Douglas Daily Dispatch

Your Health AND Your Brain
THE SENSE OF SMELL

By DR. LELAND B. ALFORD

Smell in man is a rather unimportant and probably dying sense. It may be lost without much inconvenience or even without its absence being noticed.

It is vision which occupies the predominant place in our lives which smell takes in the world of the dog and other animals.

There are, however, some interesting facts connected with smell. It is said that most of what we consider taste is in reality smell. The present idea is that there are only four tastes—sweet, sour, bitter and salt—these being the only perceptions when the nose is held shut with food in the mouth. With the nose closed an onion and an apple taste the same.

Smell is easily exhausted, as is evident when you enter a smelly room. At first odors are strong, but after a few minutes they cannot be detected.

Smell is "projected" outward. That is to say, when we smell something we think of its being at a distance, whereas taste is localized in the mouth.

The zone of smell is located in the upper recesses of the nose. Hence we sniff to catch a faint odor.

The persistent experience of a bad odor can be caused by disease in the nose, but is usually hysterical in nature. Loss of the sense of smell may be due to fracture of the skull, an attack of influenza or changes incident to old age.

It is believed smell is produced by small particles which issue from a smelly substance. Yet a bean of musk will give off an intense odor for years without losing weight.

The particles are supposed to dissolve in the secretions that moisten the mucous membrane, and in the small hairs which project from the cells concerned in smell.