Although on occasion confining its operations to the subconsciousness5, and exercising, so to speak, only a backstairs influence upon the mind, olfaction much more frequently insists upon recognition, breaking in upon our privacy, like a disreputable acquaintance, at most inopportune moments.
If you do not wish to see you can look the other way. When you would rather not hear you can be inattentive. A proffered6 handshake you can ignore. A dish you dislike you may decline. But you can’t help smelling—no, not even if you turn up your nose.
Olfaction is thus the great leveller among the senses, equality having here a reality but rarely found elsewhere. For odour makes its way into the nose of king and cadger7, duke and drayman, 80lady and lout8, indifferently. Nay9, by an ironical10 law of olfaction the f?tors are more powerful than the fragrances11, and vervain the feeble turns tail before the onslaught of scatol (as well it might, indeed!), in which case there is nothing to be done but to bear it (without the grin mostly); or to follow the wise example of vervain; or to remove the offence, as we have done in England these latter days, only to render ourselves, as I have carefully pointed13 out in Chapter I., all the more sensitive to it when it does come.
To many of us it comes on the dog.
This animal has a regrettable fondness for wallowing, diligently14 and with forethought, in the Abominable15, until his coat is thoroughly16 well impregnated. For no other reason, I do verily believe, than, as he thinks, to give his human friends for once some of the olfactory pleasure he himself enjoys. A treat he thinks it, without any doubt. Just look at the smirk17 of pride and satisfaction on his face as he trots18 in and resumes his place on the drawing-room hearthrug and the amazement19 with which he receives the sudden toe of your boot!
And yet he rolls himself over on the odoriferous for the same reason that a fashionable lady has orris-root put in her bath; namely, for the pleasure and gratification of society at large. There are who say that my lady’s perfume seems 81as vile20 to her Pekinese as his then does to her! If so, he is the more tolerant animal of the two.
Anyhow, he certainly has the knack21 of thrusting the Unmentionable upon the attention of the most fastidious, and smell is no longer speechless.
Now, if we are to treat fully12 of things olfactory, we must at least take cognisance of the Unmentionable. But to extend our notice would take us across the garden to the muckrake and the dunghill. And such nearer investigation22 and description I must decline, even although in these days of outspokenness23 I may have to apologise for Victorian squeamishness. To attain24 merit as a writer the advice now given you is: Be frank! And if you disgust, why, so much the better!
That may be so. I do not question the value of the advice, not for a moment. All I say is that I prefer not to take it. And if somebody else desires this particular laurel-crown, this crown of tainted25 laurel, he shall wear it without arousing any envy upon my part, albeit26, as I know full well, this is a branch of the subject which illuminates27 many obscurities and seeming eccentricities28 in human conduct. I know all about that, but, as Herodotus so often says, I am not going to tell all I know, although, I fear, an allusion29 or two may be necessary.
82We may take it as on the whole true that a repulsive30 odour is a dangerous odour. Not invariably, however. Otherwise grouse31 in their season would not be esteemed32 a dainty and Gorgonzola would everywhere be buried. Nevertheless in these high realms palatability33 is limited to quite a narrow streak34. There is a level beyond which the boldest gastronomic35 adventurer dare not climb.
It is remarkable36 that the liking37 for half-decomposed food, although an acquired taste, is found everywhere in the world, among savage38 and civilised, rich and poor, high and low—but not among young and old. For young people do not usually approve of such recherché flavours. It would be a mistake, however, to argue from that fact that these savoury meats act as fillips to a sense jaded39 with age, because it is generally agreed that neither smell nor taste declines in acuteness as we grow old. On the contrary, they become more instructed, more particular, more delicate. Appetite declines if you like, but taste and smell abide40 increasingly unto the end.
Nevertheless we can only look upon this particular liking as acquired, since the high relish41 of one country but fills its neighbours with disgust.
It is worthy42 of remark, perhaps, that the last whiff, the final sublimated43 breath of ripe Gorgonzola as it passes over, is a faint suggestion of 83ammonia. Curiously44 enough, this always fills my imagination with the sack of cities and the end of all things in smoke and thunder. It may be because the penultimate phase of life itself is ammonia. Fire, slaughter45, and much more besides come quite promptly46 to this gas for the City of Destruction, what there is left of the remainder in dust and ashes being but a handful for the wind.
