Painters have been provokingly deceived by this stratagem, and have in vain
attempted the portraits of such persons, who were able at every instant to
produce a new physiognomy.
One of the qualifications for the Ugly Club was a nose eminently
miscalculated, whether as to length or breadth,--the thickest skin had
preference.
Hitherto we have only considered external appearances; we must now notice
its functional and other properties.
With some persons, the nose is a sort of barometer,--a certain state of the
atmosphere is invariably announced to them by an agreeable sensation of
coldness at the tip.
Zimmerman used to draw conclusions, as to a man's temperament, from his
_nose!_ Not indeed from its size or form, but from the peculiar sensibility
of the organ.
Cardan considered acuteness of smell as a proof of penetrating genius, and
a lively imagination.
Haller could distinguish perspiration at ten yards' distance.
There have been instances on record of blind people who were able to
discover colours by the touch; and deaf and dumb, who could feel sounds by
placing their hand upon the speaker's mouth: this, however, is not more
astonishing, than that the sense of smelling should be so acute, as to
enable some persons to judge by it the quality of metals.
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