ODOURS AND PERFUMES. 517 
the peculiar odour of prussic acid in a solution containing one 
part in two million parts of water, which no chemical test could 
detect. Again, the tenth part of a grain of musk will continue 
for years to fill a room with its odoriferous particles, and at the 
end of that time will not be appreciably diminished in weight 
by the finest balance. Still more acute is the sense of smell 
in the semi-savage man. The aborigines of Peru can, in the 
darkest night, and in the thickest wood, distinguish respectively 
a white man, a negro, and one of their own race by the smell. 
Much have we gained by civilization, but not without some loss 
to our bodily senses, and energies. Man seems to become less 
acute and delicate in the sense of smell, as he fares more 
abundantly, and lives more at ease. 
The essential oil of Cedar (Abies cedrus) is a delightfully 
fragrant antiseptic; about which tree, says Evelyn, “ its wood 
resists putrefaction, destroys noxious insects, continues sound 
a thousand years, or two, yields an oil famous for preserving 
books, and writings, purifies the air by its effluvia, and inspires 
worshippers with a solemn awe when used in wainscotted 
churches.” Again, it is of proved service to burn Incense 
(Pulvis thuris comp.) in a patient’s room for arresting septic 
catarrh, as on an access of influenza; this remedial antiseptic 
method was practised far back, in the days of Solomon. 
Similarly, with some individuals distress is occasioned by the 
exhalations, so subtle as to be imperceptible by others, of a 
cat in the room, of drugs in the air of a chemist’s shop, and 
of numerous recondite instances of the same kind. Tennyson 
has told of the personal effect produced by a use of scent even 
on the moral character :— 
‘That oil’d and curl’d Assyrian bull, 
Smelling at once of musk, and insolence.” 
Animals, too, are fascinated almost to intoxication by scents, 
as the domestic cat by the Valerian plant, as well as rats by its 
roots, which they grub up. It has been suggested that the 
Pied Piper of Hamelin may have carried one of these roots in 
his pocket. Valerianic odours first stimulate the spinal cord, 
and subsequently lower its sensibility. Musk (an animal 
secretion from the Musk-deer of China, and Thibet) is a poweriul 
cordial, and a very durable perfume; a few grains of it will 
retain the characteristic odour for years. In Henry the Fifth’s 
time Musk-balls, made of gold, or silver gilt, were carried 
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