rather firmer ground -when we turn to the manufacturer’s classification, -founded as it is frankly upon subjective sensation, -and therefore devoid of any surprises to the logical -faculty. Here is Rimmel’s arrangement: rose, -jasmine, orange, tuberose, violet, balsam, spice, -clove, camphor, sandal-wood, lemon, lavender, -mint, anise, almond, musk, ambergris, fruit (pear).</p> - -<p class='c012'>It may be objected, perhaps, that this is a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>catalogue merely, not a scientific classification. -That is quite true. But what is also true is that -the others we have quoted are little, if any, better. -The fact is that we do not yet possess the knowledge -necessary to enable us to arrange odours in -classes.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The manufacturers, of course, concern themselves -with agreeable and attractive odours only. -To the great and growing company of the stinks -they pay no attention whatever. For that reason -their contribution to our knowledge is necessarily -but partial and limited.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In their own proper domain, however, they can -point to several great successes. They recognise, -for practical purposes, about eighty primitive -scents. Many natural (to say nothing of many -unnatural) perfumes can now be prepared artificially, -and some so prepared are said to be even -more powerful than the natural productions. -Artificial musk, for example, is one thousand times -stronger than natural musk, Parker tells us. -Deite, on the other hand, says that the smell of -artificial musk is not equal to that of the natural! -Indeed, according to this authority, although -synthetic perfumes play an important part in the -concocting of scents, there are only a few of them -which can be used instead of the natural product. -What happens is that the artificial and the natural -are generally used in combination. Thus the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>“mignonette” of the shops is prepared by passing -geraniol, an artificial odorivector made from -citronella oil, over the natural mignonette flowers, -the resulting product being an essence smelling -strongly of mignonette, and not at all of geraniol.</p> - -<p class='c012'>One or two, as we said, are purely artificial -imitations; coumarin, for example, the “new-mown -hay” of sentimental memory, which used -to be obtained from the tonka bean, is now entirely -made up by the synthetic chemist. But for all the -more subtle essences we have still to rely upon -Nature’s laboratory. The manufacturer steps in -and distils the precious essential oil certainly, but -it is from flowers that he obtains it. Attar of roses, -for instance, contains, in addition to natural -geraniol, a number of other ingredients which have -so far escaped analysis, a hundred thousand roses -supplying only an ounce of it. In like manner a -ton of orange blossom yields but thirty to forty -ounces of the odorous essential oil.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Many of the costly plant perfumes come from -tropical or semi-tropical countries, such as Ceylon, -Mexico, and Peru. But tropical perfumes, though -strong, lack the delicacy of those found in temperate -climates. Cannes, on the Riviera, gives us -roses, acacias, jasmine and neroli; from Nimes -come thyme, rosemary, and lavender oil; from -Nizza, on the Italian Riviera, we get violets; from -Sicily, oranges and lemons; from Italy, iris and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>bergamot. English lavender, until quite recently -the most highly esteemed, came from the towns -of Hitchin and Mitcham. But I am informed that -the growing of lavender in England is no longer -pursued with the same success as formerly, and -we have to regret the disappearance of this old and -truly English industry.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The natural musk, curiously enough, which -comes from the musk-deer of Tibet, is not used in -making musk perfume. It is, however, widely -employed in the perfumer’s art, as it has the -curious property of enhancing the strength of -other perfumes and of rendering them permanent. -Civet, also an animal product, being “the very -uncleanly flux” of the civet cat, has similar properties. -It is added to other perfumes to strengthen -them (“to set them off,” as it were) and to render -them more stable.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But the most curious, and also one of the most -ancient of perfumes is ambergris, which is a -fatty, wax-like substance found floating in the sea -or washed ashore. It comes from places as far -apart as the west coast of Ireland, China, and -South America. The origin of this substance was -for long a mystery. But we know now that it -consists of the undigested remnants of cephalopods -(squids and octopuses) swallowed by the spermaceti -whale. Ambergris is used, like musk and -civet, to render other scents durable.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>But while the victory of the chemist is by no -means so complete as it is in the matter of the dyestuffs, -research is steadily going on, and the next -few years will almost certainly witness an evergrowing -conquest over this department of natural -chemistry.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the meantime chemists are applying themselves -to the creation of new varieties of perfume, -and, if we may judge from those disseminated by -certain ladies in public places, with a success that -startles and even irritates us. Compared with -them, the love-philtres of olden days must have -been but feeble things.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“How d’you know you’re in the right ’bus?” -asked the ’bus conductor of the blind man who was -confidently boarding his vehicle.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“This is the Maida Vale ’bus,” was the contemptuous -reply. “I knows it by the smell o’ -musk.”</p> - -<p class='c011'>The inexhaustible capacity of the olfactory -organ, to which we alluded above, is by no means -its only marvel. It is also of the most wonderful -delicacy, equalling, even if it does not surpass, in -this respect, the sensitiveness of the eye to light.</p> - -<p class='c012'>This property of the smell-organ has been -scientifically estimated. There are many ways of -doing so, that by means of Zwaardemaker’s -olfactometer being perhaps the most popular:</p> - -<div><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span></div> -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“This consists of two tubes that slide one within the -other, and so shaped that one end of the inner tube may be -applied to the nostril. The odorous material is carried on -the inner surface of the outer tube. When the inner tube, -which is graduated, is slipped into the outer one so as to -cover completely its inner face, and air is drawn into the -nostril through the tube, the odorous surface, being covered, -gives out no particles, and no odour is perceived. By adjusting -the inner tube in relation to the outer one, whereby -more or less of the odorous surface is exposed, a point can -be found where minimum stimulation occurs. The amount -of odorous substance delivered under these circumstances -to the air current has been designated by Zwaardemaker as -an olfactie, the unit of olfactory stimulation. Having -determined for a given substance the area necessary for the -delivery of one olfactie, doubling that surface by an appropriate -movement of the inner tube will produce a stimulus -of two olfacties, and so forth. Thus a graded series of -measured olfactory stimuli can easily be obtained. Further, -by using outer tubes carrying different odorous substances -various comparisons can be instituted as measured in -olfacties” (Parker).</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>Instruments more elaborate and of greater -accuracy have, as a matter of fact, been devised -and used, but they need not detain us.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The results obtained by these and other -methods of determining the minimum stimulus of -olfaction are certainly astonishing, and reveal as -nothing else can the delicate acuteness of the -sense.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Fischer and Penzoldt found that they could -plainly smell one milligram of chlorphenol evaporated -in a room of 230 cubic metres capacity. This -is equivalent to 1/230,000,000 of a milligram to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>each cubic centimetre of air, or, assuming 50 cubic -centimetres of air as the minimum needed for olfaction, -the amount of chlorphenol capable of exciting -sensation is 1/4,600,000 of the thousandth part of -a gram—approximately 1/276,000,000 of a grain!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Many other odours have been similarly tested, -and although there is much numerical discrepancy -in the records made by different observers, all -agree as to the extreme delicacy of the sense. -(For vanillin and mercaptan, see p. <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.)</p> - -<p class='c012'>Those experiments and estimations explain how -it comes about that many odours (musk, for -example) may go on giving off their scent until -they part with the whole of it <em>without undergoing -any appreciable loss of weight</em>.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus there is no chemical test known to us so -delicate as olfaction.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It has been found, for example, that over-assiduous -efforts at filtering and purifying the air -used for ventilation so as to remove all noxious -chemical and bacterial ingredients defeat their -own end. Such air, although to our artificial tests -absolutely clean and pure, seems to the sense of -smell to lack freshness. And the nose is right. -The tests are wrong. For sojourn in such an -atmosphere induces lassitude and torpor of mind, -as members of the Houses of Parliament, where -this method has been tried, know to their cost—and -ours.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>But albeit so highly sensitive to minute traces, -the sense occasionally fails to perceive a highly -concentrated odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For example, every one is aware that a bunch of -violets which is filling a room with its fragrance -seems when held to the nose to have no smell at -all, or at the most to have but a vague, indefinable -sort of odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The effect, as a matter of fact, varies with the -perfume employed. Some, like violets, have no -smell at all. Others give a different smell when -concentrated from what they give when dilute. -Muskone, for one, the essential constituent of -musk, has an odour of pines when concentrated; -and storax, a delightful perfume when dilute, is -disagreeable when too powerful, and so on.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is to be noted that the disagreeable character -of these last is not due to the mental “cloying” or -“sickening” of excessive sweetness; it is a -definite odour. Nor is the anosmia for concentrated -violets due to the exhaustion of the -sense.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Heyninx, comparing, as we shall see, olfaction -with vision, believes the indefinite odour of -concentrated violets to be akin to the absence of -colour in white light. But this explanation seems -to me to be improbable, since the effect is due not -to the combination of a number of odours, as white -light is the combination of all the colours of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>spectrum, but to the overpowering influence of -a single odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Indeed, none of the other senses shows the same -phenomenon. If we happen to catch a momentary -glimpse of the noonday sun, we plainly see a disc -of intense light (it is pale blue in colour to my eye), -surrounded by a fiery halo, before it blinds us. -In the same way, when a gun is fired close to the -ear, we hear the sound before we are deafened -by it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is for such reasons that perfumers never sniff -at a bottle of scent; they take a little, rub it on the -back of the hand, and then wait until the spirit has -evaporated before they proceed to smell it.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The exquisite delicacy of the sense might lead -us to suppose that the olfactory organ must be -quick at responding to its proper stimulus. But -such is not the case. It is, on the other hand, -relatively “slow in the uptake.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Gleg has estimated that the reaction time for -auditory sensation is from 0·12 to 0·15 of a second, -whereas the reaction time for smell is as much as -0·5 of a second, only one sensory stimulus being -slower, that of pain, namely, which occupies 0·9 of -a second.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Odours are conveyed to the olfactory end-organ -in the air we breathe. Before they can rise into -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>the air from the odorivector (the odorous body) and -be transported they must, it is clear, pass into the -vaporous or gaseous state. (In the case of fish, of -course, the odour must undergo solution, that is -pass into the liquid state.) Many of the natural -properties manifested by smells have been related -to this transformation into vapour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Everybody knows how rich garden scents -become after a shower. It has been claimed that -this results from the lightening of the atmosphere -by the storm, in consequence of which the -diffusion of odorous vapours, following the law -that governs the diffusibility of gases, is facilitated. -But some of the effect must be due, one would -think, partly to the impact of the raindrops -breaking up and dispersing the halo of perfumed -air that surrounds each flower, and partly also -to the evaporation of the rain-water that has -absorbed these floral emanations.