HUNTING DIRECTORY. 41 



Sense of Smell. 



acuteness of smell is produced, which is found to obtain 

 in the Talbot, and all dogs with broad heads : this excel- 

 lence or superiority of the olfactory organs is further 

 assisted by the largeness and flexibility of the lips and 

 skin about the nose, which thus admit of a much greater 

 extension of the olfactory nerves, and render them more 

 susceptible of external impressions. The olfactory nerves 

 resemble a bunch of small white cords, one end of which 

 is connected with the brain, while the other, descending 

 the head, spreads into numerous ramifications, reaching 

 to the edges of the lips as well as to the extremity of the 



nose. 



Hence the inferiority of the greyhound's sense of smell 

 will be easily perceived : his head is narrow, while his 

 lips are thin and compressed ; and in consequence of this 

 inflexibility, and the contracted structure of the head, 

 the requisite breadth and extension of nerve are inad- 

 missible ; and to make up, as it might seem, for the 

 defect, nature has endowed limi with a celerity which is 

 not to be met with in any other species of the dog. 



All dogs, therefore, with broad heads, must possess 

 superior organs of smell ; but it does not appear that a 

 narrow or sharp nose presents any obstacle, as the main 

 bulk of the olfactory nerves is situated in the head. The 

 wolf and the fox appear to have sharp noses ; but their 

 heads are remarkably broad and capacious : — their olfac- 

 tory organs are vmquestionably exquisite. 



Somervile seems to have been completely ignorant 

 respecting the cause of the dog's sense of smell. Beck- 

 ford was equally so. The following epistle, however, 

 throws a flood of light upon the subject, of which it is 



c 



