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ss occasion to exercise this sense; and the less any sense is exercised, the less acute will it become; hence it is, that those whom necessity does not oblige to to exercise their senses and mental faculties, and who have nothing to do but lounge about, and consume the fruits of the earth, become half blind, half deaf, and, in general, have great deficiency in the sense of smell. The use of spirituous liquors, and particularly of tobacco in the form of snuff, serves likewise in a remarkable manner to deaden this sense. Savages, however, who are continually obliged to exercise all their senses, have this, as well as others, in very great perfection. Their smell is so delicate and perfect, that it approaches to that of dogs. Soemmering and Blumenbach indeed assert, that in Africans and Americans the nostrils are more extended, and the cavities in the bones lined with the olfactory membrane much larger than in Europeans. I have already observed the powerful effects which some odours have upon the nervous system. There are some which agreeably excite it, and produce a pleasant and active state of the mind, while others, on the contrary, produce the most terrible convulsions, and even fainting. Those particular antipathies with respect to smells, arise sometimes from something in the original constitution of the body, with which we are unacquainted, but generally from the senses having been powerfully and unpleasantly affected by certain odours at an early period of life. The latter may often be cured by resolution and perseverance, but the former cannot. The sense of smell sometimes becomes too acute, either from a vitiated state of the organ itself, which is not often the case; or from an increased sensibility or irritability of the whole nervous system, which is observed in hysteria, phrenitis, and some fevers. This sense is however more often found deficient; and this may arise from a fault in the brain or nerves, which may either proceed from external violence, or from internal causes. A defect of smell often arises from a vitiated state of the organ itself; for instance, if the nervous membrane is too dry, or covered with a thick mucus; of both of which we have an example in catarrh or common cold, where, at the beginning, the nostrils feel unusually dry, but as the disease advances, the pituitary membrane becomes covered with a thick mucus: in both states, the sense of smell is in general deficient, and some
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