FRAGRANT LEAVES V. SWEET-SCENTED FLOWERS. 141 



true that insects rely mainly on odour in their search for food 

 or for each other. The sense of smell is perhaps of all our 

 senses that least under our own control. It is of all others the 

 most subtle and most difficult to regulate, or measure, or define. 

 We may to some extent actually avoid touching, seeing, or 

 tasting, but, alas ! our ears and our noses cannot often be 

 prevented from the disagreeable sounds or odours that surround 

 us. All the senses are mnemonic, but none are so potent in 

 recalling persons, scenes, or places as in the sense of smell. 

 Sound may be analysed and set down as in music ; colour is 

 simplified and can be arranged in methodical form ; but, despite 

 the crude attempt of the late Dr. S. Piesse in his " Art of 

 Perfumery," it yet remains for some specialist in odours to give 

 us a gamut or scale, so to speak, of the thousand and one subtle 

 whiffs of fragrance, or the myriads of odour waves that so often 

 bombard the delicate nerve centres that lie under the mucous 

 membrane inside our noses. Children are often taught that it 

 is rude to smell their food before eating it, and yet there are 

 times when the primitive nose test might save them and our- 

 selves from many dietetic troubles. Experts in selecting the best 

 solid and liquid food products use their noses as well as their 

 eyes with the best results, and the subtle art of smell and power 

 of diagnosing things by nose power is well worth developing to 

 its fullest extent. 



Blends, Bouquets, or Mixed Perfumes. 

 Bouquets, melanges, or particular blends of perfume are 

 easily made pretty much as a florist arranges flow T ers, or an 

 artist his colours ; but the late perfumer Dr. S. Piesse pointed 

 out that to make a proper bouquet of primitive odours the kinds 

 soused should agree or correspond with a scale or gamut, just 

 as do the musical notes. Dr. Piesse goes so far as to say that 

 one false note amongst odours will destroy the whole harmony 

 of the chord, just as in music or in colour. His odophone, or 

 scent scale, for chord of C is as follows : — 



Santal is C bass, 2nd line below. 

 Geranium is C bass, 2nd space. 

 Acacia is E treble, 1st line. 

 Orange flow T er is G treble, 2nd line. 

 Camphor is C treble, 3rd space. 



c 



