370 THE BODY AT WORK 



few, on first coming across a scented herb or shrub, pay suffi- 

 cient attention to its perfume to impress it on their memories. 

 They note the shape of its leaves and the colour of its flowers, 

 but they are unable to identify it by its odour when they meet 

 with it again. It is not much to be wondered at, therefore, 

 that this slighted sense tends to leave us after middle life. It 

 has been asserted and probably the statement is justified 

 that rarely is the olfactory bulb of a man over forty free from 

 signs of atrophy. We have no statistics concerning the brains 

 of Japanese, who regard the sense of smell as one of the chief 

 avenues of pleasure ; but it may be that in this respect their 

 brains present a contrast to our own. Yet the deadening of 

 the sense is scarcely noticed, since its results are of little con- 

 sequence as compared with those which follow loss of sight or 

 loss of hearing. Many a man, as he grows older, declares that 

 the cook of his club has lost his cunning, or frankly asserts 

 that he "no longer cares for kickshaws. Cold beef, beer, and 

 pickles, are good enough for him." He little suspects that his 

 palate has lost its power of distinguishing the flavours of dainty 

 meats and wines. Others continue to be exacting, because 

 their imaginations still endow food with the qualities which 

 they remember, just as people eat preserved asparagus or 

 tinned peas because they look however little they taste like 

 the gifts of Spring. 



Taste accompanies the reception of food in the mouth. We 

 have no knowledge of the situation of our own olfactory mem- 

 branes, and therefore we suppose that a flavour, whether it 

 be due to stimulation of taste-bulbs or olfactory membrane, is 

 in the mouth. The odour of a flower we mentally project 

 to a distance, because we associate the sight of a flower 

 with its perfume. A dog, able to judge the freshness or stale- 

 ness of a scent, must project its sensations of smell in the 

 same way in which we project our sensations of sight. It 

 forms an estimate, of a sort, of the time that it will take in 

 reaching the source of the scent. Its excitement increases as 

 the trail grows fresher. 



Taste and smell are heavily laden with affective tone. 

 When disagreeable, the feeling which they evoke is near akin 

 to pain. It may gather head until, like hunger, it causes 

 the discharge of motor neurones ; but under its influence 



