But the half has not been told of the anatomical and physiological
arrangements of the nose. By minute openings its chambers have
communication with many other parts of the head,--with the hollow that
forms the greater part of the cheek bone; with the eye by a minute spout
that carries off the lachrymal secretion, unless the tears are so abundant
as to roll down the cheeks; with the front of the roof of the mouth; with
the abundant cells of the bone that makes the forehead, and the congestion
of whose lining membrane probably accounts for the severe headache that so
often accompanies and aggravates a "cold in the head." The gateway to the
inner air passages, its abundant surfaces raise the air inspired to the
temperature of the body, supply it with the moisture it lacks, and sift
from it more or less of the mechanical impurities with which the
atmosphere of our houses and shops is laden.--MAURICE D. CLARKE, M.D.,
_Popular Science News, April, 1888_.
_Smell Necessary to Taste_.--What we are in the habit of calling a
"taste," is in most cases a compound of smell, taste, temperature, and
touch--these four sensations ranking in gastronomic importance in the
order in which they are here named....Amusing experiments may be made,
showing that without the sense of smell it is commonly quite impossible to
distinguish between different articles of food and drink. Blindfold a
person and make him clasp his nose tightly, then put successively into his
mouth small pieces of beef, mutton, veal, and pork, and it is safe to
predict that he will not be able to tell one morsel from another. The same
result will be obtained with chicken, turkey, and duck; with pieces of
almond, walnut, and hazel-nut; with slices of apple, peach, and pear; or
with different kinds of cheese, if care be taken that such kinds are
chosen as do not, by their peculiar composition, betray their identity
through the nerves of touch in the mouth. To hold an article of food under
the nose at table would be justly considered a breach of etiquette. But
there is a second way of smelling, of which most people are quite
unconscious, viz., by _exhaling through the nose_ while eating and
drinking....It is well known that only a small portion of the mucous
membrane which lines the nostrils is the seat of the endings of the nerves
of smell. In ordinary expiration, the air does not touch this olfactory
region, but by a special effort it can be turned into that
direction....Instinct teaches most persons while eating to guide the air,
impregnated with the fragrance of the food, to a part of the nostrils
different from that used during ordinary exhalation; but, being
unaccustomed to psychologic analysis of their sensations, they remain
quite unconscious of this proceeding, and are, indeed, in the habit of
confusing their sensations of taste, smell, touch, and temperature in a
most absurd manner....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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