Stinking, and sickly. The three first are pleasant, the three last disagreeable, smells. This enumeration is not perhaps correct, nor the classes distinct; but the Linnaean language is employed by many respectable physicians of his school, and consequently merits our attention.

The aromatic smell is distinguishable in various families of plants, as the laurels, the umbelliferae, and the labiatae, and is found in every portion of a vegetable, often in every part of the same plant. The iris, the rosemary, and the sage; lavender, flowers, and pinks; canella and winter's bark; sassafras wood; laurel berries; cummin and carui seeds; gum benjamin and balsam of capivi, are striking instances of it. They are generally stimulating, not without a suspicion of a narcotic power; often induce the calm serenity which we feel from tea, and destroy irritability rather than give strength. The exhalations themselves, from the experiments of Ingen-houz, are chiefly azotic, and, in many constitutions, highly deleterious.

The fragrant smell is not very clearly defined. It contains some of the more pungent smells, and seems to be a connecting link between the aromatic and the ambrosiacal. The instances are the flowers of the lily, the jessamin, the tuberose, some species of pinks, and saffron. They are more actively analeptic than the fragrant odours, and more certainly antispasmodic.

The ambrosiacal smells are very penetrating and active, when concentrated, as in ambergris and musk, but generally disagreeable. When greatly diffused they are more agreeable. The species of geranium, mallows, rose, and garlic, styled moschatae, are of this kind; the fruits of the pine apple, of some kinds of apples and pears, musk, civet, and burnt animal substances, are instances of this species of odour. They appear to be stimulant, but are strictly sedative, and powerfully antispasmodic.

The alliaceous smell is particularly distinguishable in garlic, and its congeneres, in the scordium, asafoetida, and what are styled the warm foetid gums. These odours belong to very active stimulants, which powerfully excite the vessels of the skin, and increase the discharge not only from these but from every gland in the human body.

The hircine smell is that which resembles the odour of the goat; and, in the vegetable kingdom, we find it in the herb robert, the orchis, some mushrooms, particularly the phallus impudicus. In general, these fe-tids are sedative, and often deleterious.

Stinking smells are exemplified in opium, nightshade, and hemp, which are all narcotics; and the sickly in hellebore, tobacco, colocynth, putrid meat, senna, and rhubarb. All such substances are powerfully emetic, and, if they escape the stomach, are also cathartic; and all are narcotic.

M. Lorry has proceeded in a different way, and has considered the smells, which are essential to the medicine, and which continue, independent of very minute analysis. These are the camphorated, narcotic, etherial, Volatile Acid, and Alkaline.

The camphorated is found in the labiated, the composite, the terebinthinated, and the aromatic plants, as well as in the laurels and myrtles. Its -characteristics are, extreme penetrability, a singular volatility, a strong attraction for oily and spirituous menstrua. Though easily dissipated in the air, yet, when united with resins, in the leaves of plants it is preserved from evaporation, and contributes to their preservation. This principle resists the activity of fire, and the most powerful agents. Even musk and opium will not disguise it: its medical power we have already detailed. See Camphor.

The narcotic odour is that virose effluvium which destroys the principle of life. It exists in the poppies, the nightshades, the borrage, the cucurbitaceous and umbelliferous plants, with many others; often disguised by the distinguishing principles of the vegetable, and obvious when these are separated by putrefaction or fire. This is the most fixed and adhesive of all smells. It corrects the volatility of the others, and often disguises all, except the camphorated. Even in a small proportion it is discoverable among the most fragrant smells, as in the rose, the jessamin, the tuberose, and the violet. These flowers exhale the true narcotic odour, when their aromatic and camphorated smells are dissipated. This smell is simple, sometimes concealed under that of aniseseed or garlic, occasionally imitating the smell of radishes, or the offensive odour of bugs. The same odour is found in animal substances. Virgil speaks of the virosa castorea; and animal oils, though rectified by distillation, exhale this narcotic smell.

The ethereal odour is volatile, incoercible, and of extreme tenuity. It escapes so easily that we can only recognise it for a short time. Art produces its most striking example; but we find it in the pine apple, in melons, some kind of pears and apples, in strawberries, and the greater number of fruits which grow under the burning sun of the torrid zone. It is sometimes discovered on the first appearance of the sceptic process, to which sweet fruits are exposed. This odour combines with the alkaline, and the narcotic smell of opium giving it a striking volatility, and moderating its narcotic property. It unites also with camphor, and adds to its sedative and soothing powers in a manner well known to practical physicians.

The volatile acid odour is usually combined with an aromatic volatile spirit. It is distinguished in lemons, oranges, gooseberries, cherries, etc. combined and disguised in many plants, as in the lemon thyme. This odour is in general pleasing and refreshing, and it destroys the effects of narcotics. It is often combined with the ethereal smell, as in the aromatic spirit of vinegar, and is destroyed by putrefaction.

The -volatile alkaline smell is distinguished by a biting acrimony, which irritates the eyes. The horse radish, mustard, scurvy grass, with all the alliaceous vegetables, are examples of this odour, which is in part destroyed by acids. It is generally confined in plants by mucilages and oils, and is very durable, since even putrefaction will not wholly separate it. In asafoetida it is combined with the virose odour; and the most fetid smells seem to be combinations of this kind, which lead us to suspect some hepatic combination.