The ability to distinguish the character of odours seems to be a
later development than taste differentiation. At least this is the
case with regard to the enjoyment of agreeable smells. Among children
of various ages experimented on by Perez, one of ten months showed
some appreciation of the perfume of a rose,[34] but most children are
probably first rendered susceptible to pleasure from scents by their
association with flavours. Girls, however, seem to enjoy sweet smells
as such more than boys do, though M. Guyan relates that he recalls
vividly the _émotion penetrante_ which he experienced on inhaling for
the first time the perfume of a lily.[35]
With reference to adults, the same writer may be cited: “In spite of
its relative incompleteness, the sense of smell has much to do with our
enjoyment of landscape, whether actually viewed or vividly portrayed.
No portrayal of Italy is complete without the softened atmosphere
which recalls the perfume of its oranges, nor of Brittany or Gascony
without the crisp sea air which Victor Hugo has so justly celebrated,
nor of pine forests without suggestions of its aroma.” “The passion
for smoking,” says Pilo (I give this to show how complicated our
apparently simple enjoyments may be), “is so general because almost all
the senses are flattered impartially by it; visceral, muscular, and
taste sensations are involved in the use of the lungs which it calls
for, the lips, tongue, teeth, and salivary glands through feelings
of temperature; the senses of taste and smell through the piquant,
aromatic flavour; hearing, in a very direct and intimate way, through
the crackling of the leaves and the rhythmic inhaling and exhaling of
the breath; and, finally, the sense of sight in gazing at the glowing
cigar and soft, gray ashes and curling smoke which winds and glides
upward in a fantastic spiral; while the brain, under the soothing
influence of the narcotic, enjoys a repose enlivened by dreams and
visions.”[36] Complete as this description appears, it yet misses one
point—namely, the sucking movements which, from the recollections of
the earliest months of life, we associate with pleasurable feeling.
We may find the Des Esseintes of Huysmans’s romance useful once more.
“Wishing now to enjoy a beautiful and varied landscape, he began to
play full, sonorous chords, which at once called up before the vision
a perspective of boundless prairie lands. By means of his vaporizer,
the room was filled with an essence skilfully compounded by an artist
hand and well deserving of its name—Extract of the Flowery Plain....
Having completed his background, which now stretched itself before
his closed eyes in bold lines, he breathed over it all a light spray
of essences, ... such as powdered and painted ladies use—stephanotis,
ayapapa, opoponax, chypre, champaka, sarkanthus—and added a suspicion
of lilac, to lend to this artificial life a touch of natural bloom and
warmth of genuine sunshine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account