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We are told also that during the night and in the -chill of early morning the air is less charged with -odours because cold checks the diffusion of gases. -This may be true enough for some odours, but I -am inclined to think that the fact is not stated with -perfect accuracy, as there are certain perfumes, -that of the tobacco-plant for one and that of the -night-scented stock for another, which are most -prevalent after nightfall. And it has always -seemed to me that Mother Earth is never so nicely -<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>perfumed as on a cool September morning, -although I should never be inclined to call any -morning “incense-breathing,” like Gray, for anything -less like incense could scarcely be imagined.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There is no doubt, however, that frost seals up -all odorivectors and renders the air quite odourless.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A physical law appertaining to gases is also -invoked to explain the “clinging” of odours. -Many, if not all, solids and liquids when exposed -to air and other gases adsorb (cause to adhere) to -their surfaces a thin, dense layer or film of the gas. -If now that gas happens to contain an odour, or is -itself odorous, the odour must also be adsorbed, -and so in the case of porous materials, such as -fabrics, permeated by the odour, it lingers tenaciously -in their depths.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Odorous bodies in the solid or powdered form -are known to retain their perfume for prolonged -periods. Look how long a sandal-wood box -remains aromatic. This property is supposed to -depend upon the lowered vapour tension of the -odorous molecules in the depths of the solid or -powder, in virtue of which they rise into the air, -or evaporate, but slowly.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It would seem to be natural to suppose that, as -vaporisation plays such an important part in the -dissemination of odours, the volatile bodies and -liquids would be more odorous than the nonvolatile. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>But, as Zwaardemaker has pointed out, -this is by no means always the case. Many substances -of low volatility are nevertheless highly -odorous, and <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">vice versâ</span></i>.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We turn now for a moment to consider the -behaviour of the odorous vapour in the nose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As it passes through the nose the current of -inspired air sweeps along the lower and middle -regions only; the upper or olfactory region is not -directly traversed. But almost certainly some of -the air is diverted up into the olfactory region in -light eddies, and the act of sniffing, which is a -short inspiration abruptly begun and ended, and -which we instinctively resort to when trying to -detect a faint odour, is obviously of a nature to -propel side-streams or eddies up into the olfactory -zone. One is reminded of the production of smoke -rings from a box.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We smell not only during inspiration, however, -but also during expiration, the latter conveying to -the olfactory region the flavours of food and drink.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Flavours, that is to say the olfactory elements of -so-called “taste,” are not appreciated to the full -until after deglutition. To most of us, although -experts and connoisseurs can determine it by -smelling the wine in the glass, the bouquet of port -has really no meaning until after it is drunk, -simply because the expiratory current of air as it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>ascends through the throat into the nose receives -the concentrated vapours of the warmed volatile -higher alcohols which are clinging about the -fauces.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We may here remark that although we are -usually able to perceive that the odour and the -flavour of a sapid food or drink are akin to each -other, the sensation of the odour anticipating that -of the flavour, yet they are by no means always -identical. They may strike us as do a plain and a -coloured version of the same print. Sometimes -the flavour seems to be the more powerful, sometimes -the odour. Nearly all bouillons, for example, -possess a flavour more rich and full than the odour -they give off with their steam. On the other hand, -valerian has a strong, objectionable smell, which, -strange to say, becomes subdued and relatively -tolerable when that medicine is being swallowed.</p> - -<p class='c011'>It is a curious fact, well known to expert -“tasters,” that if the eyes are kept closed during -the test, the delicacy of appreciation of flavours, -and also of the smell of the wine in the glass, is -entirely lost. I cannot suggest any explanation -for this curious phenomenon.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Anosmia, absence of smell, which is the next -topic for our consideration, is a not uncommon -defect. It is generally the result of some form of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>nasal obstruction, such as a bad “cold in the -head,” as Æsop’s fox was clever enough to -remember. This type is temporary and remediable. -But there are other forms that are due to -nerve-disease, and for these nothing can be done.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A congenital anosmia is occasionally met with, -and a curious partial anosmia, reminding us of -colour-blindness or tone-deafness. I myself know -people who cannot smell coal-gas unless it is very -strong, and I once knew a cook,—a cook who -couldn’t smell a bad egg!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Albinos are said to be congenitally anosmic, and -there was recorded many years ago by Hutchison -the case of a negro who, gradually losing all his -pigment, became anosmic in consequence (cited -by Ogle). As the sustentacular cells of the olfactory -area contain granules of pigment (see -Chapter II.), we are forced to conclude that it must -exercise a highly important function in the perception -of odours. We shall see later on that its -presence is supposed by some to support the theory -that odour is a specific ethereal vibration similar to -light.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We turn now to discuss the real nature of odour, -a section of our subject which is still theoretical -and highly problematical.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Having accomplished so much in the art of perfumery, -the chemist ought, one would think, to be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>able to tell us whether or not there is any relationship -or correspondence between odour and chemical -constitution.</p> - -<p class='c012'>When investigation of this point was begun, a -hopeful fact came to light, as it was pointed out -that certain bodies of similar chemical composition -had all the same kind of smell. These were the -compounds of arsenic, bismuth, and phosphorus, -all of which smell of garlic. But it was soon -realised that this fact was of little or no significance, -as the oxides of many of the metals, although quite -different from the former group, also smell of -garlic. To these we may add the instance of water -and sulphuretted hydrogen, two substances which -are related chemically, as their formulæ show -(H<sub>2</sub>O and H<sub>2</sub>S), and yet one of them is odourless, -While the other has a strong, unpleasant smell. -Finally, according to Deite, natural and artificial -musk have nothing in common but their smell. -Chemically they are quite different.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The property of odour, then, does not depend -upon the Chemical constitution of bodies.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The next question that arises is: Do bodies -exhaling the same kind of odour resemble each -other in the structure of their molecules? In -other words, can odour be related to molecular -structure?</p> - -<p class='c012'>To the chemist all matter is made up of atoms -and molecules. The elements, bodies which cannot -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>be broken up by chemical action into any -simpler form, are composed of atoms. On the -other hand, when elements combine to form a -compound, the unit of the new body, composed -as it is of two or more atoms of different elements -linked together, is known as a molecule. (Probably -the elements also exist in the molecular -state, the atoms of which they are composed being -linked together in groups.) Both atoms and molecules -are, of course, very minute in size.</p> - -<p class='c011'>For reasons we need not enter into here, the -molecule is held to have a certain structural form, -which form is indicated by what is known as a -graphic formula. The graphic formula of water, -one of the simplest, may be written as H—O—H, -and we may regard it as having a linear form. -(Modern views indicate that it is not a simple -line, but in two planes.)</p> - -<p class='c012'>Many molecules, however, particularly those of -the organic compounds, are highly complex, and -their structural form must be very different from -that of water.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The question, then, now before us is: Does -odour bear any relationship to the molecular -structure of bodies? And again it has been maintained -that a clue to the problem of the real -nature of odour lies here.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There is a well-known series of chemical bodies -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>known as the “aromatics,” by reason of the fact -that they possess strong smells more or less similar -in quality. With regard to this series, which is made -up of groups of what are known as radicles which -occupy definite positions on a molecule shaped -like a ring—the benzene ring, as it is called—Henning, -a German observer, has expressed the -opinion that the odour depends, not upon the -radicles as such, but upon the position they -occupy on the ring.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Transferring his argument to odorous bodies in -general, and taking six groups as embracing all -(spicy, flowery, fruity, resinous, burnt, and foul), -he associates each of these types with some feature -in the constitution of the molecule which is common -to all the members of each group.</p> - -<p class='c012'>To enter more fully into this branch of the -subject would carry us too deeply into chemistry. -I shall content myself therefore with saying that -Henning’s views have received considerable support -from scientific chemists and have led to -several interesting and suggestive developments.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Heyninx, however, criticising this theory, points -out that hydrocyanic (or prussic) acid and nitrobenzol, -two substances with the same smell, have -each a molecular structure in no way resembling -the other.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The graphic formulæ of these bodies, which I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>give here, plainly show the difference between -them:</p> - -<p class='c012'>H—C≡N (hydrocyanic acid) and</p> - -<div class='figcenter id002'> -<img src='images/i_chemformula.jpg' alt='(nitrobenzol).' class='ig001' /> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>(T. H. Fairbrother, to whom I am indebted for -much information on the chemistry of olfaction, -would dispose of this criticism of Hcyninx’s by -denying that the odours of those two substances -are identical. See later, p. <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>.)</p> - -<p class='c011'>Chemistry, then, having, according to the -critics, failed us, we turn to the allied science of -physics. Physics deals with matter in its ultimate -state, beginning, so to speak, where chemistry, -with its work of changes and combinations, ceases, -and taking us deep into the heart of matter -independent of its chemical properties and -behaviour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We have seen that, chemically speaking, elements -and their compounds exist as molecules -made up of atoms. Now molecules may be -minute, and atoms even more minute, but in -“electrons,” the name given to the last divisible -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>particle of matter known to the physicist, we are -dealing with minuteness inconceivable. Sir Oliver -Lodge has said that if an atom could be expanded -to fill a space equal to that of the entire solar -system, the electrons composing it would each be -the size of an orange! There is supposed, indeed, -to be an atomic “system” composed of a central -nucleus like the sun, with electrons revolving -round it, the nucleus having a positive, and the -revolving particles a negative, electric charge. -Further (whether in virtue of these moving -electrons or otherwise is not quite clear), the molecule -is supposed to be in a state of constant -vibration.