JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
“A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.” Jean Cocteau
Maybe so and maybe no, and if not, maybe they should…especially for the poets. But this come from the writer with only the memory of smell for an olfactory sense.
I looked around without success in Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project to find something relating to this image, which turns out to be a scent dispenser. These buggers were quite popular (at least in France) and used to be hung at entrances to popular venues where patrons could scent themselves with this-and-that for a few pennies. It seems positively Terry Gilliam-ish to me, but that’s what it was.
Source: Scientific American, 1895 (apologies for the skimpy date)