i 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE SENSE OF SMELL 



IN PHYSICS we hear of nothing nowadays 

 but the Rontgen rays, which penetrate 

 dense bodies and photograph the invisible for 

 us. A fine discovery, but how insignificant 

 in face of the surprises which the future re- 

 serves for us when, better-informed of the 

 why and wherefore of things, we supplement 

 with art the feebleness of our senses and suc- 

 ceed in rivalling, be it ever so little, the keen- 

 ness of perception revealed by the brute crea- 

 tion. 



How enviable, in many cases, is this animal 

 superiority! It teaches us the poverty of our 

 attainments; it declares the mediocrity of our 

 sensory apparatus; it gives us evidence of 

 impressions foreign to our nature; it pro- 

 claims realities so far in excess of our attri- 

 butes that they astound us. 



A wretched caterpillar, the Pine Proces- 

 sionary, splits his back, into meteorological 

 air-holes which snuff the coming weather and 



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