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The physical theory of odour, then, refers that -quality to the vibration of the molecule. It -suggests that the molecules of an odorous body -passing in the gaseous or, in fishes, the liquid state -into the olfactory region of the nose, are there -received by the film of mucus in which the -olfactory hairs lie, and stimulate these hairs by -their molecular vibration. No chemical change -is supposed to take place, only, as it were, -a mechanical stimulation, comparable to the -mechanical stimulation of the retina by the waves -of light.</p> - -<p class='c012'>A recent development of the theory which we -owe to Heyninx, a Belgian scientist, brings the -process very closely into harmony with what -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>occurs in the eye. According to this authority, -olfaction is in reality a perception of ethereal -undulations of the same character as the undulations -of light, these undulations being provoked -by the intra-molecular vibrations of the odorous -vapour in the nasal mucus and transmitted to the -olfactory hairs not by immediate contact, but -through the medium of the ether.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We owe this last suggestion to the curious fact, -but recently discovered, that many odorous substances -(in their gaseous form in the air) absorb -the rays of ultra-violet light.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In order to make clear what this means, we must -say a preliminary word regarding the spectrum and -spectrum analysis.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The passage of a beam of white light through a -glass prism breaks it up into its component parts, -beginning with red, then orange, yellow, green, -blue, and ending with violet. Beyond the violet -end of the spectrum we know there are rays -invisible to us, but capable of acting on a photographic -plate. These are called the ultra-violet -rays.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In like manner, beyond the red end of the -spectrum we know there are also rays, likewise -invisible to us, but perceptible by our tactile sense -as heat. These are called the infra-red rays.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now, the rate of vibration of all these different -rays, visible and invisible, has been estimated, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>they increase in frequency from the infra-red, -which are the slowest, to the ultra-violet, which -are the most rapid.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As we have already said, it has recently been -shown that the odorous vapours absorb certain -ultra-violet rays. That is to say, when the beam of -light is directed through a chamber containing the -odorous vapour before entering the prism, what -are known as absorption-bands—vertical black -lines in the white—appear in the photograph of -the spectrum.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Similar lines are seen, as a matter of fact, in the -visible spectrum of sunlight, and as these correspond -in position with the spectrum given by -chemical elements in an incandescent gaseous -state, it is supposed that they are produced by the -absorption of the corresponding light-rays by -these gases in the solar atmosphere.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The physical explanation given of this phenomenon -is that the molecules of the gas in the sun -absorb such light-rays as are equal in rate of -vibration to the rate of their own vibrating molecule.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the same way, Heyninx and others argue that -the odorous vapour is composed of molecules -which are vibrating with a period equal to that of -the light-rays they absorb.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Moreover, since the position of the absorption-band -in the photograph varies, lying in some cases -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>nearer to the visible violet and in others further -away from it, and since this position varies with -the particular fundamental odour employed, it is -suggested that not only do the molecules vibrate -with a period equal to that of the ultra-violet rays -they absorb, but as this vibration varies in rate, so -it is to this variation that we must ascribe the -differences in odours. This is analogous, of -course, to the appreciation of colour by the eye. -One odorous molecule, that is to say, like the -colour red, having a slower rate of vibration, will -give rise to one kind of smell; another, like the -colour yellow, with a more rapid rate, will give -rise to another kind of smell, and so on for all the -fundamental odours. Heyninx, indeed, goes so -far as to fix the position in the olfactory gamut of -all fundamental odours, and to base upon it the -classification we have already considered.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is supposed, that is to say, that the vibrations -of the odorous molecule set up undulations in the -ether, and that it is those ethereal undulations that -stimulate the olfactory hairs, just as ethereal -undulations emanating from a luminous source -stimulate the retina.</p> - -<p class='c012'>There is one great difference, however, between -light and odour, a difference admitted, we may -mention, by the supporters of the undulatory -theory, but not emphasised by them. The difference -is this: in the case of visible light the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>ethereal undulations emanate from a source at a -distance (it may be like starlight at an enormous -distance) from the sensory end-organ, whereas in -the case of odour the undulation is supposed to -be generated by the odorous molecule in close -proximity to the end-organ.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The theory makes no attempt to explain how -the olfactory hairs respond to these hypothetical -ethereal waves.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Finally, we have the question of the olfactory -pigment to consider, and in this matter we cannot -do better than follow the exposition of William -Ogle, an English physician who wrote as long ago -as 1870. As will be seen, he forestalls the modern -undulatory theory of olfaction in a remarkable -manner.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Ogle contends that the presence of pigment -must be of great importance in the function for -the following reasons:</p> - -<p class='c012'>First, the epithelium of the olfactory region is -pigmented, while that of the rest of the nasal -chamber and sinuses is devoid of colouring matter.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Secondly, there seems to be some correspondence -between the degree of pigmentation and the acuteness -of smell, as the following facts suggest:—</p> - -<p class='c012'>In macrosmatic animals, such as the dog, cat, -fox, sheep, and rabbit, pigmentation extends over -a larger space and is darker in tint than in man. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>In these animals also the mucus covering the -olfactory area of the nose is itself pigmented.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We have seen that human albinos are anosmic, -and the same is probably true of animal albinos. -But care is necessary in making observations on -suspected albinos in animals, as even when they -are altogether white a certain amount of black -pigment remains about the face and nose.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The following reports, however, would lead us -to conclude that as with man, so with the animals, -a relative deficiency of pigment is associated with -a dull olfactory sense.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is by smell that the herbivora detect and -avoid plants which are poisonous, and when -poisoning does occur, it is usually a white animal -that suffers. In some parts of Virginia the farmers -will only rear black pigs, because, they say, the -white ones eat and are poisoned by the roots of -<em>Lachtanthus tinctoria</em>. For the same reason in the -Tarentino only black sheep are reared.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thirdly, the dark-skinned human races have a -keener sense of smell than the lighter races.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Fourthly, the sense grows more acute as we get -older, as we have already seen, and nasal pigmentation, -it is said, also increases with age.</p> - -<p class='c012'>As to the function of the olfactory pigment, -Ogle remarks first of all that odours are absorbed -more readily by dark than by light materials.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Pigment is also present in the labyrinth of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>ear as well as in the eye, and its presence in these -organs seems to be essential to their activity.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is to be noted that the pigment does not occur -on the nerve structure in any of those end-organs, -but external, though contiguous to it. In the eye, -it lies in contact with the rods and cones of the -retina; in the nose, with the olfactory hairs; in -the ear, with the terminal bodies of the auditory -nerve.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Hence the pigment, he supposes, must be -associated with the reception of the sensory -impressions.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the eye and the ear those impressions are -undulatory in character. That being so, he holds -that the undulatory theory of olfaction also is -probably the correct one.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Ogle finishes with the remark that the theory -would be strengthened if it could be shown that -pigment was specially suited for the absorption -and modification of undulations.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is interesting to us to learn that claims are -now being made that pigment does possess the -power necessitated by Ogle’s theory. At all events, -there is a theory of vision (Castelli’s) which claims -for the ocular pigment the power of absorbing and -modifying light waves, and Heyninx holds that -the olfactory pigment possesses a similar property.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Summing the whole matter up, then, we may -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>say that the undulatory theory of olfaction is, that -an odorivector gives off in the form of vapour (in -the aerial medium) extremely attenuated portions -of its substance, too minute to be weighed, and -that this vapour, disseminated through the air, -enters the nose in respiration, and, being wafted -up into the olfactory region, is received by the -mucus bathing the olfactory hairs, where, in virtue -of the ultra-violet radiations which proceed from -its molecules and are modified by the olfactory -pigment, it acts on the hairs, setting up changes -(it may be also undulatory in nature) in them and -in their cells, which changes are transmitted thence -by the olfactory nerves to the neurones or nerve-cells -of the olfactory bulb (or lobe) of the brain.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The undulatory theory of olfaction, then, as will -be evident to the reader, has a good deal in its -favour. And in addition to what we have already -said of it as accounting for the absorption by -odorous vapours of ultra-violet rays, and as giving -a hint regarding the function of pigment in the -olfactory area, there are also a number of other -phenomena which it seems to explain. We have -seen, for example, how one odorivector, such as -musk or civet, may have the property of enhancing -the power of another, and this is a property which -is characteristic also of certain luminous conditions -(fluorescence, lumino-luminescence).</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>Again, there is a harmony existing between -certain of the manufacturers’ primitive odours; -“they go well together,” and are employed for -that reason in the art of perfumery. This resembles -the harmony existing in another class of undulations, -the sound waves.</p> - -<p class='c012'>On the other hand, just as one sound may -silence another by the clashing of their waves, so -one odour may “kill” or neutralise another -odour (iodoform and coffee, <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">e.g.</span></i>).</p> - -<p class='c012'>There are several other minor phenomena which -are in agreement with this theory. They need not -detain us.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We turn now to the criticism of the undulatory -theory of odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>First of all, we shall dispose of an objection -which, at first sight, has a very serious aspect.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It may seem difficult to understand how vibrations -which appear to us when of a certain rate -to be light should when they are of another rate -become to us smell. How can one and the same -physical condition produce sensations so different?</p> - -<p class='c012'>The same difference, however, is encountered -when we pass to the rays at the other end of the -spectrum, the reds and infra-reds. On one side of -the dividing line we only perceive these as heat; -on the other side they also become light.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Obviously, the difference can only be due to the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>different character of the sensory end-organ, the -receptor of these vibrations. As Head says: -“Each peripheral end-organ is a specific resonator -attuned to some particular kind of physical -vibration”—reminding us not only of soundresonators, -but also of wireless receivers, which -are “tuned” or accommodated to particular -wave-lengths.