72 SMELL, TASTE, ALLIED SENSES 



one. Blakeslee (1918) has recorded similar cases in 

 relation to the odor of verbena flowers. Probably many 

 persons are defective in this respect though their defects 

 may not have been serious enough to have attracted 

 attention and record. 



Temporary partial anosmia may accompany certain 

 diseases or may be induced by the application to the 

 olfactory surfaces of anesthetizing drugs. Cocaine has 

 been used in this way by a number of investigators, in- 

 cluding Zwaardemaker, but without very clearly defined 

 results. Zwaardemaker observed that temporary anos- 

 mia induced in this way was preceded by a brief period 

 of increased sensibility or hyperosmia. Subsequently 

 Reuter (1900) found that cocaine was also followed by 

 hyperosmia. RoUett (1899) produced a complete an- 

 osmia by the use of gymnemic acid after which different 

 olfactory sensations returned at different intervals. 



7. Qualities of Odors. The qualities of odors ap- 

 pear to be almost innumerable. When we attempt to 

 name on odor, we almost always designate it by the body 

 from which the odorous material emanates like the smell 

 of heliotrope, of onion, of rubber, and so forth. With 

 tastes, as we shall see later, there are at least four 

 clearly marked qualities, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty. 

 The first three of these are general terms connected in 

 no necessary way with the substances associated with 

 them as stimuli, and we are continually finding new sub- 

 stances whose tastes are some one of these three. The 

 odors of new substances, on the other hand, are almost 

 certain to be individual and novel and to agree with odors 

 already known only in a most general way. Thus odors 

 have a certain historical value and get their names after 

 the introduction of the substances with which they are 



