146 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to the organ of smell. la 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 agita- 

 tion, or whether some chemical decomposition takes place in the case. 

 At any rate, it is allowable to reason from the observed facts that 

 smell and taste are two senses peculiarly distinct from the others, as 

 well with respect to the object of sensation as to the ideas which the 

 mind derives from the sensation itself. Sight, touch, and hearing, in 

 a manner physical senses, furnish us the ideas of external forms, har- 

 monies, and motions. They introduce us to the conception of the 

 beautiful, and are true fellow-laborers with the intellect. Taste and 

 smell are rather chemic senses, as Nickles calls them. They come 

 into action only upon contact, and awake in us only such sensations 

 as life and mind gain no profit from. While the former are the spring 

 of the highest functions, the latter are of use only for the performance 

 of acts of nutrition. 



The learned and capable author ' of a book on odors, published 

 within a few years, fancies, however, that he can establish a kind of 

 aesthetics of odors, more or less resembling that of tones. He has in- 

 vestigated olfactory harmonies, hoping to find in them the elements 

 of a sort of music. " Odors," he says, " seem to affect the olfactory 

 nerves in certain definite degrees, as sounds act on the auditory 

 nerves. There is, so to speak, an octave of smells, as there is an 

 octave of tones ; some perfumes accord, like the notes of an instru- 

 ment. Thus almond, vanilla, heliotrope, and clematis, harmonize per- 

 fectly, each of them producing almost the same impression in a differ- 

 ent degree. On the other hand, we have citron, lemon, orange peel, 

 and verbena, forming a similarly associated octave of odors, in a 

 higher key. The analogy is completed by those odors which we call 

 half-scents, such as the rose, with rose-geranium for its semitone ; 

 ' petit-grain ' and neroli, followed by orange-flower. With the aid 

 of flowers already known, by mixing them in fixed proportions, we 

 can obtain the perfume of almost all flowers." In accordance with 

 these fancies, Piesse has formed gamuts of odors, parallel with 

 musical gamuts, and exhibiting concords of scents at the same time 

 with those that produce discords. As a painter blends his tints, the 

 perfumer should blend his fragrances ; and Piesse maintains he can 

 only gain that object by following the laws of harmony and contrast 

 in odors. This theory is certainly quite ingenious, and deserves 

 attention, but it is open to serious objections. If the harmony of 

 colors and of sounds exists, it is because optics and acoustics are exact 

 sciences, and harmony in this case is reduced to numerical relations, 



1 Piesse, on " Odors, Perfumes, and Cosmetics." 



