Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In ManEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 4: Sexual Selection In Man
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
A South Sea Islander, we are told by Charles de Varigny, on coming to
Sydney and seeing the ladies walking about the streets and apparently
doing nothing, expressed much astonishment, adding, with a gesture of
contempt, "and they have no smell!" It is by no means true, however, that
Europeans are odorless. They are, indeed, considerably more odorous than
are many other races,--for instance, the Japanese,--and there is doubtless
some association between the greater hairiness of Europeans and their
marked odor, since the sebaceous glands are part of the hair apparatus. A
Japanese anthropologist, Adachi, has published an interesting study on the
odor of Europeans,[31] which he describes as a strong and pungent
smell,--sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter,--of varying strength in
different individuals, absent in children and the aged, and having its
chief focus in the armpits, which, however carefully they are washed,
immediately become odorous again. Adachi has found that the sweat-glands
are larger in Europeans than in the Japanese, among whom a strong personal
odor is so uncommon that "armpit stink" is a disqualification for the
army. It is certainly true that the white races smell less strongly than
most of the dark races, odor seeming to be correlated to some extent with
intensity of pigmentation, as well as with hairiness; but even the most
scrupulously clean Europeans all smell. This fact may not always be
obvious to human nostrils, apart from intimate contact, but it is well
known to dogs, to whom their masters are recognizable by smell. When Hue
traveled in Tibet in Chinese disguise he was not detected by the natives,
but the dogs recognized him as a foreigner by his smell and barked at him.
Many Chinese can tell by smell when a European has been in a room.[32]
There are, however, some Europeans who can recognize and distinguish their
friends by smell. The case has been recorded of a man who with bandaged
eyes could recognize his acquaintances, at the distance of several paces,
the moment they entered the room. In another case a deaf and blind mute
woman in Massachusetts knew all her acquaintances by smell, and could sort
linen after it came from the wash by the odor alone. Governesses have been
known to be able when blindfolded to recognize the ownership of their
pupil's garments by smell; such a case is known to me. Such odor is
usually described as being agreeable, but not one person in fifty, it is
stated, is able to distinguish it with sufficient precision to use it as a
method of recognition. Among some races, however this aptitude would
appear to be better developed. Dr. C.S. Myers at Sarawak noted that his
Malay boy sorted the clean linen according to the skin-odor of the
wearer.[33] Chinese servants are said to do the same, as well as
Australians and natives of Luzon.[34]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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