Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-12-12
LlrEwAruRE OF THE NOSE.
Noses And NasioMality-The Character
Indicated by the NOse-Shakspearc',
AllusiOns to the Nose.

San Francisco paper
'Nfhil me pOenitet huius nasi," quoth PAM
phagus; that is: ''My nose has been the making
| of me-" "Nee est cur poeni teat," replied Co
cles; that is: How the deuce should such q
nose fall
There was time when there were no noses:
| that is. if We are to believe the evolutionists
Man was then very far down in the scale OF crca-
| ton; In fact. mere round or egg-l;ke mass Of
structureless bioplasm: truly degraded Or
ganism,' as the biologists pleasantly tell US.
| langudly borne hitherand thither on the shores
OF the pliocene sea. He had not even a mouth.
anu the mouth. we take it, naturally preceded
the nose in the order OF development. for no
matter how degraded an organism is it must
eat, while it is not absolutely necessary that it
should smell. The teachers of Development
| find 1t very easy to evolve the mouth. When
the little mass Of structureless bioplasm first
felt hungry ii could not Of its own VOLT ION move
about in search OF food. But something eatab!e
was now and then washed agains. it, or it was
| accidentally moved by the restless waves against
| some edible substance. Then it contrived to
| permit the food to pass into one Of its gelatin
Gus sides. and having retained it awhile to pass
out at the other. In course of time there came
| q brief moveieSs period. One side of the mass
was then exposed in the direction of the food
longer than another, and ncurs!lncnt was taken
which. from force of habit, ceased to be perrna-
| nently closed A fixed position of the mouth
created weli-detined channel for food, whence
came stomach and its appurtenances.
Considering the difficulties that attend the
evolution of the nose. we are not surprised that
development theorists have fought shy of the
subject Smells of course, existed before noses.
They were caused then. as now. by al emana-
ton from the OdOrous body. Let us hazard the
supposltion that when the lovely organized bit
| n 4, n
matter which was its food. the affiuvium omitted
! caused a slight culver of that portion OF the
humble being just above the newly-develcped
mouth The process was repeated at every
feeding time. When the smell was agreeable
| the neighbOrhOod of the nose went out toward
the agreeable object. making a projection of
bioplaSm; when the OdOr was diSagreeabIe
there was a shrinking back. causing a deprcs-
sion. That the shrnkage back gradually de-
VelOped into the nasal apertureS. and the pro
lection in time hardened into dilatine nostrils
aud Roman curve, we may be at least permitted
to believe in the absence of rebutting testimony
Between the slight nasal culver of bopasm
and the delicate susceptibility to perfumes pos
sesssed by the San Francisco Violet club, there
yawns gulf which the genius OF the evOlu-
ZIONIST aided by a vivid imagination, alone can
bridge.
1t has been the custom for people of all races
to admire, or pretend to admire. their own
noses, and to sneer at those that differed from
them. The Semitic nose has never been thought
by the world at large to correspond with any
principle of beauty. Yet the Arabs and Syrians
speak contemptuously of 'the flat-nosed
Franks" and Disraeli has taken pleasure in re-
peating the phrase. The Africans are proud of
their broad, flat noses. and some tribes endeavor.
by inserting artificial objects. to increase their
pet deformity. Time and careful breeding, which
did SO much for the noses of the Greeks and
Romans, and have helped and are helping to
make those OF the Slay. TeutOn and Latin races
straight and beautiful. have done little 10 mod
ify the prominent features of the Semitic and
Turanian races. Most persons who have long
noses are apt to be proud and boastful. argu-
| lns est that they are abstractly beautiful or
that O. :! indicate strength of character The
noe o. !ennysOn as seen in his portraits is long
and may in his youthful DAYS have been finely
modelled He seems to have thought so. for in
Maud" he sneers at the druggists Clerk as
"s'iub-nosed rogue using an opprobious term.
common wherever the English language is
spoken. Two hundred years ago the nose was
longer than at present, if we can Judge by old
portraits, and even the nasal organs of our reyo-
lutionary sires were more pronounced than those
OF this generation giving some color to the
theory that the feature had somtsort of relation
to Individual character