Do not put cotton or anything else into your ears.
177. Smell.—We smell with the nose. Some things give out a vapor to the air. When we draw the air into the nose, this vapor touches the nerves, and we perceive a smell. The nerves are high up in the nose. In order to perceive smell clearly, we sniff the air far up the nose.
178. Use of smell.—Bad air and spoiled food smell bad. A bad smell is the sign of something spoiled. The sense of smell tells us when food or air is unfit for use. Some people try to hide a bad smell with perfumery. To do this only makes the danger greater, for then the smell does not tell us of the danger of food or air.
Some animals can smell much better than a man. A dog will smell the track of a wild animal hours after it is made. Savages can smell much better than civilized men.
179. Taste.—We taste with the tongue. Dry food has no taste, but it must first dissolve in the mouth. Spoiled food tastes bad. Bad-tasting food is not fit to eat. Taste tells us whether food is good or bad.
We can learn to like the taste of harmful things. At first no one likes tobacco or strong drink, but the liking is formed the more one uses these. We ought to be careful not to begin to use such things.
Alcohol and tobacco burn the mouth and harm the taste. Food does not taste so good and we may eat spoiled food and not know it.
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED
1. We can feel in every part of the body, but mostly in the ends of the fingers.
2. Light makes a picture upon the nerves inside of the eye.