202 KISSES 



a " dulling " of the power to perceive an odour which is a 

 consequence of constant exposure to that odour. Thus the 

 Chinese say that Europeans all smell unpleasantly, the 

 odour resembling that of sheep, although we do not observe 

 it ; whilst Europeans notice and dislike the smell of the 

 negro, a smell of the existence of which he is unaware. 

 The blood of animals, including that of man, has, when 

 freshly shed, a smell peculiar to the species, which has not, 

 however, any resemblance to that of the skin or of the waxy 

 glands of the same animal. 



It seems that in regard to the exercise of the sense of 

 smell by man, we must distinguish not only greater from 

 less acuteness and variety of perception, but in the case of 

 this sense-organ, as in regard to the others, we must 

 distinguish " unconscious " from " conscious " sensation. 

 All our movements are guided and determined by sensations 

 of touch and sight, and to some extent, of hearing, of which 

 we are unconscious. A vast amount of our sense-experience 

 comes to us and is recorded without our having conscious- 

 ness of anything of the kind going on. It is probable that 

 the world of smells in which a dog with a fine olfactive 

 sense lives, produces little or nothing in the dog's mind 

 which is equivalent to our conscious perception of degrees 

 of agreeable and disagreeable odours. The dog is simply 

 attracted and repulsed in this direction and in that by the 

 operation of his olfactive organs, without, so to speak, 

 giving any attention to the sensation which is guiding him 

 or being " aware " of it. No doubt at times, and with 

 special intensities of smell, he is, in his way, conscious ot 

 a specific sensation. It is probable that whilst man's 

 general acuteness in perceiving and discriminating smells 

 has dwindled (as has that of the apes) in comparison with 

 what it was in his remote animal ancestry, yet he retains 

 a large inherited capacity of unconscious smell-sense, which 

 most of us are unable to recognise, although it is there, 



