Food and Flavor: A Gastronomic Guide to Health and Good Living

by Henry T. Finck

IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS OF THE NOSE.

1. "The fate of innumerable girls has been decided by a slight upward or downward curvature of the nose," wrote Schopenhauer; and Pascal declared that if Cleopatra's nose had been but a trifle larger the whole political geography of this planet might have been different. Owing to the fact that the nasal organ occupies the most prominent part of the face, Professor Kollmann remarks that "the partial or complete loss of the nose causes a greater disfigurement than a much greater fault of configuration in any other part of the face." Of all our features the nose has always been considered the most aristocratic, as well as an important condition of beauty.

2. No less important is the nose as a condition of beautiful speech and song. Jean de Reszke, the greatest tenor and vocal teacher of our time, goes so far as to say that "la grande question du chant devient une question du nez." Unless the stream of tone, when we speak or sing, goes through the nose it lacks beauty and resonance; yet with consistent stupidity we have bestowed the word "nasal" on the sounds produced when the nose is not used as a resonator or "sounding board!" To fully comprehend the important musico-philological function of the nose in giving beauty and variety to tones, read Chapter III of Prof. G. H. Meyer's "The Organs of Speech."

3. The nose is a sort of funnel for warming the air before it enters the sensitive lungs.

4. It is, furthermore, an apparatus for filtering the air on its way to the lungs, which is done with the aid of fine hairs and cilia in the nostrils. Persons who breathe through the mouth have at the age of thirty a gramme of dust in their lungs which they can never get rid of. Mouth-breathing is a cause of catarrh, of unrefreshing sleep, of snoring. Moreover, in the words of Dr. T. R. French, "the habit of breathing through the mouth interferes with general nutrition. The subjects of this habit are usually anemic, spare and dyspeptic."

5. The nose is a sentinel, warning us not to tarry where the air is malodorous and dangerous to health.

6. Lavender water, eau-de-Cologne, attar of roses, and other perfumes are, as everybody knows, effective in curing headaches and resting the tired mind. The "Scotsman" tells an interesting story of Sir William Temple's visit to the India House of Amsterdam where he and his companions were exalted by the tonic effect of the spices and aromas about them. John Evelyn proposed to make London the healthiest and happiest city in Christendom by planting all around it hedgerows of sweetbriar, rosemary, jasmine, etc. The feeling of relief which delights us when we leave the city and step out of the railway car comes from the natural fragrance of the trees, herbs, and flowers. This fragrance makes us breathe deeply, and deep breathing is the greatest of all tonics, as well as a preventive of colds and consumption. A gardener has written of the "thrilling" fragrance of sweet peas, and it is not too strong a word; I myself have often been thrilled by their fragrance, or that of lilies, pinks, or hyacinths wafted across the garden like sweet concords of music.

About ten million dollars a year is the amount spent in the United States on perfumery. The best perfumes are still, and always will be, the natural ones, made in the Riviera and Roumania. Grasse, in southern France, alone uses 1,200 tons of roses, 200 tons of jasmine blossoms, and nearly as many tons of violets every year. Of chemical imitations of the natural perfumes Germany produces annually about $12,000,000 worth. When we try to guess the amount of perfumery the world needs for toilet powders, sachets, dentifrices, and soaps, we realize what an important part the nose plays in commerce. The nation's candy bill exceeds a hundred million dollars a year; and candy is perfumed sugar. The value of the world's annual tobacco crop is about $200,000,000, and the appeal of tobacco is, of course, chiefly to the nose. Some dolt wrote, many years ago, that if you blindfold a smoker he cannot tell the difference between good and bad tobacco. He was evidently anosmic—one of a considerable number of persons whose sense of smell is not developed. To normal smokers the value of a cigar lies in its fragrance, and it is their superior fragrance that makes the product of Cuba the most costly of all cigars.

7. The seventh and most important function of the nose is the one which—mirabile dictu—it remained for me to discover—the function of perceiving and enjoying the countless varieties of flavor that are developed in the food we eat. To what I have already said in proof of this assertion let me add that the nerves of taste are affected by liquids, and those of smell by gases; and the flavored air we breathe out while eating is certainly not liquid!