PERFUMES OR ODOURS OF ANIMALS 
or apparently supernatural means discover it. Not a 
little remarkable is the fact of training or educating the 
nose. The best and most easily-recognized examples of 
this kind are, perhaps, the dogs that have been trained 
to find truffles or other objects upon which they do not 
feed. That we possess this power, but in a limited degree, 
is obvious, and many singular instances can be adduced 
in the case of persons such as are known as judges 
of tea, wine, cheese, etc. They are generally called tasters ; 
the best judges however do not taste, but are enabled by 
constant practice and training to discriminate, with 
wonderful accuracy, any particular flavour or kind by 
smell alone. 
The sense of smell, like sight and hearing, among our 
own species, is wonderfully varied, and it constantly 
happens that the individual most gifted in the one sense 
is deficient in one or more of the others, and we must 
admit our inferiority in all these senses as compared with 
the lower animals, for the sense of smell in man as com- 
pared with a dog sinks into insignificance. His sight, 
compared with an eagle or vulture, is equally feeble, and 
his power of hearing is duller than a barn owl. Never- 
theless, man has advantages that far outbalance these 
apparent deficiencies, because he can train or educate 
his nose, make telescopes and microscopes for his eyes, 
and hear all that he may require, and sometimes rather 
more. Now, apart from mere fancy, fashion, whim, or 
caprice, there can be no question or doubt that certain 
scents or perfumes are liked or disliked by different in- 
dividuals, and many very curious instances of this variable 
love of odours are to be met with. How frequently are 
those persons who keep pet dogs astonished to find their 
otherwise clean and well-behaved favourite enter the 
house, after having explored the dunghill or the dusthole, 
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