To the keen-sensed medical man certain morbid47 states can be recognised by their exhalations. I have even heard of an enthusiast48 on the subject who alluded49 to them as “both visible and tangible”; but that, I think, must be exceptional.
Physicians of the last generation used to speak of typhus fever as having a close, mawkish50 odour, and the smell of smallpox51 is horrible. But these, as well as the appalling52 stench of the hospitals in olden days, are among the smells which have, for the most part, fled our country.
There are others, however, less powerful and repugnant, which are still with us, and which we recognise as among the prominent characteristics of certain maladies, the acid smell of acute rheumatism53 for one, and I have sometimes thought I could detect a characteristic odour also in acute nephritis, a smell resembling that of chaff54. The odour of a big h?morrhage is unmistakable and, to obstetricians particularly, ominous55.
84Then there is the smell of mice which attends upon the skin disease known as favus.
The breath of a chronic56 drunkard is familiar enough to everybody, and the more delicate aroma57 in the circumambient atmosphere of the careful tippler, ethereal and by no means unpleasant, will often reveal to the physician the hidden cause of obscure symptoms. It is particularly valuable when your patient is, as so many of these secret drinkers are, a woman, it may be a woman of good social standing58.
A disease-odour of great value and significance is the sweet-smelling breath caused by acetone poisoning in the later stages of diabetes59.
A sweet smell is also said by Bacon to attend plague:
“The plague is many times taken without a manifest sense, as hath been said. And they report that, where it is found, it hath the scent60 of a smell of a mellow61 apple; and (as some say) of May-flowers; and it is also received that smells of flowers that are mellow and luscious62 are ill for the plague, as white lilies, cowslips and hyacynth.” (Quoted by Creighton, “A History of British Epidemics,” p. 685, f.n.)
Death sometimes heralds63 his approach by means of an odour, said in some parts of the country to bring ravens64 about the house, which may well be true, as it is apparently65 a summons of the same nature that calls the Indian vulture in flocks from apparently untenanted skies. Birds in general, 85however, seem to belong to the microsmatic group of animals, relying chiefly upon their vision, which is often highly perfected, particularly for distance.
Much has been made, too much perhaps, of the part played by olfaction in the sex-life, and its undoubted prominence66 in the coupling of four-footed animals is pointed to as an indication of its potency67 in mankind also. But the reasoning is fallacious. Olfactory influences predominate in these animals simply because olfaction is their principal sense.
Among birds, now, courtship and marriage are conducted without any apparent aid from olfaction, and in no group of beings, not even in mankind, is the poetic68 side of courtship, both before and after marriage, so highly developed and so beautifully displayed. In their love-making the birds appeal to each other through the ear in their songs, and through the eye in the nuptial69 splendours of the male, splendours which he parades with glorious pomp before what often seems to be, indeed, but a lackadaisical70 and indifferent spouse71.
As we have already seen, this independence of olfactory stimuli is, so far as obvious indications go, also the case with human lovers. True, we have numerous references by poets to the sweetness 86of their ladies’ breath, only one, as far as I know, being blunt enough to say:
“And in some perfumes there is more delight
But the sum and substance of Havelock Ellis’s exhaustive inquiry73 on this point is undoubtedly74 this, that if a lover loves the aroma of his lady, that is because of his love, not because of her inherent sweetness. In other words, the attraction, subtle though it be, at least in the early or romantic stage, is seldom or never obviously olfactory. It is the suggestion of closer intimacy75 that constitutes the attraction of her nearer environment, and this suggestion is the offspring of the lover’s imagination.
As to the influence of her personal emanation in the second, the realistic, stage, there also, it would seem, its power is subsidiary, certainly to that of touch, although more active than that of sight and hearing, seeing that the holy of holies is only unveiled in darkness and in silence.
As for our opinion in everyday life, I think most people will subscribe76 to the old adage77 “Mulier bene olet dum nihil olet.”
