Page:Dan McKenzie - Aromatics and the Soul.pdf/131

Rh known as the “aromatics,” by reason of the fact that they possess strong smells more or less similar in quality. With regard to this series, which is made up of groups of what are known as radicles which occupy definite positions on a molecule shaped like a ring—the benzene ring, as it is called—Henning, a German observer, has expressed the opinion that the odour depends, not upon the radicles as such, but upon the position they occupy on the ring.

Transferring his argument to odorous bodies in general, and taking six groups as embracing all (spicy, flowery, fruity, resinous, burnt, and foul), he associates each of these types with some feature in the constitution of the molecule which is common to all the members of each group.

To enter more fully into this branch of the subject would carry us too deeply into chemistry. I shall content myself therefore with saying that Henning’s views have received considerable support from scientific chemists and have led to several interesting and suggestive developments.

Heyninx, however, criticising this theory, points out that hydrocyanic (or prussic) acid and nitrobenzol, two substances with the same smell, have each a molecular structure in no way resembling the other.

The graphic formulae of these bodies, which I