"By considering the very large atmospheric volume that can be impregnated by a single grain of musk, we may gain some idea of the wonderful tenuity of Odor. The grain of musk gives off its odor for years and years, ever distributing its fragrance and yet no loss in weight can be detected.
"That is atomic substance, Odor, with an atomic rotative velocity and frequency, can actually be confined in a molecular substance such as glass, is a great paradox. It is as strange a phenomena as it would be should we place fine sand in a sieve coarse enough in mesh to pass marbles, and not a single grain of sand would be found to slip through.
"The unit atoms of Odor vibrates in a circular oscillating mode, with a frequency of at least 220,000 per second and its action is through sympathetic negative interference. Its rotatory diameter is so much larger than the Odor atom itself and even larger than the molecular inter-distance that it is held captive by molecular matter through interference with the molecular neutral centers, which it seeks to avoid. If its rotatory diameter could be reduced to its corpuscular diameter a bottle could no more contain Odor than an open chimney could contain smoke. The coarse glass molecules could not in that event prevent the Odor atoms from passing between them.
"But fine as are the particles of Odor, they are very crude compared to the tenuity of that substance which acts as the governing medium for a sympathetic or magnetic flow. That subdivision is so attenuated that it comes to and above sound."
See Also