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Noisomeness

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38 pointspseudolus14 comments

Heh: "Tryon, for example, denounced musk, 'the dearest of stinks', as 'an excrementitious matter - or the fume or froth proceeding from a fierce, fiery, violent-natured creature'. Had it been scarce, he said, hog's dung would have been equally sought after; as it was, some people esteemed cows' dung as 'a good perfume'."

In certain parts of the world you can easily find cow urine sold as "medicine".

https://www.google.com/search?q=cow+urine+medicine&oq=cow+ur...

It was used to make ammonia at one point, wasn't it? I'm not sure of ammonia's medicinal uses though.

It's a food preservative, though not a particularly commonly used one these days. It's used in so-called pink slime, for instance (which is why that's illegal in the EU).

In the early 1900's ammonia was needed to make sulfa drugs but that's on a commercial production level and there's much easier ways to get mass amounts of ammonia without milking cows for urine.

On a more accessible level, low amounts of ammonia is useful for topical treatments of itch, like from bug bites.

I've only smelled animal musk because a roadside salesman handed us a sampling box while we were stuck in traffic above Manali (this was only a few years ago). Quite a nice scent, actually, although I think dilution is key. The fact that it's animal gland makes it a bit disturbing for me, though.

You might have smelled it more often than you know. It's still common as a perfume base note.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_(perfumery)#Base_notes

https://archive.is/yzBXY

One thing that stood out to me when reading Arabian Nights is how central the smells are in every story. Makes one wonder what we’re losing with this sensory deprivation in our overly hygienic lives.

I'm also interested in the quotes about some people smelling "sweet". Does that mean they don't have a scent, or that they naturally smell good?

People often act as if any body odor is bad, and I disagree -- many people have a pleasant natural scent. I wonder to what extent that perception has changed over time, and to what extent people's odors have changed over time. (Skin microbiome?)

It seems to be a signal of genetic compatibility for humans, particularly for women identifying compatible men, related to immune system complementarity [0]

[0] https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/articles/200801/scents-an...

The Feynman story: https://books.google.ch/books?id=_gA_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT109&lpg=P...

As for the daily shower, these days I guess a class distinction is between whether one showers before or after work. (idem for hand washing and urinals?)

Google Books is telling me I've reached my page limit, despite not having used the site in a month.

Is this the story about him honing his sense of smell?

yes.

"People’s hands smell very different—that’s why dogs can identify people; you have to try it! All hands have a sort of moist smell, and a person who smokes has a very different smell on his hands from a person who doesn’t; ladies often have different kinds of perfumes, and so on. If somebody happened to have some coins in his pocket and happened to be handling them, you can smell that."

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