Excerpt from The Beautiful Queen of Leix, or the Self-Consumed: An Irish Tale; Mount Orient; A Tale
The olfactory nerve, which is intended to convey to the brain any impression that is communicated to this membrane, has a number of small filaments distributed underneath, all of which are occupied in receiving and transmitting the impressions made from without. It is in order to qualify the membrane for the discharge of these functions that the nasal mucus is secreted, to preserve the membrane in the necessary degree of softness and moisture. The deficiency or unhealthiness of this secretion, on occasion of cold and other diseases of the head, deprives us of the power of perceiving odours.
The extreme fineness of those particles may be conceived from the fact mentioned by Lord Valentia, that the perfumes of the island of Ceylon may be distinctly perceived at a distance of (I think) nine leagues. The great Haller mentions that a single grain of ambergris has imbued eight thousand square feet of paper with its odour, which it retained during a period of forty years.
This sense contributes in a high degree to our intelligence.
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