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Thus, if red rays encounter certain tactile end-organs -in the skin, they are perceived by the mind -as heat, and if they pass into the eye and stimulate -the retina, they are perceived as red light. In -other words, in whatsoever manner an end-organ -is stimulated, it only induces its own particular -sensation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>How it comes about that the various end-organs -induce such different sensations is not -yet known.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The ultra-violet theory of olfaction, however, -has to run the gauntlet of much more serious -criticism than the difficulty we have just disposed -of.</p> - -<p class='c012'>One great objection to it (to my mind) is that it -fails to account for another absorption phenomenon -of which I have not yet made any mention. -It was first observed by Tyndall nearly fifty years -ago.</p> - -<p class='c012'>On submitting odorous vapours to examination -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>Tyndall found, not that they absorbed ultra-violet -rays, as this method is of quite recent usage, but -that they <em>absorbed heat-rays</em>, or the <em>infra-red rays</em> -of the spectrum. So that, if it be correct to say -that odours set up ultra-violet rays in the ether, -we must be equally ready to credit them with -setting up infra-red rays also!</p> - -<p class='c012'>But there is another, and perhaps a stronger, -objection to the ultra-violet theory.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the interesting and highly instructive schema -drawn up by Heyninx of the wave-lengths of ultra-violet -absorbed by odours, we find one or two discrepancies -of a serious character.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For example, iodoform and cinnamic aldehyde -show absorption-bands occupying nearly the same -position on the spectrum; and presumably, therefore, -these substances have the same molecular -vibration-rate. Yet their odours are not at all -alike!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Again, acetone-methylnonic and butyric acids -have <em>precisely</em> the same absorption bands, and yet -they also exhale totally different odours.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But the most serious discrepancy remains. The -absorption bands of hydrocyanic acid and watery -vapour (steam) have precisely the same position in -the spectrum, yet one of these has a highly -characteristic odour, and the other has none at -all!</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is rather difficult, in view of these findings, to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>believe that this absorption phenomenon can have -anything to do with the quality of odour.</p> - -<p class='c012'>My friend Mr. T. H. Fairbrother writes regarding -this controversy:—</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“Whilst I do not for one moment suggest that the whole -phenomena of smell can be explained entirely in terms of -chemical constitution, I do maintain that it has much to do -with it, and I certainly think that more valuable information -about the cause of various odours has been obtained from -considerations of chemical constitution than from the many -extravagant physical theories which do not lead us very far. -In my view the physicists are begging the question, because -they usually postulate something which we cannot prove, -and whilst it is possible that the vibration of electrons -causes smell, how much wiser does that statement make us? -One might easily say that it was possible that the bombardment -of electrons caused smell, etc. On the chemical side, -however, we are bound down to experimental facts, and we -do know that esterification of carboxylic acids does bring -about a fruity odour invariably, etc. Chemical constitution -cannot explain fully all these phenomena, because chemical -formulæ themselves are only approximations, but the effect -of groups in a nucleus has done much to help synthetic -production of odorous bodies. When the physicist can -control the vibrations of his electrons and make them rotate -in accordance with his will, then he may be able to synthesise -new odours—till then we have no means of testing his -theories.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c011'>The older view of olfaction—and many -modern scientists, as we see, still adhere to it—is -that the odorous molecule acts as a chemical -reagent upon the olfactory hairs. And there is -something to be said for this opinion.</p> - -<p class='c012'>To begin with, no one doubts nowadays that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>odours are material. They pass through the air as -vapours, and they are known to travel miles on the -wind. That is to say, apart from those hypothetical -varieties of odour (if we can call them -odour at all) discussed by Fabre earlier in this -book, odours do not emanate from a point and -disperse in all directions as light and sound do. -Why then drag in the ether? Is it not more -probable that the odorous molecule acts on the -olfactory hairs by direct material contact, and that -it sets up chemical changes in them?</p> - -<p class='c012'>We are asked to believe that the ultra-violet rays -of odour stimulate the olfactory hairs as visible -light-rays stimulate the retina. But it must not -be forgotten that in the eye those rays may induce -first of all chemical changes in the retina, just as -they would act on the silver salt of a photographic -plate, and that it may be by these changes that the -retina is stimulated.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In the phenomenon of olfactory exhaustion, as -we said in our first chapter, we have a circumstance -which suggests the presence of some chemical -reagent in the olfactory area.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It may be, of course, that in the nose as -well as in the eye the process is a combination -of chemical and physical changes. And in any -case we are here dealing with that obscure -region where chemistry and physics meet and -mingle.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>We have now come to the end of our discourse -upon the theories of odour, and it must be confessed -that we are still very much in the dark as to -the nature of the odorous, and as to the manner in -which it excites the olfactory organ to activity.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Still more mysterious, however, is the process -by which the physical quality of odour becomes -the sensation of the mind we call smell.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The transmutation of a physical quality into a -sensation is indeed the great mystery of all our -senses. Olfaction is not the only one before which -we throw up our hands, and this in spite of -the detailed and voluminous information which -modern physiology, neurology, and psychology -place at our disposal, perhaps less in spite of this -information than because of it, seeing that the -further our knowledge extends the wider seems -the unknown realm beyond. Our science is an -ever-expanding sphere, no doubt, but it is expanding -into the infinite.</p> - -<p class='c012'>How is it that the rhythmic vibration of -matter becomes what we call “sound,” or the -rhythmic vibration of the ether “light”?</p> - -<p class='c012'>How does the physical pass into and become -part of the psychic?</p> - -<p class='c012'>According to recent teaching, the physical can -be followed as such from the sensory end-organ -itself as far as the first synapse, or junction with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>the neurone. But there something happens; ... -then it reappears in a new guise, vibration becomes -sensation, the physical psychic, the objective -subjective, the real ideal, the dead alive! -In that brief tumble of time what a miraculous -transformation!</p> - -<p class='c012'>Modern science has cleared up much of the -mystery of the objective world, and although it -may be far from the end of its search, although, -indeed, the search, one must think, can never -entirely elucidate the dense obscurity that envelops -us on every side, dark as a starless night around a -candle, yet we already know this much, that the -real world is very different from the world depicted -for us by our senses.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Only a little imagination is needed to convey us -out of the magic circle into which we have been -born, and what a strange universe do we then -find ourselves in! Entangled in a meshwork of -space-time and permeated by whirling maelstroms -of varied and innumerable oscillations, we lose all -hold on reality in the very act of grasping it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But although we do possess some sort of vague -notion as to the constitution of the outer universe, -before the inner we stand ignorant and speechless.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Regarded as a machine, the brain, it is true, like -the world without, is reluctantly yielding up its -secrets one by one. We are learning how it works -as a chemical factory, as a physical power-house, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>so that already we can surmise that here also we -have probably to deal with a multiplicity of -vibrations, of exquisitely minute transformations -of energy, of involved intercommunications, of -deft though intricate associations, of rapid yet -permanent recordings and registrations.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We are now able to follow the undulations we -term light, not only into the eye, but into the brain -itself, locating their central station in the occipital -lobe, whence their effects radiate all over the -organism. And in the case of olfaction Pawlow -has taught us that its chief vegetative function, the -result of radiations from the olfactory central -station in the brain, is the arousing of the digestive -glands to activity. The first act of digestion is -olfaction. But the routes which the olfactory -stimuli follow in the central nervous system and -their communications with other sensory paths are -not yet known.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The secrets of the brain which have been disclosed -to us, however wonderful they may be, -concern only, we must remember, the machinery -of the nervous system, that part, namely, which is -of the same nature and order as the objective -world, of which indeed it is a member. Hitherto -have we come, but no further:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“The traveller hails. The echoing walls respond.</div> - <div class='line'>And there the matter ends. The wilds beyond</div> - <div class='line'>Are broken rock and desert where no foot</div> - <div class='line'>Can venture on to trace a further route,</div> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>For none hath trodden or shall ever tread</div> - <div class='line'>This hither limbus of the outer dread.</div> - <div class='line'>Cloven abrupt, the absolute abyss</div> - <div class='line'>Falls sheer beneath us, fathoms fathomless,</div> - <div class='line'>And still high o’er us heaves the unclimbed hill,</div> - <div class='line'>And the unanswered questions front us still.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c012'>The “thought” escapes us. Somewhere -beyond the boundary of the physical flits this -elusive, this tantalising ghost. How it is acted -upon and how it reacts we know to some extent. -But what the nature of its action may be is more -than we can determine.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nay! A moment ago we lightly spoke of -passing out of the magic circle into which we have -been born, and we forthwith proceeded to talk as -if we had in reality escaped from this our prison. -But there is no escape for us, of course. No man -can jump out of his skin. There undoubtedly are -such things as “waves,” or “undulations,” or -“oscillations,” or “vibrations,” or whatever we -like to call them. But they are not what we -imagine them to be. There is, we may suppose, -a four-dimensioned universe of “space-time.” -But it is beyond our conception. There is -“objective reality,” in a word. But it is no -reality to us. Those very expressions, glibly used -though they be, are but metaphors—“pretendings” -a child would call them—attempts to bring -the remote a little nearer to us, to clothe the -uncouth in the garments we ourselves wear; all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>of which is nothing but Maya—illusion—shadowplay.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Let us not deceive ourselves. Along with the -recent revelations of physical science there comes, -say certain modern philosophers, the suspicion -that the universe is irrational. At every point we -are brought up short by the unknowable.</p> - -<p class='c012'>For example, Einstein tells us that what we call -the “ether” has no existence. It is merely a -“void.”—But how can we call that void which -contains something—undulations, to wit?</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Nay!” you argue; “the undulations traverse -the ether, but they are not it. The ether -is a non-entity. It has no existence. It is -nothing.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>To which I reply: “But ‘nothing’ is an -absolute term. It means ‘no thing.’ How, then, -can undulations, or anything else for that matter, -pass through nothing?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>“What nonsense!” you cry; “this kind of -verbal poser is just the silly old metaphysicians’ -parlour game of playing with words.”