Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-12-03
THE MYSTERY OF SMELL
PROBLEMS THAT AWAIT THE At.
TENTlON OF SCIENTIFIC MEN.

age has not been made the subject o
thorough scientific investigation is tn,
sense of smell. Our knowledge of the
science of odors remains about where
it was fifty years ago, although we
have learned so much about light,
heat and sound. The old imperfect
classification of smells into "pungent,
saline and saccharine" i'll remains.
Indeed, about all that most of MS know
is that some smells are agreeable and
some decidedly the reverse, There is
no standard of smell, no unit odor es-
tablished as base of comparison. We
do not know when one smell is twice
as strong as another. As famous
chemist said: "Quantitative analysis
has not yet been applied to the
skunk"
A writer in the Independent does,
indeed, say that on an examination Of
several thousand flowers he found that
there was o connection between color
and perfume. He finds that of white
flowers II per cent. gave out agreeable
odors; OF gray ones, IL per cent; of
red, little over s per cent; of yell
low, little over & per cent. of blue.
4 per cent, and of green, only 2 per
cent. But, furthep yellow flowers
contain the largest number with a
disagreeable odor, and the white the
next largest. But this analysis is Vi
tiated by the fact that a perfume agree
able to one person may be sickening
to another. There is no aesthetic
standard of smells, and there are but
few which all declare to be delightful.
An English manufacturer of perfumes
asserts that he is able to combine
odOrs so as to produce certain effect
and talks of a perfume scale, but this
seems rather commercial than scien-
tific. If he could really produce an
odor which everybody would recog-
nize, by the combination of different
smell elements, the foundation of
science of smell would he laid.
One remarkable thing about odor is
that the emission of it does not appre-
Gladly diminish the mass of the body
from which it is given off, A grain of
musk may fill a room with odor for
years and weigh as much at the end of
the time as it did at the beginning.
It's weight must have been diminished,
for it is impossible to believe that an
effect on our organs of sense can be
produced without an impact of materi-
al particles from source of energy,
but the amount of matter dissipated
is intinitesimal in the case of an odor-
Gus body.
The sense of smell is apparently
universal, but stronger in animals
than in man. The lowest orders smell
with their mouths, insects smell with
their hairs, fishes smell in water, and
the acutenes of the power of smell in
dogs and in savages is we'll known.
Humboldt says that the Peruvian In
1ians could tell in the darkest night
whether person approaching was a
European, a negro, or an American |
Indian. In those deprived of the 9TH
Dr. senses the power of Analysing odors
s sometimes abnormally developed.
The Scotch boy, James Mitchell, a
blind deaf mute, could distinguish the
Individuals in a room into which he
vas led. John Mossman, deaf mute
If Parkersburg, W. Va, was able to
ocate oil wells with the certainty that
setter finds cartridges. His nose
him fortune of $500, 600 as
ees for professional smelling lit is
TRANCE that no one has trained a dog
o point petroleum.. Possibly a dog
night be taught to "stand" nugget
# gold in the frozen soil Of Alaska. as
'igs find truffles in Perigord, for met
'ls have characteristic smell. 1t is
probable that everything gives off
Characteristic etfiuvium, though our
ense is not delicate enough to detect
he most subtle ones. Some gases.
Ike hydrogen, have no odor, others,
Ike chlorine and the product of the
Hartford Gas company, have very
erceptible one. There is general
lea that body must possess mo-
ocular weight fifteen times as great as
hat OF hydrogen before it can affect
he olfactory nerves of human beings,
ut even that needs confirmation. We
-equently confound taste and smell,
nd it is said that no one can distin-
uish an onion from an apple by taste
lone.
Some odors cling to the surface Of
,ings, as the odor of game, which
arely rises much above the ground;
theirs are rapidly diffused through the
ir. Why is this? No one knows
ne Of the most singular things about
,e sense OF smell is that it is not sub.
'ct to illusions. Sight may be de.
eived. One may imagine he sees
,ings which are not before him: no
ay hear roaring in his ears when
lere is no sound, but it is said that
zen the insane are not subject to OIL
ctory decisions. There ara M Oh.