The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-09-29
EYES, EARS AND NOSES.
Sight, Hearing and Smell In the Ages
Long Ago and Now.


Long Ago and Now.
1t Is worry curious question, especially
IL the question include the first animals
created us well as the first men, whether
there be any difference between sight,
hearing and smell in those early days and
Mt tho present time
Smell was one of tho most important
senses thon, for it aroused appetite, en-
abled the animals to seek and find their
mates and to track their prey and 1t gave
Thorn warming OF n foes approach or pres
ence. With man now it Is of only third
rate or fourth ratio Importance.
The organ of smell among some of tho
first creatures was not near the end of the
snout or nose, but near tho brain and was
well poddod or cushioned with fat and pro-
tectcd by II tender skin or. by scales over
tapping each othor
But 1t was not moro keen or more deli
cate thon than it is now, especially in our
hunting dogs. Cats, too-and these are
among tho Inter animals-hayo this sense
In great perfection. A cat has what is
called tho honing instinct, and If carried
away from home in the dark it can return
by precisely tho same road 1t is said that
this Is because every field, ditch, village
or house leaves it's own odor in Just the
right order OH tho cuts brain, like n sue
ScooiOii vi iiOtuTcS, huu lUc animal smells
It's way bnck us wo would sec ours.
The organ of smoll seems to communi-
cato with the memory, for the scent of
flower will sometimes bring back to
grown man the scene associated with it in
his childhood, and n thousand other sub
tie thoughts and feelings, so thnt he seems
literally carried baok into his past life
The first creatures knew nothing of fra
GRANGE Tho sweet smelling flowers were
not then in existence. Besides, their
brains were too small to enjoy the delicate
pleasures of sweet odors.
Hearing was comparatively poor with
the first animals, for often an external ear
was lacking. The outside car not only
protects the delicate nerves within, like a
hood, but also gathers or collects sounds.
A man of defective hearing instinctively
puts his hand behind his car for this pur-
pose. Birds that havo no external ear can
easily BIZ surprised by night and taken.
whilo their acute vision shows them cycrv
movomcnt by day
Tho savage races had little idoa of music.
They liked noises as children like drums
and horns. The snvages Oh tho Midway
plaisnnce had great delight in their native
music, which was discord to our ears 1t
required larger brains and finer training
to have tho full delight in melody and har-
ihoHy ohu1 Jul inuslclunS possess now.
The eye, also, in the gigantic creatures of
early periods WINS sometimes rudimentary,
though, again, it was of largo size and pro-
tected by ring of bony plates instead of
tho lovely silken cyelashes that protect and
adorn the human eye now. In some of
those liZardlike animals that burrowed in
the mud there were three pairs of eyelids,
ono or them transparent, so that the an
NAL might SEQ through it closed.
1t is said that early writer's like Homer,
speak of very few colors, chiefly red, or
purple. rs they called 1t then
Enjoyment of beauty, OF graceful curves
and lines and proportion, or of harmonious
and varied colors and thoir delicate tints
belongs to later state of cultivation, n
moro developed brain, than most of the
early races kncw.-E L. Mosby in Phila-
delphia Times