46 NOSES 



I believe that all these three ideas must be included 

 in any definition. It should follow that insects, 

 which breathe through holes in their sides, cannot 

 have noses, and this is the truth. 



Fishes, too, though they may have snouts, have 

 not noses, because they breathe by gills. In truth, 

 it seems that the nose was a very late and high 

 acquisition, almost the finishing touch of the perfected 

 animal form. And incidentally this leads us to notice 

 what a great step was taken in evolution when the 

 breathing holes were brought up to the region of 

 the mouth. For the sense of taste is necessarily 

 situated in the mouth, and the sense of smell is in 

 close alliance with it. The mouth tastes food dis- 

 solved in the saliva during the process of masti- 

 cation, and the primary use of the sense of smell 

 is to detect and analyse beforehand the small par- 

 ticles given off by food and floating in the atmosphere. 



A good many years ago, when the late Sally 

 chimpanzee was the darling of the Zoological Gardens 

 in Regent's Park, I watched her eating dates. She 

 was an epicure, and always peeled each date deli- 

 cately with her preposterous lips before eating it, 

 and during the process she would apply the date 

 to her nose every second to test its quality or enjoy 

 its aroma. The action was indescribably comical, 

 but what would it have been if her nostrils had 

 been situated among her ribs ? Imagine a mantis, 

 for example, as he chews up a fly, lifting one of his 

 wings and applying it to his flanks to see if it smells 