</p> - -<p class='c012'>I know it is. But the word-play has its uses. -It demonstrates to us that words, language, logic, -all alike, fail our thought, not so much because -those instruments are limited in power as because -the thought itself is lacking in precision and comprehensiveness.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is when our word-play probes the expression -<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>that the vagueness of the idea is made manifest. -Our foil, even with the button on, goes clean -through the phantom.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The mind, in short, has not absorbed, nor can -it absorb, the <em>fact</em>. We seize a glass of water to -drain it, and presently, like Alice, we find ourselves -swimming about in an ocean! Obviously the -universe <em>is</em> beyond our comprehension, a conclusion -desperate if you like, yet undeniable.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But how very annoying it is, after all our heavy -labour, to hear the ancient scoff of Zophar the -Naamathite still ringing triumphant:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“Canst thou by searching find out God? -Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?”</p> - -<p class='c012'>(Still we mean to go on trying!)</p> - -<p class='c011'>Yet of all the senses none surely is so mysterious -as that of smell. For, as we have shown, the nature -of the emanations that stir it to activity is still -unknown; the simple structure of its end-organ -confronts us, like a sphinx, with silence; and after -the reception of the stimulus in the olfactory lobe -of the brain its further connections and communications -still remain unsurveyed, albeit, as I -have already so amply displayed, its effects upon -the <em>psyche</em> are both wide and deep, at once obvious -and subtle.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span> - <h2 class='c010'>CHAPTER IX<br /> <span class='large'>DUST OF THE ROSE PETAL</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>By way of relief from the exacting mental strain -of the last chapter, I have thought that the reader -who has got this length might be grateful for something -more simple, and so it is not altogether -egotism that leads me to finish up with a few of the -olfactory pictures I cherish.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Before proceeding with the subject-matter -proper of the chapter, however, let me put in a -plea for the conscious cultivation of the sense of -smell. But little more, I take it, is needed in this -way than to pay attention to the olfactory sensations -that reach us, for the very fact of taking note -of them is sufficient probably to increase the -power and delicacy of olfaction, this being always -the effect of the mental process known as attention.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Smell may thus be easily cultivated and improved, -and with the increase in its appreciation -of the world comes an enriching of the other sense-impressions -that is quite surprising.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is possible that there is no substance in the -natural world entirely devoid of odour. At all -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>events, after a time the amateur in smell may find -himself able, like Rousseau, to perceive perfumes -when other people do not notice any, and as a -mark at which he can aim let it be said that when -he finds himself able to distinguish streets from -each other by their smell alone he has made some -little progress in the art.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The innate acuteness of the sense varies widely -in different people. Some go through life blunt to -all but the coarser smells, while others are gifted -with a sensitiveness as delicate almost as that of a -macrosmatic animal. This is scarcely an exaggeration. -I am acquainted with people—English -people—who are able to recognise by olfaction not -only different races and the two sexes, but even -different persons. One of those sensitives informs -me that to her the personal olfactory atmosphere -is every whit as characteristic and unmistakable -as the play of features or the carriage of the -figure.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Another remarkable feat within the capacity of -human macrosmatics, and one that seems almost -incredible to the ordinary individual, is that of -being able to distinguish the clothing of different -persons by its aroma. Some can even recognise -their own, a remarkable circumstance in view of -the almost universal rule that each is anosmic to -his own particular atmosphere.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>It is true that we can get on quite well without -smelling. Probably congenital anosmia is the -least crippling of all sense-deprivations. But how -much it enters into our enjoyment of life when we -have once possessed it is shown by the blankness -that attends its loss; we feel then as if a tint had -been bleached out of the world.</p> - -<p class='c011'>At this juncture we may stay a moment to allude -to the action of tobacco on olfaction. There are -few people nowadays who would uphold King -Jamie’s “Counterblaste,” wherein he denounces -smoking as—</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“a custome loathsome to the Eye, hatefull to the Nose, -harmefull to the Braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in -the black stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the -horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse.”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c016'>But, in fact, regarding the influence of the -tobacco-habit on the sense there is a conflict of -opinion. Some say it dulls olfaction; others, it -has no deleterious effect. My own experience -would lead me to agree with the former opinion.</p> - -<p class='c011'>We now proceed with our memories.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Who does not become a boy again when the -fragrance of a gardener’s bonfire fills the air? In -my own case when I smell it my eyes begin to -smart and to water, and I hear the laughter and -shouts of my brothers as, daring the wrath of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>Olympus, we leap over the blaze and land on the -white powdery ash that rises in clouds around us -to the ruination of boots and clothing. It is always -evening, “’twixt the gloamin’ and the mirk.” The -moon, still golden, is hung low in the sky; the wind -is sharp with a touch of frost, but the glare and the -glow of the embers reddens and warms us—at -least that part of us we turn to the fire. (Have you -ever felt the fierce pleasure of being at once -scorched and frozen?)</p> - -<p class='c012'>In those few country places in Scotland where -the old Beltane fires of midsummer or midwinter -are still kindled, children are encouraged to pass -through the smoke, that being good for their -health. The custom, frankly pagan, is probably -the maimed rite of a sacrifice of children to the old -gods. That may be quite true, and yet I concur in -believing the practice to be beneficial. At all -events, the bonfires of so many years ago have left -with me a memory that has often recurred since, -and always with healing on its wings.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Again, the fainter, keener odour of burning -pine-wood combined with the fanning sensation -on the face of the cold wind of the dawn always -brings back to me a summer morning at the Swiss -frontier station of Pontarlier after an evening -when vin ordinaire had induced effects extraordinaire -upon a youth unaccustomed to that fiery -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>beverage. Those, no doubt, were the days when -nothing mattered much. Nevertheless the fragrant -coolness of that morning after touches my aching -brow to this day with the soothing gentleness of a -hand fraught with understanding and forgiveness.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Then what sea-lover is there but responds to the -salt pungency of seaweed on an empty beach?</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is an interesting fact that the smell of the sea -may travel inland for miles on a favouring breeze. -With the south-west wind blowing moist, I have -in the heart of Lanarkshire repeatedly been stirred -out of everyday hebetude by the smell of the sea -on the Ayrshire coast, some thirty miles away. -And Réné Bazin (in “Les Oberlé”) says you can -even smell it sometimes in Alsace, 250 miles from -the Mediterranean.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Once, indeed, at King’s Cross, London, I beheld -monstrous railway-stations and muddy streets, -with their motor-’buses, dingy wayfarers, yelling -newsboys and all, melting away into the glimmer -and space of the sea in a sort of magical transformation, -just as mist low-lying in Russell Square -will turn at times those garish hotels into sea-girt -palaces.... Only this time there was no mist. -There was, indeed, no need of mist. For the -spell of power was a sudden whiff of the sea -from far across the bricks, slates, and sooty -chimneys.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>But there is another sea-smell, equally powerful -and much less romantic. Can you endure the -breath of hot oil and metal from the engines of a -steamer without a qualm?</p> - -<p class='c011'>If ever a boy has watched and helped the -fishermen clean and tan their nets, he will always -after, as often as chance brings the smell to his -nostrils, revive again the pit in the ground and the -gruff voices of the heavy-booted men pulling the -twisted net up and down, in and out.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Or the bean-flowers’ boon?</p> - -<p class='c012'>This, as it happens, concerns also somebody -else, but as she has long since been lost in the -crowd, I am not breaking any confidences in -recalling the scene.</p> - -<p class='c012'>We are standing together beside the gate of a -hill plantation, and I see a tall lady’s delicately cut -profile against the sombre green and brown of the -fir-trees. Although the flush of the sunset has -almost entirely faded from the sky, it seems to be -lingering yet a while on her cheek as if reluctant to -leave her. As for me, I am as keen to every breath -of emotion as the little loch below is to the slightest -stir of air. The time is past for talk, and I am -watching her in silence. So I see the thin curved -nostril dilate a little, at once to be quietly restrained, -as if even this little display of feeling on her part -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>were out of place,—and then I also turn to look -at the butterfly bean-flowers in the field at our -feet.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Now as often as the bean blooms, so does her -memory.</p> - -<p class='c011'>How powerfully associations affect our olfactory -likes and dislikes we hinted on a former page, -and in this matter of smell-memories we can -observe the same effect. Smells which to others -seem offensive may, if they arouse a pleasant -memory, borrow from it a tinge that turns their -offence into a joy for ever. In my own case -iodine and the rather irritating odour of bleaching -powder are always welcome and always sweet. -Yet they recall nothing more interesting than the -days of childhood to me! On the other hand, -perfumes generally considered to be pleasant will -be objectionable to us if they arouse unhappy -memories.</p> - -<p class='c011'>The most beautiful, however, are those which -have been young with us, and yet have never forsaken -us, by continual refreshment keeping an -eternal youth. And of all the odours in life none -surely is so rich both in retrospect and in prospect -as the smell of books to him who loves them. The -cosy invitation of a library! Not a public library, -needless to say, where the intimate appeal is lost -<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>in a jumble of smells—dust, paste, ink and clammy -overcoats. Such public mixtures the bookworm, -that solitary self-centred individual, must, by -reason of his shyness, ever consistently shun. -But usher him into the private room of a private -house where books, many books, have reposed -for many years. Then go away and leave him -to it.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The smell of a room full of books is slow to form. -Like the bouquet of wine, it must ripen. You have -to wait. But if you are able to wait, then one -fine day you will be welcomed there by the -snuggest smell in all the world, which, when -once it comes, will for ever remain, like rooks -in a clump of elms. I know a few houses where -this most seductive of all perfumes has resided for -untold years, and whence it will never depart as -long as our immemorial England endures. But -alas! like most people, I have only been a fleeting -visitor to those nooks of enchantment, and have -had to wait myself not once, but many times, as -often indeed as I have shifted my roof-tree, for -that ancient fusty atmosphere. There is, I fear, -no way of hastening the appearance of this -beckoning finger to oblivion. We need not linger -over the analysis of this particular odour. Book-lovers -know it. Others don’t care.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“You are a reader, I see,” said an observant -doctor to me once.</p> - -<p class='c012'><span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>“How d’you know that?” I asked in surprise, -as we had just met for the first time.</p> - -<p class='c012'>“I know it,” was his reply, “by the caressing -way you took up that book!”