Page:Eleanor Gamble - The Applicability of Weber's Law to Smell.pdf/47

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WEBER'S LAW TO SMELL.
43

Table I.—Continued.

Part 2. Stimulus-Limina Arranged to Show Variations Due to Practice and to Differences of Temperature.

SUBJECT. SUBSTANCE. NOSTRIL. Value of rλ in cm. THERMOMETER
READING.
Be. Tolu balsam R. (32) 53°F
L. (35)
R. 14 60
L. 19
K. R. (24) 54
L. (28)
R. (21) 52
L. (22)
R. 4 64
L. 3
Rosewood R. (16) 59
L. (29)
R. (13) 64
L. (22)
R. 6 62
L. 8
P. Cocoa butter R. (27) 62
L. (26)
R. (19) 62
L. (27)
R. 7 66
L. 12

All the values of rλ given in this Talile are averages of several determinations taken on the same day. Those enclosed in parentheses were found when the subjects had had little or no experience with the substances in question. Those not so enclosed were found after the respective substances had been used by the several subjects in difference determinations. In the first part of the Table, the limen given is in every case the last limen found for the subject and substance, and all the last limina found are given. The second part of the Table simply contains results selected by way of illustration, but all the limina found for the subject with the substance in question are included.

In Part 1, all the substances hut the last four are taken in order from a Table in which Zwaardemaker arranges various materials for solid odorous cylinders in the order of their intensity.[1] The limina in the column headed Z are those given bx him in another Table as normal at a temperature of 15° C. or 59° F.[2] The temperatures at which our records were taken lay for the most part between 60° and

70° F. Our limina ought, therefore, to be lower than his, instead of higher. We cannot satisfactorily explain the difference between our results and bis in the matter of stimulus-limina. That the limina of Americans should be higher than those of Dutchmen is not indeed surprising, but the entire change in the rank of the substances is. According to Dr. Reuter, as cited by Zwaardemaker, the gum ammoniac and gutta-percha cylinder is forty times es strong as the vulcan-

  1. Op. cit., p. 118.
  2. P. 167.