In
diabetes there is a marked odor of apples. The sweat in dysentery
unmistakably bears the odor of the dejecta. Behier calls the odor
of typhoid that of the blood, and Berard says that it attracts
flies even before death. Typhus has a mouse-like odor, and the
following diseases have at different times been described as
having peculiar odors,--measles, the smell of freshly plucked
feathers; scarlatina, of bread hot from the oven; eczema and
impetigo, the smell of mold; and rupia, a decidedly offensive
odor.
The hair has peculiar odors, differing in individuals. The hair
of the Chinese is known to have the odor of musk, which cannot be
washed away by the strongest of chemicals. Often the distinctive
odor of a female is really due to the odor of great masses of
hair. It is said that wig-makers simply by the sense of smell can
tell whether hair has been cut from the living head or from
combings, as hair loses its odor when it falls out. In the
paroxysms of hysteroepilepsy the hair sometimes has a specific
odor of ozone. Taenia favosa gives to the scalp an odor
resembling that of cat's urine.
Sexual Influence of Odors.--In this connection it may be
mentioned that there is a peculiar form of sexual perversion,
called by Binet "fetichism," in which the subject displays a
perverted taste for the odors of handkerchiefs, shoes,
underclothing, and other articles of raiment worn by the opposite
sex.
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