"Four Elements and Five Senses" Allegory of Smell

FROM THE LIFE OF CELEBRITIES

The famous singer, tenor Ivan Semenovich Kozlovsky, once suffered a complete fiasco at a concert. He was booed and had to leave the stage in disgrace only because the insidious spiteful critic, his personal enemy, presented him with a huge basket of Alpine violets before the concert, which was hoisted on the lid of the piano. It turns out that the enemy (and he was an excellent perfumer) knew well that the smell of violets can affect the vocal cords to such an extent that it is impossible to strike a single high note. Experienced singers knew about this in ancient times.

Cleopatra, who learned the secrets of incense, seduced the great men of history. Shulamith, the beloved of King Solomon, used lavender and jasmine, levkoe and wisteria oils. And Napoleon in 1812, going to Russia, had with him a huge suitcase filled with perfumes and ointments, selected by a personal perfumer. Appearing before his soldiers, he smelled "the scent of victory and personal holiness." As if enchanted, they were ready to die for their emperor.

SMELL - THE MOST RELIABLE DIAGNOSTICS

Who needs a good sense of smell the most? Of course, for perfumers, tasters, because this is their working tool. But not only. In the old days, good doctors had the ability to capture all the shades of odors. It would seem, why? To make a correct diagnosis.

A wise old gynecologist, when examining a woman, will surely catch the smell of mowed grass, slightly warmed up in the sun, or withered needles. It means that everything is in order, the woman is healthy. And if the smell of dead fish, then, most likely, there is an inflammatory process in the bosom.

A delicate aroma of morning dew emanates from the foot - which means that the genitourinary system and the thyroid gland are working well. A "mouse" smell means infertility, ovarian dysfunction, tumors of the genitourinary system. Anyone who understands herbs will immediately remember the smell of spotted hemlock. It smells like mouse droppings and is used to treat tumors (like like).

An old phthisiatrician will smell a tuberculosis by the smell of burnt bone. And a psychiatrist may suspect schizophrenia not only because of the patient's unkempt body or careless clothing. From him emanates a subtle smell of anxiety, nervous infection.

The pediatrician recognizes the smell of a sick child - sour milk that has stood for a long time. An endocrinologist will sense a diabetic patient by the smell of rotten apples, which resembles the smell of acetone. If diabetes is not diabetes mellitus, the patient smells of acetic acid. Old people suffering from insanity, paranoia, smell of mold, rancid fat. And how wonderfully the holy elders, God's people, smelt and myrrh!

The famous Russian therapist S.P. Botkin wrote that a patient with typhoid fever smells like a sweaty goose. It is difficult for us to say now how a goose smells, whether sweaty or not sweating, but the fact remains: the sense of smell was once considered one of the important tools of a doctor.

And recently, scientists have constructed an interesting device - a sealed chamber through which air is passed. Thanks to such a device, it is possible to diagnose by smell, when this cannot be done using tests. So, maybe the old doctors were right when they talked about the important role of smell?