io6 NERVES OF SMELL 



of training, or was innate, he being a migrant from 

 India or Egypt, as we suppose. He is, like the cat, 

 still himself unspoilt by contact with a higher sort of 

 humanity; that mysterious gift, that wonderful secret 

 forever hidden from our duller brains, which Glanvil's 

 and Matthew Arnold's " Scholar Gypsy " wasted his 

 life in seeking after, may after all have its seat — 

 or vestibule — in the nose, and, for all we know, the 

 nerves of smell may have become specialised in a 

 peculiar way in his race. 



It is true the physiologists tell us that there is 

 nothing to indicate any specialisation in the nerves 

 of smell, such as exists in the nerves of taste; 

 they believe that the olfactory nerves are all alike, 

 with one function, which is to respond to the stimuli 

 of all sorts of smells, from the most agreeable to the 

 most disgusting. One can only say that this is not 

 quite satisfactory; that when we cease to smell our 

 surroundings consciously there may be a distinct set 

 of nerves that take up the task, so to speak, and 

 receive and transmit sense impressions we are not 

 sensible of. 



Here I come to a subject which no town-born 

 reader will understand or take to be more than a 

 fancy of the writer's : nor could it be otherwise, since, 

 owing to the artificial conditions he has existed in, 

 his olfactory nerves have been blunted and to some 

 extent even atrophied. 



Let us first go back to our old friend the dog. We 

 see how he conducts himself when we take him out 

 for a walk, how he is at once in a world of smells of 



