The Wizard of Speed and Time

Just a bunch of things I think are interesting or funny.

Saturday, April 23, 2005

I smell freshly baked brown bread, oh my God I have typhoid

Oh those wacky Scottish Scientists. They are currently developing an artificial nose to help them diagnose patients. Click here for story. The theory is that the "Spectral Nose" will smell a patient's breath, and detect the odors associated with certain diseases.

At the end of the story it gives a listing of how certain diseases smell. They are:

Rotten apples, pear drops or acetone (used in varnish remover) - forms of diabetes.
Sweaty sheep - smallpox.
Plucked feathers - measles.
A butcher’s shop - yellow fever.
Fish - uremia, which stems from kidney failure and can cause coma.
Musty fish/raw liver - liver failure.
Foul smell - a lung abscess or intestinal obstruction.
Freshly baked brown bread - typhoid.
Stale beer - tuberculosis.

At first I wondered how the scientists would know what a sweaty sheep would smell like, then I remembered that they are Scottish.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home