The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
time, the organ will be stricken by the vibration of both the strings
together, and make that concord which is called a _fifth_.
A-------B
C-------D
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[Sidenote: Phenomena of smelling.]
12. For the finding out the cause of _smells_, I shall make use of the
evidence of these following phenomena. First, that smelling is hindered
by cold, and helped by heat. Secondly, that when the wind bloweth from
the object, the smell is the stronger; and, contrarily, when it bloweth
from the sentient towards the object, the weaker; both which phenomena
are, by experience, manifestly found to be true in dogs, which follow
the track of beasts by the scent. Thirdly, that such bodies, as are less
pervious to the fluid medium, yield less smell than such as are more
pervious; as may be seen in stones and metals, which, compared with
plants and living creatures, and their parts, fruits and excretions,
have very little or no smell at all. Fourthly, that such bodies, as are
of their own nature odorous, become yet more odorous when they are
bruised. Fifthly, that when the breath is stopped, at least in men,
nothing can be smelt. Sixthly, that the sense of smelling is also taken
away by the stopping of the nostrils, though the mouth be left open.
[Sidenote: The first organ and the generation of smelling.]
13. By the fifth and sixth phenomenon it is manifest, that the first and
immediate organ of smelling is the innermost cuticle of the nostrils,
and that part of it, which is below the passage common to the nostrils
and the palate. For when we draw breath by the nostrils we draw it into
the lungs. That breath, therefore, which conveys smells is in the way
which passeth to the lungs, that is to say, in that part of the nostrils
which is below the passage through which the breath goeth. For, nothing
is smelt, neither beyond the passage of the breath within, nor at all
without the nostrils.