Section 42. (e) The Sense of Smell.
The sense of smell would be of great importance for legal consideration
if it could get the study it deserves. It may be said that
many men have more acute olfactory powers than they know, and
that they may learn more by means of them than by means of the
other senses. The sense of smell has little especial practical importance.
It only serves to supply a great many people with occasional
disagreeable impressions, and what men fail to find especially necessary
they do not easily make use of. The utility of smell would be
great because it is accurate, and hence powerful in its associative
quality. But it is rarely attended to; even when the associations
are awakened they are not ascribed to the sense of smell but are said
to be accidental. I offer one example only, of this common fact.
When I was a child of less than eight years, I once visited with my
parents a priest who was a school-mate of my father's. The day
spent in the parsonage contained nothing remarkable, so that all
these years I have not even thought of it. A short time ago all the
details I encountered on that day occurred to me very vividly, and
inasmuch as this sudden memory seemed baseless, I studied carefully
the cause of its occurrence, without success. A short time
later I had the same experience and at the same place. This was a
clew, and I then recalled that I had undertaken a voyage of discovery
with the small niece of the parson and had been led into a
fruit cellar. There I found great heaps of apples laid on straw, and on
the wall a considerable number of the hunting boots of the parson.
The mixed odors of apple, straw and boots constituted a unique and
long unsmelled perfume which had sunk deep into my memory.
And as I passed a room which contained the same elements of odor,
all those things that were associated with that odor at the time I
first smelt it, immediately recurred.
Everybody experiences such associations in great number, and
in examinations a little trouble will bring them up, especially when
the question deals with remote events, and a witness tells about
some "accidental" idea of his. If the accident is considered to be
an association and studied in the light of a memory of odor, one may
often succeed in finding the right clew and making progress.
But accurate as the sense of smell is, it receives as a rule little
consideration, and when some question concerning smell is put
the answer is generally negative. Yet in no case may a matter be
so easily determined as in this one; one may without making
even the slightest suggestion, succeed in getting the witness to
confess that he had smelled something. Incidentally, one may
succeed in awakening such impressions as have not quite crossed
the threshold of consciousness, or have been subdued and diverted.
Suppose, e. g., that a witness has smelled fire, but inasmuch
as he was otherwise engaged was not fully conscious of it or
did not quite notice it, or explained it to himself as some
kitchen odor or the odor of a bad cigar. Such perceptions are later
forgotten, but with proper questioning are faithfully and completely
brought to memory.
Obviously much depends on whether anybody likes certain delicate
odors or not. As a rule it may be held that a delicate sense of smell
is frequently associated with nervousness. Again, people with
broad nostrils and well developed foreheads, who keep their mouths
closed most of the time, have certainly a delicate sense of smell.
People of lymphatic nature, with veiled unclear voices, do not
have a keen sense of smell, and still duller is that of snufflers and
habitual smokers. Up to a certain degree, practice may do much,
but too much of it dulls the sense of smell. Butchers, tobacconists,
perfumers, not only fail to perceive the odors which dominate their
shops; their sense of smell has been dulled, anyway. On the other
hand, those who have to make delicate distinctions by means of
their sense, like apothecaries, tea dealers, brewers, wine tasters,
etc. achieve great skill. I remember that one time when I had in
court to deal almost exclusively with gypsies, I could immediately
smell whether any gypsies had been brought there during the night.
Very nervous persons develop a delicateness and acuteness of
smell which other persons do not even imagine. Now we have no
real knowledge of how odors arise. That they are not the results
of the radiation of very tiny parts is shown by the fact that certain
bodies smell though they are known not to give off particles. Zinc,
for example, and such things as copper, sulphur, and iron, have
individual odors; the latter, particularly when it is kept polished by
a great deal of friction,—e.g., in the cases of chains, key-rings
kept in the pocket.
In defining the impressions of smell great difficulties occur. Even
normal individuals often have a passionate love for odors that are
either indifferent or disgusting to others (rotten apples, wet sponges,
cow-dung, and the odor of a horse-stable, garlic, assafoetida, very
ripe game, etc.). The same individual finds the odor of food beautiful
when hungry, pleasant when full-fed, and unendurable when he
has migraine. It would be necessary to make an accurate description
of these differences and all their accompanying circumstances.
With regard to sex, the sense of smell, according to
Lombroso,[1] is
twice as fine in men as in women. This is verified by Lombroso's
pupils Ottolenghi and Sicard, Roncoroni and Francis Galton.
Experience of daily life does not confirm this, though many smokers
among men rarely possess acute sense of smell, and this raises the
percentage considerably in favor of women.
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C. Lombroso and G. Ferrero. The Female Offender.