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)
Although the distinctively individual odor of most persons is not
sufficiently marked to be generally perceptible, there are cases
in which it is more distinct to all nostrils. The most famous
case of this kind is that of Alexander the Great, who, according
to Plutarch, exhaled so sweet an odor that his tunics were soaked
with aromatic perfume (_Convivalium Disputationum_, lib. I,
quest. 6). Malherbe, Cujas, and Haller are said to have diffused
a musky odor. The agreeable odor of Walt Whitman has been
remarked by Kennedy and others. The perfume exhaled by many holy
men and women, so often noted by ancient writers (discussed by
Görres in the second volume of his _Christliche Mystik_) and
which has entered into current phraseology as a merely
metaphorical "odor of sanctity," was doubtless due, as Hammond
first pointed out, to abnormal nervous conditions, for it is well
known that such conditions affect the odor, and in insanity, for
instance, the presence is noted of bodily odors which have
sometimes even been considered of diagnostic importance. J.B.
Friedreich, _Allgemeine Diagnostik der Psychischen Krankheiten_,
second edition, 1832, pp. 9-10, quotes passages from various
authors on this point, which he accepts; various writers of more
recent date have made similar observations.
The odor of sanctity was specially noted at death, and was
doubtless confused with the _odor mortis_, which frequently
precedes death and by some is regarded as an almost certain
indication of its approach. In the _British Medical Journal_, for
May and June, 1898, will be found letters from several
correspondents substantiating this point. One of these
correspondents (Dr. Tuckey, of Tywardwreath, Cornwall) mentions
that he has in Cornwall often seen ravens flying over houses in
which persons lay dying, evidently attracted by a characteristic
odor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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