422 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 

 The Sense of Smell. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 9:283-84; Sep., 1850] 



[August ?, 1850] 



Insensible must be that person who can take a 

 beautiful and fragrant rose into his hand without feeling 

 thankful for so good and perfect a gift. With the most 

 systematical form and color is blended an odor more 

 exquisite than all the arts of the chemist's laboratory 

 could ever imitate, or we enjoy, but for the sense of 

 smell. This lovely flower is a favorite among all people 

 wherever it grows, and is more sought after by civilised 

 man, than any other. Why? Is it because of its beautiful 

 varying tints? No, for other flowers, the dahlia, for 

 instance, in this is more wonderful ; but it lacks odor. It 

 gives no pleasure to the sense of smell. It is this sense 

 that gives us a higher degree of enjoyment than the sense 

 of sight. How often have been sung the pleasures of the 

 hay field — the beauties of making hay. Deprive us of 

 the sense of smell, and what would we find there to 

 attract us to the spot and give us pleasure? 



The objects about which the sense of smell is constantly 

 employed are as incomprehensible as the other creations 

 of the same power that created these. They are no casual 

 productions, they are given to make man happy if he so 

 wills it. The sense of smell is the poetry of all the senses. 

 It may be cultivated with taste. Our dwellings may 

 abound with sweet flavors as well as pleasing views. 

 Everything that is cultivated to corrupt the sense of 

 smell, should be as carefully excluded from the vicinity 

 of our homes, as things that are offensive to the sight, if 

 we would avoid corrupting the minds of those more than 

 tender plants we are rearing there. Familiarity with 

 corrupt smells will corrupt the taste, and render the sense 

 of smell obtuse to the pleasures always enjoyed by this 

 pleasure-giving faculty in an uncorrupted state. This 

 sense, too, should always be consulted for the benefit of 

 our health. That which is offensive to it, indicates that 

 the salubrity of the atmosphere is affected, and should 



