Page:Dan McKenzie - Aromatics and the Soul.pdf/134

122 occurs in the eye. According to this authority, olfaction is in reality a perception of ethereal undulations of the same character as the undulations of light, these undulations being provoked by the intra-molecular vibrations of the odorous vapour in the nasal mucus and transmitted to the olfactory hairs not by immediate contact, but through the medium of the ether.

We owe this last suggestion to the curious fact, but recently discovered, that many odorous substances (in their gaseous form in the air) absorb the rays of ultra-violet light.

In order to make clear what this means, we must say a preliminary word regarding the spectrum and spectrum analysis.

The passage of a beam of white light through a glass prism breaks it up into its component parts, beginning with red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, and ending with violet. Beyond the violet end of the spectrum we know there are rays invisible to us, but capable of acting on a photographic plate. These are called the ultra-violet rays.

In like manner, beyond the red end of the spectrum we know there are also rays, likewise invisible to us, but perceptible by our tactile sense as heat. These are called the infra-red rays.

Now, the rate of vibration of all these different rays, visible and invisible, has been estimated, and