520 



BCmNGE, 



[Vol. VIII., No. 200 



come derived from the company's land, passenger 

 dues, etc. 



"In this estimate," continues M. Amedee Mar- 

 teau, "not having full statistics, we have taken 

 no account of the present and future trade of 

 the Atlantic poits of South America and the An- 

 tilles, with all parts of the Pacific, which cannot 

 be reckoned at less than half a million tons. 

 Neither have we attempted to estimate the in- 

 crease of European and North American tonnage 

 which must result from the impetus given to the 

 trade with the Pacific and Oceania, and which 

 probably would not amount to less than an addi- 

 tional one or two million tons." 



The aggregate tonnage, therefore, that will an- 

 nually pass through the canal must be reckoned at 

 about eleven or twelve million tons. The cost of 

 the canal is estimated at about £50,000,000, and 

 the interest due annually to share and bond-hold- 

 ers amounts to £3,000,000. 



Ferdinand de Lesseps. 



A PLEA FOR THE SENSE OF SMELL. 



The division of the five senses into higher and 

 lower has carried with it both a moral and an 

 aesthetic implication. While it is granted as a 

 general proposition that sight and hearing have 

 been the aesthetic educators of our race, yet at 

 various times have attempts been made to rescue 

 one or other of the remaining senses from the 

 aesthetic degradation to which they were con- 

 signed. The aesthetic value of the tactile-mater 

 group of sensations is deduced from the educa- 

 bility of the blind as regards artistic conceptions. 

 That taste and smell play a real and worthy role 

 in aesthetic life is the claim of every epicure. 

 The very word which we use to denote artistic 

 appreciation, ' taste,' owes its origin to this class 

 of sensations. A recent writer ^ in this field urges 

 the claim that the sense of taste has no right to 

 the aesthetic position it occupies, and that it has 

 usurped the place that of right belongs to smell. 

 The question discussed is that of the ' gastronomic 

 value of odors.' The point of view can be most 

 briefly described as epicurean. The thesis is, that 

 the pleasures of the table usually assigned as 

 ' matters of taste ' are really ' matters of smeU.' 



Taste and smell have all along acted in such 

 close association, — have, so to speak, gone to the 

 same school, learned the same lessons, enjoyed 

 the same pleasures, and suffered the same pains, 

 — that they have almost come to be regarded as 

 one sense : only by special artificial means do we 

 fully realize their dual nature. That a blindfolded 

 person, clasping his nose tightly, will not be able 



I Henry T. Fincks, Contemporary review, Novembei% 



to distinguish between beef, mutton, veal, or pork 

 will be similarly confused by bits of chicken, 

 turkey, and duck, etc., is a familiar experience. 

 Apart from the different kinds of feeling which 

 these food-stutfs produce in the mouth, they are 

 distinguished by smell alone. Hence, to get the 

 real pleasure of eating, one must smell the food. 

 True, society discountenances this proceeding if 

 done in the ordinary way : but, says Mr. rinck^,\ 

 there is a second way of smelling not usually 

 recognized except unconsciously by gastronomists ; 

 viz., by exhaling through the nose. In ordinary 

 expiration the air does not touch the olfactory 

 region of the nostril ; but by a special effort the 

 air laden with all the perfumes that make up the 

 epicure's paradise can be turned into that direc- 

 tion. On this depends the art of eating. There 

 are great individual differences in the power of 

 accomplishing this result, and perhaps color-blind- 

 neSs has its analogy in smell. On the other hand, 

 gastronomic practice for smell is as essential as 

 artistic training for color. In both cases the 

 teaching is largely unconscious, and instinct 

 points out the best method of enjoying food. The 

 mistake is, that we call every mouth-sensation a 

 taste, and do not analyze it physiologically. 



Taste is a very meagre sense : at best we dis- 

 tinguish six kinds, — alkaline, metallic, bitter, 

 sour, sweet, and saline. The first two have no 

 gastronomic value ; salt is at best ' that which 

 spoils the soup if it isn't put in,' and is not 

 relished for its own sake ; while a taste for bitter 

 is a morbid craving for contrast, at which the 

 unsophisticated tongue of children would revolt. 

 Even sour and sweet must be allied with fra- 

 grance, to yield much pleasure. What we call 

 sour is usually a combination of tastes, smells, 

 and touches. We distinguish one sour from 

 another by the accompanying odor. Sweetness is 

 the ' only original and genuine ' pleasure of the 

 overrated sense of taste. Yet even here the 

 pleasure would be small if smell did not aid. 

 " Were taste alone to be considered, confectioners 

 might as well close their shops, and leave the sale 

 of sugar to grocers." No one cares much for 

 plain sugar : even children soon learn to prefer 

 candy ; i.e., flavored sugar. 



"A few gifted mortals, known as epicures, have 

 had an instinctive knowledge of the importance 

 of odors, and the same is true of a few original 

 and immortal cooks." The two main obstacles 

 to the recognition of the gastronomic reform em- 

 bodied in the principle that the object of cookery 

 is to develop the "countless delicious perfumes 

 latent in the raw material of food, or to add 

 others when the food is deficient in natural fla- 

 vor," are the "amazing gastronomic indifference 



