The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-17

room with odor for years and weigh an
much at the end of the time as IT did at
the beginning. Its weight must have been
diminished, for it is impossible to believe
mat an effect on our organs of sense can
be produced without an impact of mate.
rial particles from a source of energy. but
the amount of matter dissipated Is i'm
intestinal in the case of an odorous
body.
Ihe sense of smell Is apparently unIyer.
sal, 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 and In savages Is wen
known. Humboldt says that the Per-
uvian Indians could tell In the darkest
night whether person approaching was
european, negro, or an American In
dian. In those deprived of the other
senses the power of analyzng odors is
sometimes abnormally developed.
Inc Scotch boy, James Mitchell, a blind
deaf mute, could distinguish the indlyid.
uals In room into which he was led.
John Mossman, a deaf mute of Parkers-
burg W. Va was able to locate oil wells
with the certainty that setter finds part
ridges. His nose brought him fortune of
100000 as fees for professional smelling Gt
is strange that no one has trained a dog to
point petroleum.. Possibly a dog might
be taught to stand" a, nugget Of gold
in the frozen soil of Alaska as pigs find
truffies in Perigord, for metals have
characteristic smell. 1t is probable that
everything gives off a characteristic efflu-
Vium, though our sense is not delicate
enough to detect the most subtle ones.
Some gases, like hydrogen, have no odor,
others, like chlorine and the product of
the Hartford Gas Company have very
perceptible one. There is a general idea
n hSa1Vy liz
weight fifteen times as great as that of
hydrogen before 1t can affect the olfactory
nerves of human beings, but even that
needs confirmation. We frequently con-
found taste and smell, and it is said that
no one can distinguish an onion from an
apple by taste alone.
Some odors cling to the surface of
things, as the odor of game, which rarely
rises much above the ground; others are
rapidly diffused through the air. Why is
this? No one knows One of the most
singular things about the sense of smell
is that 1t is not subject to illusions. Sight
may be deceived. One may imagine he
sees things which are not before him; he
may hear a roaring In his ears when there
is no sound, but it is said that even this
insane are not subject to olfactory de-
lusions. There are no ghost smells. II
this is true, what is the reason, what is
the explanation of the phenomenon
Again, why are the earth and fields so
much more fragrant in the morning than
at noon, when. on the other hand, tho
strength Of most doors is increased by
heat?
The scientific men ought at least to
make bluff at some of these problems.
AS il is, here is an original sense or power
of perception of the utmost refinement,
older, probably, than the sense of sight,
a power for the exercise of which we uss
complicated mechanical and nervous
mechanism, the nature and modus oper.
conjecture as were those of the senses OF
sight and smell 1000 years ago. Evident
iy science has not discovered everything
yet.