On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
occasion requires , for which purpose the nose has several proper and very curious muscles . " Had not , " says Dr . Derharo , " the Contriver of animal bodies been minded that his work
should have all the signatures of accuracy , this sense might have been performed with a bare aperture of the nose ; but that nothing might go imperfect out of his hand , he hath made a part of the nose moveable , and given a set of muscles to lift up , and open and shut the nostrils , and to
adjust them to every occasion , of this sense . ' * And since it is by the act of breathing that the odoriferous particles are drawn in and conveyed to the sensory ; therefore there is an admirable provision made in the laminae with which the upper part of the nose is barricaded , which serve two
excellent purposes , partly to prevent any noxious substances from entering the breathing-passages in our sleep , or when we are otherwise unawares , and partly to receive the devarucations of the olfactory nerves , which are here thickly spread , and which ^
by these means , meet the scents entering with the air , and striking upon them . As a farther guard against the admittance of noxious substances , the vibrissi , or small hairs
placed at the entrance of the nostrils serve , which in some measure stop the entrance of things improper , or at least give warning of them ; while at the same time they allow an easy passage to the breath and odours .
This sense , besides adding to the sum of our pleasurable feelings , seems intended to direct us to the proper choice of our food , warning us to avoid that which is putrid or otherwise deleterious , and also for
admonishing us to fly from such exhalations and vapours as vitiate the air , and render it injurious to life . Where we wish to take in much of the effluvia of any thing , we naturally close the mouth that all the ak which we
inspire may pass-thromgh the nostrils , anct 3 t the same time , by means of the muscles of the nose , the nostrils are dilated and . a greater quantity of air drawn into them .
Scent differs from smell , 39 the thing perceived differs from tfye per-< ipiei ) t organ , though in common , coiriexs&tion we are apt to confound Ihe terms , the term sna ^ llbeing sometimes used for 1 he effluent body as
Untitled Article
well as for the sense discerning it Scent , properly speaking , is the effluvium continually arising from the small particles that issue from all bodies in a greater or less degree , and which occasion the vast variety of perceptions cognizable by the olfactory nerves , which differ very much
in various animals . The sense of smell is much more excellent in many brute animals than in manfor by it alone they distinguish with certainty the qualities of herbs and other substances with which they were before unacquainted , and hunt out their food wherever it is concealed
That man is not endowed with the same sagacity of the nose , is to be ascribed to an inherent defect in the organ , for man having reason and understanding to direct him , has no occasion for that acuteness of smell to
distinguish his food . Hence we understand the reason why one animal differs from another in his sense of smell : the difference depends entirely upon the greater or less degree of perfection manifested in the olfactory
nerves ; in hounds and other animals they are much larger and more perfect than in man : hence a dog will trace his master many miles , to the particular house in which h $ is , although in the midst of a town or city which may contain hundreds or thousands of other houses . Hence
we perceive how a pack of founds are gabled to pursue their game , that is , the particular animal they are trained to hunt , amidst the society of others of th $ game species , without being diverted from the pursuit of that self-same animal they had first on foot ; and hence we learn how it is
possible for birds or beasts of prey to be directed to their food at such w distances , for the very small particles issuing from putrid bodies and floating in the air , are carried by the wind to different quarters , wW ^ striking the olfactory nerves of the animals which they meet in the *»>•
and whose olfactory nerves are susceptible of the impression , i " fllD ^ ! ately conducts them to the spot , vv cannot help , from the circuwstana - thus enumerated , bang strl ! r . the the wonderful provision vW ; Creator ha * made for the adv ^ ., of thoaflvcreatares , tjie . cP * f ^ j .. whose / lives are jperformed by ui rrisfcry of this sense .
Untitled Article
362 Natural Theology . No . VI . — Sense of Smelling .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1815, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1761/page/34/
-