SMELLING OF THE INFERIOR ANIMALS. 171 



is one of quite inferior importance in the animal economy 

 of man. It furnishes the mind with few ideas, and those 

 are subservient exclusively to his physical nature. 



Emily. I have known several persons who never 

 possessed the sense of smell, and I did not see that they 

 suffered any material inconvenience from the want of it. 

 Though they were insensible to some very pleasant sen- 

 sations, they were at. the same time, spared the pain of 

 many disagreeable ones. In short, I do not see but that 

 it might very easily be dispensed with. 



Dr. B. You are now giving it a lower rank than it 

 actually deserves. In the savage state of man, it no 

 doubt furnishes him with very useful hints in regard to 

 his food, but now its natural acuteness is weakened and 

 perverted by the refinements of artificial life. But as it 

 is, we often reject an article of food, if unpleasant to the 

 smell, without waiting for the opinion of the taste to con- 

 firm our decision. Who, after smelling tobacco, or hen- 

 bane for the first time in his life, would ever think of 

 tasting it ? 



Emily. Sometimes this sense seems to possess a 

 morbid degree of acuteness in respect to some odours, 

 which is highly inconvenient and even dangerous. I 

 have heard of persons who were always thrown into 

 convulsions at the smell of cheese, certain fruits, flowers, 

 &c- The sense of smell is much more acute in some 

 of the inferior animals than in man, is it not ? 



Dr. B. In brute animals generally, the sense exists 

 in greater perfection, than in man ; and it is by this 

 sense that they distinguish with such wonderful accuracy 

 the food provided for them by nature, and know how 

 to choose between the evil and the good. Though con- 

 stantly feeding among noxious vegetables, they are sel- 

 dom deceived, but select from the poison around them, 

 pleasant and wholesome nutriment.- In some of the 

 higher orders, there is an astonishing aeuteness of the 

 smell in regard to the effluvia that come from living 



