The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-11
NOSES THAT EARN SALARIES
THE TRAINING or THE SENSE OF
SMELL
For Business Purposes by Compound
Ing Chemists and Experts In wines
and Liquors.

! Externally there was nothing remark
| able about the compromising chemist
nose. 1t was long and aquiline, with
wide, full nostris which dilated per-
ceptibly with every inhalation, and was
very like many other noses accepted by
individual possessors and the world at
| large as purely matters of anatomical
fact. But it was not an ordinary nose
by any means, for it earned the COM
pounding chemist a salary of $500
year, he said, because of it's ability to
disclose subtle facts of composition
when poked into odorous compounds.
81 suppose there are between so and
go educated noses earning comfortable
| livings for their possessors in New
York" said he. MEN whose olfactories
are so developed that. they can discrim-
mate between doors which offer no dis
tinctions to an uneducated nose are en-
ployed by the manufacturing chemists,
| tea importers, and the large wine and
liquor establishments. perfectly
trained nose is entirely necessary to
those of us whose business is the COM
pounding, blending and testing Of per-
fumes, essences and essential oils; but
we are obliged to be practical chemist
as well as able exerters Of the olfactory
| functions
How is a nose educated?" asked the
reporter
I'm various ways and by various
means. 1t depends greatly upon the
| field of usefulness in which the trained
nose is designed to sniff. But, first of
ALL 1t is necessary thoroughly to under
the sense of smell, and the limitations,
so far as man is concerned, far out
weigh the possibilities.
THE sense of smell is to be improved
only by constantly exercising it. To
become an olfactory expert one must
begin young and while the epthelial
cells of the mucous membrane and the
olfactory region proper of the nose arr IN
| perfect condition. His throat as well
as his nose, must be entirely healthy,
for any imperfection in the throat or
mouth is apt to affect the functions of
the nasal organs deleteriously No
person afflicted with catarrhal trouble
can hpPOn1n an
factory surface must be moist: if 1t Is
dfy or covered with too deep layer of
mucus, as in catarrh and kindred all
ments, the sense is much weakened or
ehtlrely destroyed. The intelligent
young man with sound throat, mouth
and nose and recollection for chemist
ry, for the use OF one sense alone will
not carry him through the odorous
world, might render his olfactory nerves
OF value to himself and Employers in
about tive years, although he could not
reach the lane Of the expert inside of a
decade, Few persons could cultivate
the sense of smell so as to bake IL uner
ring in the matter of discriminating be-
tween odors. They might know all that
| ever was printed in books of essential
oils and Others, but fail to learn the ex-
act qualities Of the odors which pass in
review before their nostrils One req
son of this is that most of us Americans
are troubled with catarrh either incipi-
ent ana unknown to the afflicted or
thoroughly developed, and this as |
sad, IS death to the perfect sensitive
ness of the olfactory organ Have you
catarrh?"
NO, said the reporter positively.
The man with the educated nose took
two Walls from shelf and poured from
each drop of colorless liquid uron bit
of bottlng paper. AT once the odor of
geranium filed the room.
Smell of BOTH said he, presenting
first one odorous stain and then the
other to the reporters nose. "and tell
me what difference you remark" The
reporter shifted and shifted again, ac-
cording to Instructions but confessed at
last that he could detect no difference.
i hardly though you could" return
ed the chemist with an indulgent smile.
You nave incipfent catarrh, and the
| epithelial cells are drying UP, thus pre-
venting you from detecting the strong
! difference between these odorous COM
pounds, one Of which is purely chemical
| product while in the other the active
principle was taken from the flower
| Any expert bender or even person
with perfectly healthy nose, mouth
| and throat could tell the difference with
a single inhalation. But no one could
really attain the necessary expertness to
tell wherein the difference lies by mere
| ly practicing at smelling. There are
no persons engaged by manufacturing
chemists who do not poke their noses
into odorous matters All of us are
compounders or blenders as we'll as
| smellers.
| Smelling by practiced by experts does
not begin and end with a plunge of the
| nose into a given odor How to smell
and the relative values and properties
of odors are questions which come up
very day to veX and harrow the soul
of the smelling chemist, even though
he is an expert of standing and long
practice. To excite smell substances
must be present in the atmosphere in
| condition of fine subdivision, or existing
| as vapors or gases, and the greater the
diffusion of the substances in a given
| space, of course, the more definite the
odor This is why we compromising
| chemists, when testing perfumes, usual
| " rub them thickly over the palm of
| our hands and permit the fumes TO
| ~, T., 19r,%I 4.