SMELL AND TASTE 371 



food is ejected, instead of preparation being made for its 

 reception. 



Taste and smell are senses which afford us no information 

 with regard to time or space. They give rise to massive sensa- 

 tions. Such sensations, devoid of detail, produce a frame of 

 mind rather than thought. The smell of tobacco does not 

 distract attention. On the contrary, the steady flow of im- 

 pulses to which it gives rise helps to inhibit, to subdue, the 

 yapping of more exigent sensations. And since sensations of 

 smell have no features of their own, they form a background 

 to sensations of other kinds, entering with them into memory. 

 No two scenes are exactly alike. One cannot recall another. 

 But the scent of syringa is always the same. Wherever 

 smelled, it opens the pathways in the brain in which were first 

 associated a June evening and syringa, with a scene and a 

 situation upon which memory loves to dwell. 





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