Odalisque

“ This strange revival of bygone days by olfaction is, as I have said, automatic. It is most clearly and completely to be realised when the inciting odour comes upon us unawares, and then as in a dream the whole of the long-forgotten incident is displayed, even although it may have been an incident in which the odour itself was not specially obtrusive. Yet the display is not only a spectacle, for we become, as I have already laboured to point out, once more actors in the old life-drama. ”

“ I am acquainted with people—English people—who are able to recognise by olfaction not only different races and the two sexes, but even different persons. One of those sensitives informs me that to her the personal olfactory atmosphere is every whit as characteristic and unmistakable as the play of features or the carriage of the figure.
Another remarkable feat within the capacity of human macrosmatics, and one that seems almost incredible to the ordinary individual, is that of being able to distinguish the clothing of different persons by its aroma. ”

“ Shall it then be said that those other qualities also act upon bodies? But all bodies are not impressionable by odour and sound, and those which are so are indefinite and mobile, such as is the air; for the air gives out odour, as if it had been subject to impression. What then is smell but impression of some kind? But smelling is a sentient perception; and the air having been impressed by odour, becomes quickly sensible to us. ”

“ Emphatic as a blow. Obviously, we have here a combination of several sense impressions, tactile, visual, olfactory: tactile, for 157the air is damp and chilly; visual, for it is a blank, a negative, and yet a powerful influence; olfactory, smelling ominous and of death. Old dried bones emit precisely the same exhalation. In a subtle way, too, the presence of mould is perceptible, all blending into the horrible and grisly atmosphere of despair; the Valse Triste and the Dance of Death.
Smell can bring as certainly and as irresistibly as music emotions of all sorts to the mind. ”

“ Chapter IX. It is less easy to define smell and the odorous object, than the subjects which have just been treated of, as the nature of odour is not so clear to us as is that of either sound or colour; and the reason of this is, that our sense of smell is inaccurate, is less delicate, in fact, than it is in many animals. Thus, man has but a coarse smell, and is never sensible of any thing odorous without associating therewith an impression of something painful or grateful; and this seems to indicate an organ imperfectly constituted. ”

“ It is as if you took roses and Limburger cheese and hair oil, some heather and onions, peaches and soapsuds, together with a dash of sea air and a corpse, and mixed them up together. You cannot define any particular odour, but you feel they are all there—all the odours that the world has yet discovered. ”

“ Every new odour perceived is a source, if not of warning, of recurrent satisfaction or interest. We are acquainted with too few of the odours which the spring-time offers. Only this spring the present writer learned two peculiarly delightful odours quite new to her, that of young larch twigs, which have much the same kind and degree of fragrance as the flower of the syringe, and the pleasant musky aroma of a box-hedge. Children should be trained to shut eyes, for example, when they come into the drawing-room, and discover by their nostrils what odorous flowers are present ”

“ Our hero begins to notice that there is something wrong, and presently discovers its cause; he, unhappily, has been the last person in the room to remark that familiar but most abominable odour, rising like a deadly exhalation from the floor, conquering all other odours, and every moment becoming more powerful. ”

“ It seemed, to quote his words, as though in these experiments we were assisting at the formation of the odorous molecules. Those delicate atoms emitted from odorous substances and diffused through the atmosphere are, in fact, the very same that impinge on our pituitary membrane, and give us the sensation of odors. Moreover, facts long ago observed display this revealing action, so to call it, of water upon odors. At morning, when the verdure is moist and the flowers covered with sparkling pearls of dew, a fresher and balmier fragrance exhales from every plant. ”

“ Having thus learned what physiologists think of the sense of smell and the conditions of the perception of odors, let its see what naturalists and chemists have ascertained respecting the latter as viewed in themselves, what place they give to odorous bodies, and what character they attribute to them all. The three kingdoms possess odors. Among mineral substances, few solids, but quite a number of liquids and gases, are endowed with more or less powerful scents, in most cases not very pleasant ones, and usually characteristic. ”

“ Odors, to be perceived, must be taken up by oxygen, and borne by it to the organ of smell. In a word, odor is the odoriferous particle itself, while light is not the light-giving body.
Does oxygen exert a chemical influence on those atoms of which it robs odorous substances? We do not know, neither do we know of what kind is the action which occurs on the contact of odor with the olfactory nerve, whether the phenomenon is a mere mechanical agitation, or whether some chemical decomposition takes place in the case. ”

“ Here his thoughts, accustomed to deal with leagues 33rather than acres, could at least find room to turn about in. And although the perfume that rose to his nostrils was like the perfume of flowers preserved by some artificial process rather than the great clean smells of a virgin world such as he was used to, it was nevertheless the smell of his boyhood, and it moved him powerfully. Odour is the one thing that is impossible to recall in exile. ”

“ The physical theory of odour, then, refers that quality to the vibration of the molecule. It suggests that the molecules of an odorous body passing in the gaseous or, in fishes, the liquid state into the olfactory region of the nose, are there received by the film of mucus in which the olfactory hairs lie, and stimulate these hairs by their molecular vibration. No chemical change is supposed to take place, only, as it were, a mechanical stimulation, comparable to the mechanical stimulation of the retina by the waves of light. ”

“ For odour, as a power, is naturally heat-giving. Thus Nature has employed respiration for two purposes: primarily for the relief thereby brought to the thorax, secondarily for the inhalation of odour. For while an animal is inhaling,- odour moves in through its nostrils, as it were 'from a side-entrance.'
But the perception of the second class of odours above described [does not belong to all animal, but] is confined to human beings, because man's brain is, in proportion to his whole bulk, larger and moister than the brain of any other animal. ”

