The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2Browne, Thomas, Sir
Religion
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 2
Browne, Thomas, Sir
Christianity; Ethics; Religion and medicine
That _Jews_ stink naturally, that is, that in their race and nation
there is an evil savour, is a received opinion we know not how to admit;
although concede many questionable points, and dispute not the verity of
sundry opinions which are of affinity hereto. We will acknowledg that
certain odours attend on animals, no less then certain colours; that
pleasant smels are not confined unto vegetables, but found in divers
animals, and some more richly then in plants. And though the Problem of
_Aristotle_ enquire why no animal smels sweet beside the Parde? yet
later discoveries add divers sorts of _Monkeys_, the _Civet Cat_ and
_Gazela_, from which our Musk proceedeth. We confess that beside the
smell of the species, there may be individual odours, and every Man may
have a proper and peculiar savour; which although not perceptible unto
Man, who hath this sense, but weak, yet sensible unto _Dogs_, who hereby
can single out their masters in the dark. We will not deny that
particular Men have sent forth a pleasant savour, as _Theophrastus_ and
_Plutarch_ report of _Alexander_ the great, and _Tzetzes_ and _Cardan_
do testifie of themselves. That some may also emit an unsavory odour, we
have no reason to deny; for this may happen from the quality of what
they have taken; the Fætor whereof may discover it self by sweat and
urine, as being unmasterable by the natural heat of Man, not to be
dulcified by concoction beyond an unsavory condition: the like may come
to pass from putrid humours, as is often discoverable in putrid and
malignant feavers. And sometime also in gross and humid bodies even in
the latitude of sanity; the natural heat of the parts being insufficient
for a perfect and through digestion, and the errors of one concoction
not rectifiable by another. But that an unsavory odour is gentilitious
or national unto the _Jews_, if rightly understood, we cannot well
concede; nor will the information of reason or sence induce it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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