The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-04-28
ENGINEERING ()DORS.
STRANGE FACTS ABOUT THE
SENSES.
ecruVian Indians Can by the Odor Dis
criminate Between the Foot-Prints
of Whites, Indians and Ne.
!. grOes-The Arab.

!. Can we remember odorsp There
are not wanting instances, over and
above ones vague and underlined feel
ings on the point to prove that we
can. We have the case of Words
worth, who ordinarily deficient in the
sense Of smell, once smelt a bayfield,.
and besides thinking it heaven, never
forgot it
We also have the case of James
Fearn, now numbered among the il
lustrious obscure, but once known to
fame as the author of an Essay on
Consciousness " who in that same
work of his says that he never lost
the memory of the sweet srnell of a
bakers shop in a by street of Bassora,
nor that of Jamaica fruit-luscious
to eat but unpleasant in odor-twen-
weight years after partaking of it,
A Melbourne colonist again de-
clared, some few years back, that
nothing will ever drive from his
memory the smell of the first boiling
down establishment he visited in Aus
tralia''-a smell about as curious but
not quite so unpleasant as that of a
low quarter in some Chinese town,
which odor also affected our colonist
so much that it remains vividly i'm
pressed" on his memory though he is
now far away from the scene.
At the first blush the question with
! which we opened this article appears
as simple and plain as daylight, says
the Saturday Evening Post But in
quire a little of yourself-ado the
excellent but neglected plan of turn
ing your eyes inward upon yourself,
and see how much you really know on
the subject-how many bona fide cases
you can recOllect of odor -reminiscence.
The result will probably be very small.
And yet there is no doubt as to the
proper answer. ... ~ ... p
Men can remember smells, though
the faculty generally lies dormant.
Sometimes, as in the cases cited, it is
highly developed. Savage people pos
sess it to perfection. The Peruvian
Indians according to Humboldt, can
discriminate by the sense OF smell be-
tween the footprints of whites. Indians
aud negroes; and the Arabs in the
desert have been known to smell frs
thirty miles off. In both these cases
the power to discriminate could onlv
exist from recollection of former
smells. -:
A gentleman who had mortal an
tipathy to cats knew instantly by the
odor when an animal of that species
had been in any of his rooms. It is
difficult TO conceive how he could have
done this unless he had retained
memory of this particular kind of
odor. And the smell of cat is not
SO manifest as that of a skunk or a
musk rat; so the mere ability to do it
is a compliment to the sharpness of
the gentleman's nose. ~
Mention of the musk rat suggests a
story bearing upon the perfume of
that creature and helps to prove our
case. A lady died when her child was
four years of age. Musk had shortly
before been brought into fashion by
the Empress Josephine; the lady's
handkerchiefs were scented with the
strong perfume and the child could
not or would not go to sleep. after her
mothers death, unless her head rested
on one of these handkerchiefs. Long
afterwards, when the child had be-
come an aged lady, she wildly re.
membered the particular musk odor of
those particular handkerchief.
In some degree similar to this-in
regard at least to long remem brance
of an odor-is the case of the old man
Who in 1871, declared that hea re-
tanned the recollection of a smell i'm
pressed upon his senses in 1918. This
last year was one Of European wars
and scanty crops. and bread was very
dear. Our subjects father, as meas
ure OF economy. sent the family bread
to be baked in a friends oven. and it
was the smell of this bread in the
form of cakes that the man declared
he could recall after the lapse of nearly
sixty years.
Here one special smell impressed
itself in special connection with a
special incident, and the Same may
by said (assuming that the narrator
did not deceive himself) in relation to
a fox-hunter, who averred that he
had retained a vivid recollection of
| uAi0 OuOl VI GuS utS6 IOX ne ever
bagged even after an interval offorty-
six years
A similar case is that of a traveller,
who once, in Algeria witnessed the
roasting Of q whole sheep and who
could always afterwards recall the
odor Of that roast as differing from
any other he ever experienced.
| In regard to the abnormal keenness
| OF the sense OF SMELL illustrated above
by reference to the Peruvian Indians
md others some interesting facts
have been narrated in relation to
deaf persons to blind persons, and to
those unhappy mortals who are
6oubly cursed in being both blind
and deaf. Such persons acquire
| knowledge of the outer world largely
through the organ of smell; and it is
difficult to resist the conviction that
memory must be at work here to as
sist the patient in discriminating be-
tween one odor and another
James Mitchell, one Of the few
known individuals who have been at
~, - \