“ Both sorts, in sooth, are intermixed in honey— What oft we've proved above to thee before. Now come, and I will indicate what wise Impact of odour on the nostrils touches. And first, 'tis needful there be many things From whence the streaming flow of varied odours May roll along, and we're constrained to think They stream and dart and sprinkle themselves about Impartially. But for some breathing creatures One odour is more apt, to others another— Because of differing forms of seeds and pores. ”

“ The taste-bulbs are capable of appreciating four sensations only, and these quite simple, while the capacity of the olfactory organ, as we shall see more fully later on, is practically unlimited. All the subtlety of “taste,” all that we call “flavour,” is an olfactory sensation. Thus, people devoid of the sense of smell cannot discern the finer savours. ”

“ If the nostrils are closed, the presence of the odorous substance does not give rise to the sensation; while, when they are open, the sensation is intensified by the approximation of the odorous substance to them, and by snuffing up the adjacent air in such a manner as to draw it into the nose. On the other hand, looking at an odorous substance, or rubbing it on the skin, or holding it to the ear, does not awaken the sensation. ”

“ It is supposed, that is to say, that the vibrations of the odorous molecule set up undulations in the ether, and that it is those ethereal undulations that stimulate the olfactory hairs, just as ethereal undulations emanating from a luminous source stimulate the retina.
There is one great difference, however, between light and odour, a difference admitted, we may mention, by the supporters of the undulatory theory, but not emphasised by them. ”

“ Thus, we are said to smell a rose, when we have the sensation derived from the odour of the rose. It is more correct language, however, to say, that we smell the odorous particles which proceed from the visible, tangible object, than that we smell the object itself; for, if any thing prevents the odorous particles, which the body emits, from reaching the organ of smell, the 11 sensation is not obtained. The object of the sense of smelling then are odorous particles, which only operate, or produce the sensation, when they reach the organ of smell. ”

“ Thus in the opening paragraph of this book we encountered a large number of olfactory words. But they are all vague ; some applying to pleasant, some to unpleasant, odours. Many of them are very expressive, for disgust begets strong language. But although our olfactory vocabulary may be forceful, it is not discriminative. In other words, it is an emotional, not an intellectual, vocabulary,
These considerations will become more obvious as we deal with olfactory epithets in detail.
Thus smells may be faint or “strong,” but so may any other sensation. ”

“ The odours most easy to bring back were pinks, musk, violet, heliotrope, carbolic acid, the smell of the country, grass, and so on. Many, as in my own case, have to evoke the visual image first.
But if the recollection of a scene can only with difficulty, or not at all, revive the sensation of an odour, the converse is most startlingly true. For odours have an extraordinary, an inexplicable, power of spontaneously and suddenly presenting a forgotten scene to the mind, and with such nearness to reality that we are translated bodily, being caught up by the spirit, as it were, like St. ”

“ For the sense of sight, the sense of hearing, of taste, of smell, of touch—all these are discriminative faculties, their purpose being to separate the beneficial from whatever causeth harm. Now, is it possible that man’s sense of smell, the sense that differentiates odours, should find some odour repugnant, and that odour be beneficial to the human body? ”

“ The air is the medium for sounds, while that for odour has no special appellation, for there is a particular impression common to air and water; and what the diaphanous is to colour that which is in those elements is to odorous bodies, as aquatic animals appear to be sensible of odours. But neither man nor animals which breathe can smell without inspiring ”

“ So that as insanguineous creatures do not breathe, they ought to have some other sense besides those spoken of, but yet this cannot be, since they do perceive odour; for the perception of odour, whether agreeable or disagreeable, is smell; and as these appear to be destroyed by the same powerful odours as those which destroy man (odours, for instance, from pitch, sulphur, and other like substances) , we must conclude that they have smell, although they do not breathe. ”

“ We may here remark that although we are usually able to perceive that the odour and the flavour of a sapid food or drink are akin to each other, the sensation of the odour anticipating that of the flavour, yet they are by no means always identical. ”

“ OLFACTORY MEMORY
The predominant special senses in man are vision and hearing, olfaction occupying a quite unimportant position in the scale,
Smell and taste, by the way, are usually regarded not only as allied senses, but also as if they were akin in their nature and function, Allied they are, undoubtedly, seeing that both subserve the function of food-perception. ”

“ We never say of any one in particular that, e.g., “This is the smell called ‘dank,’” in the precise way we can say: “That colour is green,” or “That sound is a whistle.”
We may even go further. We know that the flavour of things tasted is an olfactory sensation. Now while language attains to precision in characterising the sensations of pure taste, as we have just seen, it is significant that flavours are left unnamed, except in the manner we have just explained for olfactory epithets. ”

“ There seems to be no adequate vocabulary of smells, and I must fall back on approximate phrase and metaphor.
Some people have a vague, unsubstantial odour that floats about, mocking every effort to identify it. It is the will-o'-the-wisp of my olfactive experience. Sometimes I meet one who lacks a distinctive person-scent, and I seldom find such a one lively or entertaining. On the other hand, one who has a pungent odour often possesses great vitality, energy, and vigour of mind.
Masculine exhalations are as a rule stronger, more vivid, more widely differentiated than those of women. ”

“ The effect of this insanitary condition at once makes itself felt to the olfactory sense of a foreigner who is accustomed to more perfect arrangements at home, for as soon as he enters the room a peculiar offensive smell greets his nose. ”