A SURPRISING EXPERIENCE 87 



a minute and a half in the room, standing some 

 distance from the foot of the bed, then withdrew, 

 and no sooner had she closed the door behind her 

 than the sick lady begged me to throw open the front 

 window — wide open to let in plenty of air, as she felt 

 suffocated. Then she added in explanation that she 

 always felt like that when a fat person came into the 

 room ; the smell of fat people was intolerable to her ! 



Many and curious as are the tricks our olfactories 

 play us, I was really surprised on this occasion; but 

 my surprise was nothing to that of a friend of mine 

 at an experience he underwent. He had never 

 previously given a thought to the subject — the smell 

 of the human animal. 



He was a young army doctor in India, and at 

 Bombay, his duties being light, he zealously set 

 himself to win a good private practice. He made 

 himself well known in the society of the place, and 

 his servant had strict instructions to come always 

 into the church where he attended Sunday morning 

 service to call him out to a supposed urgent case. 



The natives just then were in a state of political 

 excitement, and he was desirous of finding out all he 

 could about their aspirations, intentions, and so on. 

 One day he told his servant that he wished to attend 

 a big meeting about to be held in a quarter of the 

 town he was not well acquainted with, to listen to 

 the speeches of the orators, and he asked his man 

 to take him there and get him admitted. Accordingly 

 they went on an oppressively hot evening, and he sat 

 in a huge densely-packed hall for about half an hour, 



