The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1897-10-08
EYES, EARS AND NOSES.
Sight. Hearing and Smell In the Ages
Long Ago and Now.

Sight, hearing anu SlheAA III olO <~Soe
Long Ago and Now.
1t is a very curious question, especially
if the question include the first animals
created as we'll as the first men, whether
there be any difference between sight,
hearing and smell in those early days and
at the present time.
Smell was one of the most importans
senses then, for it aroused appetite, en-
abled the animals to seek and find their
mates and to track their prey, and it gave
them warming of foes approach or pres
ence With man now it is of only third
rate or fourth rate Importance.
The organ Of smell among some of the
first creatures was not near the end of the
snout or nose, but near the brain, and was
well padded or cushioned with fat and pro-
tected by a tender skin or by scales over
tapping each other.
But it was not more keen or more deli
cate then than it is now, especially in our
hunting dogs. Cats, too-and these are
among the later animals-haye this sense
in great perfection. A cat has what Is
called the homing instinct and if carried
away from home in the dark 1t can return
by precisely the same road. 1t Is said that
| this is because every field, ditch, village
or house leaves its own odor in just the
right order on the cats brain, like sue
cession of pictures, and the animal smells
/ its way back as we would see ours
The organ of smell seems to communl-
cate with the memory, for the scent of a
flower will sometimes bring back to
grown man the scene associated with it in
his childhood and "a thousand other sub
i tie thoughts and feelings, so that he seems
III sscf fo
The first creatures knew nothing of fra
GRANGE The 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 ea1
was lacking. The outside ear not only
protects the delicate nerves within, like a
hood, but also gathers or collects sounds
A man of defective hearing instinctively
puts bis hand behind his ear for this pur
pose. Birds that have no external ear car
easily be surprised by night and taken
while their acute vision shows them every
movement by day.
The savage races had little idea of music
They liked noises as children like drums
and horns. The sayages on the Midwa.
pla1Sance hau great dellghI III unelE ndtlN'
music, which was disoord to our ears. /
required larger brains and finer training
to have the full delight in melody and har
mony that our musicians possess now.
The eye, also, in the gigantic creatures o
early neriads was soIf atiasess' AM
adorn the human eye now. In some Of
those lizardlike animals that burrowed il
the mud there were three pairs of eyelids
one OF them transparent, SO that the ami
NAL might see through it closed.
It is said that early writer's, like Homer
speak of very few oolors, chiefly red OF
purple, as they called it then
enjoyment of beauty, of graceful curve:
and lines and proportion, or of harmonious
and varied colors and their delicate tints
belongs to later state of cultivation, a
more developed brain, than most of the
early races knew.-E. F. Mosby in Phila,
delphia Times.