At Close Range 



a kind of poison which is physical and sensible. 

 Such excitement certainly weakens a man, clogging 

 his system with the ashes of its hot fires; and 

 there is no reason why it should not smell to earth 

 as well as to high heaven. 



You have but to open your eyes and expand your 

 nostrils for some evidence of this matter. Bees 

 when angered give off a pungent odor, which is so 

 different from the ordinary smell of the hive that 

 even your dull nose may detect the change of 

 temper. The same is true of even cold-blooded 

 reptiles. When you find a rattler or a black- 

 snake squirming in the sun, you can smell him 

 faintly at a few yards' distance. Now stir him up 

 with a pole, or pin him to the earth by pressing a 

 forked stick with short prongs over his neck. As 

 the snake becomes enraged he pours off a rank 

 odor, very different from the musky smell that 

 first attracted your notice, and it travels much 

 wider, and clings to your clothes for an hour after- 

 ward. It is not only possible but very likely, 

 therefore, that strong emotions affect the bodies 

 of all creatures in a way perceptible to senses 

 other than sight. If so, one man who is peaceable 

 and another who is angry or highly excited may 

 give off such different odors that a brute with 

 sensitive nostrils may be merely curious about the 

 one and properly afraid of the other. 



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