</p> - -<p class='c012'>Your real bookworm loves all books. Like the -modern genius, he is amoral. But unlike the -genius, his amorality, simple soul, is confined -within the four walls of a library. He could never, -I am sure, bring himself to agree with André -Theuriet, who in “La Chanoinesse” depicts</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">les <em>Bijoux indiscrets</em> auprès des œuvres de Duclos; <em>Candide</em>, -<em>Jacques la Fataliste</em> et <em>le Sophia</em> voisinant de <em>Restif de -la Brétonne</em> à deux pas de <em>l’Emile</em>, et <em>les Aventures du Chevalier -de Faublas</em>—une nouveauté—non loin de <em>l’Histoire -philosophique des Indes</em>,</span>”</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c016'>all of which books, by a kind of moral exercise of -his imagination we cannot sufficiently deplore, he -found exhaling “une odeur de volupté perverse, -quelque chose comme le parfum aphrodisiac des -seringes et des tubereuses dans une chambre -close.”</p> - -<p class='c011'>Every dwelling-house has its own peculiar -atmosphere, sometimes agreeable, sometimes not. -But, whatever its quality, so characteristic and -persistent are some of them that I am sure a blind -man would always be able to tell them by the smell -alone. Few of us may be gifted with the analytical -nose of a Charles Dickens to detect the ingredients -<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>that make up a complex domiciliary atmosphere, -but everybody must have noticed that basement -houses smell differently from bungalows, the -former greeting you with a harmonious blend of -earthiness, soapsuds, and sinks.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Nay! The house you live in has a separate -odour for each room: the drawing-room with its -chintzes; the snuggery with its stale tobacco, and, -perhaps, like an insinuating nudge, with a whiff of -the stronger alcohols; the bedrooms, if your -housekeeper knows her business, with the freshness -of well-aired linen.</p> - -<p class='c012'>The very days of the week have each its own -particular olfactory mark, dating from our childhood: -Sundays (in Scotland), peppermint followed -by roast beef and richness; Mondays, -pickles and soapsuds; Tuesday, the damp airs -from the washing hung up to dry; Wednesdays, -warmth and beeswax from the laundry, with ever -and anon the thump of the flat iron; Thursdays, -bread new from the baker and the washing of -floors with soft soap—“Mind yer feet, now!”—Fridays, -jam-boiling and the never-to-be-forgotten -aroma of oat-cakes on the girdle; Saturdays—but -Saturday is a day of wind and banging doors, -of tops and dust; all its smells are out of doors.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Shops, too! What of the coffee-shop?—Who -does not pause a moment at that door when the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>beans are roasting? One of the richest of all -odours that; curious how you lose it in the -beverage! Then there is the ironmonger’s, where -the sharp smell of steel strikes, by some strange -reflex, the upper incisor teeth and gums; the oil -and colour shop, with its putty, turpentine, and -general clamminess; and, last and best of all, the -druggist’s!</p> - -<p class='c012'>What about the fried fish-shop? Faugh! I -once for a reason connected with my calling had -cause to spend a whole night in a room above a -fish-shop—once only. The next time (there -never will be a next time, she swears, but there -always is)—the next time I happened, curiously -enough, to arrive late!</p> - -<p class='c012'>But although houses and rooms and, as we -hinted, streets also, all smell differently, each town -and city has its own peculiar fundamental odour. -There is a town in Yorkshire that smells of -“mungo.” I know another that smells of mineral -oil, and many that exhale the dank smell of the -coal-mine.</p> - -<p class='c012'>London has a smell of its own, a fundamental -familiar odour, which, by the way, has changed of -late. Twenty years ago it was faintly acid with a -background of horses and harness. To-day it is -a mixture of tar and burned lubricating oil, by no -means so pleasant. In addition to these, however, -there is another and less prominent odour characteristic -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>of the London atmosphere, which I confess -I cannot describe.</p> - -<blockquote> -<p class='c012'>“Once upon a time, some forty years ago, there lived at -Highgate, which then still retained some of the characters -of a village, a lady who declared that when a yellow fog -drifted up from London she could detect the smell of -tobacco smoke in it. To most people the odour is flatly -that of coal smoke, which is perhaps always more or less -to be perceived in London air. This at any rate would seem -to have been the opinion of Edward Jenner, if we may trust -a note made by Farington in his diary for 1809, which is -being printed in the <cite>Morning Post</cite>. Farington’s note is as -follows:</p> - -<p class='c012'>“‘Dr. Jenner observed to Lawrence that He could by -smelling at His Handkerchief on going out of London -ascertain when he came into an atmosphere untainted by -the London air. His method was to smell at His Handkerchief -occasionally, and while He continued within the -London atmosphere He could never be sensible of any taint -upon it; but, for instance, when He approached Blackheath -and took His Handkerchief out of His pocket where it had -not been exposed to the better air of that situation—His -sense of smelling having become more pure he could perceive -the taint. His calculation was that the air of London -affected that in the vicinity to the distance of three miles’” -(<cite>The Lancet</cite>).</p> -</blockquote> - -<p class='c012'>Paris, in like manner, has its own peculiar -aroma. Lord Frederick Hamilton analyses it -correctly into “one-half wood-smoke, one-quarter -roasting coffee, and one-quarter drains.” But for -myself the Paris air always brings a curious half-suppressed -feeling of excitement, part of it -pleasure, part apprehension, as if something tremendous -were about to happen. But here perhaps -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>we cross the border-line between conscious sensation -and subconscious stimulation.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Rome is a city of candles and incense mingled -with the dry mustiness of crumbling skeletons.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In Edinburgh you encounter here and there the -smell of old Scotland. Thatch enters into its -make-up, why I cannot tell you. But the cold -grey metropolis still preserves the soul of the -thatch, a cosy sensation that is prone to bring tears -to the eyes of the returning exile.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In Glasgow damp soot struggles with the smell -of the Bromielaw for the mastery.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Dublin mingles the warm, rich aroma of -Guinness’s Brewery with the cold smell of a -corpse from the Liffey.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Those are the cities I know best myself. But I -have often been told, and can quite believe it, that -every city has its own particular atmosphere.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Some days, both in a city and in the country, -are as rich and full of odours as a Turner picture -is rich and various in colour. Other days bring -us but a grey Whistlerian monotone, in which, -nevertheless, the trained sense delights to distinguish -an infinity of tender shades, unobserved -by the casual.</p> - -<p class='c011'>I used to think that country smells were particularly -dear to the country-born only, and that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>their charm lay in their evocation of childish -memories. But that is not the whole of the story. -They attract us by their own inherent beauty. I -have known town-bred lads linger about a stable -because the smell, I was told, was “so sweet.” -And most of us are, to be sure, sufficiently horsey -to enjoy that smell of straw and ammonia. We -linger near it as bees haunt clover or cats valerian. -And we are all horse-lovers sitting behind a smart -cob on a hot day when the smell of the harness is -mingling with the horse-odour. But these now -old-world odours are being every day more and -more ousted by the less pleasant smells of the -motor-car, petrol, lubricating oil, and acetylene—a -pure stink this last.</p> - -<p class='c011'>But the farm is an olfactory museum, a library, -a symphony! How warm and comforting is the -smell of a byre full of cows! Plunge into it from -the cool of the evening and listen again to the -sudden swish of the warm milk into the pail, the -uncompleted low of the sober cattle and the rattle -of the chain as they turn to look at the new-comer. -A gentle relaxation of the spirit attends the visit -like the relief of the limbs from a cramped position, -and we readily fall into that mood, so rare these -latter days, when attention disperses and the reins -drop on the neck of the mind so that it wanders on -at its will up and down the lanes and by-ways of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>fancy. These paths are dangerous, to be sure, -leading as they do to the Castle of Indolence, -where you may dream your life away and be none -the wiser.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Yet there must be many who have so wandered -regardless, and have wakened up too late to -recapture the days they have lost in dreaming, if -they ever do want to recapture them, which is -doubtful. If we really intended happiness in life—as -we do not; what we intend, and ensure, too, -for that matter, is excitement—but if we really -intended happiness, here is where we should find -it, in and about a farmyard as hangers-on. Not -as the farmer, needless to say, to whose mind these -olfactory stimuli are stimulant, not anodyne. So -that there can be no greater contrast than that -between him and us. Every one knows how the -idler idling irritates the worker working. And so -we are brought back to reality all too soon by the -slap of fate, waking up from a bank of thyme and -dreams to the pavement of worry and hard work.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But it is sweet while it lasts, and if you can -acquire, or are lucky enough to have been born -with, pachydermia of the soul, then it may last for -a lifetime—unless, that is to say, fate, as aforesaid, -in the shape of the farmer, brings you back a-bump -to earth with a clout on the side of the head and an -order to take the hook and cut down thistles.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Stevenson has told us that idling is no loss of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>time. Perhaps not, if we happen to be geniuses. -But the mischief is that the rest of your family -deny (with oaths) the major premiss, and the -prophet-without-honour consolation prize is -but a poor substitute for the loss of comfortable -eternities dozed away beside the lazy kine.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Some time in the ’eighties of last century a -French professor (Jaccoud) recommended the air -of a byre as beneficial in phthisis.</p> - -<p class='c012'>I have known worse cures.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Why do not the perfume-makers present us -with more of these gateways to Paradise, short -cuts beside which De Quincey’s laudanum in the -waistcoat-pocket is but a by-path to hell? We -might be given odours of peace and contentment—think -of them in the hands of a clever wife! -We might make libraries of them as people make -libraries of gramophone records. So far all we -have are flower scents, like roses, lilies, violets, and -outlandish Eastern aromata, redolent rather of vice -and its excitements than of virtue and its placidity.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Then there is the scent of thyme and roses in -the farm garden. This brings to me old Sundays -and ladies passing the open garden-gate on their -way to church, with their Bible carefully wrapped -up in a clean pocket-handkerchief, bearing with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>them also what somebody in Scotland calls “the -odour of sanctity”—peppermints, to wit—and all -the time the bees are humming in the warm air a -deep note to the trills and runs of the skylark -lost in the blue.</p> - -<p class='c012'>But I could wander on for an eternity with these -smell memories and pictures. One more, and I -have done with the farm, and that is the cool smell -of the milk-house. It is dark there after the blaze -outside, and the stone flags strike cold to a boy’s -bare feet wandering in from the burning cobbles -of the courtyard. As your eyes become accustomed -to the dimness you can see on the floor the -wide, shallow milk coolers, silvery as full moons in -that twilight, the only light that enters coming -through the long slit of a narrow unglazed window -where blistery leaves of green docken, springing -rank from the unkempt garden without, show a -splash of sunlight. The smell is sourish and cold, -if we may speak, as I think we may, of the temperature -of a smell. This is forbidden land to boys -for obvious reasons, but so strong is the impression -that I have never forgotten my one and only visit -to that secluded chamber.</p> - -<p class='c011'>What is it that gives to a dungeon its characteristic -smell? Emphatic as a blow. Obviously, -we have here a combination of several sense -impressions, tactile, visual, olfactory: tactile, for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>the air is damp and chilly; visual, for it is a blank, a -negative, and yet a powerful influence; olfactory, -smelling ominous and of death. Old dried bones -emit precisely the same exhalation. In a subtle -way, too, the presence of mould is perceptible, all -blending into the horrible and grisly atmosphere -of despair; the Valse Triste and the Dance of -Death.