Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1893-09-20
EDUCATION o. rHE NOSE.
The Neglected sense OF Smell May Have
Great Possibilities.

The Neglected sense OF Smou May Have
Great Possibilities.
With all the Developments of human
knowledge and the improvements in
the methods of education, there has
been strange lack of appreciation Of
the improvement of the sense of
smell. The modern systems of education
are supposed to be aimed at the
bringing 70 perfection of all the
powers of body and mind, and
yet one has ouly to consider
a little % realize how limited their REQ
oynition Of the needs and possibilities of
senses really is. The faculties both of
taste and smell are particularly ignored
BY modern educators The art of gas
tronomy does something for the
sense OF taste, but the sense of
smell has not even the benefit of
indirect education. It is ignored and
neglected as completely as if there was
no knowlegd Of its existence.
Yet the capabilities of this sense are
by no means small. On the merely
utilitarian side it is easy to see that II
the nose were trained 20 be sufficiently
sensitive IL would be able to be of in
finite service. The good old-fashioned
housewife trained her nose to warn
her of Ere; 20 tell her when an
accident happened to the dishes
cooking on or in the stove which
she could not stop TO watch with her
eyes. In rare instances men in especial
lines have trained their sense of smell
to assist them in their work One sees
the dealers in dairy products, and in
some other goods. determining the quail
ity and condition of their goods by
smelling ITEM, but this is an excep-
tional mat cr which is far more apt to
excite the a u .nent OF others than to
call attention 70 the possibilities which
lie neglected in the nerves OF the nose.
The animal kin gdom should long ago
have given man the hint 70 cultivate
this sense. tt is true that animals are
often furnished with nerves OF far great
er delicacy and reach than those Of
man, Tut is Is after all only the visible
sign of WI at is the result of continued
neglect 70 any functions of the body
II men had given decent attention to
the sense of smell they would not now
mood to be outdone in this particular by
the beasts of tho wilderness. If a
proper amount of systematic training
could be genera ally practiced by man
kind for a generation or two it would
undoubtedly be found that the wild an
imals were in this particular not neces-
sarily so far in advance of man as to
make it impossible for him to overtake
them.
The delicacy of the perceptions which
ally themselves to the sense of smell
has often been commented upon and
this in itself shsuld suggest the adj
visibility Of making much OF it. The
mind seems especially sensitive to the
suggestion of odors and yet this fact
has never been properly taken advant-
age Of IT is time for the recognition
of the stability of developing all the
possibilities of the human body As it
stands at present sight and hearing are
made TO do pretty much all the work
of the perceptions and it is time that
the other senses were called upon TO do
their share. Let the sense Of smell be
trained and its possibilities studied
Who can tell 90 what important results
this might lead?-Boston Courier