DECLINE OF THE NOSE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 256, 26 September 1933, Page 2

DECLINE OF THE NOSE.

MAN’S PHYSICAL EVOLUTION

LECTURE TO LUNCH CLUB

Man had thrown away his nose in his early stages of development but had, instead, proportionately improved his eyes, ears and tongue, said Rev. D J. Davies, in an address at to-day’s meeting of the Palmerston North Lunch Club upon “The Noselessness of Man.” Man’s sense of smell, he added, was very inferior to that of countless other animals, but he doubted if that measure of inferiority in one sense was as great as animals’ inferiority to man in any other one of the senses. 'the sense of smell and the sensation which produced a sneeze were different —in the former odours were dissolved and thus transmitted to the nerves, while the latter was caused by an irritant, the speaker continued. The saturation point in regard to smell was soon reached—hence we did not smell new paint for very long when we were in constant proximity to it. Smell helped in very few ways in our civilisation—we recognised few things by their odour. One of the great scientists of England, Professor Eliot Smith, had devoted some study to the decline in man of the sense of smell. The first sense m original life must have been that of touch and the sense of taste must have' been very elementary. Later came the senses of sight and hearing, allowing the detection of danger and flight iroin it. But man relied more on Ins senses of sight, hearing and touch. Professor Smith, the speaker said, thought that the sense of smell began to disappear when man’s ancestors took to the trees. Tree-living creatures wanted agility and judgment of distance —and so the sense ot smell, not being required, consequently declined.

To man the eye could teaclr far more than the nose, continued Mr Davies. The importance of the eye was greatly increased when stereoscopic vision was evolved, • that faculty of judging distance. Thus the eyes, being of more value than the nose, came forward to the front of man’s head and the nose, being used less, diminished. The ear and the tongue developed along lines of progress and led to the development of the brain. Birds had lost' the sense of smell to a large degree and had developed the sense of sight. . They had found that the sense of sight had been of more value. Man had found that there was a great deal more in the world than the sense of smell would reveal, and his sight, hearing and touch had been highly developed instead. He had lost one sense to a large degree, but had been willing to lose the smaller to ultimately gain the greater, Mr Davies concluded. The speaker was introduced by Mr G. G. Priest, and Mr T. R. Lees proposed the vote of thanks. The visitors welcomed were Mr Crooks (Hastings), Mr E. W. Ivey and Mr S. J. Bennett (Palmerston North).