点击收听单词发音
1 olfactory | |
adj.嗅觉的 | |
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2 stimuli | |
n.刺激(物) | |
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3 cerebral | |
adj.脑的,大脑的;有智力的,理智型的 | |
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4 hierarchy | |
n.等级制度;统治集团,领导层 | |
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5 subconsciousness | |
潜意识;下意识 | |
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6 proffered | |
v.提供,贡献,提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7 cadger | |
n.乞丐;二流子;小的油容量;小型注油器 | |
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8 lout | |
n.粗鄙的人;举止粗鲁的人 | |
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9 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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10 ironical | |
adj.讽刺的,冷嘲的 | |
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11 fragrances | |
n.芳香,香味( fragrance的名词复数 );香水 | |
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12 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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13 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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14 diligently | |
ad.industriously;carefully | |
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15 abominable | |
adj.可厌的,令人憎恶的 | |
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16 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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17 smirk | |
n.得意地笑;v.傻笑;假笑着说 | |
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18 trots | |
小跑,急走( trot的名词复数 ); 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
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19 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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20 vile | |
adj.卑鄙的,可耻的,邪恶的;坏透的 | |
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21 knack | |
n.诀窍,做事情的灵巧的,便利的方法 | |
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22 investigation | |
n.调查,调查研究 | |
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23 outspokenness | |
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24 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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25 tainted | |
adj.腐坏的;污染的;沾污的;感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 );使污染;败坏;被污染,腐坏,败坏 | |
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26 albeit | |
conj.即使;纵使;虽然 | |
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27 illuminates | |
v.使明亮( illuminate的第三人称单数 );照亮;装饰;说明 | |
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28 eccentricities | |
n.古怪行为( eccentricity的名词复数 );反常;怪癖 | |
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29 allusion | |
n.暗示,间接提示 | |
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30 repulsive | |
adj.排斥的,使人反感的 | |
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31 grouse | |
n.松鸡;v.牢骚,诉苦 | |
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32 esteemed | |
adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 );敬重;认为;以为 | |
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33 palatability | |
n.嗜食性,适口性,风味 | |
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34 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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35 gastronomic | |
adj.美食(烹饪)法的,烹任学的 | |
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36 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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37 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
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38 savage | |
adj.野蛮的;凶恶的,残暴的;n.未开化的人 | |
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39 jaded | |
adj.精疲力竭的;厌倦的;(因过饱或过多而)腻烦的;迟钝的 | |
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40 abide | |
vi.遵守;坚持;vt.忍受 | |
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41 relish | |
n.滋味,享受,爱好,调味品;vt.加调味料,享受,品味;vi.有滋味 | |
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42 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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43 sublimated | |
v.(使某物质)升华( sublimate的过去式和过去分词 );使净化;纯化 | |
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44 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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45 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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46 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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47 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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48 enthusiast | |
n.热心人,热衷者 | |
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49 alluded | |
提及,暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50 mawkish | |
adj.多愁善感的的;无味的 | |
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51 smallpox | |
n.天花 | |
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52 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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53 rheumatism | |
n.风湿病 | |
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54 chaff | |
v.取笑,嘲笑;n.谷壳 | |
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55 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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56 chronic | |
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的 | |
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57 aroma | |
n.香气,芬芳,芳香 | |
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58 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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59 diabetes | |
n.糖尿病 | |
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60 scent | |
n.气味,香味,香水,线索,嗅觉;v.嗅,发觉 | |
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61 mellow | |
adj.柔和的;熟透的;v.变柔和;(使)成熟 | |
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62 luscious | |
adj.美味的;芬芳的;肉感的,引与性欲的 | |
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63 heralds | |
n.使者( herald的名词复数 );预报者;预兆;传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 );宣布(好或重要) | |
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64 ravens | |
n.低质煤;渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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65 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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66 prominence | |
n.突出;显著;杰出;重要 | |
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67 potency | |
n. 效力,潜能 | |
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68 poetic | |
adj.富有诗意的,有诗人气质的,善于抒情的 | |
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69 nuptial | |
adj.婚姻的,婚礼的 | |
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70 lackadaisical | |
adj.无精打采的,无兴趣的;adv.无精打采地,不决断地 | |
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71 spouse | |
n.配偶(指夫或妻) | |
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72 reeks | |
n.恶臭( reek的名词复数 )v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的第三人称单数 );散发臭气;发出难闻的气味 (of sth);明显带有(令人不快或生疑的跡象) | |
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73 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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74 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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75 intimacy | |
n.熟悉,亲密,密切关系,亲昵的言行 | |
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76 subscribe | |
vi.(to)订阅,订购;同意;vt.捐助,赞助 | |
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77 adage | |
n.格言,古训 | |
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