See also R. Knox, Great Artists and Anatomists, p. 106. This rudiment
apparently is somewhat larger in Negroes and Australians than in
Europeans, see Carl Vogt, Lectures on Man, Eng. translat. p. 129.)
The sense of smell is of the highest importance to the greater number
of mammals to some, as the ruminants, in warning them of danger; to
others, as the Carnivora, in finding their prey; to others, again, as
the wild boar, for both purposes combined. But the sense of smell is of
extremely slight service, if any, even to the dark coloured races of
men, in whom it is much more highly developed than in the white and
civilised races. (36. The account given by Humboldt of the power of
smell possessed by the natives of South America is well known, and has
been confirmed by others. M. Houzeau ( Etudes sur les Facultes
Mentales, etc., tom. i. 1872, p. 91) asserts that he repeatedly made
experiments, and proved that Negroes and Indians could recognise
persons in the dark by their odour. Dr. W. Ogle has made some curious
observations on the connection between the power of smell and the
colouring matter of the mucous membrane of the olfactory region as well
as of the skin of the body. I have, therefore, spoken in the text of
the dark-coloured races having a finer sense of smell than the white
races. See his paper, Medico-Chirurgical Transactions, London, vol.
liii. 1870, p. 276.) Nevertheless it does not warn them of danger, nor
guide them to their food; nor does it prevent the Esquimaux from
sleeping in the most fetid atmosphere, nor many savages from eating
half-putrid meat. In Europeans the power differs greatly in different
individuals, as I am assured by an eminent naturalist who possesses
this sense highly developed, and who has attended to the subject. Those
who believe in the principle of gradual evolution, will not readily
admit that the sense of smell in its present state was originally
acquired by man, as he now exists. He inherits the power in an
enfeebled and so far rudimentary condition, from some early progenitor,
to whom it was highly serviceable, and by whom it was continually used.
In those animals which have this sense highly developed, such as dogs
and horses, the recollection of persons and of places is strongly
associated with their odour; and we can thus perhaps understand how it
is, as Dr. Maudsley has truly remarked (37. The Physiology and
Pathology of Mind, 2nd ed. 1868, p. 134.), that the sense of smell in
man is singularly effective in recalling vividly the ideas and images
of forgotten scenes and places.
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