Page:Dan McKenzie - Aromatics and the Soul.pdf/133

Rh particle of matter known to the physicist, we are dealing with minuteness inconceivable. Sir Oliver Lodge has said that if an atom could be expanded to fill a space equal to that of the entire solar system, the electrons composing it would each be the size of an orange ! There is supposed, indeed, to be an atomic “system” composed of a central nucleus like the sun, with electrons revolving round it, the nucleus having a positive, and the revolving particles a negative, electric charge. Further (whether in virtue of these moving electrons or otherwise is not quite clear), the molecule is supposed to be in a state of constant vibration.

The physical theory of odour, then, refers that quality to the vibration of the molecule. It suggests that the molecules of an odorous body passing in the gaseous or, in fishes, the liquid state into the olfactory region of the nose, are there received by the film of mucus in which the olfactory hairs lie, and stimulate these hairs by their molecular vibration. No chemical change is supposed to take place, only, as it were, a mechanical stimulation, comparable to the mechanical stimulation of the retina by the waves of light.

A recent development of the theory which we owe to Heyninx, a Belgian scientist, brings the process very closely into harmony with what