Cadet de Gassieourt witnessed this peculiar instance,
and in consultation with several of the physicians of Paris
attributed this excessive sensitiveness to the climate. There is
a tale told of a Hungarian monk who affirmed that he was able to
decide the chastity of females by the sense of smell alone. It is
well known that some savage tribes with their large, open
nostrils not only recognize their enemies but also track game the
same as hounds.
Individual Odors.--Many individuals are said to have exhaled
particularly strong odors, and history is full of such instances.
We are told by Plutarch that Alexander the Great exhaled an odor
similar to that of violet flowers, and his undergarments always
smelled of this natural perfume. It is said that Cujas offered a
particular analogy to this. On the contrary, there are certain
persons spoken of who exhaled a sulphurous odor. Martial said
that Thais was an example of the class of people whose odor was
insupportable. Schmidt has inserted in the Ephemerides an account
of a journeyman saddler, twenty-three years of age, of rather
robust constitution, whose hands exhaled a smell of sulphur so
powerful and penetrating as to rapidly fill any room in which he
happened to be.
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