The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-01-01
THE EFFECT OF DOORS.
The Curious Permanence of Smells
in the Memory.
THE LILY CAUSES FAINTNESS.
The Scent of the Trained Collie or Fox
Hound-O Odors That Lead so sleep and
Others That Cause Wakefulness--
Smokers Experiences.

The direct action of odors on the nervous
centers is a subject worthy of careful re.
search and study. Goethe had a strong
dislike TO the odor Of apples; Schiller liked
the odor. Some people are made absolute
ly Ill by the odor Of onions that are being
cooked, while other persons rather like IL.
The odor Of the lily has most potent ef-
feet in many instances, and / believe there
is no person on whom it does not produce
snse of depression and nausea. l have
known it cause positive faintness. am
myself always disagreeably affected by the
odor of carbolic acid, and can never remain
many minutes in a room where trace Of
II prevails.
In cases where the effect Of an odor is
instantaneous, it is fair to suppose that
the impression made on the olfactory sur
face in transmitted direct to the olfactory
center OF the brain; but there must also, in
certain examples, be a further transmits
sion TO the sympathetic ganglia. The GEN.
trail seat Of the olfactory sense must be
very near TO the central seat OF memory,
for it is noticeable that nothing recalls q
past event like an odor.
A little child was accidentally thrown
out Of n pony carriage in a country lane.
Near the spot where the fall took place
there was "A manure heap, which gave
forth the peculiar dry ammoniacal odor 50
often recognizable from such heaps--an
odor distinctive, yet not altogether un-
pleasant. The child was stunned by the
fall, and on recovering and returning to
consciousness smelt this odor powerfully.
Over fifty years have elapsed since that
little mishap, and yet whenever the person
referred to passes In country lanes heap
giving out the same odor, the whole scene
Of the accident recurs with every detail
perfect, and sometimes with a recurrence
Of the giddiness and nausea which were
experienced at the moment. In some of
the lower animals memory by odors is
often singularly exhibited. In the dog the
memory by odor seems a special part of
the nature Of the animal The "scent" of
the fox hound and Of the stag hound Is Of
this character. In the trained collie the
remembrance Of an object hidden, stick,
for instance, may be retained for three
quarters Of an hour so perfectly that the
animal will fetch the object at command.
But if the object be coated with something
giving an odor which the animal Is fami-
liar with the time Is infinitely more pro-
longed.
Some odors lead to sleep, like the odor
from dried hops; others lead to wakeful-
ness, like the odor Of dead flowers or leaves
Still others allow sleep, but provoke the
most terrible dreams, like the odors aris-
ing from pillow in which feathers are de-
composing Habit modifes the effects of
odor. Merciless smokers laugh at the
"faddery" Of women who become faint II
smoker charges the air they breathe in a
confined space, small room or a railway
carriage, and are ready to compare the OBJ
lection Of a lady unaccustomed to the odor
from the pipe or cigar with the careless
ness on the matter shown by another lady,
who has become accustomed to the effect.
But If a smoker gives up smoking and all
contact with smoke for a few years, he is
astounded at the unpleasantness of an air
charged with smoke when he is then in
closed in it.
was once summoned professionally to a
youth who was temporarily poisoned by
inhaling the atmosphere issuing ont of a
small window of a clubroom in which a
number of men were smoking freely. They,
in the body of the smoke, were not percep-
tibly affected. He, partly in the open air,
was positively smitten to faintness by the
empoisoned current from the room, which
flowed out of the window, and is still af-
fected whenever he comes within the cloud
Of pipe.-Dr. B. M. Richardson in Ascle-
piad.