_Observations on the Organ of Scent. By William Wadd, Esq., F.L.S._
"Non cuicunque datum est habere nasum."--MARTIAL.
"I have a nose."--PROBY.
It has often struck me as a defect in our anatomical teachers, that in
describing that prominent feature of the human face, the organ of scent,
they generalize too much, and have but one term for the symmetrical arch,
arising majestically, or the tiny atom, scarcely equal to the weight of a
barnacle--a very dot of flesh! Nor is the dissimilarity between the
invisible functions of the organ, and the visible varieties of its external
structure, less worthy of remark. With some, the sense of smelling is so
dull, as not to distinguish hyacinths from assafoetida; they would even
pass the Small-Pox Hospital, and Maiden-lane, without noticing the
knackers; whilst others, detecting instantly the slightest particle of
offensive matter, hurry past the apothecaries, and get into an agony of
sternutation, at fifty yards from Fribourg's.
Shakspeare, who was a minute observer of the anatomical and physiological
varieties of the human frame, did not allow this dissimilarity to pass
unnoticed; and, moreover, he starts a query that has never been
satisfactorily answered, from his time to the present; viz. "Canst thou
tell why one's nose stands i' the middle of one's face?"[4] And his nice
discrimination about noses extends also to shape and colour.--from the
"Red-nosed innkeeper of Dav'ntry,"[5] and the "Malmsy-nosed knave,
Bardolph,"[6] to him in Henry V., "whose nose was sharp as a pen!"
[4] Lear.
[5] 1 Henry IV. iv. 2.
[6] 2 Henry IV. ii. 1.
This celebrated "Malmsy-nose" possessed properties unknown to the same
feature now-a-days. It was adapted to practical utility, in its application
to domestic purposes, and moral instruction, by that great admirer and
competent judge of its virtues, Sir John Falstaff, to whose sheets it did
the office of a warming-pan;[7] and who made as good use of it as some men
do of a death's head, or a _memento mori:_ "I never see it," said he, "but
I think upon hell fire." It stands almost unrivalled in history, and ranks
at least with that which gave a cognomen to Ovid,[8] and the one to which
the celebrated violoncello player, Cervetto, owed the _sobriquet_ of
_Nosey_. This epithet reminds me of another nose of theatrical notoriety,
whose rubicund tint, when it interfered with the costume of a sober
character which its owner was enacting, was moderated by his wife, who,
with laudable anxiety to keep down its "rosy hue," was constantly behind
the scenes with a powder puff, which she was accustomed to apply,
ejaculating, "'Od rot it, George! how you do rub your poor nose! Come here,
and let me powder it. Do you think Alexander the Great had such a nose?"
[7] Henry V. ii. 1.
[8] "Ovidius Naso was the man: and why, indeed, Naso; but for
smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy?" says Holofernes,
the school-master, in Love's Labour Lost.
Nor would I omit to mention one, contemporary almost with the above, by
which the public peace was said to be endangered, as recorded by a poet of
the day, who states,--
"Amongst the crowds, not one in ten
Ere saw a thing so rare;
Its size surpriseth all the men,
Its charms attract the fair.
'Tis wonderful to see the folk,
Who at the nose do gaze;
All grin and laugh, and sneer and joke,
And gape in such amaze.
The children, whom the sight doth please,
Their little fingers point;
Wishing to give it one good squeeze,
And pull it out of joint."
Much more is said by the poet in its praise; at last he falls into a moral
strain:
"For many, as you may suppose,
'Gainst nature loudly bawl,--
That one man should have such a nose,
Whilst some have none at all."