THE BLOOD-HOUND. 137 



urge many very curious and plausible arguments ; though the 

 French chemists, on the other hand, consider aroma as a distinct 

 element." 



Even among mankind, especially in an uncivilized and there- 

 fore a more animal-like state, we meet with individuals hardly 

 to be matched for their acuteness of scent. It is credibly 

 reported, for example, of the negroes of the Antilles, that they 

 can follow their master as a dog does, by smelling his foot- 

 marks; yea more, that they can distinguish the track of a 

 Frenchman from that of a negro.* Humboldt says, that the 

 American Indians have distinct terms to express the odour of 

 a negro, an European, and a native American, f Sir Kenelm 

 Digby mentions a boy whose smell was equally acute with that 

 of the negroes of the Antilles ; and a monk, who could distin- 

 guish different persons in the dark by smell, began a treatise 

 on odours, but did not live to execute his savoury task. The 

 singular boy Mitchel, born deaf and blind, had the same faculty 

 of distinguishing persons by smell. 



Leaving this " Chapter on Noses," let us return to the sharp- 

 scented animal that has induced this slight digression. It 

 would have better accorded with my general plan to have spoken 

 of the original colour of the blood-hound at the commencement 

 of this article, when describing the animal's personal appearance 

 if I may use the Hibernianism ; but had I done so, the 

 observations I should have had to adduce on this point, would 

 have forestalled what in that case would have had to follow. 



Somerville, in his poetical account of the several kinds of 

 dogs, identifies the blood-hound with 



" the bold Talbot kind, 



Of these the prime, as white as Alpine snows ; " 



but Scott, speaking of two staunch blood-hounds, describes them as 



" Two dogs of black Saint Hubert's breed." 



(Lady of the Lake, Canto I. vii.) 



Thus, though both poets are speaking of the blood-hounds that 



* Journ. des Sfavans (1667), p. 60. 



f Political Essay on New Spain (1811), p. 10 



