The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-08
TEE MYSTERY OF SMELL.
Problems That Await the stud,ous Attentisn
OF Scientific Men.

From the Hartford Courdnt.
Ono subject which in this scientific age has
not been made the subject of thorough scientific
investigation is the sense of smell. Our knowl-
cdgc OF the science OF odors remains about
where IL was fifty years ago. although we have
learned 80 much about light, heat, and sound.
The old imperfect classification of smells into
''pungent, saline, and saccharinc" still remains.
Indeed, about all that most of us know is that
some smells are agreeable and some decidedly
the reverse. There is no standard OF smell, no
unit odor established MS a base Of comparison.
We do not know when one smell is twice ~
strong MS another. As q famous chemist SAID
"9uantitative analysis has not yet been ap-
"A writer in tho INDEPENDENT does. indeed
say that on an examination of several thousand
between color and perfume. He finds that 9e
white flowers Ii per cent. gave out agrcrabio
S1er j p per- s cSSt ones 81 u ycl RST cent? a iitf 81 r over = 3 pi per
r psP Conf of 1 hui, 4 fRp ST Ssn'': y Shd OF f flowers Snt CON :
odor and the white the next largest. But this
analysis is yitiated by the fact That q perfumS
smells, and there are but few which all declare
Of perfumes asserts that he is able to combine
odors so us 70 produce a certain effect and
commercial than scientific. II he could really
produce an odor which everybody would recog;
nizc, by the combination of different smen
would be laid.
emission Of it does. not apprcciqbly diminish
the mass of the body from which 1t is given
off, Oacr a. grain train of opd m Msish may ss much ,,i a At r fSS en MOI q
tho tim6 as it did at the beginning, lts
weight, must have boen Diminished, for 1t 10
ganR of sense can be produced without an linz
pact Of material particles from a source Of
energy, but the amount of matter dissipated
Is infinitosimal in the case of an odorous body.
The sense Of smell is apparently universast
lowest orders smell with their mouths, i'm
sects smell with their hairs, fishes smell i3
smell in dogs and in savages is wei known.
Humboldt says that the Peruvian Indians could
tell ennrd in t the he darkest F night whether ! n,S a pe or am
American Indian. In those deprived OF the
other senses the power Of analyzing odors i'
The Scotch boy, James Mitchell, q blind deaf
mute, could distinguish the individuals in .
to locate oil wells With The certainty that a
a fortune of $500, 900 as fees for professional
smelling at is strange that no one has trained
Be ut Caught sa pG tn ' Pts a a nugget nSsstot Of : gold oHf in the
frozen soil of Alaska, as pigs find truffies in
sSeIi. Il IS i0T ]pr0 5ssSt' that hsS oser "a 6hnEa siSes on
a characteristic efiluvium, though our sense 10
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. q very Percepti-
Nv oHN- NOV 40 " nv .NiSo -lihno u DOay
must possess n molecular weight fifteen times
as great as that of hydrogen before 1t can af-
feet the olfactory nerves Of human beings, but
even that needs confirmation. We frequently
confound taste and smell, and it Is said that
no one can distinguish an onion from an APP
pie by taste alone.
Some doors cling to the surface of things,'as
the odor Of game, which rarely rises much above
the ground; others are rapidly diffpsed through
Of the. most singular things about tho sense Of
smell Is that 1t Is not subject to illusions. Sight
may be deceived. One may imagine he secs
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 the insane are not sub
ject to olfactory decisions. There arc no
ghost smells, II this is true. What is the rea.
son, what Is. the explanation of the phenomenon
Again. why are the earth and fields 30 much
more fragrant in tho morning than at noon,
when, on the other hand. the strength of most
odors is increased by HEATH
The scientific men ought at least to make .
bluff at some of these problems. As 1t Is, hero
Is an original sense or power OF perception OF
tho utmost refinement. older. probably, than
the. sense of sight, a power for the exercise Of
which we use a complicated mechanical and
nervous, mechanism. the nature and modus
operandi of which is as much q matter of CON
lecture as were those of the senses Of sighu
and smell 1000 years ago. Evidently science
has not discovered everything yet.