Literary notes about olfactory (AI summary)
The term "olfactory" has been employed in literature with a blend of scientific precision and metaphorical nuance. In criminal psychology texts, for instance, it is used to describe both the rarity and the imagination-induced qualities of smell perception—seen in terms like "olfactory illusions" and "olfactory images" that underscore subtle sensory deviations [1], [2], [3], [4]. On the other hand, in works focused on rhetoric and public speaking, the "olfactory image" symbolizes a delicate, almost ethereal sensory imprint, emphasizing its refined and transient nature [5], [6]. Even in literature with a more imaginative or anatomical focus, the term appears, as when Mark Twain and J. M. Barrie refer to the olfactory nerve and organ, thereby blurring the line between literal anatomy and metaphorical exploration of the senses [7], [8].
- Olfactory illusions are very rare in healthy people and are hence of small importance.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - Certain poisons tend to debauch the olfactory sense.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - Olfactory illusions, 453 .
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - The largest number of olfactory illusions are due to imagination.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - Olfactory images, 325 , 348 .
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - The olfactory image is even more delicate.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - The olfactory nerve enters the cavity of the orbit and is developed into the special sense of hearing.
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain - In the vicinity of this optic spot we find at the left side a small ciliated depression, the single olfactory organ.
— from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie