Evening star., 1935-04-02
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

MY good husband has found 1t
embarrassing when I tell him where
he has been by the odor he has re-
tanned on his clothes and skin"
Fortunately, few wives have the
keen olfactory discrimination of the
woman physician who volunteered the
above information to Prof Donald A.
Laird of Colgate University while he
was investigating the different nat
ural odors of individuals-quite aside
from those produced by personal
cleanliness.
Prof Laird found considerable evi-
dence that individuals smell different,
families smell different. and races
smell different.
This might be assumed from the
ability of bloodhounds to trace an
individual. But Dr. Laird found
that the ability IS not confined to
dogs. Some human beings have it
to a very high degree-or, at least.
they claim they do.
The psychologist pursued his inves-
tigation, just reported to the Journal
of Abnormal and Social Psychology,
among 254 living persons of distinc-
tion''-professional men and women,
college professors, etc. He asked no
leading questions, but waited for them
to volunteer information after the
subject of the conversation had been
switched to individual differences.
Here are some of the instances he
gathered:
A psychologist, 46 years old, said
II often know whether a person has
been in a room within the past hour
or so by the odor. Often I can tell
to whom an article of clothing belongs
by the odor, though the persons are
cleanly about their persons"
A consulting engineer told him: "As
young boy occasionally was allowed
to spend the night with some play
mate. I was in several instances i'm
pressed with the family odor,' which
later I thought I detected every time
I came in the presence of any member
of that family. In one case I have
sensed the odor aura in the third gen.
Grafton, long years afterward."
Said a woman writer: LAS child I
used to amuse myself by recognizing
various persons with my eyes shut,
purely by the sense of smell. I have
always enjoyed trying to separate the
concomitance of nasal impression
call it neither perfume nor that bad
word 'smell-rnuch as I enjoy placing
the instruments in an orchestra OF
men or insects or birds"
A noted Egyptologist told DR.. Laird:
81 distinguish racial scents. Ameri-
cans. Portuguese and Scandinavians,
for example, to me have personal
odor aside from uncleanly smell.
Many japanese have told me that all
foreigners have a disagreeable odor to
them. Orientals to me have a char
acteristic, not unpleasant, odor that
clings to silks, jade, ETC."
Another writer said: 'Odors have
always seemed to me definitely asso-
ciated with households. I have a
cousin whose house smells just as his
mothers used to smell"
what Is the cause of these indi-
vidual differences in human smell?"
asks DR.. Laird.
"The reports of our observers indi-
cate clearly that it is not matter Of
personal cleanliness and bath hygiene
Eating habits might account for some
of the individual differences A tenn
porary factor might be the textile
finishing oils used in weaving or the
characteristic and readily identifiable
odors Of fur or rubber In garments.