It may, of
course, be argued that these results merely show a somewhat
greater precocity of girls. I have summarized the main
investigations into this question in _Man and Woman_, revised and
enlarged edition, 1904, pp. 134-138. On the whole, they seem to
indicate greater olfactory acuteness on the part of women, but
the evidence is by no means altogether concordant in this sense.
Popular and general scientific opinion is also by no means always
in harmony. Thus, Tardif, in his book on odors in relation to the
sexual instinct, throughout assumes, as a matter of course, that
the sense of smell is most keen in men; while, on the other hand,
I note that in a pamphlet by Mr. Martin Perls, a manufacturing
perfumer, it is stated with equal confidence that "it is a
well-known fact that ladies have, even without a practice of long
standing, a keener sense of smell than men," and on this account
he employs a staff of young ladies for testing perfumes by smell
in the laboratory by the glazed paper test.
It is sometimes said that the use of strong perfumes by women
indicates a dulled olfactory organ.
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