THE SCENT OF MAN

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1898, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE SCENT OF MAN

The scent of man has been the subject of a number of experiments by Dr. A. Bethe, Avho gives his results in thenew number of the 'Archiv der gesamten Physiologic' Dr. Bethe, in one particular, extends the Jager theory even further than .its original projector ventured to do, and affirms that every human individual has his or her own peculiar scent. Not only a dog, says he, but a man gifted with an exceptional nasal sensibility, can detect a man by his distinct and individual smell. The doctor made an experiment with a person thus exceptionally gifted. He brought this Avonderful 'smeller' Avith bandaged eyes into a room where more than 20 persons of his acquaintance had been collected, and the 'smeller' detected and named every one of them correctly, by deliberately putting his nose to each' in turn. The 'human scent? according to Dr. Bethe, is not born Avith us, but is acquired. Professor Jager's theory, as many -will be aware, is that the personal scent of a man has an ethical value, and he takes certain texts of the Old Testament to beactually as Avell as figuratively true. Dr. Bethe is not inclined to carry his operations beyond the scientific into the moral province. He believes that there is a characteristic 'family smell?' of which each member of a family more or less partakes, and Avhich they do not quite lose even Avhen they are separated from one another 'by continents or oceans.' Meanwhile, he warns against coming to hasty conclusions upon a matter which is still only in a tentative stage, especially as a man's individual scent is so very much conditioned by his social circumstances and by his personal habits ancl manner of life.