156 



ON THE PROCESS OF 



either from their peculiar office or peculiar structure : as salivary, lachryinal, 

 mucous, which are denominated from the former character, and apply to the 

 smallest and simplest of them ; conglobate, which are of a larger form, and 

 of an intricate convolution, and belong- exclusively to the absorbent system,— 

 as the mesenteric and lumbar ; and glomerate and conglomerate, which are 

 composed of a congeries of sanguineous vessels, without any cavity, but with 

 one or more mouths, or excretory ducts as they are called, which, in the latter, 

 open into one common trunk, — as the mammary and pancreatic ; both which 

 kinds are denominated from the character of their structure. 



It is by this peculiar organization in animals and plants that all those nice 

 and infinitely varying exhalations or other fluids are thrown forth from dif- 

 ferent parts of them, by which such parts, or the whole individual, or the 

 entire species of individuals, are respectively characterized. Our own senses 

 are too dull to trace a discharge of any kind of essence or vapour from the 

 surface of the human skin in its ordinary action ; but the discoloration 

 which soon takes place upon the purest linen, when worn in the purest atmos- 

 phere, sufficiently proves the existence of such an efflux ; and there are various 

 animals whose olfactory organs are much acuterthan our own, as our domes- 

 tic dogs, for example, that are able to discern a difference in the odour of 

 the vapour which issues from the skin of every individual, and that in fact 

 identify their respective masters, and distinguish them from other individuals, 

 by this character alone. 



It is to this sense chiefly that quadrupeds, birds, fishes, and most insect 

 tribes trust themselves in their search after food; and hence the supe- 

 rior acuteness of this power in animals of such kinds is a strong proof 

 of that unerring Wisdom which regulates the worid, and is equally con- 

 spicuous in every part of it. Under peculiar circumstances, however, the 

 sense of smell appears to be far more lively among mankind than when such, 

 circumstances do not exist. M. Virey, who has written a very learned trea- 

 tise upon this subject, asserts, that it occurs among savages in a far higher 

 degree of activity than among civilized nations, whose olfactory nerves are 

 blunted by an habitual exposure to strong odours, or intricate combination of 

 odours, and by the use of high-flavoured foods. And among persons in a 

 keen morbid state of irritability it has been often found, even in civilized life, 

 much sharper than among savages. The Journal des S9avans, an 1667, 

 gives a curious history of a monk who was said to be able to ascertain, by 

 the difference of odour alone, the sex and age of a person, whether he were 

 married or single, and the manner of life to which he was accustomed.* 



When the exhalation from the human skin is increased by muscular exer- 

 cise, or any other exertion, it is rendered visible ; and in this state it is gene- 

 rally found to combine with it a certain portion of dissolved animal oil or fat. 

 Even without much increased action of the system, it is possible at times to 

 obtain a knowledge of its existence under particular circumstances, or by 

 particular applications. Thus, in cold subterraneous caverns, where the air 

 is dense and heavy, the natural evaporation often escapes from the surface 

 of the body in the "form of thick clouds ; and a bright mirror, when held near 

 a warm and naked skin, in the temperature of the atmosphere, soon becomes 

 obscured by a moist vapour. 



The quantity of this fluid discharged, either in a state of quiescence or of 

 increased action, has not been determined with any great degrees of exact- 

 ness. According to M. de Sauvages,f a man of middle stature and age, weigh- 

 ing 1461bs., takes daily of food and drink about 56 ounces (circiter quinqua- 

 ginta sex uncias), his dinner being about twice as much as his supper. In 

 the same period he perspires about 28 ounces; viz. about twelve during the 

 third part of his time in which he sleeps, and sixteen during the two-thirds in 

 which he is awake. It appears certain, from the experiments of Gorter, that 



*In a paper on the Petiveria, in the Swedish Academy Transactions, there are a variety of curious ob- 

 servations on the peculiar properties given to the smell, flesh, <fec. of different animals in consequence of llieir 

 feeding on different foods. It is entitled Petiveria, en Americansk vaxt. Anal. Trans, torn, i p 346. 



t Nosol. Method, ii. 389 



