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 flowers, 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 flower is G treble, 2nd line. 
Camphor is C treble, 3rd space. 
c 
