The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the FieldTaplin, William
Science
The Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository, Volume 2 (of 2): Of General Information upon Every Subject Appertaining to the Sports of the Field
Taplin, William
Hunting -- Dictionaries; Sports -- Dictionaries
SCENT—is the leading principle from which the great and inexpressible
enjoyment of all FIELD SPORTS is derived. It is the sublime and
inexplicable mystery upon which so many have contemplated, without being
enabled to define. That every information may be collected upon a
subject so rich, and so desirable of attainment to the SPORTING WORLD, a
rotational but concise review shall be introduced from those who have
given their thoughts in print to the public.
We are told by one, that "SCENT is an _effluvium_ continually arising
from the _corpuscles_ that issue out of all bodies; and being
impregnated with the peculiar state and quality of the blood and juices
of that particular animal from which they flow, occasions the vast
variety of smells or scents cognizable by the olfactory nerves, or
organs of smelling." This writer proceeds in confirmation thus: "Hence
the reason why one person differs from another in scent, and why a dog
will trace the footsteps of his master for a hundred miles together,
following him into any house, church, or other building, though
surrounded by ten thousand: and when the faithful animal has thus
diligently sought out and recognized his master, he is seldom willing
even to trust the evidence of his own eyes, until, with erected crest,
he has taken a few cordial sniffs, to convince himself he is right.
Hence also we perceive how a pack of hounds are enabled to pursue HARE,
FOX, STAG, or any other animal they are trained to hunt, across the
scent, and amidst the society of others of the same species, without
being diverted from the pursuit of that self same animal they had first
on foot; and hence too we discover how it is possible for birds and
beasts of prey to be directed to their food at such vast distances; for
these corpuscles issuing from putrid bodies, and floating in the air,
are carried by the wind to different quarters; where striking the
olfactory nerves of whatever animals they meet in their way, immediately
conduct them to the spot: and it is by this means the small-pox,
measles, putrid fevers, and all epidemic complaints, are communicated,
and the plague and pestilence conveyed from one place to another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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