</p> - -<p class='c012'>Smell can bring as certainly and as irresistibly -as music emotions of all sorts to the mind.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In this same category we may place the dusty -smell of a dry hay-loft, which is curiously like that -of bitter almonds and hydrocyanic acid. It has a -sensation like ghostly fingers fumbling about your -neck with a threat, half playful, half serious, of -suffocation. And, curiously enough, the mental -feeling of throttling fingers is not amiss. Prussic -acid kills by paralysing the respiratory centres.</p> - -<p class='c011'>Let us get out into fresh air again! The sun is -shining. A gentle breeze from the west is snowing -the lawn with fragrant hawthorn blossoms. I -catch a whiff of delicate lilac, and see coming -towards me over the grass a slender figure in -white....</p> - -<p class='c012'>And so we close with the perfumes of the spring, -sunshine, and beauty.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span> - <h2 class='c010'>ACKNOWLEDGMENTS</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c011'>The impulse of which this study of olfaction is the outcome -emanated from Sir St. Clair Thomson, who three -years ago handed me for my edification and growth in -knowledge the <cite><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Essai d’Olfactique Physiologique</span></cite>, a <cite><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Thèse de -Bruxelles</span></cite>, by <em>A. Heyninx</em>, dated 1919.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In addition to that work the following have been utilised, -for the scientific side of the subject at all events:—</p> - -<p class='c019'><em>Poncelet, P. P.</em> <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Chimie du Goût et de l’Odorat, etc. -Paris. 1755.</span></p> - -<p class='c019'><em>Parker, G. H.</em> Smell, Taste, and Allied Senses in the -Vertebrates. n.d.</p> - -<p class='c019'><em>Deite, C.</em> Manual of Toilet Soap-Making. Eng. Trans., -2nd ed. London. 1921.</p> - -<p class='c019'><em>Ogle, Wm.</em> Medico-Chir. Trans., Vol. LIII., p. 263.</p> - -<p class='c019'><em>Bonvier, E. L.</em> The Psychic Life of Insects. Eng. -Trans. London. 1922.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In Heyninx’s book there is a good bibliography, but the -English reader will find an excellent <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">résumé</span></i> of recent -scientific literature in <cite>Osmics</cite>, by Mr. J. H. Kenneth, -published by Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh.</p> - -<p class='c012'>It is impossible in the space at my disposal to print a -bibliography dealing with the historical aspect of olfaction.</p> - -<p class='c012'>In addition to my debt to books, I am also under deep -obligation to Dr. Wyatt Wingrave, Dr. Arnold Renshaw, -Mr. Archer Ryland, Mr. F. W. Watkyn-Thomas, and Mr. -T. H. Fairbrother, for many valuable hints and criticisms, -as well as for much useful information, and I take this -opportunity of offering my thanks to them for their kind -interest.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span> - <h2 class='c010'>INDEX</h2> -</div> - -<ul class='index c007'> - <li class='c020'>Acetone poisoning, Odour of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Adsorption of odours, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Æneid, The, Odour in, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Albinos, Anosmia of, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Alcoholism, Odour of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Alexander the Great, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Ambergris, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Ammonia, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Animals, Lower, Olfaction in, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Aniseed, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Anosmia, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Anti-demoniac treatment by fumigation, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Ants, Olfaction in, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Apoplectick, Balsam of Horstius, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Aromatics, The, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Asthma from horses, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Asafœtida, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Aura, Olfactory, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Bacon, Francis, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Badger, Olfaction in, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Bat and sound-pictures, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Bath, The domestic, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Baudelaire, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Bay, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Bazin, Réné, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Bean-flowers, Fragrance of, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Beltane fires, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Bolboceros beetle, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Books, Smell of, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Brain, Olfactory Routes in, Unknown, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Brewer, Anthony, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Browning, Robert, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Burton, Robert, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Cairo, Cholera in, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Camphor as disinfectant, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Carminatives, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Castelli’s theory of vision, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Cats, Aversion towards, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Cities and towns, Smells of, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Civet, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Collins, Wilkie, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Colosseum, Perfumes in the, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Coumarin, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Creighton, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Crowd-psychology and Odour, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Death, Odour of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Deite, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Devil, Odour of the, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> - <li class='c020'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>Dickens, Charles, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Disease, Epidemic, and Stenches, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a> - <ul> - <li>Odours of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Disraeli, Benj., <a href='#Page_12'>12</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Dog, The, and the Abominable, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a> - <ul> - <li>Olfaction in the, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a></li> - <li>truffle-hunter, the, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Dostoievsky, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Dwelling-houses, Odours of, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Eau de Cologne, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Einstein and the ether, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Ellis, Havelock, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Equilibration, Vocabulary of, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Fabre, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a> - <ul> - <li>Olfaction in dogs, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a> - <ul> - <li>insects, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li>on nature of odour, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Fairbrother, T. H., <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Farington’s Diary, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Farm, Smells of, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Favus, Smell of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Fischer and Penzoldt, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Fish, Olfaction in, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Flavour an odour, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Flavours, High, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a> - <ul> - <li>compounding of, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Flowers, Perfumes of, Diffusion of, after rain, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a> - <ul> - <li>and insects, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Folk-lore, Smell in, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Forel, Olfaction in insects, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Fumigation, treatment by, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a> - <ul> - <li>for cholera, in modern times, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c007'>Garlic, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Geraniol, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Gladstone, W. E., <a href='#Page_90'>90</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Goethe, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Gordon, Douglas, and olfaction in badger, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Hæmorrhage, Odour of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Hamilton, Lord Frederick, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Harte, Bret, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Hay fever, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Head, Henry, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Health, Public, and Olfaction, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Hearing, End organ of, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> - <ul> - <li>Exhaustion of, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a></li> - <li>Vocabulary of, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Hell, Odour of, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Henning, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Heyninx, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a> - <ul> - <li>Classification of odours, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a></li> - <li>Undulatory theory of odour, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>History, Smell in, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Hogarth, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Holmes, Oliver Wendell, and Olfactory memory, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Homer, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Homing instinct, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Hospitals of olden days, of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Humboldt, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Hutchison, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> - <li class='c020'><span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>Hydrocyanic acid, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Hysteria, Treatment of, by stenches, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Incense, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Incubus repelled by aromatics, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Industries, Malodorous, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Infra-red light rays, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a> - <ul> - <li>absorption by odorous vapours, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Insects, Olfaction in, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a> - <ul> - <li>and hygiene, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Iodoform, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Ireland, Odours in, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a></li> - <li class='c007'>James I., “Counterblaste,” 142</li> - <li class='c020'>Jenner, Edward, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Kipling, Rudyard, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Lavender, English, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Lodge, Sir Oliver, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a></li> - <li class='c020'>London, Smells of, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Louis XI., <a href='#Page_78'>78</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Louis XIV., <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Love and Olfaction, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Lubbock, Sir John, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Macrosmatic animals, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Memory, Olfactory, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a> - <ul> - <li>Strengthening of, by Odours, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Mercaptan, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Meredith, George, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Microsmatic animals, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Mignonette, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Molecular structure of odorous bodies, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Molecules, Vibration of, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Montaigne, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Moths, Olfaction in, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Mummification by aromatics, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Musk, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Nauseous