432 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND PATHOLOGY. 
soon forget. His sense of smell was peculiarly acute. I used to put 
this to the test sometimes. W e were, perhaps, going to drink tea 
with some of our neighbours, and, after I had led him into the par- 
lour, I used to tell him the names of all but one or two, who, at a 
signal from me, were as still as mice. Three minutes, however, 
rarely passed ere he would address them by name, and laughingly 
scold them for encouraging me in my roguery. He never made a 
mistake about this, or challenged a person who was not really 
present. 
That almost every disease of the nasal membrane impairs the 
sense of smell cannot for a moment be disputed. In every dog 
with distemper, and especially if there is a purulent discharge from 
the nostrils, the sense of smell is not only impaired, but for awhile 
almost suspended. The living on certain descriptions of food is 
known to have the same effect; yet, to the disgrace of the veteri- 
nary surgeon, the diseases of the olfactory apparatus, their causes 
and remedy, have been passed over in almost utter silence. It is 
a subject, however, well worthy of the attention of the veterinarian. 
That the sense of smell may be rendered keener, and that it may 
acquire an accuracy of discrimination almost incredible, we have 
abundant proof; but no one has gone beyond the mechanical 
means, — the system of tuition by which it may be improved, — or 
thought of the occasional indications, or the causes of its impair- 
ment. I do not profess to have either the professional or the 
sporting experience to qualify me for this task; and I merely men- 
tion the subject as worthy of far more attention than has been paid 
to it. 
In the course of an extensive practice on the dog, I have not only 
seen the occasional influence of coryza, ozena, and fistula lacrymalis 
in suspending, for awhile, the sense of smell; but for a long time 
afterwards rendering it obtuse and imperfectly discriminative, and 
causing a faithful and valuable animal to be underrated or de- 
stroyed. A blunderer who is unconscious of, or will overrun, the 
scent, is certainly a great nuisance in the field, and will try the 
patience of any sportsman. A little common snuff, or a blister 
along the nasal bones, has more than once been useful. I have 
found utter palsy of the olfactory nerve, either connate or the con- 
sequence of distemper, and there all means have failed. 
A few remarks on scent, or the faculty of smelling in dogs, may 
not here be out of place. 
Scent . — In the biped and the quadruped, and every living being, 
there is not only a constant appropriation of new matter to repair 
the losses which the frame is continually sustaining — there is not 
only the process of nutrition, but there is, from every organ in the 
frame, a constant elaboration of gaseous or fluid matter — an inces- 
