SECOND day's sitting. 53 



places are strongly associated with their odour." (Vol. i. 

 pp. 23, 24.) 



Homo. How can Mr. Darwin say, my Lord, that our 

 sense of smell is of " extremely slight service " to us, or 

 that we have it in a " rudimentary condition " ? The 

 odours wafted from the flowers in his own garden might 

 have taught him otherwise. We should be in constant 

 danger of being blown up by gas, or poisoned by the 

 efiluvium from sewers, were it not for our having this 

 sense. But I forgot that Mr. Darwin believes that our 

 forefathers were savages, and that there were neither 

 gardens, gas, nor sewers in their days. 



Lord G. I am surprised, Mr. Darwin, at what you say 

 regarding the sense of smell. If it does not assist us, as 

 it does the carnivora, in finding our prey, it certainly warns 

 us of danger, and is often a source of enjoyment. But if it 

 were more fully developed than it is, it might often be a 

 cause of annoyance to us. One would not like, for example, 

 to be always smelling a rat, even when rats are near ; or to 

 -be reminded, by certain odours, of places and persons we 

 would rather forget. 



Homo. My Lord, Mr. Darwin may not find this sense of 

 much use to himself, but he will find few among his human 

 allies of his opinion regarding it. Will you observe, my 

 Lord, how constantly Mr. Darwin recurs to savage life in 

 illustrating his subject ? He seems to forget that he is a 

 member of civilized society, and has to do with civilized 

 men. 



Lord G. You must remember, Homo, what you have just 

 said. "Mr. Darwin believes that our forefathers were 

 savages ;" he argues therefore on this supposition. 



Homo. I know he does, my Lord ; but, according to 

 ,him Natural Selection, which has done such wonders in 