remedies, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Nephritis, Acute, Smell of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Nerve, Fifth Cranial, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a> - <ul> - <li>Olfactory, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Nitrobenzol, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Nose, Olfactory Region of, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a> - <ul> - <li>Pigment in, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c007'>Odericus Vitalis, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Odours, Clashing of, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a> - <ul> - <li>Classifications of, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a></li> - <li>Clinging of, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a></li> - <li>Concentrated, Anosmia for, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></li> - <li>Diffusion of, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a> - <ul> - <li>Effect of cold on, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li>of Disease, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - <li>Harmony between, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> - <li>Identification of, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a></li> - <li>Nature of, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i></li> - <li>Novel, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a></li> - <li>Personal, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></li> - <li>Physical theory of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> - <li>of poisonous herbs, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> - <li>Recollection of, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a></li> - <li>Repulsive, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a></li> - <li>in water, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> - <li><span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>Theories of, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> - <ul> - <li>Chemical, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li>Undulatory theory of, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a> - <ul> - <li>Criticism of, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li>Varieties of, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Ogle, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Olfaction. <em>See also</em> <span class='sc'>Smell</span>. - <ul> - <li>Allusions to, in literature, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i></li> - <li>and digestion, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a></li> - <li>a primitive sense, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a></li> - <li>Evolution of, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a></li> - <li>in fish, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a></li> - <li>in insects, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a></li> - <li>in the lower animals, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a></li> - <li>in the sex-life, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a></li> - <li>Theories of, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i></li> - <li>and ventilation, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Olfactory cells, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a> - <ul> - <li>hairs, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a></li> - <li>memory, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a></li> - <li>organ, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a> - <ul> - <li>of insects, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li>pictures, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i></li> - <li>pigment, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li> - <li>region of nose, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Onions, effect of, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a> f.n.</li> - <li class='c020'>Orientation. <em>See</em> Homing Instinct.</li> - <li class='c007'>Paracelsus, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Paris, Smell of, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Parker, G. H., <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Pawlow, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Peppermint, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Perfumes, Classification of, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a> - <ul> - <li>New varieties of, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a></li> - <li>Sources of, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Pigment, Olfactory, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Pinewood, Odour of burning, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Plague, Sweet smell of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Poncelet, P. P., <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Queen Elizabeth, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Reality, Objective, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Religion, Smell in, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Remedies, Nauseous, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a> - <ul> - <li>Olfactory, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Rheumatism, Acute, Acid smell of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Ribot and olfactory memory, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Rimmel, Classification of odours, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Roberts, Lord, and cats, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Rohmer, Sax, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Rose perfume, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a> - <ul> - <li>and exhaustion, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Roses, Attar of, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Rousseau, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Sacrifice, Savour of, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Saints, Odour of the, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Saintsbury, George, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Salerno, Teaching of, on garlic, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Salmon’s Dispensatory, Fumigation in, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Sandal-wood, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Scatol, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Scott, Sir Walter, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Sea, Smell of, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Sea-anemone, Olfactory cells of, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a></li> - <li class='c020'><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>Sensation, Nature of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a> - <ul> - <li>Tactile. <em>See</em> Touch.</li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Sensory end-organ, Specific reaction of, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>–89</li> - <li class='c020'>Shelley, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Shops, Smell of, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Sinistrari of Ameno, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Sins, Odour of the, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Small-pox, Smell of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Smell and the Emotions, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i> - <ul> - <li>in Folk-Lore, Religion, and History, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a></li> - <li>and the Personality, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></li> - <li>Exhaustibility of, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a></li> - <li>Sensation of, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a></li> - <li>Sense of, Acuteness of, in man, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a> - <ul> - <li>Cultivation of, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a></li> - <li>in old age, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a></li> - <li>in uncivilised man, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a></li> - <li>mystery of, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> - <li>Reaction-time of, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li>Sense Organ of, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a> - <ul> - <li>Delicacy of, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a></li> - <li>Potential responsiveness of, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li>and Speech, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> - <li>Subtlety of, in man, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></li> - <li>Vocabulary of, Emotional, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a> - <ul> - <li>Etymology of, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i></li> - </ul> - </li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Smith, Elliot, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Spectrum analysis of odours, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Speech and smell, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Spiders, Aversion towards, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Stenches a nuisance in law, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a> - <ul> - <li>in Cologne, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a></li> - <li>in the East, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a></li> - <li>in Edinburgh, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a></li> - <li>in France, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a></li> - <li>in London, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a></li> - <li>in Lucerne, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a></li> - <li>Industrial, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Subconsciousness, Smell and the, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Sulphur compounds, Organic, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Taste and smell contrasted, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a> - <ul> - <li>Exhaustion of, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a></li> - <li>Vocabulary of, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Tasting wine with closed eyes, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Terminology, Olfactory, Scanty, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i></li> - <li class='c020'>Theatre, The, Perfumes in, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Theuriet, André, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Tobacco, Effect of, on olfactory sense, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Touch, Vocabulary of, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Truffle-hunter, The, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Tyndall, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Typhus fever, Odour of, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Ultra-violet light rays, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a> - <ul> - <li>absorbed by odorous bodies, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Unconscious, The. <em>See</em> Subconsciousness.</li> - <li class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>Valerian, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Vanillin, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Ventilation and sense of smell, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Vervain, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Violets, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Vision, End organ of, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> - <ul> - <li>Vocabulary of, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a></li> - </ul> - </li> - <li class='c020'>Vocabulary of Smell, Scanty, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">et seq.</span></i></li> - <li class='c020'>Volatility and odours, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Walking-stick, Medical, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Watkyn-Thomas, F. W., <a href='#Page_53'>53</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Wilkes, John, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Whitman, Walt, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a></li> - <li class='c007'>Zebethum occidentale, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a></li> - <li class='c020'>Zwaardemaker, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a> - <ul> - <li>Classification of odours, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a></li> - <li>Olfactometer, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a></li> - </ul> - </li> -</ul> - -<div class='nf-center-c0'> -<div class='nf-center c007'> - <div><span class='small'>PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE WHITEFRIARS PRESS, LTD., LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c009' /> -</div> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c010'>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</h2> -</div> - <ol class='ol_1 c007'> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors. - - </li> - <li>All spelling errors were left uncorrected. - - </li> - <li>Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers. - </li> - </ol> - -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Aromatics and the Soul, by Dan McKenzie - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AROMATICS AND THE SOUL *** - -***** This file should be named 60584-h.htm or 60584-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/5/8/60584/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, ellinora, and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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