The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-12-07
MEASURING AN oDoR.



Nothing is more
,vanescent, than SUBTLE more
would think tI'' an odor' and one
..a,r likel~ at if there were do
-. s-a.., :, to remain forever free
-, 80 scientific measurement it
VIZ 4 be that of scents.
but now comes M. Eugene Mes
nard. French botanist, who pro-
ceeds to unlock the main gate of the
fastness that had seemed impregna-
BILE. He has discovered simple and
easy method of measuring the inten-
sity of an odor. Modern authorities
hold that the progress of science is
rapid in proportion to the ease with
which measurements may be per-
formed in it. Electricity made almost
no progress at all till exact methods
of measuring charges and currents
and the forces of electric attraction
and repulsion were devised, and
when these were perfected it went
ahead almost at bound. Who can
tell what the science of odors will or
will not do, now that the prime es-
sential to it's progress has been dis
covered?
We are already able by the sense
of smell to distinguish very exactly
between different kinds of scents.
Every man without special practice
can doubtless recognize hundreds OF
substances with the aid of the nose
alone. We can tell whether one
whiff of ammonia is more or less
powerful than another, but we can
not assign number to each. The
more powerful one might be twice
or thrice or hundred times as pow
erful as the other for all we can tell.
And who, to go further still, would
venture to assign the exact strength
of whiff of ammonia that should
be equal to an entirely different odor
say the perfume of a rose? Yet
all this and more M. Mesnard has
done.
He takes advantage of the delicate
qualitative power of the sense OF
smell-that is, of its ability to dis
criminate between odors, be they diff
! ferent only by very little. He
finds that if some very characteristic
odor be mingled with the one to be
measured there is certain proper
ton of the two where they balance,
as it were, and form what he calls q
neutral odor. In this state the
addition of very little more of Ell
ther scent causes that one to pre-
dominate. When they are thus bal
anced, the intensities of the two
odors are equal, and by properly
choosing a standard odor we can
thus compare all others with it and
hence indirectly with each other.
This is the way M. Mesnard goes
to work to make his measurement
The perfume whose intensity is tC
be measured or the object that give:
itoff-say bunch of violets-is con
fined under q bell glass. The odol
of turpentine is pumped in by squeez
ing a rubber bulb till the ''neutra
odor' is obtained, the experimental
excepting WATCH" as it were, by
smelling at connecting tube. TheI
the mixed scents are admitted lit
tie at time into a jar containing
4 glowing phosphorus. The amour
n admitted is registered by the turn
of a handle and the number of turn
necessary to put out the phosphoru
gives the measure of the quantity o
turpentine and hence of the inten
sity of the odor that was neutralize'
by it.
We may expect if such measure
ments as this are to be carried on
very frequently great increase o
delicaoy in smell among those VIII
perform them. Atpresent this sens
has been much neglected. The proc
esses of evolution have passed it b.
on one side of the human species, al
though in others-the dog, for in
stance-it has been marvelously de
veloped. But, as certain modern au
thorities have pointed out, man ha
to great extent taken his evolutio,
into his own hands.
Perhaps M. Mesnard is giving US
little shove toward an almost dog
like perfection of scent.-New Yor
Journal.
A Story OF Niagara.