ODORS AND LIFE. 187 



by them, complain of being haunted by fetid emanations, 

 or congratulate themselves on inhaling the most delicious 

 perfumes. Lelut mentions the case of a woman, an inmate 

 of la Salpetrieire, who fancied that she constantly perceived 

 a frightful stench proceeding from the decay of bodies she 

 imagined buried in the courts of that institution. Impres- 

 sions of the kind are usually very annoying. Brierre de 

 Boismont relates the account of a woman affected by dis- 

 order of all her senses. Whenever she saw a well-dressed 

 lady passing, she smelt the odor of musk, which was in- 

 tolerable to her. If it were a man, she was distressingly 

 affected by the smell of tobacco, though she was quite 

 aware that those scents existed only in her imagination. 

 Capellini mentions that a woman, who declared that she 

 could not bear the smell of a rose, was quite ill when one 

 of her friends came in wearing one, though the unlucky 

 flower was only artificial. 



Such facts might be multiplied ; but, as they are all 

 alike, it is not worth while to mention more of them. The 

 latest observations made in insane-asylums, among others, 

 those of M. Pre" vost, at la Salpetri^re, have shown also that 

 these delusions and perversions of the sense of smell are 

 more common than had hitherto been supposed among such 

 invalids, and that if they usually pass unnoticed, it arises 

 from the fact that nothing spontaneously denotes their ex- 

 istence. 



The intensity and delicacy of the sense of smell vary 

 in mankind among different individuals, and particularly 

 among different races of men. While some persons are al- 

 most devoid of the sense of smell, others, whose history is 

 related in the annals of science, have displayed a refine- 

 ment and range in the distinction of odors truly wonderful. 

 Woodward, for instance, mentions a woman who foretold 

 storms several hours before their coming, by the help of 

 the sulphurous odor, due probably to ozone, which she per- 



