San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-11

most neglected of all our senses and
yet it has a powerful influence on
our memory, impulses. character, health
and happiness, controlling US in quite I'M
suspected ways.
DR.. Dan Mckenzie, distinguished Eng
fish nose and throat specialist, in his lat
est work, Anomalies and the Soul, a
Study of Smells" published by William
Heinemann of London, tells many curious
new discoveries showing how Nature leads
US by the nose
Man, though really the champion SMELL
producer of the world has modestly given
the crown 10 the skunL who does not de-
serve the honor. The skunk's occasional
efforts are such sensational successes that
we forget how seldom he performs. On
the other hand man, day and night never
ceases to pour into the air, from his fac
tories and furnaces, towering and ire
, mendous smells which spread to the poles.
The threat of blindness or deafness is
terrifying but for loss Of our sense of
smell there is not even a name. Yet with
out it a persons contact with til world
is badly crippled, For instance our sens,
of taste for the most part is not taste a
all but smell. To man who can no long
er smell, all food il either sour, swcc,
bitter or salty. Otherwise il has no taste
at all. Anyone who has ever had really
severe cold in the nose will not have for
gotten how tasteless his food became.
When food enters the mouth it comes
in contact with the organ of taste in the
tongue which gives Us the four sensations
just mentioned and no more. but vapors
and gases, from the food fill the mouth
and ascend through the air-passages into
the nose which gives the brain a report
that is worth having. The tongue merely
says: something sour but the nose in
forms us whether the sour thing Is grape
fruit, vinegar, lemon, claret or buttermilk,
whether il is good of its kind or not and
a thousand and one other things about
il which the human mind finds too cOmpli-
Gated to express. These inexpressible mes
sages going from our nose to our brains
are the cause of all the satisfaction there
is in eating.
In the old days when most medicines
were nasty-tasting, children were advised
to hold their nose while gulping the stuff
down This really helped because II pre-
vented some of the gaseous portions from
passing through and affronting the nose.
Cigar connoisseurs do not enjoy smoke
in the open air as much as indoors be
cause a breeze interferes with the draft
in "the chimney of the nose preventing
full appreciation of the tobacco's taste.
The bouquet" of rare old wines is first
shifted and inhaled by real eXper's.
There is nothing like a smell TO bring
back memories. Anyone who has had an
operation knows what the faintcst sus-
picion Of an ether smell will do. We may
forget the scenes of our childhood but If
we meet the smells of forgotten days MEM
cries leap up in our minds. Our noses
seem TO have small connection with our
reasoning faculties but they have a power
full grip on our Unreasoning emotions.
Science now knows this 10 be a fact,
and is able TO give the physiological rea-
sons for IT, But if is really nothing new.
There is the story of the Oracle Of Delphi
who foretold impeding events. According
TO the old legends, the prophetic powers
of the Pythoness, or priestess could only
function when vapors arising out Of a cleft
in the temple floor were inhaled by her.
The Pythoness sat on a high tripod over
this cleft, breathed in the fumes and was
made delirious by them. What she uttered
in her delirum was accepted as words of
the god Apollo, speaking through her lips.
The ancient storyteler, after all had a
scientific basis for this part Of his tale.
Many Of our unaccountable first inn
pressions, preiudices and so-called instinc-