And accordingly, the more accurate this Sense is in any Animal, the longer we may observe those Laminæ are; and more of them in number folded up, and crouded together, to contain the more nervous Filaments, and to detain and fetter the odoriferous Particles in their Windings and Turnings.
And an admirable Provision this is, which the great Creator hath made for the good of brute Creatures[f]; the chief Acts of many of whose Lives, are perform’d by the Ministry of this Sense. In insects, and many other Creatures, it is of great Use in the Propagation of their Kind; as particularly in helping them to safe and convenient Places for the Incubation of their Eggs, and breeding up their Young. Others are by the Accuracy of this Sense, of Use to Mankind, which would be otherwise of little or no Use[g]. And most of the irrational Animals, Birds, Beasts, and creeping Things, do, by their Smell, find out their Food; some at great Distances, and some at Hand. With what Sagacity do some discover their Food in the Midst of Mud and Dirt[h]? With what Curiosity do the herbaceous Kind pick and chuse such Plants as afford them wholsome Food, or sometimes such as are Medicinal[], and refute such as would hurt and destroy them? And all by the Help principally, if not only, of the Smell, assisted by its near Ally the Taste. Of which I shall in the next Place speak very briefly.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] Piece of Ambergrease suspended in a Pair of Scales, that would turn with a very small Part of a Grain, lost nothing of its Weight in 3½ Days; neither did Assa fœtida in 5½ Days; but an Ounce of Nutmegs lost 5½ Grains in 6 Days; and Cloves 7⅘ Grains. Boyl’s Subtil. of Effluv. c. 5.
[] Nares, eò quòd omnis Odor ad superiora fertur, rectè sursum sunt: Et quòd Cibi & Potionis judicium magnum earum est, non sine causâ vicinitatem Oris secutæ sunt. Cicero de Nat. Deor. l. 2. c. 56.
[c] Had not the Contriver of Animal Bodies been minded that his Work should have all the Signatures of Accuracy, this Sense might have been performed with a bare Aperture of the Nose; but that nothing might go imperfect out of his Hand, he hath made a part of the Nose easily moveable, and given a Set of Muscles to lift up, and open and shut the Nostrils; and so adjust it to every Occasion of this Sense.
[d] Odorem non aliud, quàm infectum Aera, intelligi posse. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 9. c. 7.
[e] For a further Guard against the Ingress of noxious Things, the Vibrissi, or Hairs placed at the Entrance of the Nostrils serve, which, in some measure, stop the Entrance of Things improper, or however give Warning of them, but at the same Time allow an easy Passage to the Breath and Odours.
[f] Multò præclarius emicat [Olfactus] in brutis animalibus, quàm in homine: ista namque hoc solo indice, herbarum, aliorumque corporum priùs ignotorum virtutes certissimè dignoscunt, quin & victum suum absentem, vel in abstruso positum, Odoratu venantur, ac facillimè investigant. Quòd autem minùs sagaces sunt hominum nares, illud non facultatis hujus abusui (prout nonnulli volunt) ascribi debet, verùm in causâ est ipsius Organi defectus: hoc enim circa victûs humani criteria (ubi ratio, & intellectus adsunt) non ita accuratum requiritur: Proptereà enim inferiores potentiæ in homine, à naturâ minùs perfectæ existunt, ut superiorum cultui & exercitio relinqueretur locus. Willis de Anim. Brut. cap. 13.
[g] Thus the chief Use of Hounds is to hunt; and other Dogs, to be a Watch and Guard to our Houses by Night. For which Services (particularly in Hounds) their Olfactory Nerves are not only remarkably large, (like as they are in other Brutes,) but their Branches and Filaments are, in the Laminæ of the Nostrils, both more and larger than I have seen in any other Creature whatsoever. Also there are more Convulsions of the Laminæ than I ever remember to have found in any other Animal.