HOW ANIMALS GET HOME. 217 



black towns ; and can distinguish these general and contin- 

 uous odors from special or concentrated odors, which lat- 

 ter would change direction as the smeller changed position. 

 How far this sense has really been developed in the human 

 subject, perhaps few know ; but in the history of Julia 

 Brace, the deaf and blind mute of Boston, for whom the 

 late Doctor Howe accomplished so much, occurs a striking 

 example. In her blindness and stillness, Julia's main oc- 

 cupation was the exercise of her remaining senses of touch, 

 taste, and smell. It was upon the last, we are told, that she 

 seemed most to rely to obtain a knowledge of what was go- 

 ing on around her, and she came finally to perceive odors 

 utterly insensible to other persons. When she met a per- 

 son whom she had met before, she instantly recognized him 

 by the odor of his hand or glove. If it was a stranger, 

 she smelled his hand, and the impression remained so 

 strong that she could recognize him long after by again 

 smelling his hand, or even his glove, if he had just taken 

 it off ; and if, of half a dozen strangers, each one should 

 throw his glove into a hat, she would take one, smell it, 

 then smell the hand of each person, and unerringly assign 

 each glove to its owner. She would pick out the. gloves 

 of a brother and sister by the similarity of odor, but could 

 not distinguish between them. Similar cases might be pro- 



