428 
Mr, Hunter’s Obfervations on the 
Of the Senfe of Smelling, 
In this tribe of animals there is fomething very remarkable 
in what relates to the fenfe of fmelling ; nor have I been able 
to difcover the particular mode by which it is performed. 
When we confider thefe animals as quadrupeds, and only 
conftrudted differently in. external form for progreflive mo* 
tion through water, we mud fee that it was neceffary that all 
the fenfes Ihould correfpond with this medium : we mud 
therefore be at a lofs to conceive how they fmell, fince we may 
obferve, that the organ for fmelling water, as in fifh, is very 
different from that formed to fmell air ; and as we mudfuppofe 
this tribe are only to fmell water, being the medium in which 
fuch odoriferous particles can be diffufed, we fhould expedt 
their organ to be fimilar to that of fifh ; but in that cafe nature 
would have been obliged to have attached the nofe of a fifh to 
an animal condrudled like a quadruped ; and it is contrary to 
the laws which are edablifhed in the animal creation to mix 
parts of different animals together. 
In many of this tribe there is no organ of fmell at all ; and in 
thofe which have fuch an organ, it is not that of a fifh, therefore 
probably not calculated to fmell water. It becomes difficult, there- 
fore, to account for the manner in which fuch animals fmell the 
water; and why the others fhouldnot have had fuch an organ *, 
* Is the inode of fmelling in fifh fimilar to tailing in other animals ? Or is the 
air contained in the water impregnated with the odoriferous parts, and this air 
the fifh fmells ? If fo, it is fomewhat fimilar to the breathing of fifh, it not 
being the water which produces the effect there, but the air contained in it. 
Thfs I proved by experiments, and is mentioned by Dr. Priestley. 
which, 
