48 HISTORY OF 



luxurious way of living ; and sacrifice to the 

 pleasure of taste, those which might be received 

 from perfume. 



However, it is a sense that we can, in some 

 measure, dispense with ; and I have known 

 many that wanted it entirely, with but very little 

 inconvenience from its loss. In a state of nature 

 it is said to be useful in guiding us to proper 

 nourishment, and deterring us from that which 

 is unwholesome ; but in our present situation, 

 such information is but little wanted, and indeed 

 but little attended to. In fact, the sense of 

 smelling gives us very often false intelligence. 

 Many things that have a disagreeable odour, are, 

 nevertheless, wholesome and pleasant to the 

 taste ; and such as make eating an art, seldom 

 think a meal fit to please the appetite till it begins 

 to offend the nose. On the other hand, there are 

 many things that smell most gratefully, and yet 

 are noxious, or fatal to the constitution. Some 

 physicians think that perfumes, in general, are 

 unwholesome ; that they relax the nerves, pro- 

 duce headachs, and even retard digestion. The 

 manchineel apple, which is known to be deadly 

 poison, is possessed of the most grateful odour. 

 Some of those mineral vapours that are often 

 found fatal in the stomach, smell like the sweetest 

 flowers, and continue thus to flatter till they des- 

 troy. This sense, therefore, as it should seem, 

 was never meant to direct us in the choice of 

 food, but appears rather as an attendant than a 

 necessary pleasure. 



