WHAT IS A NOSE? 45 



tion. Akin to it is the classical phrase, adunco 

 suspendere naso. What Horace means scarcely re- 

 quires explanation, but no commentator has success- 

 fully explained it. These expressions well illustrate 

 the mystery that enshrouds our most salient feature. 

 They show that, while everybody can see that dis- 

 dain is expressed through the nose, nobody can define 

 how it is done. Then there is that curious expres- 

 sion " put his nose out of joint," which is quite 

 inexplicable, the nose being destitute of joint. There 

 are many other phrases and also gestures which 

 point in the same direction, but need not be cited, 

 being for the most part vulgar. Allusions to the 

 nose have a tendency to be vulgar, which is another 

 mystery inciting us to investigate it. So let us 

 proceed. 



The first thing required by the principles of 

 scientific precedure is a definition. What is a nose ? 

 But this proves to be a much more difficult question 

 than anyone would suspect before he tried to answer 

 it. The individual human nose we can recognise, 

 describe or sketch more easily than any other feature, 

 but try to define the thing nose in Nature and it 

 is a most elusive phenomenon. When we speak 

 of a man being led by the nose we imply that it is 

 a part of him which is prominent and situated in 

 front, when we speak of keeping one's nose above 

 water we refer to it as the breathing orifice, but 

 when we say that this or that offends our nose we 

 are regarding it as the seat of the sense of smell. 



