PERSPIRATION. 283 



when the secretion is solid, it is horridly offensive, really 

 faecal, and is a frequent cause of foetid breath : in the glands 

 behind the ears, when the secretion is squeezed out in a solid 

 form, its smell is said to be caseous : in the parts of generation, 

 saline and peculiar. In many brutes, the odour of the female 

 genitals attracts the male, and is strongest when the animal is in 

 heat. All know that the mere sweat has a different smell in dif- 

 ferent parts ; in the arm-pits, hircine ; in the feet, sometimes like 

 that of tan, and sometimes of cabbage-water. If the palms of 

 the hands of some persons are rubbed briskly together, an odour 

 something like that of hot boiled potatoes is evolved ; in others 

 general excitement of the system occasions this. A sulphureous 

 odour, which perhaps was not very dissimilar, is said, in the 

 Ephemerides, to have proceeded from Cardan's arm ; from the 

 head of a boy at Rome ; and from a dropsical boy. b Schmidt 

 mentions a man from whose hands and arms an intolerable fcetor 

 of sulphur proceeded. c Egesandro mentions two persons so 

 offensive that they were not allowed to visit the public baths. d In 

 the same volume of the Ephemerides we read of a literary man 

 whose stench was far too much for all perfumes ; and Hagendorn 

 declares he saw a woman who was unbearable at the distance of 

 some feet, a second Thais. 6 In America the shrew spreads a 

 horrid stench to escape its pursuers ; and the yellow serpent of 

 Martinique is known by its fcetor to be present. Persons differ 

 not only in the amount of their general perspiration, but in its 

 amount in different parts; and under exercise and heat different 



b Ephem. Nat. Curios, ami. ii. p. 191. 



c Ephem. > ann. viii. Dec. 2. 



d Giornale Venet. t. ii. See Dr. Speranza, 1. c. p. 241. 



e Tarn male Thais olet, quam non fullonis avari 



Testa vetus, media sed modo fracta via ; 



Non ab amore recens hircus j non ora leonis ; 



Non detracta cani Transtiberina cutis ; 



Pullus abortive nee quum putrescat in ovo : 



Amphora corrupto nee vitiata garo. 



Virus ut hoc alio fallax permutat odore 



Deposita quoties balnea veste petit ; 



Psilothro viret, aut acida latet oblita creta : 



Aut tegitur pingui terque quaterque faba. 



Quum bene se tutam per fraudes mille putes ? 



Omnia quum fecit, Thaida Thais olet. 



MART. l.vi. ep. 93. 



