Perhaps the best effect of all will be felt in
literature. To that capital bore of letters, the
scribbling physiognomist, the nose is almost as
necessary as to the caricaturist. He is never
done finding strength of mind and spirit in
large noses, though the small ones of Gibbon
and Gortschakoff shrieked against his creed,
and intellectual feebleness in " pugs," though
Kosciusko's was the puggest of its time. When
there are no noses the physiognomist can base
no theories on them. It would be worth
something to live long enough to be rid of
even a part of his gabble.
The conditions under which we live may so alter that the sense of smell may be again advantageous in the struggle for existence, and by the survival of those in whom it is keenest regain its pristine place in our meager equipment of powers and capacities. But philosophers to whom millstones are transparent will deem it significant that the sense in question and the facial feature devoted to its service have fallen into something of the disrepute that foretokens deposal. It is now hardly polite to speak of smells and smelling, without the use of softened language; and the nose is frequently subjected to contumelious and jocose remark unwarranted by anything in its
