
Noisomeness - pseudolus
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n14/keith-thomas/noisomeness
======
gxqoz
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'."

~~~
walrus01
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...](https://www.google.com/search?q=cow+urine+medicine&oq=cow+urune+medicine&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l4.4593j0j1&sourceid=chrome-
mobile&ie=UTF-8)

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

~~~
GloriousKoji
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.

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neonate
[https://archive.is/yzBXY](https://archive.is/yzBXY)

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lovecg
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.

~~~
phyzome
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?)

~~~
082349872349872
The Feynman story:
[https://books.google.ch/books?id=_gA_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT109&lpg=P...](https://books.google.ch/books?id=_gA_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT109&lpg=PT109&dq=feynman+smelling&source=bl&ots=HCD0k_-
MNI&sig=ACfU3U3HqHI1-lMqIplZcUa5wGdL2blPzw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjkwOu6hczqAhWOw6YKHf1OD0IQ6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=feynman%20smelling&f=false)

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?)

~~~
phyzome
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?

~~~
082349872349872
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."

