Evening journal., 1897-12-31
rAe MYsTERY oF SMELL.
Prsbiems That Await the studtoua
Attention OF Scientific Men.


i was 80 years ago, although we have
learned so much about light, heat, and
tound. The old imperfect classification
of smells into "pungent, saline, and
saccharine" still remains. Indeed,
about all that most Of us know is that
gome smells are agreeable and some de-
adedly the reverse. There is no stand
ird of smell, no unit odor established
base OF comparison. We do not know
when one smell is twice as strong rs am
other. AS famous chemist said:
'Quantitative analysis has not yet been
applied to the skunk"
A writer in the Independent says that
On an examination Of several thousand
lowers he found that there was a CON
aection between color and perfume. He
fnds that Of white flowers "a per cent
gave out agreeable odors; of gray ones,
II per cent; of red, a little over eight
per cent; Of yellow, q little over six
per cent; Of blue, four per cent, and Of
green, only two per cent. But, further,
yellow flowers contain the largest NUM-
Der with a disagreeable odor and the
white the next largest. But this analy-
sis is vitiated by the fact thata perfume
agreeable TO one person may be siclSen-
Ing 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 be is able 60 combine odors
so as TO produce n certain effect and
talks Of perfume scale, but this seems
rather commercial than scientific. II
he could really produce an odor which
everybody would recognize, by the COM
bination of different smell elements,
lie foundation Of n science OF smell
would be laid.
One remarkable thing about odor is
that the emission OF IL does not appre-
ciably diminish the mass of the body
from which It is given Off. 4 grain OF
musk may fill a room with odor for
years and weigh as much at the erd OF
the time as It did at the beginning. Its
weight must have been diminished, for
it is impossible to believe that an eff
feet on our organs Of sense can be pro-
luced without an impact of material
particles from a source Of energy, but
the amount of matter dissipated is in
initesimal in the case of an odorous
body.
The sense OF smell is apparently uni-
versal. 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
acuteness OF the power Of smell in dogs
nnd in savages is well known. Hum
boldt says that the Peruvian Indians
.ould tell in the darkest night whether
d person approaching was a European,
A negro, or an American Indian In
those deprived of the other senses the
power Of analyzing odors is sometimes
abnormally developed.
The Scotch boy, James Mitchell, q
blind deaf mute, could distinguish the
individuals in a room into which he was
led. John Mossman, q deaf mute OF
ParkersbHrg, w. Va, was able TO locate
oil wells with the certainty that a set.
ter finds partridges. His nose brought
him a fortune Of S50O,000 as fees for
professional smelling Otis strange that
no one has trained a dog to point pc
troleum). Possibly q dog might bs
taught to "stand" a nugget of gold in
the frozen soil of Alaska, as pigs find
truflles in perigord, for metals have q
characteristic smell. probable thai
everything gives of a characteristic ef
luvium, though our sense is not deli
cate enough to detect the most subtle
ones. Some gases, like hydrogen. have
no odors, like chlorine have a very pre-
eeptible one. There is q general ide,
that a body must possess a molecular
weight is times as great as that Of by
lrogen before it can affect the olfactorl
nerves Of human beings, but even tha
needs confirmation. We frequentl,
confound taste and smell, and st i7 sal,
that on one can distinguish an onioi
from an apple by taste alone.
Some odors cliHg TO the =surface @
things, as the oder of game, which rare
ly rises much above the ground; other
are rapidly diifused through the air
= Why isthis2 Noone knows One Of tb
! most singular things about the sense o
smell that it isnot subject to illusions
Sight may be deceived One may i'm
ngine he sees things which are not be
fore him; he may hear roaring in hi
= ears when there is no sound, but IL !
said that even the insane are not sub
feet to olfactory delusions. There ar
no ghost smells. If this is true, whati
the reason, what is the explanation Q
1 the phenomenon? Again, why are th
D earth and fields so much more fragran
I in the morning than at noon, when, o.
the other hand, the strength Of mos
odors is increased by heat?
The scientific men ought at least I
make bluff" at some Of these prol
lems. As it is, here is an original sens
I pr power Of perception of the utmos
e refinement, older, probably, than th
y fense of sight, power for the exercis
b of which we use a complicated mechan
= pal and nervous mechanism, the ratur
pnd modus opsrandi ofwhich is as muc
= matter of conjecture as were those {
= hhe senses Of sight and smell goo year
bgo. Evidently science has not dis
covered everything yet. - Hartfor
Courant.
Culinary Tfem.