396 THE SENSORIAL FUNCTIONS. 



occupy a station, in the order of sensitive ex- 

 i stence, so remote from ourselves, we are wander- 

 ing into regions where the only light that is 

 afforded us must be borrowed from vague and 

 fanciful analogies, or created by the force of a 

 vivid and deceptive imagination. 



Chapter IV. 



SMELL. 



Animal life being equally dependent upon the 

 salubrious qualities of the air respired, as of 

 the food received, a sense has been provided 

 for discriminating the nature of the former, 

 as well as of the latter. As the organs of taste 

 are placed at the entrance of the alimentary 

 canal, so those of smell usually occupy the be- 

 ginning of the passages for respiration, where 

 a distinct nerve, named the olfactory, appro- 

 priated to this office, is distributed. 



The sense of smell is generally of greater 

 importance to the lower animals than that of 

 taste ; and the sphere of its perceptions is in 

 them vastly more extended than in man. The 

 agents, which give rise to the sensations of 



I 



