Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-12-03
THE MYSTERY OF SMELL
PROBLEMS THAT AWAIT THE At
TENTIoN OF SCIENTIFIC MEN,
No Standard OF Smell or Unit Odor Has
Yet Been Established Some Remark
able Things About Odors s5OO,OOO
Earned In Fees by Professional Smelling.

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One subject which in this scientific
age has not been made the subject OF
thorough scientific Investigation IL the
sense of smell. Our knowledge Of the
science of odors remains about where
il 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 ofus 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 IA 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 IN examination of
several thousand flowers he found that
there was a connection between color
and perfume. He finds that Of white
howers II per cent. gave out agreeable
odors; Of gray ones, II per cent. of
red, little over \ per cent; of yell
low, a little over q per cent; Of blue.
per cent, and of green, only 2 per
cent. But, further, yellow flowers
contain the largest number with a
disagreeable odor, aud the white the
next largest. But this analysis is vi
tiated by the fact that 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 il able to combine
odors so as to produce a certain effect
ana talks of a perfume scale, but this
seems rather commercial than scien-
tifc. II he could really produce an
odor which everybody would recog-
nize, by the combination of different
smell elements, the foundation of q
science of smell would he laid.
One remarkable thing about odor is
that the emission of it does not appre-
ciably diminish the mass of the body
from which it is given off. A grain of
musk may fill room with odor for
years and weigh as much at the end of /
the time as it did at the beginning.
Its weight must have been diminished,
for 1t 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 infinitesimal in the case of an odor-
~ .Bod!'r ~s>-~~-r--- a. ..l.s..-..
The sense Of smell Is apparently
universal, but stronger in animals
han in man. The lowest orders smell
with their mouths, insects smell with
heir hairs, fishes smell in water, and
he acutenes Of the power of smell in
logs and in savages is we'll known.
humboldt says that the Peruvian In
lians could tell in the darkest night
whether person approaching was a
European, a negro, or an American
indian. In those deprived of the 9TH
" senses the power of Analysing odors
s sometimes abnormally developed.
The Scotch boy, James Mitchell, n
blind deaf mute, could distinguish the
in O room into which he
vas led. John Mossman, q deaf mute
u Parkersburg, W. Va, was able TO
ocate oil wells with the certainty that
setter finds cartridges. His nose
,rnunbt hin, N fortupa &c eSnn aan M, |
ees for professional smelling Ct is
TRANCE that no one has trained dog
o point petroleum.. Possibly a dog
night be taught TO "stand" n nugget
4 gold in the frozen soil of Alaska, as
igs find truiiles in Perigord, for met
10 have a characteristic smell. 1t is
robable that everything gives off a
etfluvium, though our
ense is not delicate enough to detect
no most subtle ones. Some gases, l
Ike hydrogen, have no odor, others,
Ike chlorine and the product OF the I
Hartford Gas company, have very
erceptible one. There is a general
lea that body must possess a mo-
'cular weight fifteen times as great as
nat OF hydrogen before it can affect !
ne olfactory nerves of human beings, ,,
ut even that needs confirmation. We
confound taste and smell, {
nd it is said that no one can distin- Z
uish an onion from an apple by taste :
one.
Some odors cling to the surface OF :
,ings, as the odor of game, which 7
rely rises much above the ground; =
hers are rapidly diffused through the $
II. Why is this? No one knows. =
ne Of the most singular things about q
10 sense of smell is that il is not sub y
ct TO illusions. Sight may be de- s
'ived. One may imagine he sees 7