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seems to be, that odour and sound can act only upon such bodies as, like the air and water, are neither limited nor stationary—are made to be the carriers, as it were, of delicate emanations and vibrations to sentient organs. Thus, it is added, the air, having been impressed by odour, readily gives it out, and, then, through the smell, becomes perceptible to the sentient being. But neither odour nor sound, as such, can in aught contribute to the changes to which all inert bodies are subject; and the actions of sound and odour, therefore, seem to be limited to sen-
tient, that is, living properties. This may be to us a truism, but it must be recollected that even to Aristotle the olfactory passages were but imperfectly known; that the opinions upon the Atmosphere were hypothetical; and that the processes by which changes are wrought in inert matter were still to be detected.