The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-09-30
MEASURING AN oDoR.


Science Shows Um Rh@ Way Co Nd@mffRT
6maIla UnsrrinKiy.
Nothing In more subtle. more
evanescent, than an odor, and one
would think that IL there were do
main likely 20 remain forever free
from scientific measurement it
would be that of scents
But now comes M. Eugene Mes
nard. n French botaniEt, who pro-
oeeds TO unlock the main gate of the
fastness that had seemed impregna-
BILE. He has discovered a simple and
easy method OF measuring the inten-
sity of On odor. Modern authorities
hold that the progress of a science I'm
rapid i'm 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 its progress has been die
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
Whit of ammonia is more or less
powerful than another. but can-
not assign a number to each. The
more powerful one might be twice
or thrice or a hundred times as pow
erful as the other for all we can tell
And who. to 90 further still. would
venture to assign the exact strength
of Whit of ammonia that should
be equal TO an entirely different odor
say the perfume of a rose? Yet
all this and more nj. 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 a very little. He
finds that if some very characteristics
odor be min zled with the one 70 be
measured there Is a certain proper
tion of the two where they balance,
a. it were, and form what he calls a
neutral odor In this state the
addition of a very little more of ei.
ther scent causes that one TO pre-
I dominate. When they are thus bal
anoed, 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 il the way nj. Mesnard goes
to work 90 make his measurement:
The perfume whose intensity is to
be measured or tho object that gives
it off-say a bunch of violets-is con-
fined under a bell glass. The odor
of turpentine il pumped in by squeez-
ing a rubber bulb till the neutral
odor" is obtained, the experimental
keeping watch" as il were, by
smelling Mt n connecting tube. Then
the mixed scents are admitted lit
tle at a time into jar containing
glowing phosphorus. The amount
admitted is registered by the turns
of a handle and the number of turns
necessary to put out the phosphorus
gives the measure of the quantity Of
turpentine and hence of the inten-
sity of the odor that was neutralized
by il.
We may expect if such measure
ments rs this are 10 be carried out
very frequently great increase OF
delicaoy in smell among those who
perform them. Atpresent this sense
has been much neglected. The proc
esses of evolution have passed it by
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 has
10 great extent taken his evolution
into his own hands.
PerhapslM Mesnard is giving us a
little shove. toward an almost dog.
liko perfection of scent.-New York
Journal.