Evaporation of Musk and other Odorous Substances

Extract

In scientific literature the evaporation of musk has a considerable interest. Almost every writer on the divisibility of matter cites it as an instance of the extremely minute division of which matter is capable, our sense of smell enabling us to detect a more minute quantity of this form of matter than can be detected of any other kind of matter by any of the modern refined methods, such as the spectroscope, or chemical processes. It is possible we may shortly have to modify this statement, as extremely small quantities of some kinds of matter can be detected by their radio-activity; but, so far as I know, no reliable numerical values have been obtained in this direction.