Observations and Experiments on the Sense of Taste. 253 



niomile, &c. 2. In some flowers, the scent appears to come 

 from one part only, while in others this circumstance cannot 

 be perceived ; in a honeysuckle, we can squeeze out a sort of 

 honey, which tastes of the smell of the flower, as I may say. 

 This makes it likely that it is so, in fact, in the case of all 

 flowers, and such like things, though we cannot ascertain it in 

 all ; and if so, the chewing the whole, including the inodorous 

 part, will be likely to confound the smell. 3. I am inclined to 

 think, that as some smells, as I have already mentioned, are more 

 given out by means of heat, others, on the contrary, are less so, 

 and that this is the case with flowers : in different sorts of wine, 

 I think we find it to be the case. 4. In the case of those 

 flower-smells, which are powerful " in the air, where they 

 come and go," as Bacon expresses it, we must recollect that 

 there is a cloud of fragrance, as one may say, hovering 

 and collected near them, which, therefore, must greatly ex- 

 ceed what could be at any one time elicited directly from the 

 flowers ; it is on that account partly, that we smell them more 

 at sunset, because the air then becomes still, and the scent 

 " lies,"" as they say in hunting, that is, it is not blown away. 

 And in the case of such flowers, as " the steam of rich distilled 

 perfume" is more delightful, in degree, than the smell of the 

 flowers when near us, as Bacon remarks, and even a little dif- 

 ferent from it in the quality of the scent, it is no wonder it 

 should be more delightful than their taste, and different from 

 it. In the same manner, we find, that we cannot completely 

 judge of the smell of a dead rose-petal, by the strong smell 

 issuing from a drawerful of them when opened. 5. Another 

 important difference is, that if you smell with the nose, the 

 whole quantity of odour, contained in that draught of air, 

 strikes straight upon the organ of sense ; but if you had taken 

 that quantity into the mouth, it could not (as already observ- 

 ed) have reached the organ of smell, till it had first been 

 drawn into the lungs, and so mixed with a much larger body 

 of air, which it would there have met with ; so that, when the 

 same quantity of air was again returned outwards, through 

 the nose, it would bear with it a much less proportion of 

 odour. Unless, indeed, in some few cases, after many breath- 

 ings, the whole air in the lungs might become impregnated 



