Tallemant says that when his
wife, Marie de Medicis, approached the bridal night with him she
perfumed her apartments and her person with the essences of the
flowers of her country in order that she might be spared the
disgusting odor of her spouse. Some persons are afflicted with an
excessive perspiration of the feet which often takes a disgusting
odor. The inguinoscrotal and inguinovulvar perspirations have an
aromatic odor like that of the genitals of either sex.
During menstruation, hyperidrosis of the axillae diffuses an
aromatic odor similar to that of acids or chloroform, and in
suppression of menses, according to the Ephemerides, the odor is
as of hops.
Odors of Disease.--The various diseases have their own peculiar
odors. The "hospital odor," so well known, is essentially
variable in character and chiefly due to an aggregation of
cutaneous exhalations. The wards containing women and children
are perfumed with butyric acid, while those containing men are
influenced by the presence of alkalies like ammonia.
Gout, icterus, and even cholera (Drasch and Porker) have their
own odors. Older observers, confirmed by Doppner, say that all
the plague-patients at Vetlianka diffused an odor of honey.
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