Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-01-05
TEE NOSE.


from the San Francisco CAroniclrl
There WAS time wien there were uo
noses If we are to believe the evolution
lists. Man was then mere round or
egg-llke mass of structureless bioplasm
a truly "degraded organism" langnidlv
borne hither and thither on the shores Of
the plioccne sea. He had not even a
mouth, and the mouth, we take 1t, natur-
ally preceded the nose in the order of de
velopment, 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 it very
easy to evolve the mouth. When the lit
tie mass Of structureless bioplasm first felt
hungry il could not of its own vulition
move about in searth of food. But some
thing eatable was now and then washed
against it, or it was accidentally moved
by the restless waves against some edible
substance. Then 1t contrived to permit
the food to pass into one of its gelatinous
sides, and. having retained it awhile. to
pass out nj the other. In course Of time
there came brief moveless period. One
side of the mass was then exposed in the
direction of the food longer than another,
and nourishment was taken i'll several
times through the same opening, which
from force of habit ceased to be permal
emily closed. A fixed position Of the
mouth created a well-detined channel for
food, whence came a stomach and its ap-
purtenancc.
Considering the difficulties that attend
the evolution oG the nose, we are not sur
prised that development theorists have
fought shy of the subject. Smells, Of
course, existed before noses. They were
caused then, as now, by an cmanation
from the odorous body. Let us hazard
the supposition that when the lowly or
ganized bit of bioplasm was seizing the
animal matter which WAS its food the
ctlluvium emitted caused slight quiver
of that portion of the humble being Just
above the new developed 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 n projection
of bioplasm when the odor was Disagree
able there was II shrinking back. causing
Il depression. That the shrinking back
gradually developed into the nasal aper-
lures, and the projection i'll time harden
Cd into dilatirg nostrils and Roman curve,
We may be ut least permitted to believe,
i'll the absence OF rebutting testimony.
Between tins slight nasal quiyer of bio
plasm anl delicate susceptibility to per-
fumes thereyawns gulf which the genius
of the evolutiouist, aided by vivid
imagination, alone can bridge
Ii has been the custom for people of all
races to admire, or pretend to admire
their own noses, and to sneerat 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
contcmptuously of 'thefat-nosed Frank,
and Disraeli has taken pleasure in repeat
ing the phrase. The Africans are proud
of their broad, flat noses, and some tribes
endeayor by inserting artificial objects to
increase their pet dofOrmlty. Time aud
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 Slav, Tepton aud Latin races
straight and beautiful, have done little to
modify the prominent features of the
Semitic and Turanian races. Most per-
sons who have long noses are apt to be
proud and boastful, arguing either that
they are abstractly beautiful or that they
indicate strength of character. The nose
of Tennyson, ms seen III his portraits, il
long, and may, in his youthful days,
have boen finely moulded, He seems to
have thoaght 80, for in MAUD" he
sneers at the druggists clerk as "snu b.
nosed rogue" using an opprobrious
term common wherever the English lang
uage is spoken. Two hundred years ago
the nose was longer than at present, if
we can jndge by old portraits, and even
the enasal organs OF. our Revolutionary, ,sires
were more pronounced then those of this
generation, giving some color to the